GShock GA810 MMA long term review

My view on the Gshock GA800 / GA810

This is my review of the G-Shock GA800 (810), after a period of 4 years of intense use of the watch.
Before getting the watch, I didn't think too much about it. GShocks are big and useless, right?! Who needs a watch that can survive a drop of a few meters and withstand 200 meters of submersion underwater? I was skeptical that any of these features are meaningful characteristics because I considered them just a bunch of check boxes that Casio has put on the data sheet. The watch has this and that, but I will not use it, and probably most people won't. I am not a diver, and I don’t intend to drop it from the top of the building.
After two years with the watch, I think I get it. The watch definitely has more features in terms of resistance than most people will need. And this makes it bulky, plastic, basically a grownup's toy. On top of the look, the big list of can dos gives the user confidence. You forget the watch is on your wrist, and not just because it is very light. It most likely has to do with the fact that the watch will probably outlive you, so there is no need to worry about going in the pool with it on your wrist. The watch has a unique look, people associate similar styled watches with Gshoks. Even non watch people, at least heard about them. Gshocks can be a fashion statement, or can be whatever you want it to be. It can take the abuse without complaining too much, it can look cool and trendy with see through cases and bands...

So this model in particular the GA 800 (my version is 810 MMA, which has a shiny metallic dial instead of the resin one), has been with me for almost 4 years now. At first, I was consciences about the bold looks, the size and the fact it was making it awkward to put on or take off a jacket, but after some time with it, I realized I keep reaching for it every time I get out of the house. It managed to charm me in this time, to the point that I want more Gshocks.

The watch shares its case with the GBA-800 and GBD-800.

The GA800 (810) is an analog watch with 5 pushers (one dedicated light button on the face of the watch), The module is one of the “smarter” ones. The hands will adjust to the digital time (older Casio's didn’t have this feature, you would have to adjust the digital time and separately adjust the hands to match the digital time).
Another nice feature of the watch is by pressing the C and Light button simultaneous, to move the hands in a position in which the digital display is visible. It can be very useful as the hands on the GA800 are quite bulky and can cover most of the digital display.

What is the GA800 specialty?

The main feature of this model is the stopwatch, which can be easily accessed by pressing D button in home screen. Once pressed, the stopwatch starts instantly. It also has the ability to record lap time. The recall function shows you the date of the timing and the laps recorded.
The stopwatch is 24 hours. It also offers the ability to recall on the times (laps). You can scroll through the memory of the saved laps. The watch will display the date on which the laps were recorded.
Only a 99 minute timer though, which is a pity, the standard 5 alarms and a simple dual time feature.

The battery lasts about 3 years, which is just ok.

The hands have a bit of luminous paint on them, but it is not very durable in traditional Casio fashion. The marking on the dial do not have luminous paint applied to them. I do not consider this a problem, as the watch has a backlight that can do the job well.

The light on the watch is good and compared to other models you both the analog and the digital display are illuminated. It uses a LED placed under the 9 o'clock marker and backlighting on the digital display. It has an auto-light function that can be turned on by holding the light button for a few seconds (I do not use it). You can also set the duration of the light at 1 or 3 seconds. This could be another decisive feature for you, not all Gshocks illuminate both the analog and the digital displays.

Like any other GShock it is robust, bulky, covered in black resin and too big for most of the wrists out there.
The GA-800 is one of the few G-Shock that features second-hand. Right off the bat, if you're looking for a G-Shock with seconds hand, you can pick up the GA800 or 810, and you won't be disappointed.
It's an affordable model that offers just the basics, it doesn't have atomic timekeeping or solar power, or anything fancy, but it has the seconds hand :). It is a bit weird bragging with the fact that you have a watch with a seconds hand, but it is what it is.

My version as I mentioned is the GA810, which has a metallic silver dial with metallic hands, and a small negative display. The analog face of the watch and the negative digital display are not the best in terms of visibility, I think the basic standard model GA-800-1AJF does a better job. But I like the fact the metallic face makes it a bit less plastic. It is a better rounded watch in my eyes.
The writing on the dial is very unobtrusive, also on the resin case, you can see it only if the light hits it in a certain way.

The negative display at the bottom of the dial is small, and the visibility is not great. In good lighting you can see it clear and that is about it. I like the watch has a dedicated light button, and it doesn't share one of the standard buttons. It is more accessible and easier to press.

The digital display on the main screen shows either the day/date or the hour in digital format. To switch between the two, press the A button.

Why do I like it?

It is very comfortable on hand, light, I have all the features I need on it, and it gives me more confidence, knowing that my watch is more capable than me. I don’t shy away from activities and labor with the watch on my wrist. At the beginning I saw it more as a sports watch, outdoor watch. Now I just wear it almost anywhere. Plus it looks nice on my wrist even though it is a bit big for it.
It is a very accurate watch, my model gains about 3-4 seconds per month.
I like the fact it can show two different time zones at a glance. The analog hands plus the digital display set on dual time.

What would I change about it?

