Comment by lewisflude | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lewisflude | Hacker News Reader

I'm a keyboard enthusiast, I have a collection of ~15 mechanical keyboards with various switches, hand lubed, modded (spring swapped, stem swapped) various materials and sizes from the plastic HHKB to the monstrous TX1800 (fits the keys you'd find in a full size keyboard into the frame of a TKL).

I'm happy the writer has found a keyboard that works for them. Although I think that they'd be able to get a better typing experience by building a custom keyboard, it would cost easily $300+ and take a lot of time/research/etc.

Even though keyboards is one of my biggest hobbies, I still have a lot of respect for OEM keyboards that maintain a good typing feel at a relatively low cost.

I especially like the Apple Magic Keyboard, although many of my mechanical keyboard-using friends may not agree with me.

Anyone interested in typing, I strongly encourage to check out /r/MechanicalKeyboards on reddit.

You can customise anything!

- Switch feel/tactility/sound

- Case material, colour, size

- Keycaps, feel, sound, look, legends

- Custom software, macro keys

- Talk to friendly people who love keyboards

I'm not an enthusiast, but I agree with out in general.

I have maybe a 2014 version of the Apple keyboard (wired/numpad) at the office and I love using it. I can work long hours, not feel fatigue, it's never failed, etc etc.

I also use a Logitech K840 at home: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/k840-mechanical-corde...

And it suits me just fine. Also a pleasure to work on. Though I'm not a switch purist, either. And I'm a sucker for the aluminum... (mainly because I'm likely to drop something on it, or drop the keyboard itself at some point) it's solid for a decent price. I think I even waited to get it on sale.

Hey I'm a 840 fan as well. At first I didn't like that romer-g switches didn't have quite as much travel as Cherrys, but now I prefer it as the keyboard is a little lower.

I've heard keyboards that use dome with slider designs, like Packard Bell keyboards, are about as cheap as generic non-mechanical keyboards, but avoid the mushy bottom-out, making the typing experience infinitely better.

Something like the Topre Realforce keyboards are nice if you want something a bit softer but still high-end. Most of the reasons we end up with bad feeling keyboards is companies looking to cut costs. I highly encourage other developers/typists to find an opportunity to give a good mechanical keyboard a try.

Topre Realforce keyboards are expensive, but very good quality, and pleasant to use. A pair of them have been my daily drivers at home and at work for the last 8 years.

I think the OP's article is quite a good rundown on basic usability features that are perplexingly missing on many keyboards. The Realforce ticks the boxes - except for extra media keys, which YMMV on. I also appreciate the ability to swap the CTRL and CAPS LOCK key on the keyboard by flipping a dip switch, which allows my preferred layout (it even includes the extra replacement caps lock key, and it actually has an LED under where the old CTRL is, so you keep your caps indicator).

I just bought a Topre Realforce R2 (variable weight) not too long ago, and I love it!

I think they'd get a better typing experience spending $25. The Amazon Basics keyboard is the worst keyboard I've ever used. This article is just forcefully contrarian.

>This article is just forcefully contrarian.

I've been typing on some <15 logitech keyboard at work for like 5 years.

I like it in the it does the job sense & I can leave it on my desk if away for a month or three without worrying about someone damaging or stealing it.

Nothing wrong with logitech keyboards! It's a bit like high end audio, once you've tried it, it's hard to go back but it's certainly not something you absolutely need to do to get by.

I don't need to worry about someone stealing my current keyboard though, it weighs over 6kg!

Do you have multiple in depth articles comparing those keyboard recommendations in relation to the amazon keyboard?

Price wasn't really a factor in my decision to use this keyboard. I mean it's nice and all that it was $14, but I wouldn't think twice about spending more if a better solution existed.

As mentioned in the article I did spend a lot of time looking for alternatives.

If I had $25 to buy one keyboard, I'd probably get something from Logitech. The typing experience wouldn't be good by keyboard enthusiast standards, but more than good enough to actually get things done and not complain about how things feel.

You might collect Ferraris, which might all be objectively Robust Wire / USB Cable better than a Honda Civic, but you aren't going to drive one every day.

Why wouldn't you use a more quality keyboard every day though? You're literally spending thousands of hours of your life using it, why cheap out? It's not even comparable to cars like that. It's not like mech keyboards are practically unusable in any conditions like how high end cars are somewhat unusable in adverse weather conditions.

You wouldn't drive a Ferrari every day because they're not comfortable or practical, and because they have short service intervals and very expensive consumable parts. And a high performance car is almost necessarily not a reliable car since it's operating near the limit, especially once it has tens of thousands of miles on it.

OTOH a mechanical keyboard is much more comfortable than rubber domes for many people. And they can last almost indefinitely, even if a switch breaks, you can fix it in a couple minutes if you have a soldering iron. If you spill coffee on it, you can clean it with isopropyl alcohol and most of the time that will fix any issues.

I have a Model M with the flow-thru option; keyboard is probably 30 years old or so.

My mobo still has a PS/2 port, but I bought an adapter for USB when that time comes. Other than needing a really deep cleaning (something I really need to do) - it works flawlessly.

And it doesn't have any of the "Windows Key" junk that happened in the 90s to distract from my *nix aesthetic. Only downside is that it is beige, while the rest of my system is black.

When/if it ever breaks - I have another one waiting in the wings, plus a Unicomp USB classic also available (I've been thinking about swapping it out to keep the aesthetic - and replacing the 'doze keys on it with Tux keycap covers or something like that).

Somewhere, in my junk stash, I also have an old SGI keyboard that I need to look into making an adapter or something for...

There was a Linus tech tips video a while back about a new run of copycat Model M keyboards using some combination old tooling and new techniques (I don’t remember the specifics at the moment). Are you familiar with those boards at all?

The company is Unicomp for those wondering.

IBM sold off their keyboard division to Lexmark, and eventually Lexmark decided to stop doing keyboards, so two Lexmark employees bought the tooling to make the very last model of the "Lexmark Model M" and still make them to this day under the Unicomp brand.

My logic is that it's good to invest in a good mattress cause you spend 8 hours a night in one, good shoes because you spend another 8 hours in them and a good keyboard as I'll typically spend a lot of my day typing.

Now, the main reason I've not just bought one good keyboard and continued is honestly because the custom mechanical keyboard community is so nice. People design their own keyboard cases, caps, parts and there's so many ways of putting your dream keyboard together.

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