I have a couple of them, but to be honest I’m not even sure if I like them more, or less, than rubber membrane keyboards. There’s kind of a sharpness to the sounds they usually produce, almost a kind of plastic-on-plastic squeek, and I find that unpleasant. If I could afford it, or if they were affordable, I might give a Topre keyboard a try, but to be honest I really don’t care enough about keyboards to worry about that.
The only reason I get mechanical keyboards is because those are often the only ones with n-key rollover. It’s all about the games. It’s wild to me that being able to press more than 3 keys simultaneously is still not standard in all keyboards, and it drives me crazy that the vast majority of built-in laptop keyboards have this problem.
Avert your eyes:
spoiler
I also think chiclet keyboards are perfectly fine… except again, the lack of key rollover.
I agree here. But the only keyboards I’ve ever seen with infinite rollover are mechanical.
Though, I would also say that if you need to press like 8 keys at once in the game, maybe the game’s controls suck because that isn’t very common. 🤷🏻♂️
It’s very common. Quake, as one example requires a number of simultaneous key presses for it’s movement tech. Another I just tested out is Infernax, an old-school style metroidvania. With a controller I had no problem holding the forward and jump buttons, and then hitting the attack button. If I do that with the keyboard, the character won’t attack. And to make sure it wasn’t just that game, I loaded up Timespinner to try the same thing. If I hold forward and jump, they won’t attack. Although curiously if I hold up and jump, they will attack, so I suspect it has to do with forward/back (a or d), jump (j), and attack (h) all being on the same row.
I’m honestly amazed there isn’t a company out there making making premium aftermarket laptop keyboard upgrades, including with features like key rollover. Anyone jumping on this first would have zero competition (at least for now).
uj: cool, you like what you like. It’s all good.
rj: clearly you uncultured swine deserve more laser keyboards.
I’m ambivalent about mechanical keyboard. I hate touch-based interfaces. 🤮️
My favorite keyboard is a chiclet keyboard. I like the travel distance, and it’s very hard to accidentally hit neighboring keys with my fat fingers. I like that each key has a plastic border around it.
I also don’t touch type the proper way. My hands are way too big for that. I almost-touch-type with two fingers on each hand, and I do alright.
I kinda want to try a mechanical chiclet, if they even exist, but not the clicky kind. A quiet one with medium stiffness. Less than a rubber membrane, but more than the super light ones I’ve used in the past. (Cherry reds)
Looks like there is at least one mechanical chiclet keyboard out there.
Well I love all kinds of keyboards, even chiclet, but I no longer enjoy rubber mat keyboards. (kinda feels like typing on a wet newspaper now) But if you don’t mind the difference in typing-sensation, then why pay for it (if you can find one that fits your needs)?
My old CM Storm Quickfire XT died after 10 ish years and it was really only a couple keys, and my new one has solderless replacement design, so i hope it can reach 20y :) I really like that aspect. I tried repairing my rubbermats, and failed every time. n = 1 :), and I’m just a hobbyist repearer, so I probably just suck at rubbermat repairs.
I grew up with IBM Buckling spring keyboards, that might be why I enjoy the loudness of Blue switches. Best experience is ofc the spongebob keyboard, but that’s common knowledge
Wow, that definitely brings color to your desk. I was just watching a video about a Topre keyboard last night, and I think it highlighted why I don’t so much like the mechanical ones - the sound is too high. The Topre keyboard had a distinctly bassier sound, and I found that more pleasant. I have O-rings on one of the keyboards but I think think that goes far enough. I might experiment with different keycaps and other dampening methods to try to change up the sounds they make. One has clicky-sounding, uh, lavender cherry-style switches, and the other has reds which feel/sound more linear. I definitely prefer the reds by quite a bit.
check out tactile switches! and not cherry browns, those are just spicy linears.
I don’t much like clicky or linear switches but I loooove my thocc-y tactiles.
If anything I want to try going as quiet as possible. I find deeper tones more pleasant than sharp ones, but overall I still want the least noise I can get.
If you wanna go deep, my most keyboard loving friend had like a 5x5 pad with 25 different key switch types, that really gave me crazy perspective on what I enjoy and what not when it comes to typing feel! Let’s hope you find a home for your current one and you can find the right one to switch to :)
I got a mechanical at the advice of enthusiasts on Reddit a while back. This was a couple years ago, and I still find it clunky and cumbersome to use.
And fucking loud. It’s the Razer Blackwidow Stealth, so the keys don’t actively make a click sound, but there’s still a pretty glaring plastic-on-plastic clash with every keystroke. I even bought rubber o-rings to put around the posts under each key, which helped to get it only-slightly-obnoxious.
I miss my scissor-switch keyboard. I don’t want to buy a new one while this one’s still working, but I’m kinda looking forward to when it craps out.
This is kind of where I’m at too. I want to get a preferable keyboard, but feel like doing so would be wrong since I have two perfectly functional keyboards already. Maybe I could give them away at some point.
I am a connoisseur of shitty membrane Bluetooth keyboards. All those bad boys need is some AAA’s and a USB port. Learn how to replace the spacebar and its longevity increases from 1 year to 10 years. Highly recommend, never understood the mechanical keyboard craze, suppose everyone has a hobby though.
For me it’s the customizability. My old keyboard I had ,before I switched to a low profile split one because I was staring to feel pain in my wrists, had cermic keycaps. Then the fact that they are basically infinitly repairable and I only need to spend a few hundred dollars for a keyboard I will enjoy forever as compared to probably 100$ for keyboards I will hate over my lifetime.
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