What's your favorite Keyboard? (Laptop or otherwise)

Just kind of curious on what you guys like in a keyboard, be it on a laptop or otherwise.

For laptops my favorite keyboard has to be from the previous design of the Precision lineup, which then translated into the Alienware 17 R1. However this had changed when I got my hands on a t440p.

I had been using an IBM Model M (2013 Reproduction) that was decommissioned from a Hospital for some reason so it was fr99. Replaced the caps with ENG/KOR legends from Unicomp and its quite a unique experience.

For now I have settled on a Durgod 310 since I couldnt get my hands on the Leopold FC900r two-tone with ENG/KOR legends. Ordered some doubleshot PBT caps from KPrepublic that will suit the black board and has ENG/KOR legends.


Last board I had was the FC660m with Blue switches and before that I had a Rosewill RK-9000 or something.

Im hoping my next keyboard will be the Leopold FC900r two-tone with ENG/KOR legends.

Whats your favorite keyboards ladies and gents?

 

I love the new chicklet keyboards from the new models from MSI and Lenovo!

Hope we see the same type of keyboards in the upcoming X170 (from Clevo)

The keyboard i mean has this layout:

 

I like the keyboards on the business class notebooks because they generally have more tactile feel than the keyboards on consumer (non-gaming) notebooks. I also look for dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys as I find them very useful for text editing and general navigation without using the mouse.

Here's my Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate. It's blank and helps me "stay in shape". It has the MX Blue switches. The Browns were also offered, but I went with the Blues because the product page said they were more "clickier". I think I'd have been happy with either. It's still much quieter than my Unicomp keyboard with buckling springs, that's really loud.



Charles

 

Yes my friends make fun of me thinking Im hammering my keyboard when I use using the Model M.

The browns are much quieter in comparison though pretty much anything is coming from a Buckling spring.

 

Cool thread @TheReciever. Also a nice compliment to the " favorite mouse" thread. Thanks for setting it up, bro.

Laptops:
Personally, I do not care for any chicklet keyboard. That was probably the one thing that stands out as something that bothered me about the Tornado F5. I am unable to identify with the praise that MSI receives for these Steelseries laptop chicklet keyboards. They are aesthetically acceptable, but I do not care for how they feel when using them. I also do not like how they are made. Chicklet keyboards usually install from the underside of a laptop upper panel/palmrest and are most generally physically separated with a solid panel surface between the keys. I prefer the more traditional design and function of the older Alienware (M17x, M18x) and Clevo laptops, and traditional business-class notebooks, where the keys are close together and separated by air. I also prefer having a laptop keyboard that is removed from the top side and doesn't require a lot of rigmarole to remove it for cleaning or replacement. I strongly dislike extra touchpad buttons and the eraser-head pointing stick found on many business-class notebooks, but I disable them and pretend they do not exist. (To be fair, I generally disable touchpads of any kind and try to avoid using anything but a mouse for cursor control.)

Desktops:
Not sure that I really have a favorite, per se. I'm not picky or overly sensitive about keyboards as long as they are dependable and have a reasonably tactile feel to them. I don't care for soft or sloppy-feeling key action. I do not believe in spending a ton of money on a keyboard (or mouse). I understand and agree with the logic of it being worth it on the basis of them being your primary interface with a computer, but I do not get enough personal satisfaction or tangible benefit from an expensive keyboard (or mouse) to justify the cost. In terms of features, I think having a backlit keyboard is almost essential. Definitely at the top of my list of important features. But, the only color that I care about for the lighting is white. RGB is something I view as being a novelty and a feature that doesn't impress me. It's nice to have RGB for resale value, but resale value isn't something I think about when it comes to an input device like a keyboard or mouse.

Here are the keyboards that I own:

• Corsair Gaming K95 RGB (mechanical keyboard). This is the massive one with 18 macro keys on the left side I have absolutely no use for. My preference would be that it not have any macro keys at all. That said, it's a really great keyboard. I purchased it directly from Corsair as refurbished probably 7 years ago for about 50% less than retail during a big refurbished stock clearance sale. It has been a fantastic piece of hardware considering how little I paid for it. Had I not purchased it for so little, I would not own it because I think the retail price is totally asinine. Other than random tinkering once in a great while, (generally evidence of boredom,) I've had the lighting set to all white since the day I received it. I hate the Corsair iCue software. The software works totally fine, but having the extra bloatware installed annoys me. This sentiment applies to any/all keyboard and mouse software, not specific to the Corsair iCue utility. My contempt for unnecessary garbage goes back to the days of the Micro$lop Intellipoint bloatware. I have absolutely no use for the software or the so-called "features" said software enables.
  
  
• HyperX Alloy Core RGB (membrane keyboard). This was purchased as an open box return from Walmart for $30. It retails for about $50. I was willing to pay $30 for it, but would have only paid $50 if I had desperately needed a decent keyboard. It's very quiet, has a nice feel to it. I like it. It has 5 RGB zones rather than individually addressable per-key RGB like the Corsair K95. This is irrelevant to me. I have all 5 zones set to white. Figuring out how to disable the RGB animations and changing all the zones to white occurred before I began using it as an input device. For the price I think it is excellent. I absolutely love the fact that the lighting control is done exclusively through a hardware interface, with dedicated buttons. Software is neither required nor available.
  
  
• Logitech K120 (membrane keyboard). This is a no-frills "el cheapo" $19 keyboard that has worked flawlessly for me for about 10 years. It was around $19 when I bought it, and it appears to be selling at Walmart for the same price today. I've used it, abused it, and it's nearly indestructible. There is absolutely nothing special about it. There is absolutely nothing to hate about it, other than no backlit keys. That only matters if you want to use it in a dark room. I ran it through the dishwasher several years ago and it still works the same today as the day I bought it. No regrets.

I like all three of them. Each offers something I appreciate and I would buy any of the three again at the same price point. Out of all three keyboards, the one and only physical attribute that stands out as a trait that genuinely I dislike and wish did not exist are the 18 macro keys on the K95 that I have no use for. The macro keys waste about 3 inches of space on the top of my desk.

 

Favorite laptop keyboard: NMB T61p keyboard, by far has the best typing feel I’ve ever experienced on a laptop. It’s so satisfying to type on. Runner up would be the M17x/M18x keyboard. Hate chiclet style keyboards!

Desktop keyboards, I don’t own any other than the Razer Blackwidow V2 Chroma with green switches and I find it lovely to type on

 

Happy user of a Corsair K63 Wireless Special Edition. It's wireless, Tenkeyless, and MX Reds mechanical. Plus my new mobo detects it w/o me needing to go into BIOS mode to use it for accessing the UEFI BIOS. Paired with an Ironclaw Wireless RGB.