Mechanical Keyboard Worth it?

brown

red

black

in that exact order, typed from a blue razer BW

 

And now i gotta wait for my DAS Keyboard to arrive in the mail

 

More like

Him: Fresca or Tab?
Me: Screw that, Pepsi Max.

Domes 4 life


Typed from... er... an ALPS key'd board. (sproing)

 

What's a Fresca?

 

I know alot of people have issues with razer, but fortunately Im not one of them. Id say my razer blackwidow ultimate pro is an amazing keyboard. Sure its taking some getting used to from having used only laptop keyboards for the past 10 years, but the typing experience makes me all nostalgic. Worth the money? Worth. Every. Single. Penny.

With all the talk about "better keyboards" makes the argument even stronger for mechanical. Dont believe me? Go test one out for yourself and youll see.

 

A fad.

This mech keyboard resurgence is exactly like other cyclic resurrections of not necessarily any better tech from yesteryear whose complexity or tactility appeals again to the present generation - and your lack of previous long-term experience plus the novelty of the tech makes you say it's better. Taking another niche interest, you couldn't move for vintage CD players on Head-Fi.org a few years back, including long diatribes on how sonically superior they were. Now? Crickets - yet the competing current portables haven't got magically better in sound quality. Once you 'makes the argument even stronger for mechanical' guys realise they went out of favour not just for cost reasons (like I did the first time around), we'll be back to actually better keyboards - I'm just waiting for that time now where development dollars goes back into decent domes. Or entirely different, low-profile switches.

 

Why so serious?

Never mind now your avatar and subtitle make sense.

 

Dont get me wrong I still prefer a good laptop keyboard over all (precision thinkpad alienware) but when it comes to desktop keyboards mechanical fell right. My blackwidow feels alot better then the membrane it replaced.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

theres always alternative ways to look at stuff, take the comparison between mechanical keyboard and membrane keyboard in this case:

mechanical keyboards are resurrected technology, and obviously membrane keyboard marked technology advancement, but in what ways did it mark its advancement?

it created a sensor circuit that is cheaper to manufacture, and functions perfectly as an input device, which is the essential definition of a keyboard, it provided us a cheaper way to get our hands on an essential piece of input device for a computer to work

now we have the mechanical keyboard, which by using older technology, and the tradeoffs of manufacturing costs, we can get our hands on an input device that doesn't only feel better but instead provides a reliable input switch for each key, which has better feedback for the user

why is it resurrected? as I have stated, membrane keyboards are invented with a simple reason behind: cost, which brings amplified profit margins for lower operational costs, and whilst for mechanical keyboard, it is brought back to life because of the things that have gone missing throughout the production and invention of membrane keyboard, people who missed the feedback, or people who doesn't like the feedback on a membrane keyboard will benefit from it greatly, also since it is advertised as luxury product it brings extra added value for price determination -> which in turns gets attractive enough for manufacturers to bring them back to life

I'm looking in such perspective not to argue your points but instead, as we somehow will realise, there is always a counter argument depending on how we look at things, we can also look into future development and your idea of low profile switch is definitely one of the ideas brought to the engineering team, or even something that lets the membrane design get the tactile feedback so both production cost and user experience is improved

 

I was considering one but i heard lots of bad things about it. (Razer Blackwidow)

 

sadly the best fitting mouse for my hand is razer, the blackwidow makes them a good couple, the keyboard did work for me though, through windows 8 intel usb 3.0 drivers, sometimes it might be a bad windows/driver/software installation but who knows

about bad drivers, my ATIV BOOK 8 did have to go through AMD driver reinstallation twice, without any other step involved, to get the brightness control working -> bit weird isn't it, absolutely no change but in 3 tries it worked

 

I don't hate Razer products. I have an Orochi and i love it. I hate Synapse.

 

Are you trying to invalidate the difference in actuation force between keyboards by citing audiophiles and their psychoacoustic black magic?

 

No. There are very clear functional differences in both cases in comparison to 'contemporary' equivalents. The nature of the differences, and why someone might think one is better, are however very similar.

 

So people who prefer mechanical keyboards only do so due to confirmation bias? Is that what you're saying?

 

To chime in, I do a lot of writing. Quite a bit of it. Both personal stuff and work stuff, and keyboard 'feel' is important to me. That helps me type far more accurately. I find keyboards with little progression, flat keytops, and little tactile feedback(example: the HP DM1z I use sometimes) are quite tiresome to type on and difficult to type accurately. My personal middle of the road(and what I use most often) are the keyboards on business-oriented notebooks(example: my Precision and my ThinkPads). However, at my desk I've parked an old IBM Model M which I've used for years and have nothing but praise for. I think that what you're comfortable with is at least to some degree subjective, but someone looking for a quality keyboard should at least try a mechanical board out for a spell and decide on their own. I'm not saying that other technologies aren't good since I also love the feel of my Precision's board, but a good part of finding the right board is trying out what's available.

