Forget Portable Monitors: The WELDER Keyboard Packs a 12.8-Inch Touchscreen, a Portable Setup That Makes Sense

The dream of the perfect portable workspace usually ends with too many cables and not enough bag space. You want a big display? That’s a portable monitor and a stand. You love a mechanical keyboard? That’s another chunk of gear. The WELDER Keyboard flips that problem on its head — by fusing a mechanical keyboard and a 12.8-inch touchscreen display into one sleek aluminum block.

Sitting above its 84-key mechanical layout is a 12.8-inch 1920×720 touchscreen that folds neatly over the keys when not in use. The entire body is made from CNC-machined aluminum, giving it a feel closer to a MacBook than a crowdfunding experiment. It folds flat on a 180-degree hinge, and when locked open, it’s rock solid — no wobble, no flex. When folded shut, it looks like a single slab of metal. For a Kickstarter project, the engineering is surprisingly premium.

The keyboard layout hits a sweet spot between compact and practical — you still get your arrow keys and a numpad section without the bulk of a full board. The switches are hot-swappable, so you can drop in your favorite mechanical types without soldering, while PBT keycaps keep things looking fresh over time. There’s even RGB lighting with 108 effects, because let’s face it, even productivity lovers deserve a little glow.

But the real star is that touch display. Its wide format (1920×720) might sound odd, but it’s perfect for multitasking. Imagine having Slack, Spotify, or system monitors running right on your keyboard — no more alt-tabbing mid-flow. The screen hits 300 nits of brightness, supports 10-point touch at 60Hz, and covers 80% NTSC color gamut. It’s not meant to replace your main monitor, but as a companion display, it’s brilliant. Programmers can keep their terminals open, designers can park their tool palettes there, and traders can keep live charts in sight. Or, if you’re simply vibing, queue up a music video while you type — your “workstation aesthetic” just leveled up.

At 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs), it’s not featherlight — but it’s a smart trade-off. A good portable monitor, mechanical keyboard, and stand easily weigh more combined. The WELDER merges them all, and even works as a charging hub for your phone or accessories. For digital nomads and remote creatives, this could replace an entire desk setup with a single fold.

Currently live on Kickstarter, early backers can grab one for $339 (down from $699 retail). It’s already raised over $84,000, with just a few hundred units left at the launch price.

The WELDER isn’t trying to be another gimmick gadget — it’s solving a real, modern pain point: clutter. In a world where “portable work” often means balancing too much tech on too little space, this aluminum hybrid feels refreshingly intentional. It’s a keyboard, display, and hub that collapses into one device — the kind of clever, minimalist design that digital creatives in Asia and beyond are obsessed with.

It might just be the first time a keyboard made working on the go feel luxurious.