The keyboard itself
(image)
The manufacturing label on this Model M unfortunately is partially torn off, but we can see its part number (1391406) and that it was made in 1994, most likely at the Greenock plant in Scotland. Indeed, it has the British layout with a pound sign on 3 and the backslash between Shift and Z. It's missing the external (more on that later) keycaps on F4, F10 and numpad 9, but other than that it's in pretty much perfect condition. Model Ms were also made in the USA at a plant in Lexington, Kentucky. This plant is owned today by Unicomp, who make Model Ms there to this day! I decided to go for an old IBM instead of a new Unicomp, as shipping a new one here would be a lot more expensive than getting an old one and I happened to find this unit for a decent price. I also like giving new life to old technology.
It uses a PS/2 plug which just works with both my Athlon 64 PC natively and with my T430 with an active USB adapter (I heard the small passive adapters won't work). Some older Model Ms use an AT plug instead, which can be plugged into a PS/2 port with a passive adapter. There are also terminal Model Ms, which use a different plug and require an active converter for typical IBM PC usage. The keyboard has a long, gray, hardwired coiled cable. That cable feels so nostalgic, I swear those coiled cables were everywhere in the 2000s! Some older Model Ms had a detachable cable, but this one is still so long that I don't really mind it being hardwired.
This keyboard is heavy and feels very well-built, almost indestructible, it truly could be used as a blunt weapon! For a device 32 years old it works like it's brand new, every key is fully responsive, unlike my previous keyboard which had its right Shift break in a few MONTHS. Like most 90s office equipment, it's white/beige (with grey function keys), perfectly fitting in aesthetically with my CRT monitor and my early 2000s PS/2 optical mouse. This 90s beige aesthetic might feel plain to some, for instance I tend to like 2000s tech aesthetics a bit more, but it's a form of minimalism I appreciate a lot. I also think beige electronics are a good base for decorating with stickers and I find them to look so much better than a lot of modern equipment with RGB LEDs everywhere. Speaking of LEDs, this Model M has the standard three green LEDs for Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock. I think a small subset of Model Ms didn't have those LEDs.
Did I mention that almost every key on the Model M has double keycaps, consisting of an internal blank gray keycap and the external keycap? Now that's some redundancy and quality. The external keycaps can be easily popped off with hands and swapped between keys without removing the internal keycaps under them. Being one of the oldest PC keyboards ever, the Model M has no Windows key, which is a minor inconvenience but it's such a great keyboard I don't even mind the lack of it. Unicomp Model Ms have the Windows key.