Which mechanical keyboard should i buy?

That looks good. Friend at work had a red dragon brand. Although some other anonymous co worker complained about the noise and he had to remove it. Back in like Sept 2019, pre pandemic.

I have a Corsair at home and love it for both work and gaming.

If you had a keyboard in the late 80s or early 90s you had a mechanical keyboard. And then companies got cheap and there were just crap keyboards for like a decade that failed all the time. Thankfully some sensible companies gave us an option again.

I have a Redragon mechanical (different model), and it's fine. TBH, the main reason I got it is because I don't have much room on my desk, and I needed a 60% so I could have more than four inches of space for my mouse. I'm sorry if this sounds like sacrilege, but I think a quality membrane keyboard is good enough for most people and uses. I have to admit the mechanicals tend to be way more aesthetically pleasing, though.

The loudness and "clicky-ness" of a mechanical is going to depend on what color of switch you decide to go with. I have reds, and they make no noise unless I'm mashing down on the keys.

I have two Redragons both with brown switches. One at home (Devarajas), and one at work (Vata). Bought the one for work because I hated their Dell keyboards and I have to type a lot. With the same switches and an aluminum deck in both, the two Redragons feel the same.

The key caps they come with are chintzy and make them a bit louder. I've replaced the ones at home. Plan on doing the same at work.

Vrikk wrote:

I've never had a real mechanical keyboard, but a friend of mine has the above one. I tried it out. It feels ok? I didn't notice a huge difference in the keys besides them being louder and "clacky". Maybe I literally don't get the point of a mechanical keyboard, or I've never used a good one to have that epiphany.

It's one of those things that's subtle when you're not familiar with it, then after you've typed with mechanicals for a while and use a membrane keyboard again, you find it disgusting and unsatisfying.

Have I been singing the praises of the Cherry Red Silent switches here yet? I got them on my WFH keyboard and they're amazing - soooo much quieter than the Browns I've got on my gaming board.

Jonman wrote:

Have I been singing the praises of the Cherry Red Silent switches here yet? I got them on my WFH keyboard and they're amazing - soooo much quieter than the Browns I've got on my gaming board.

If they're quieter that has nothing to do with the actual physical switches themselves and everything to do with silencing of some form either with bands on the switch stems or in the construction of the board itself.

Browns do not inherently make any more noise than reds.

If they're the stock cherry silents, they literally just put a thin silicon pad in two spots on the switch to soften bottoming out.

You can accomplish the same thing on any not-clicky switch for about $5-$10 and some of your time.

Basically what I'm telling you is there's multiple ways to quiet down your gaming board too, if it's using standard MX stem switches.

I really liked standard cherry reds for typing. It made it feel like my fingers were just floating over the keys and words were coming out. Switching to silent reds turned that feeling into a fluffy cloud.

I just bought a Kinesis split keyboard a couple months ago, and today they announced this new ergo split keeb that is exactly what I was looking for before I settled on my current one

Look at this lovely monstrosity.
IMAGE(https://kinesis-ergo.com/wp-content/uploads/Adv360-Pro-Asymmetrical-Tenting-Header.jpg)

There's a fine line between ergonomic device and instrument of torture.

I think they aren’t expected to actually be available until near the end of 2022, so don’t feel too bad.

T-Prime wrote:

I just bought a Kinesis split keyboard a couple months ago, and today they announced this new ergo split keeb that is exactly what I was looking for before I settled on my current one

This is entirely my kind of keyboard. $399 apparently.

Does anyone have any experience with Keychron keyboards, and in particular with ordering from their website? I'm eyeing a K4 Pro with Brown switches.

I'm also interested in comparable keyboards people may recommend. One of the feet in my good 'ole Logitech G610 broke and I'm ready for a change.

I like the cherry MX brown switches of the G610 and I'm assuming the Keychron browns are comparable. I also like the white backlight. I'm too used to having the numpad to go TKL, but at least the K4 tries to get a little bit more compact. I also like the detachable cable. I only wish it had a USB passthrough, but I can't complain at that price tag.

Looks like my old Corsair Strafe has been replaced by a Mk2 version, and it has slightly better reviews even. Never used any of the software that some reviews complain about. Just keys.

It has the USB passthrough, but that means it takes 2 USB slots on the back of the PC. Still I've found it handy to have a quick port I don't have to bend over and fumble for.

Pink Stripes wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with Keychron keyboards, and in particular with ordering from their website? I'm eyeing a K4 Pro with Brown switches.

I'm also interested in comparable keyboards people may recommend. One of the feet in my good 'ole Logitech G610 broke and I'm ready for a change.

