As I’m writing this, I’m worried I’m waking up the neighbors. I’m typing these sentences on a mechanical keyboard, one of the odder and more endearing hardware trends in the tech world right now. It’s the kind of keyboard everyone used 20 years ago, and that can still be found in some old-school offices that haven’t upgraded their IT in a while. You know the keyboards – the ones that have tall keys and emit a sharp, high-pitched click-clack with every keypress.
Most tech nostalgia is misplaced. As much as we pretend to pine for the gadgets of the past, you wouldn’t actually want to trade in your iPhone 6 for a Nokia, or sub your Chromebook out for a Commodore 64. But these days, a dedicated group of keyboard connoisseurs is trying to resurrect the mechanical keyboard. There are now a handful of dedicated mechanical keyboard manufacturers, like Code and Rosewill, and an active subreddit exists for mechanical keyboard fans to exchange tips and reviews.
After using one for a week, I finally understand the hobbyist hype. Mechanical keyboards are loud, expensive, clunky, and cool as hell.
For the life of me, I will never understand the affinity for mechanical keyboards. I’ve never liked them. I want my typing to require as little force as possible, and I want my keyboard to be as flat on the table as possible, while still having each keypress have a decent ‘plop’. For me, there’s only one keyboard, and that’s Apple’s current like of aluminium chicklet non-laptop keyboards. I’ve been using them since they came out, and I have one or two on back-up as well in case the one I’m using now dies.
I find that the keys on mechanical keyboards require too much force to press down, which I quickly find incredibly tiring. Their travel is also quite long. They are also too ‘fat’, forcing me to turn my wrist in an unnatural and uncomfortable position (i.e. hands upwards).
In short, I find the current revival of mechanical keyboards mystifying.
I developed repitative stress injuring in my wrist using those old keyboards, much happier with my new MBPro keyboard, silent and short travel.
Recently, while cleaning up, I came across one of my old keyboards (PS2 connector). The keys all seem fine, but I found it too stiff and too noisy.
It’s the total opposite for me, the repetitive stress of bottoming out a rubber dome or scissor switch causes my flare ups. I have Cherry MX Clears, but also others that have a sizeable tactile bump keep me from bottoming out the keys and limit the stress of the bottom out travelling up my fingers. With scissors and rubber domes you have to bottom out to get the key press to register.
Even linear keyswitches like Reds and Blacks, or more limited bumps like Browns don’t require a bottom out. But me personally, I struggle to limit my key press without the bump.
Wow! Thanks. I’ve just used a couple mechanical keyboards several years back, that were stiff and had a loud click.
This entire comment thread has been very informative. I had no idea that high quality mechanical keyboards could require less force and be completely silent as well. Very intersting.
Almost tempted to get a mechanical keyboard, but for now, I think I’ll stick with my MBPro’s keyboard, since I’m happy with that. Also, none of the recommended mechanical keyboards appear to be available in India.
There’s quite a market in Japan and Korea from what I understand, you might have good luck looking more in that direction. I have an 87 key Code from WASD. They ship internationally, and while they don’t have an Indian layout they do allow custom layouts. You can also try /r/mechanicalkeyboards for some guidance.
I love my Cherry MX Clears, but a lot of people don’t like them because of the heavy actuation force. I think you’d probably like MX Browns or Topre if you want to give it a go. Cherry switch boards will give you more options to swap out keycaps to meet your needs.
I also developed RSI… primarily in my right hand. Turned out to be… surprise… the mouse, not the keyboard, though I did do several things not necessarily relating to the mouse (as well as directly related to the use of the mouse) to help eliminate the problem. My set of solutions (in no specific order)?
-I was already on Linux and could easily get started learning with a virtual machine, so this part was easy: learn about, learn how to use, and finally switched to a tiling window manager. I have tried several of them, but the one I decided to stick with is i3. I no longer have to use the mouse for such basic things as window manipulation, reducing mouse usage heavily, while at the same time the window manager is semi-automatic, blazingly fast, light on resources, and makes the most of my screen space. Now I don’t even want to *use* a typical stacking window manager any more… they’re just so clunky, ineffective and inadequate.
