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Comment by trabant00 | Hacker News Reader

From my experience using mech keyboards for the last 10 years I would say the reliability is a bit of a myth. I've broken 3 keyboards so far. By the time I had 1 switch fail lots others feel worn out so not worth repairing if you can't do it yourself.

If you are after your first mech do test out multiple switch types. A world of difference between them and it depends on personal preference, you can't decide by reading about them.

Also consider a model without numpad if you don't use it often. For me it is a big comfort improvement not having the mouse so far away.

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It really depends how the board is built. Cherry switches are very unpopular in the community, but they do excel in reliability. There's a reason you still occasionally see POS terminals in your local fast food restaurant use grime-filled disgusting but functional (and by now considered vintage, up to $7 per switch) MX Blacks.

What do you mean "unpopular"? Weren't they the one and only just a year or two ago? When I've been shopping for my TKL keyboard, they were basically the only option.

Well, in the enthusiast circles they are unpopular.

Compared to alternatives, Cherry has barely innovated in the past 20 years. Their switches are scratchy. Browns are barely tactile if you compare them to the competition, often jokingly called "linear with sand in it". The blue has much better alternatives using clickbars instead of clickjackets and clickies are much less popular in the enthusiast space, because they care about good sounding thocks. The lesser known colors are all extremely heavy. MX Clears (as parts, for making frankenswitches) and heavily lubed Blacks (particularly with housings produced before the 2000s, aka "Vintage Blacks") have a small following, but that's really it.

OEMs are only very slowly catching up to this, but they are. A few months back we even had the first OEM board with Zealios switches!

What's the holy grail switch for these enthusiasts these days? Is the tenkeyless/po3kr-sized keyboard format still considered "end game"?

It's a lot of 65% and 75% now. There's not really the one chase switch anymore, but OG Holy Pandas retained their value pretty well considering Glorious got very close to them.

ThereminGoat coverers new switches pretty extensively: https://www.theremingoat.com/

As a counter anecdote, in about ~15 years of using mechanical keyboards I've never had one fail. I had a daily driver for 7 years that was good as new when I eventually gave it to a friend.

Couldn't agree more about the other two points though. To go along with your second point I would also strongly suggest looking for a keyboard that is hot swappable. You can use a switch tester and all that, but only actual experience will tell you what you really want, and I think very few people end up sticking with the first switch they have. A hot swappable board will let you alter the switches without replacing the whole device.

I concur with the last two points as well. It is a bit annoying, but I recommend getting 3 or 4 of a single switch to put in a tester to mimic "real typing".

I am a strongly believer of smaller is better, my daily driver is a 48 key ortholinear board. I use a 60% from time to time, and it feels gigantic. I can't even imagine going back to a full 104 keyboard.

I have a 47 key ortho and I'm jealous of your 48th key :(

Easier to repair though. Eg my supplier allowed me to attempt a repair myself while still honouring guarantee if I failed. Worked out so saved shipping to Germany and a replacement cost for supplier

Many third party switches, especially in the "super smooth feeling" category, seem to be using softer plastics than original Cherry switches. Those iirc have a little bit of glass fill in them, which makes the material much tougher and more wear-resistant, but results in the "crunchy" feeling of the switches.

Bouncy switches are a real problem with third-party switches as well, even though cherries generally don't do that.

My daily driver is a 30 year old Apple Extended Keyboard II, however I did have to go through several (6) to find one that only needed minor repair and had the right feel. Now that I have though, I feel pretty confident I can repair any switch that starts to act up.

I don't know what people do with their keyboards but for decades I've been using cheap membrane keyboards for coding/gaming and never had reliability problems, and I keep a keyboard 5y+. I just changed because I wanted to really.

> Also consider a model without numpad if you don't use it often. For me it is a big comfort improvement not having the mouse so far away.

Or put the numpad on the left side of the keyboard if you're right-handed. I don't know if that exists?

Southpaw/"left-handed"

They do, but they're rare. I had my eye on a group buy for a left numpad mechanical keyboard, but it was like $300 minimum and it didn't even include switches or keycaps.

A right-handed friend of mine straight up switched mousing hands after I suggested it as a joke. I think he still mouses with his left hand to this day. I tried for a little while, but it was like learning to walk all over again and I couldn't get used to it.

I used original IBM something keyboards in 90ies. Keys broke all the time.

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