I like the cherry MX brown switches of the G610 and I'm assuming the Keychron browns are comparable. I also like the white backlight. I'm too used to having the numpad to go TKL, but at least the K4 tries to get a little bit more compact. I also like the detachable cable. I only wish it had a USB passthrough, but I can't complain at that price tag.

I have a Q1 with brown switches, and I love it. Clicky without being too stiff. They originally shipped it with blue ones, but corrected the mistake by sending me the brown switches which I swapped in. Shipping was a bit slow, but they made it all good in the end.

Pink Stripes wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with Keychron keyboards, and in particular with ordering from their website?

I use a K8 for my work system. I don't remember where it was ordered from though. I like it.

Shout out to MX Silent Red switches - my gaming 'board is browns and it's great, but my work 'board is silent reds and I kind of wish I'd gone that route on the gaming 'board too.

Keychron is good stuff, generally.

At this point I dodge everything Razer and Corsair make because their software is uniformly awful.

Currently running a Wooting keyboard on one machine and a custom build on the other.

If Wooting ever make a 75% layout board I'll get one and box my custom build and just not look back.

Really like the Lekker switches and they don't require software installed for anything. And wooting's approach to settings is great. You can customize the keyboard settings in a browser tab once and then never bother with it again.

I replaced an ancient MS keyboard from 2000 (23 years old) with a K10 Pro with red switches. I am constantly getting missed keypresses, but I think that's just part of switching from something I had used exclusively for so long as any time I'd get on any other keyboard it would feel weird. I do not really like the feel of the reds and kinda wish I had a chance to try out the browns in person first. I went with the K10 so I could have a full size keyboard as I still use the numpad almost daily, and wanted to use the 4 programmable buttons up on the right. The LEDs and (completely useless because my computer is below my desk) wireless were just extras I figured I'd give a try.

For my living room PC, I use an ASUS Rog Falchion NX with tactile switches.

I would love to find something else exactly like this, but with a row of F-keys. But without the keyboard form factor being ANY wider than the ASUS. The added height of F-row is fine, but added width cuts into mousing surface area on the tray table.

It also needs to retain the ASUS's low latency performance, and preferably the shorter activation point on the switches as well (which still need to be tactile).

Like the Keychron K3 looks close to what I want, except its wireless is Bluetooth only, so bye-bye low latency.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

I do not really like the feel of the reds and kinda wish I had a chance to try out the browns in person first.

I do not understand the appeal of linear switches at all. Having no tactile response is just antithetical to the experience of a mechanical keyboard to me. I get that they're "silent", but non-clicky tactile switches are essentially silent. In either case, the thing that's going to make noise isn't the switch, it's the bottoming out of keys.

I also bought a Keychron K10 with removable switches to replace my Logitech Craft.

I actually like typing on Logitech keyboards, but their lack of standardized parts was the final blow (I accidentally snapped a key while cleaning it, and the mechanism cannot be replaced, I tried. The thing the scissor switch connects to is what busted, not the switch itself, and that doesn't seem repairable.)

Trying to use it with Bluetooth was... not great. I swap between my work laptop and desktop, and it just wasn't reliable. I know that varies for folks.

So I got a USB switcher hub and I'm running it wired.

Typing is pleasant enough, but I'd also say my accuracy is down. I agree it's probably just adapting to a new setup. Travel/pressure/etc. is all slightly different from what I'm used to.

I got the red switches, because they feel most similar to the scissor switches on my last two Logitech keyboards. I don't have any desire for a more tactile response, but can always swap the switches out one day if I want to.

I don't see that happening anytime soon, however. But I like knowing that keys made by another company could fit, the switches can be replaced, etc.

*Legion* wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

I do not really like the feel of the reds and kinda wish I had a chance to try out the browns in person first.

I do not understand the appeal of linear switches at all. Having no tactile response is just antithetical to the experience of a mechanical keyboard to me. I get that they're "silent", but non-clicky tactile switches are essentially silent. In either case, the thing that's going to make noise isn't the switch, it's the bottoming out of keys.

Yeah, I really thought they would have at least some minimal tactile feel. I just wanted them to be quiet. I seemed to have missed anyone who managed to ever talk about them and bring this up before/during when I was looking. That one is on me, I guess.

Some people really prefer linear switches. I don't get it personally, but they do.

The one group that likes them that I at least kinda get are the pro Starcraft players (and similar games). Linear switches provide the least resistance and are the "fastest", and with all the keyboard gymnastics that go along with playing those kind of games at the competitive level, it makes sense.

I've settled on Unicomp Model M replicas, because I apparently need the resistance to feel like I'm typing.

Gremlin wrote:

I've settled on Unicomp Model M replicas, because I apparently need the resistance to feel like I'm typing.

Hell yeah.