Which keyboard/switches/keyboard features?

Hardware Hub
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I’d like to get a new keyboard. I currently have a Logitech MX keyboard with red switches (not sure if they are Cherry or if they’re Logitech’s proprietary).

I’d like to get a new keyboard. I know very little about mechanical keyboards.

The one feature I think I want is “hot-swappable,” being able to swap out the switches down the road if I want to. Other than that, the only other thing I know that I want is a “standard” or “100%” key layout with a full 10-key.

For the keys, I think I want something a little bit quieter, and maybe a little bit lower pitch, than the reds. I’m willing to spend a few hundred $ for a quality keyboard.

The one brand that comes up regularly in my searches is Keychron. Are there any others I should consider?

What are other keyboard features do you find useful?

What are some switches that I should consider?

Know of any cool sources to purchase custom keycaps?

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Try Cherry Silent Reds. I do not know the equivalent of other keyswitches.

Keychron is ok enough.

If you specifcally dont want to mess with VIA/QMK/ZMK firmwares for work compliance reasons, there is also Ducky. They seem to have a slightly better build quality overall (but more expensive) but they dont offer the fancy Cherry MX Silent Reds AFAIK in their stock offerings so that is an additional expense on top of your keyboard. They dont also sell barebones.

I also dont like their Keychron SA profile, especially for FPS gaming. So do consider that.

I am on a Southpaw Alice layout here at home but getting slightly annoyed by the absence of the Home/PageUp/Delete cluster.

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Keyboards…

(takes deep breath, Ace Ventura) and about to provide huge list of choices, options, keys, lube, springs, actuators, pcb, noise dampening, software, PBT, brass plates, construction, volume knobs, amount of keys, angles, tactile, clicks, translucency, backlight…

decides not start… deflates…

and says:

buy a mechanical keyboard from Keychron on Amazon, a Keychron max or pro series, with tactile or silent keys: toy with it, try it, keep all the box materials intact

buy a Keychron / amazon low profile, with your preferences

receive it, try it, decided if its the feel you want, toy with it, try it, keep all the box materials intact

RETURN BOTH

sit back and armed with your personal preference, and start to explore what is out there.

Keyboards can be a very personal experience, its hard to use someone else’s advice, try some experiences on your own.

with respect and with a long view

for some its JUST a keyboard, for others its a mechanical wonder with the same traits and personalization as a custom fountain pen, nib and specialty ink on specialty paper

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So there are quite a few decent keyboard brands on the market. For entry level with enthusiaist features I’ve been recommending RK royal kludge(Example Keyboard). They are very solid for the price. Beyond that 8bitdo, epomaker, and keychron are all very solid brands for the price and you can’t go wrong with most of their models. If you want a really good keyboard I’ve been impressed with System 76, but they cost quite a bit for what you can get from other brands.

Now for a “quite” switch, your best bet is to find a red or silver style switch. If you want to try a wide variety of switches I can recommend keychrons switch tester(Keychron Switch Tester 100 Max Edition – Keychron | Mechanical Keyboards for Mac, Windows and Android). It’s 45 USD, but covers a lot of switches and it should largely be resell-able. Beyond that you can add foam to the keyboard to dampen sound even further. I know keychron encourages the use of the foam they package their keyboards with.

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It gets expensive really quick if you try experiences on your own. That is why people share what works for them. If your use case and preference seem close enough it should be a good recommendation.

But I do get your point. I sort of wish there was a keyboard enthusiast convention of sorts to actually try all of these fancy keyboards as well. The Cherry clones/Kailhs and Gaterons are too varied with too much nuances to be explored in a few paragraphs.

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I bought a barebones kit and assembled it. It was really fun! There’s HipyoTech, Switch and Click, Keybored, several good YouTubers who have guides on this sort of thing. Watch a few reviews and learn what sound profile sounds nice to you :slight_smile:

Keycron is fine, but there’s other good and even better brands. I have an epomaker and I love it.

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I was in the same boat as you, using a Logitech MX Mechanical that was just a little lacking in ways I couldn’t put my finger on.

In hindsight I think it was the typing experience was “off” for me… I prefer low profile keys which it had but the key spacing was odd and mushy on the “tactile” style… the clicky style was louder but didn’t seem to help so I returned it. The F key rows didn’t have any separation which screwed with my hotkey muscle memory, and it over relied on the Fn key to enable features a top tier keyboard normally has… like volume, mute, play/pause/next etc… which were again hard to get into muscle memory.

I went down to my local PC hardware shop for a different reason entirely, but on my way through the aisles they had a bunch of keyboards out for testing. I spent about 20 minutes trying each keyboard out because I was starting at basically zero knowledge of the keyboard customizing world.

I wound up walking out with a Logitech G915 clicky which isn’t even a new keyboard, and the default RGB settings make the keys hard to see, but after some screwing around with the (awful) G Hub software I got them to stay on, and blue, and I’m very satisfied with the keyboard overall.

I like the “lightspeed” wireless tech, find it very reliable, enjoy the bluetooth capability for using with other laptops/tablets on occasion, enjoy the “game mode” button that disables (configurable!) keys to avoid dropping you out of games even though I only use it with my kids when im teaching them how to use the computer, having print screen, scroll lock, and pause buttons back is extra nice (hello fellow hotkey warriors). And since getting into Linux as a desktop I’m noticing missing keys can be a real hindrance for certain situations where your inexpertly customized distro isn’t responsive…

I still haven’t really learned anything about the modern KB customization scene, it seems to move super fast and I just read about keyboards that customize activation depths and key release timings that are giving FPS game players a huge advantage (borderline cheating?)… however I’m a supply chain security nut and the name-brand is a (small) comfort that my passwords are being compromised by the terrible decisions I make and websites I visit - rather than the keyboard stealing them itself.

Looking forward to anybody in the thread who moved from the G915 or similar into to deep end of keyboard customization and what they report from the bleeding edge frontier of HIDs.

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