I would like a longer lasting battery in the watch, it takes a CR2016 which lasts about 3 years.
A second neat pick is the digital display which is a bit small for my eyes to see it clearly especially if the lighting is not the best (being inverted, black background with white lettering doesn’t help either)
Module wise, I would like it to have a world time instead of dual time. But Casio usually puts just a feature on these low end models, on the GA800 is the lap timer that can be accessed super fast from the home screen by pressing the C button.
Small pet peeves is the luminous paint, only applied on the hands and not on the markers, plus the quality of the paint is not the best. This is not a real issue because the watch has its own illumination system, which is actually good. I would put this in the category nice to have. (Seiko, Orient, even Lorus has very good luminous paint applied generously on watches that have a low price tag)
Another feature that I am not that fond of, but for many it might be a plus, is the fact that the back of the watch is held in place by 4 screws instead of a threaded back case. I feel that I am going to strip the holes when I have to open the watch to replace the battery (the case is resin after all and the screws are metal). Not all people might consider this a negative, just because it is more common to have a small Philips head screwdriver lying around in your home, or you can easily find it at the store near you, rather than having a specialized watchmakers tool to open watches back cases.

Would I recommend the watch?

Yes I would. I like the fact it has a traditional 3 hands. There are other models, but usually you will find the 3rd hand on the expensive masters only.
It gets a lot of attention from other, especially from non watch people.

Is it too big?

My wrist is about 16.5 cm in circumference, and the watch is 54.1 x 48.6 x15.5 mm. It looks big on my wrist, and it is big. It is difficult to get a coat cuff over it. But it is supposed to be this way, to be bold and tough looking. I’ve tried smaller Gshock and I can’t say they look better. Even though I prefer smaller watches in general, and I am against the dying trend of wearing oversized watches with G Shocks I am making an exception

Computer keyboards

Related to writing instruments but in a different category, typing is the most common method of writing for most people. So in a way, keyboards are part of the writing instruments we use on a daily basis. My first experience with a keyboard was with a vintage mechanical Compaq leaf spring. At that time membrane keyboards were everywhere on the market and for me were much cooler looking (mine was an old, big and noisy hunk of metal and plastic), some of them had multimedia keys or even short travel. So I put the keyboard in a bin and went out and bought the first of a series of crap membrane keyboards.

Recently seeing a surge in mechanical keyboard popularity I made the leap back to the mechanical side and bought a mechanical keyboard, the cheapest I could find, as I was unsure if it will be something that I will appreciate or even enjoy using. I was also skeptical about the noise mechanical keyboards make. Apparently after a certain age you are not as sensible to loud noises :), so I have to say I like it very much, even though it is a blue switch keyboard which is known for making lots of noise. Also, the board itself being a cheap one is hollow and amplifies the noises generated by the clicks and the keys bottoming out, and resonates a bin, "ping" which is a bit distracting. It is especially true for when I keep the feet up, and is less noticeable if the entire back is on the table and I put something between the table and the keyboard.

After using it for some time, I realized what crap of a keyboard I am working with every day. So I took it to work. I have to say, my colleagues were not so impressed by the clicks the keyboard makes, even though I took the time to explain how much cooler mechanical keyboards are and how better they feel to the fingers. So, long story short, I took it back home and went back to the membrane keyboard I was using until that point, because the blue switches were a bit overwhelming for an office environment. 

Because the feel of a rubber dome is so different* from a mechanical keyboard, I was curious if this makes any kind of impact in my typing ability.

Do mechanical keyboards have an effect on your typing speed?

* Many people refer to mechanical keyboards being mushy. It is hard to describe in words but, a rubber dome is like pressing on a sponge, while a mechanical keyboard has a very crisp feel, and you can feel the end of the travel very abruptly. Also, a blue or brown switch as a distinctive bump when the key registers (before bottoming out), and offers a very crisp sensation when the button hits the tactile bump and when it bottoms out.

I tested my typing speed on the following setups:

T-Dagger Bermuda blue switch mechanical keyboard / Rubber dome keyboard Dell KB1421 / Dell Laptop Latitude series 5501

I did 12 typing tests with all the aforementioned keyboards, and taking out from the average the slowest and fastest session. I did the testing using 10Fastfingers.com, top 200 English words. 

 The detailed results are:

I am accustomed to all the keyboards, and type of them almost daily. At this speed, I would be cataloged as an average or just above average typist. Of course, the "real" typing speed varies based on the complexity of the text, how familiar you are with the language you are typing in, the length of the text etc.

As you can see in the typing speed on all keyboards is rather similar, the mechanical having the highest average typing speed and the top typing speed (70 words per minute / 76 words per minute), followed closely by the membrane with an average of 69 WPM and a top speed of 75. Last place goes to the laptop switch keyboard that only offered me an average speed of 67 WPM and a max of 70 WPM.

Even though the speed doesn't vary much between keyboards, the typing feel and colleague's liking (or better said disliking) might.
To better explain this, I made this graph, where the vertical axis represents the satisfaction factor and on the horizontal axis the keyboards types are enumerated.

 

If you do not value being liked or having friends for that matter, you should go and buy a mechanical keyboard. For the rest of you, just keep using the keyboard you have, as it doesn't make much of a difference for most of you.