Christmas is coming closer - and I am tempted to try out a mechanlcal keyboard. I heard only good things about the Keychron keyboards - but there are quire a few available.
Which one is recommened for a mechanical keyboard beginner?
Which switches?
I am using at the moment the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English and would like to stay with the US layout (even though I am living in Switzrland, am German, the US layout is the easiest for programming imho).
Any suggestions and comments (also different makes?) are welcome.
The last question in this direction is from 2020, so I do not feel to bad to ask again.
Iād suggest going for a Ten Keyless i.e. those without the Numpads. They are shorter and so one does not need to reach far for the mouse/trackpad.
As for switches, the safest for new comer would be a Cherry or Gateron Brown. I am not familiar with some of the newer switches and will always stay with the āOGā, which are Cherry.
One thing about Keychron is that you can buy those keyboard that let you swap out the switches, so you can, say buy a Cherry MX Brown and then, buy extra switches like Blues so you can swap them out depending on mood.
I prefer wired, but I am guessing wireless is fine too.
Make sure if you want to buy a wireless one you read the description and order a wireless one! Just ordered a Keychron one that arrived this week and whilst I thought it was Bluetooth, it turns out it is not
Honestly, the Keychron ones are decent - not tried one over Ā£100 though so not sure what the high end ones are like. I ordered a K13 Pro ages ago and it finally arrived a week or two ago. However, the low profile started to set my wrist off, so I ordered a V1. I must have misread the description on the website, as I ordered it thinking it was wireless but itās a wired keyboard. Both do the job. And my instance, both are ISO layout, as I found using an ISO layout with a laptop that has an ISO layout is less hassle than not.
Iāve tried Filco boards, which are fine but nothing to write home about. My personal favourite is Niz, which has a copy of the Topre switches. Topre is good as well, but itās over the double the price of the Niz ones so it makes it hard to justifyā¦
I am very pleased with it, and finding a low profile mechanical wasnāt easy. So you might want to consider low profile as a āgatewayā if you are transferring from Magic keyboard? I think it feels just great (Alice layout optional, of course, they do a variety). I am about to order another, because I work between the office and home, and itās quite the beast to carry around in my backpack.
PS I have brown switches. I also bought a box of reds but I havenāt been bothered to swap them around yet, and kinda wish Iād saved my money on them.
There are three main things - the board, the switches, and the keycaps.
The board is a combination of layout and software. Youāve indicated youāre happy with a standard key layout, so no issues there. Software like QMK lets you reprogram keys and do all sorts of fun stuff. Youāll want a board that lets you swap switches. The board will also dictate whether or not you have any backlight, under-light, etc. Thatās your preference; it doesnāt affect typing.
Based on my experience for switches, Iād start with something like a Cherry Brown (or equivalent) since thereās a little tactile ābumpā when you press a key. If you donāt want the little ābumpā, try Cherry Red (or equivalent). And donāt stress about āgetting it rightā off the bat. Youāll likely want to play around with switches at some point, and that will be dictated by what you do or donāt like about the switches you have. For me, I started with Browns and went to Kailh Box Pink because I have some RSI type issues and the pinks had a lower activation force. Now Iām on KTT Strawberry switches. Theyāre super-smooth and linear. This is a good reason to get a hot-swap keyboard - you can change out switches in an hour or so if you want to try new ones, and theyāre not that expensive.
Finally, there are different profiles of keycaps. Again, what you pick depends on what youāre comfortable with. But if youāre comfortable with a non-contoured board (Appleās Magic Keyboard is a very flat board), you might consider a set of DSA keycaps. And of course you can have fun with colors and such. https://spkeyboards.com/ is a great resource.
This is not a recommendation per se as I use an ortholinear board, but if I were in your shoes and were happy with a āstandardā keyboard layout Iād be looking at something like this:
Standard layout, QMK programmable, swappable key switches, available in white if you want a white board, and not that expensive. Checks all the boxes.
Thanks a lot everybody for your comments and thoughts - I leaarned a lot. I will probalby go for a keychron 80% (tenkeyless) with brown switches - still have to look into which series though.
As a follow up: What is the difference between the different series? Is there a comparison chart of the series (not the individua; keuboaurds - that I have found)?
Oh dang, I might have accidentaly ordered a Keychron K8 Pro with brown switches.
I recall loving the old grey IBM keyboards, so I hope I still will enjoy using this type of keyboard again. So many years have gone by with me getting used to low-travel keys, but this thread pushed me over the edge
This probably wonāt help you, but Iāve bought a bunch of mechanical keyboards over the years, and I think Iāve settled on this shockingly expensive split keyboard:
So, Iāve had the Keychron K8 Pro keyboard for a few days now, and manā¦ this is a nice blast from the past. This is what I used before laptops and then all of a sudden, all external keyboards became low-travel too.
So happy to have tried this, and it sure is a better typing experience. Higher accuracy too.
Only thing - I need to get the Keychron Palm Rest as well. The keyboard is quite tall, so you need to get your palms at the right level for a comfortable typing experience. I had ordered the recommended one from the seller, and it was a 3mm Logitech palm rest. Fine enough for a Logitech low-travel keyboard, but way too low for the Keychron.
I watched a video fairly recently (not recent enough to be able to find it) on desk ergonomics and the expert was saying not to use palm rests. You should adjust your chair/armrests and or desk height. Not that I listen to that (nor am I saying you should), just thought it was interesting when she said you should never use one.
I am a long time Keychon user on Macs, but lately I feel like they are a bit overpriced for what they are. There are better keyboards out there in that price range if you follow keyboard YouTube types. The problem is that is no easy answer on what to get, especially if you like full sized keyboards.
Have you all tried Matias? It uses alps switches, which are the switches which Apple used in the old days of Apple Extended Keyboard. It feels different from Cherry. I owned two Matias and I love them. I donāt like their design i.e. the way the keyboard looks. They are ugly. But for typing, they are great. And Matias keyboards comes with 3 USB ports on the keyboard, which is super useful. I used the USB-A ports for the Logi tech mouse ādongleā, for the Yubikey and once a while, for the USB pen drive. Very convenient as they are just at the keyboard. This alone, is the second reason to like this keyboard. Give it a spin!
I donāt think there is one single way that is ācorrect ergonomicsā. Itās a lot of personal anatomy and preference. For one, I never use a desk chair with armrests. With all the keyboards Iāve used the last 10-15 years, they have been so low profile that I never needed a palm rest. The KeyChron keys are now significantly raised over the desk, so itās either a palm rest, or a lowered keyboard tray that is the solution. So, yes - with the new keyboard, I have lowered my desk accordingly
Would be interesting to read that advice to hear her reasoning thoughā¦
EDIT: Did a quick search and found a consensus that you should only rest your PALM, but never your WRIST. Some good explanation in this article
FWIW I recently bought my first mechanical keyboard from https://holykeebs.com/ ā¦ but I canāt really comment on it since itās been sitting unused on my desk for the last 4 weeks. Iāve been too busy to set up and configure it. Itās a split keyboard and one goal is to configure one of the layers/layouts so that I can use it one-handed while using a tablet with the other. But I donāt really know if it will work.
