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Comment by farresito | Hacker News Reader

How's the keyboard? I'm so so sad that most laptops' keyboards are terrible... You can't imagine. I so much would love to buy an ASUS or similar laptop as the one you purchased, especially since they are affordable, but every time I check some laptops, their keyboards are beyond terrible. It's a shame, really. I will have to stick to Thinkpads.

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If you really cared about the keyboard, they all suck. Get an external mechanical keyboard. I've used one with Cherry MX blue switches at two jobs and no one has threatened to murder and/or fire me yet. Guess I'm lucky. :)

I've actually thought about doing so, but I'm always moving back and forth, so right now I think my best choice is to stick with a laptop. I agree that they all suck, but some (most?) of them suck so much they are out of question. I don't know what happened, really. 10 years ago you bought a laptop, no matter which brand, and you would get a decent keyboard. They have sacrificed quality for aesthetics too much, but maybe you are right; I should just buy a mechanical. I looked into the Happy Hacking keyboard. It's a bit pricey, but I've heard very nice things.

If you buy a 10-keyless keyboard they are usually small. You can pick up chinese cloan switches now for extremely cheap right now.

This one looks good enough: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Water-Resistant-VicTop-Mechanical-W...

IF you're concerned wrap it in some kind of cloth but for under 30 bucks it's not a major concern if you get a decent lifespand out of it. I'd say anything over 2 years is a huge win.

Thank you very much for the link! That one is pretty affordable. I might purchase it actually.

Thanks for alerting me to these, I've kept looking at the proper 10keyless keyboards like Topre [0] thinking "Really? Is it worth that much?".

Be good to try something cheaper, though the single-height enter key would drive me CRAZY.

[0] http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/realforce-88ub-45g-key-bl.... £192!!

Something is only worth how much you will use it. If you will use your keyboard every day from now until the cataracts and arthritis gets you then you'll probably find it worth the money to invest in good tooling. My keyboard was is actually and open boz/broken from manufacturer version of an OK one, I paid 37$. Worth twice that for how easy it makes typing and these are bad switches mind you.

I agree, but until I have tried one (never having used mechanical keys) I don't know how much it's worth to me :)

> I don't know what happened, really. 10 years ago you bought a laptop, no matter which brand, and you would get a decent keyboard.

THIN became a much more important marketing tool than GOOD, or even FUNCTIONAL.

There is nothing more "good" or "functional" about deep travel keyboards. They're just a matter of taste. You can type just as fast on something like a MacBook keyboard once you get used to it.

Sure. That's why Cherry went out of business years ago...

Lots of companies stay in business selling subjective experiences. But there isn't a functional advantage to keyboards with a lot of feedback.

Got any research to show that? Or should I just assume that your personal opinion is worth more than everybody elses'?

You're the one making the affirmative statement that high travel keyboards - which the whole market is moving away from - are functionally better than low travel ones. You prove that there is any real rather than purely subjective benefit.

The whole market isn't moving away from high-travel keyboards. In fact, there's a lot of interest in them, and they are generally preferred by gamers.

How do you explain the widespread perception that laptop keyboards used to be good but are now crappy?

> real rather than purely subjective benefit

Subjective benefits are real benefits.

On Cherry Browns, my managers believed that I was more productive because they could hear lots of key noise.

I have Cherry Blues at home but wouldn't dare use them in an open-plan office environment - far too noisy.

Macbook/Macbook Pro/Macbook Air keyboards are probably the highest quality laptop keyboards I've found (I have 2x cherry red mechanical keyboards at home). Every other laptop keyboard I've tried feels like _garbage_ in comparison.

To be honest it's not as good as my MacBook Air's. I have very low requirements when it comes to that. If it is of importance to you I guess you might not be happy with the ASUS...

My GF has one and I was surprised when I used it, as it was great for a slim laptop. I'm used to using a mechanical keyboard or a MBP keyboard.

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