-Learned the command line and began using it more to do basic things that would otherwise require lots of arm stretching to move the mouse.
-Learned the Dvorak layout. While I don’t think the keyboard was the main source of my problem, I think it did help to make the problem worse. A few years ago, I learned and switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout on my shitty Dell membrane keyboard.
-Switched to a Unicomp buckling spring keyboard. It might sound counterproductive due to the initial resistance of the keys, but actually it’s nice to not have to slam every single key all the way down to the bottom just to get it to register. And there is no sensation of some keys feeling like they have a spongy resistance and others smooth, so I don’t have to compensate by pressing even harder on some keys. I have to say that I would like to try the Cherry MX Red, Blue and Black switches though… at least the blue might be a better alternative for me (yeah, I want both the audible and tactile feedback…).
There are so many different kinds of switches and manufactures, that saying you don’t like mechanical keyboards because of force and travel length is like saying you don’t like cars because Kias have no horsepower. (All Kias? What about Lamborghinis?)
I love my mechanical keyboard. The keys are easy to push and the travel length to activate the key is really small. But, I tried a lot of different keyboards before I found the one I like, which happens to be the Corsair K70 with brown Cherry switches. I also like the Das Keyboards with blue switches and might pick one up soon.
I DON’T like the red switches and also have tried many brands I didn’t like. You just shouldn’t lump them all together.
He’s just being typically intolerant. He knows that there are different types of mechanical keyboard but intolerance has no place for nuance, variety and shade.
I believe these are aimed at old timers like me who learned on manual typewriters. I still hit the keys on my keyboard hard. I go through keyboards very fast since I’m so hard on them. A mechanical keyboard would be a huge benefit.
Actually, the point of these keyboards is that you DON’T have to hit them as hard. They have a high actuation point so you can touch type on them very fast. Add the individual mechanical N+ key rollover, and you can do some very speedy typing. They are designed to help you type faster with LESS force.
I am somewhere in the middle, i can for the life of me not understand how anyone can work a full day on a chicklet type keyboard without killing someone or something. I hate that spongy feeling. For me apple design a lot of great hardware, but keyboards and mice are so not included in that list.
I don’t like the old mechanical type either, they were ok back in the day, but today i find they require too much force to be comfortable, and they are too damn noisy for an office environment.
I find the pretty standard keyboard type with classic desktop keys but with a rubber membrane instead of physical switches to be the best compromise between having enough feedback and not feeling like pressing my fingers against a soft sponge and yet being fairly effortless.
I am probably a bit strange though as i by far prefer the split/curved keyboard type, i still often use a logitech cordless desktop pro, even though the mouse died like 10 years ago, but the keyboard still works perfectly well. A more modern keyboard that i like is the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I used to have problems with sore wrists, but that stopped the instant i switched to the curved keyboards. As a bonus it is a lot of fun when people come to me at work and want to show me something just to stop when they realize they can’t figure out how to type on the keyboard.
I definitely agree that you shouldn’t lump everything together.
Yes, it’s true that Alps and Cherry MX Black switches, and the torsion-snap actuators in IBM model M and Unicomp buckling-spring keyboards have some of the highest activation forces of any PC keyboard ever and the torsion-snap actuators are the loudest, because they’re an adaptation of the mechanism for the IBM Selectric line of electric typewriters… which were designed for mechanical typewriter users.
However, by contrast, the Cherry MX Blue switches in my Rosewill RK-9000I have a lower activation force than any of the dozens of membrane keyboards that have passed through my hands over the years (I refurbish and donate PCs on the side) and, because I don’t have to bottom them out to reliably actuate them, they’re quieter than many of the membrane keyboards I’ve used, even with the click. (And they can be silenced further by adding O rings to limit the ability to accidentally bottom them out in a noisy fashion, but I find I prefer the occasional bottoming-out over losing some of the range for my fingers to decelerate)
Cherry MX Browns are pretty much the same but lack the clicky sound.
