Just a follow up to this one a bit.
At the time of the thread, I had JUST gotten my Atari 400 and hadn't used it (or it's keyboard) that much.
Recently with The 400 Mini discussions/videos, I've seen a lot of people slamming the original 400 keyboard...
And I don't get that...
Yes, it's not as nice as the 800 Keyboard was (I'm sure, haven't used it), but that's kind of obvious as the 400 was much less expensive.
But the more I've used the 400 keyboard, the more I don't mind it at all...
I have a TS1000 with it's membrane keyboard.
I have an Aquarius with it's chicklet keyboard.
I have an Odyssey II with it's membrane keyboard (and I had an O2 back in the day).
I'd rate the 400 keyboard above all of those.
For smaller BASIC programs and limited typing, I think it's fine. And to keep the price down, I think it was absolutely the right choice.
I see the Atari vs CBM emotions haven't died either. Tho to be fair, this is AtariAge, so I'm not surprised...
Personally, I had a Vic-20 back in the day as my first computer. And I loved it and it got me on my start in IT (and I am about a year away from retirement now).
I think people sometimes forget the price differences. ( I know they know them, but they don't always factor that in as much as I think they should)
When we got the Vic-20, it was after a price drop. It was much less expensive than the 400.
The Vic wasn't a real competitor for the 400 spec wise, but remember...
The 400 was a scaled down Atari 800 (which was, in my mind, the best home computer on the market at the time).
The Vic was NOT a scaled down C64. (There was no C64 yet.)
The Vic was built as a low (as low as possible) cost computer. The 400 was a low cost version of the Atari 800.
As a result, the 400 was a better machine. No question.
But also as a result, it costs more than the Vic. Sometimes (depending on price cuts) about twice as much.
I wanted an Atari 800, but there was no way my family could afford one. Even the 400 was out of the realm of acquisition for us at the time.
I did ask for a US ZX81 kit, but as I didn't even have a soldering iron at the time, my parents wisely refused.
But when the Vic price dropped, they were able to do that.
As for the BASIC discussion, I did a fair amount of BASIC on my Vic, and it was fine.
A huge advantage was the manual that came with the Vic. That was a great manual and made getting into programming really fun and easy
(And also BASIC came with the Vic-20. It was an additional cost for the 400. For some of us, that was important.).
And even with it's limitations, it was a great first machine for me.
But, if timing had been different and they got me a 400 after it's price drop, I would have had one of them and been totally happy there too.
Both great machines for their markets.
And now that I have a 400 and have used it, I can say that the membrane keyboard it has is totally fine.
I really like it.
I'm sure many people got the 400 because they couldn't afford the 800. That's why it had a membrane keyboard.
And I think that's a great reason.
(I do wonder if Atari had been more aggressive with trying to keep the prices down, if the Ataris would have kept Commodore at bay... But that's one of those what if discussions.)