Good luck on your hunt, OP.

 

We had a Model M, my dad threw it out saying it was "old", and i was only 13 at the time so i didn't know better.

 

I wouldn't say only, but I'd say there's likely a high degree of it to start with for the current gen.

When I was in my 20's and 30's, buckling-springs, ALPS and Cherry brown/reds (or equivalents) were what you got as default on a lot of the stuff I bought for home and work - often, in the case of machines like the IBM minicomputer terminals I was using (or PS/2s outfitted with 3270 cards) you didn't get a choice - it was the 'giant model M' or the highway - so I've had ample long-term comparative experience between domes and variants, capacitive, and pretty much every major switch type in a heavy duty pro environment. As for the Model M, good riddance is all I have to say. My hands crab just hearing that name.

 

I agree with not liking a Model M. I've used a couple at work and the buckling springs are too heavy for my liking, if I could halve the actuation force I'd be curious to try one. I don't even bottom out my MX Browns most of the time, so anything heavier gets to be tiresome after a page or two of typing.

My biggest complaint about rubber domes is having to bottom the key out to activate the switch. Bottoming out a rubber dome starts to strain my fingers after awhile, so I pick tactile mechs (MX Browns and Blues) when shopping for a keyboard. A good scissor switch is nice too (I really enjoyed my MacBook Pro's keyboard, and enjoy my current Alienware's keyboard, but have used my fair share of terrible scissor switches).

 

I have had mine for over 2 weeks now and I love it! Best desktop keyboard I have owned in a long while.

 

I think that's a matter of conjectured 'logical' conclusion - Given the activation force required to use a full-travel set of Browns (or even reds) for example, I remain far from convinced that you need to expend more energy IRL (in terms of also the amount of time it takes for the finger to stop) in terms of making membrane contact with a short-throw dome. I know some self styled experts out there measure the amount of travel required to make contact, but typically for backyard scientists they don't bother to take into account the actual movement of the finger in terms of it's weight inertia and also the inertia in terms of reaction time, and how that interplays with key behaviour. At the most basic level, all you need to do is to film yourself typing with a high-speed camera to see what type of movement you're subjecting the keyboard to.

 

Put me in the GSP category for mech keyboards - I am not impressed by their performance. Found myself in best buy a few days ago to get a new modem. Spent some time in the keyboard section. I was impressed with the selection; best I have seen in years. Tried out the logitech G+ with mech keys as well as the razer elite. The logitech was mush; a good mech keyboard if you don't want the clicky sound, but it just felt bad to me. I did enjoy the clickiness of the razer, but the sound would drive me mad and i actually don't like the long actuation/key travel. I did like the Razer Anansi, with the thumb modifier keys. That keyboard actually reminded me of my current favourite..

Despite many lamenting it, my favourite keyboard I have used so far is the stock one on my NP9170. I like the flat keys, silent typing, and shallow travel distance. To each their own.

 

Is there anything that has good feedback but is very quiet?

 

A scissor with a positive action is likely your best bet - quiet positive feedback can practically/economically speaking only come from a dome break, and scissors in general have the least mechanical noise. Not even the famed (in the keyboardgeek community) Topres are quiet with any real meaning - they're about the same as your average old-school pack-ins.

Also, amusing mods like the O-rings for Cherry switches don't address return noise at all, a primary component of the noise for switches - and this is where the confirmation bias of some enthusiasts are actually laid bare : they claim not to bottom out their keyboards which they say makes the mechs superior to domes, then at the same time rave about the improvement of a mod that only makes some sense if you do exert enough force to bottom out the key each time. LOL

 

Cherry MX Brown if you don't bottom them out.

I hate Sager keyboards with a passion, so no.

 

I got a Logitech G710+ for work since I type tons here. Liked it so much I got another one for home. Its not silent but not clickity clacky either.

 

I saw it at my local FS. So expensive doe'

 

The travel takes some getting used to. But for as much as I type in 2 or 3 days Id say that I was well adjusted. But dont get me wrong the alienware 14 and precision m4600 keyboards are by far some of the best I have owned. I LOVE the aw 14 being quiet as a church mouse mouse with a perfect typing feel, but the mechanical is a dream to type on for me as well as I get very nostalgic using it.

 

I don't know about the AW14, but having typed on an M17X about a month ago, it reminded me most of my old Dell (in my sig). Nice keyboard, but too quiet for me (i like clicky) and the keys were flat, not curved shaped, so i would often end up typing wrong letters. Fortunately my current laptop is both decently (but not too) clicky and i make a lot less mistakes on it (and thus type around 20% faster) due to the curve shape.

Have yet to recieve my DAS, those folks @ NCIX are taking a day off it seems. But it has both curved keys and clickyness, which i will surely enjoy.

I can make an unboxing video if you'd like.

 

Tracking says it departed from some airport in Ontario. Could be here by tomorrow!