Heck, if you want something with even less activation force, Cherry MX Red switches (no click, no tactile “bump” actuation feedback) are so light that some people say they’re only usable by twitch gamers.
Give this page a read. It’ll tell you just about everything you ever needed to know about keyboards, complete with photos, diagrams, and statistics.
http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/official-mechanical-keyboard-guid…
Edited 2015-04-07 20:13 UTC
As I sit here on my Macbook I feel like my keyboard is some poor reflection of the 15+ year old ps2 beast I have plugged into my desktop. Who needs a windows or open apple key? I’ll take print screen and scroll lock, thank you very much. I want to be able to feel that I’ve typed letters without needing to see them appear on the screen, and heaven forbid you want to actually game on one of those newer keyboards. wasd? Bullshit, use the arrow keys on a clicky keyboard, map the left shift, z, x, c, and space bars to your buttons of choice. So much better. A key broke? Take it off and replace it. It’s like old cars from the 50s before things started to go electronic. Easy to maintain and they just get the job done. Yeah, we can fit super thin keyboards on anything right now, but then why even bother with a keyboard? I still use on old LG Optimus because it’s a smart phone with a full slider qwerty keyboard. Sometime REAL KEYS are just better for getting the job done. I’m not here to get something that is good enough and will require replacing in 2 years, at which point I’ll be subject to the whims of whatever the new trends in ergonomic design or fashion are. I want a keyboard that will last for years, and doesn’t require faked “clicking†sound effects or vibration to fool me into thinking I’m using a real input device. It is the real input device. Real keyboards forever!
I can’t speak for anyone else about why they like the old mechanical keyboards. For myself, the only thing I like about them is that they lasted for a very long time. While the average keyboard lifetime for me since my last mech back in the late 90s, and actually only one come to think on it, I’ve had to replace my keyboard roughly every 3-5 years or 7 at the most (a Logitech G-15).
I owned only one mechanical keyboard from Light-On from the first day I bought the computer, and it was still working fine 11 years later when that computer was shelved by my dad long after I left home… unfortunately in the worst place he could have. The humidity corroded everything. There are similar IBM model Ms still floating around for those that prefer those old keyboards and their amazing lifetimes.
I don’t own one because while I like their former quality, I really don’t like anything else about them, including that annoying clackity clack clack of typing. The modern ones currently have no record of being more reliable than anything else non-‘mechanical’ on the market. I rather equate the “coolness” factor being the same as a 3 year old finding out pushing a button on something annoys everyone around them so he keeps doing it for the attention.
I have used an IBM Model M keyboard with rubber dome keys for almost 20 years and I haven’t found a better keyboard yet. It is solid, quiet, and feels just as good in your hands as the traditional version with buckling spring keys.
I completely agree. Original Model M keyboards are the way to go. I can’t find any older than 92, but those are pretty awesome.
The feel of the keys and the rhythm/satisfaction of the clicks feel and sound good. I do worry about bothering my neighbors but that’s what doors are made for.
To use mine, I had to use a ps2->usb adapter. I have a couple of backup sets too just in case.
I haven’t really tried the newer Cherry variations of latest mechanical keyboards, but I don’t need to.
I had no idea that the IBM Model M ever came in a rubber dome version. (Thought that was late rwhen lexmark bought the keyboard division from IBM) All IBM Model M’s i have ever seen use the epic buckling spring design. The only reason that they were seen as unfeasible is the sheer weight and cost of production in such a cost sensitive market as the personal computer mass market is/was.
I justs peak into my computer and it rights it four me. It although fatter to.
I don’t care especially for the very old IBM “clicky” keyboards. I have a few but find them obnoxiously and unnecessarily noisy.
And ~nothing~ is worse than a “chicklet” keyboard with no tactile our aural feedback. And nothing is less comfortable or hard on the wrists than a perfectly flat keyboard with no slope. The keys themselves are even flat on top, which further reduces feedback and makes it difficult to detect and correct when fast-typing fingers begin to ‘drift’ off-course.
