Yeah. . . key quality, printing quality, backplate quality, logic board quality, solder quality, and of course switch quality (I doubt many of the Cherry knock-off switches have been out and about long enough to see if they manage quite the same legendary durability) all seem like things that could suffer as prices drop through the floor. . .
. . . or maybe I’m just trying to feel better about the $150 I dropped on my Filco a few years ago :-D
No doubt that there’s an element of buyer beware here. There are some pretty sketchy keyboards being offered that turn out to be real duds with bad LED lighting, flimsy bodies, cheap cords, or rough keys and switches. You don’t have to dig deep to find some with mediocre to bad reviews.
My suggestion is keep to good switches like Cherry and even Gaterons. You want your keyboard to be hassle free and reliable. The good ones are expensive, but they serve you very well for a long time.
I used to be happy with this Matias Ergo Pro. I am no longer. Definitely do not recommend.
For one, the fully split board is just annoying as I have to reposition the halves of the board as they drift over time.
Much more importantly, there’s something bad in the board somewhere in two ways: a) keys ‘stick’ (not physically, but Windows thinks they’re held down) way more often than they by any rights should, and b) the whole column of keys near the 6 on the right-hand board love to randomly input a 6 about once every few hours. That’s more than often enough to seriously piss me off.
That Geezer keyboard looks interesting. But what’s with that font on the keyboard???
I like the Matias alps switch. At times I feel they are much nicer to Cherry. I think it’s probably just that Ergo Pro. Maybe some quirks related to the PCB board/design. The switch itself should still be good.
I finally grabbed my first mechanical keyboard 10 days ago, an Archiss ProgressTouch Retro in the brown CherryMX variety to plug on my laptop. The shop had about 50 sorts of mechanical keyboards on display, and this one had one of the best touching feel, and turned out to be affected by some hidden promotion scheme, making it one of the cheapest too in the end (less than 80 bucks).
It required a bit of configuration as I am using this Windows keyboard on a Mac, using an AZERTY layout for my work to make things worse, but it is working perfectly, and it provides such an incredible relief for my arm issues.
Gamer rad Bro!
Noticed the Corsair K70 is a prime deal for $80. Yay? Nay?
I have a Corsair Gaming RGB extended keyboard that I like a lot, with Cherry MX Red switches which require a fairly light keypress (I I tried one with Blue key switches and they were too tough and too loud). Once you’ve used mechanical you won’t go back, provided it’s one with the right key pressure for you.
I’m not a huge fan of Speed switches, but it’s a very good keyboard.
One of my keys broke off after a year (so just out of warranty). Sluggish Corsair support sent me another key that would typically cost money. Thankfully I was able to get the retailer to give me a brand new keyboard which I promptly sold.
When I was searching the internet it seemed this issue was common which shocked me because I’ve had considerably cheaper keyboards take far more hammer over a much longer period of time without a single issue. For a ‘premium’ mechanical keyboard I just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of (non-standard sized) keys randomly breaking off in the future.
Edit: I ended up picking up a Roccat Suora instead which was a lot cheaper and appears to be holding up well. Different switches but I still like them.
I used a dirty hint to pick my mechanical keyboard model, as there seems to be so many of them: I went to a shop with tons of them on display, noticed which ones had keys missing, and avoided those, figuring people were just fixing their own in a DIY way. One year and holding: I will report in the future if this worked!
I am a blue/brown Cherry kind of guy. This thread needs a poll!
What is this Cherry MX Speed?! I have not heard of it until today!
Shorter actuation point than other switches, so supposedly lower reaction times.
That’s interesting but not surprising to me. Cherry is facing stiff competition from many new switches in the market - even Razer made their own switches. I’m glad that they reacted with a special gamer switch of their own.
I really like mechanical keyboards and I’m glad they came back. I bang out about 3/4 of a million words a years. I currently switch between a Corsair 95 platinum, which is also for gaming on my PC, and a Das Keyboard with “clicky” blue switches. I can write on the Das Keyboard for hours and the sound is very satisfying. There’s a whole crazy cult around mechanical keyboards. People buy parts and build their own. Plus Massdrop occasionally offers build your own keyboards.
The one keyboard I returned last year was the Razor Blackwidow Chroma V2 with green switches. While the keyboard itself was great, it was simply too loud for writing. It sounded like a freaking machine-gun.
I have a Corsair K70 with the red backlight and Blues that I use on the Windows gaming box. It’s not too flashy, but it’s a solid keyboard.
At work, I use a laptop in clamshell mode, attached to a dock. I’ve wanted a mechanical keyboard to use at the office, and just received the custom WASD V2 tenkeyless I ordered a week ago. Cherry MX Browns, out of consideration for my teammates. 😁 I’ve been trying it out at home and I’m pretty happy with it so far.
Here’s a picture:
I had picked browns at first, because I thought blues would drive my wife nuts, and the opposite happened: she couldn’t stand the sound of browns, and ended up not being that annoyed by the clickety of the blues.
You never know!
I’m almost ready to give up on my '91 IBM Model M, just because dealing with the PS/2 connector is starting to be a pain with my new KVM setup. I bought a Cherry Red keyboard, and it’s absolutely miserable. A membrane keyboard that’s been lying in a ditch during a thunderstorm would probably feel better.
Now it’s a tough choice between spending more money on different Cherrys that are likely to also be pure trash, get a Unicomp buckling spring fake Model M, or try to find a better PS/2 to USB adapter for the old keyboard.
