Atari ST and Atari 65xe case material and keyboard

[whisperer_in_darkness]

This may be a strange newbie question but I noticed Atari 65xe and 130xe look a lot like Atari ST. What I'm interested is if the case is actually made of same or similar material and if the keyboard is of comparable quality? Is it like a mini ST, physically?

Edited August 16, 2016 by whisperer_in_darkness

[flashjazzcat]

I'm pretty sure they're made of the same stuff (both machines eventually turn yellow). XE keyboards come in two major types (rubber cup and sprung) while STs all use rubber cups, but the build quality and feel are similar.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

I own a couple of XE's. The plastic used in the older ones seems to be different from the newer ones. And case halves aren't interchangeable, even though they look exactly the same. The newer ones seem to be slightly smaller. And that's only the XE's, I don't own ST's so I can't comment on them.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[atarifanboi]

I have an XE I've owned since new, and surprisingly it hasn't yellowed, despite living out in the open for most of it's life.

 

I'm not sure the materials are the same, but they are extremely similar, but IMHO the ST has the better keyboard feel.

[Matej]

I think it is just normal ABS plastics...

[spacecadet]

ST and XE keyboards do feel very similar to me. I personally don't like either of them in the exact same way

 

Atari did tweak keyboard feel over the run of various machines, though, so it's possible not all XE's or ST's felt the same. I used ST's extensively in the 80's and I finally got to try out an XE just last week; for me the XE brought back my feelings about the ST. Admittedly that was 20-some years apart, but I feel like keyboard feel is something you don't really forget, especially when you feel the same thing again.

 

The cases also *look* very similar in material and design, and obviously are following the same design language. I don't know if the construction and build quality is exactly the same, but the XE does also feel like the ST's little brother overall, from what I remember from the overall feel of the ST's I used.

[Matej]

ST and XE keyboards do feel very similar to me. I personally don't like either of them in the exact same way

 

Atari did tweak keyboard feel over the run of various machines, though, so it's possible not all XE's or ST's felt the same. I used ST's extensively in the 80's and I finally got to try out an XE just last week; for me the XE brought back my feelings about the ST. Admittedly that was 20-some years apart, but I feel like keyboard feel is something you don't really forget, especially when you feel the same thing again.

 

The cases also *look* very similar in material and design, and obviously are following the same design language. I don't know if the construction and build quality is exactly the same, but the XE does also feel like the ST's little brother overall, from what I remember from the overall feel of the ST's I used.

Thats your real photo in Avatar???

[+Stephen]

Thats your real photo in Avatar???

LOL - I was wondering the same.

[spacecadet]

Thats your real photo in Avatar???

 

No, of course not

 

I realized I have what's now about a ten year tradition of having Japanese female band members as my avatars here. My last one was a band I was no longer into, so I replaced it with this. This is Mami from Scandal.

 

I have been thinking of just putting a photo of my IIGS there to avoid exactly this kind of misunderstanding, though (which in the future will probably make this exchange seem very odd)

 

Back when I started here, most people just had random stuff they liked as their avatars. Now it seems like most avatars are more literal and on-topic.

Edited August 18, 2016 by spacecadet