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Every #trends-2026 piece
Trends
DCS Olivetti and the quiet rebellion against Cherry orthodoxy
A March group buy closed strong, and eight weeks of steady tracker movement later, DCS Olivetti is the clearest sign that experienced builders are ready to argue about profile again.
thock7 min read
Deep Dives
How HMX took over the mid-tier linear slot
Two years ago HMX was a name on a vendor page nobody pronounced confidently. In W19, the Cloud sat second on our tracker and landed in half the $120 prebuilts the scene argues about. The rise wasn't an accident.
thock12 min read
Trends
When customs became vendor-first
From 2018 through 2022 the typical custom shipped through one host vendor and a fan of regional proxies; by 2026 the baseline custom is a configurator on a vendor's own storefront. Boards moved. Keycap group buys mostly didn't.
thock6 min read
Trends
The split/ergo cohort grew up
Split and ergonomic boards spent a decade as a hobbyist sub-cohort orbiting a stagger-majority. By 2026 the Voyager line, the Glove80, and a steady trickle of r/mk transition posts have pushed split/ergo across a visibility threshold — still a minority, but now a reference category instead of a footnote.
thock5 min read
Trends
How 'thock' became an acoustic spec, not an accident
A decade ago a thocky board was the win condition of a $300 custom — the payoff for the right switches, the right lube job, the right patience. In 2026 the same sound is table-stakes for a $150 prebuilt: factory-lubed switches, silicone dampening, gasket-mounted plates, PBT doubleshot. The stack that used to be enthusiast-only is now what mid-tier vendors design toward from day one.
thock7 min read
Trends
How 75 percent became the default custom layout
Two years ago a custom-board recommendation defaulted to 65% with a polite note about 75% as the next step up. The Sonnet 2026 refresh, the QK75, and a crowded mid-tier have flipped that order. 75% is now the layout customs reach for first.
thock5 min read
Trends
How Hall-effect quietly became the new mid-premium default
The polling-rate hype is loud and easy to wave off — 8K, 32K, numbers chasing each other up the spec sheet. The quieter story is that the magnetic-switch tier has stopped being a Wooting-shaped niche and has settled into the $100–$230 prebuilt slot the scene actually buys from. The volume has moved, not just the marketing.
thock7 min read
Trends
ZMK is becoming the wireless default for premium prebuilts
A five-board flagship lineup running ZMK isn't a niche move; it's a market signal that an open-source firmware that lived in DIY-wireless territory for half a decade has crossed into mainstream-prebuilt anchor status. The vendor side has finally caught up with where the cohort already was.
thock9 min read