And for non-expert typists, many of the flat modern chicklet keyboards don’t have enough space between the keys, making it easy to hit two or more keys at once.
Two other gripes, since I’m on a roll: Whoever invented keyboards and mice that require batteries can go straight to ####. And all of the companies that thought it was a good idea to make keyboards with ‘special’ keys that require software drivers can join them.
The compromise, the happy middle-ground, is the old Dell Quiet Key keyboards. While it’s difficult to find those old Dell keyboards that aren’t gummed up and lifeless, I’d swear the exact same keyboards are still being made and sold under the Keytronic brand. They sell for $16 and are available in USB and PS/2. I wouldn’t build a new computer without a Keytronic.
Huge Thumbs-Up.
To be fair, those batteries are sort of required if the keyboard is going to be wireless. The power has to come from somewhere.
I can’t speak on behalf of every computer user out there, but there’s never a time that I’m so far away from the computer that a cord won’t reach.
i think i would end up hanging myself in the cord if i was forced to use a corded mouse again. With keyboards it is not that big of a deal, but i do like being able to just remove the keyboard from the table without having to unplug the cable.
I have a UNICOMP mechanical keyboard for my Mac.
This is the modern-looking version of the IBM “Model 20” keyboard using the same bucking spring “click” technology of the IBM unit. Very simple, effective, longest-lasting technology.
Being a programmer/engineer/consultant for a few decades, I have gone through many keyboards as an experience for “feel” (most still work) and I believe, for me at least, this buckling spring keyboard has been the best so far.
Nice “click” sound, good key travel, moderate load required during keypress, solid/sturdy design, retro-look, etc. The keyboard has “character” !
The apple chiclet keyboards and similar, I feel,
are not good, i.e. no feel/response, no decent key travel.
If a mac book pro (MBP) had a buckling spring key board, that would be nice. I would not mind a thicker MBP.
Heresy, sir! Heresy! The laptop must be thin enough to cut your hand off. Nothing else will do. So says the almighty fruit.
They’re better than bad, they’re good!
http://matias.ca/switches/click/
Better than the IBM Model M and any of the Cherries. I wish I could get a laptop with them. It would be like three inches thick, but I’d gladly make that sacrifice.
For one, switches don’t bind up like cheap rubber dome keyboards. At my last job, I had a Dell Quietkey, which was nice, but after a while the Ctrl would stick on the down stroke which caused all sorts of aggravation for me.
It was eventually replaced with a keyboard with Cherry Browns that the receptionist had used until moving over to an ergo keyboard.
The Browns required a lot less force then Dell Quietkey too, which was a win as well. I quit bottoming out the keys as much, and that helped my hands.
The keys on flat keyboards aren’t cupped, so it’s hard to tell where you are on the keyboard. The difference between ‘Q’ and Tab is much more pronounced with out having to look, for instance.
My main thing about flat keyboards is they aren’t tiered correctly. The old keyboards are also tiered. The keys are kind of scooped. The top and bottom keys have a slight rise to them which makes reaching them easier. I don’t have large hands, and I end up stretching to reach certain keys. After a while of typing, I begin to feel it, and my typing suffers pretty much automatically on flat keyboards.
The keycaps are also much more durable then rubber dome keyboards, so the markings don’t wear off at all due to dye sublimination or injection.
Personally, I’ve moved over to a Realforce 87U from my Model M. Very silky.
Also, the Model Ms varied in force required to depress the keys. I have a rather light model.
My favourite for long typing sessions is a Logitech S520. This looks like the cheap, tacky set it is and has the build quality to match but it is wonderful for me to type on. There is a medium amount of travel but it is quiet with a light action and quick for touch typers.
The noise from older Cherry type keyboards gets tiresome very quickly and this from someone who got through uni on a mechanical typewriter.
…this is a matter of personal preference. Some people like certain types of mice – I like thumb driven trackball mice just like others prefer the sound and feel of a mechanical keyboard. I also doubt it has as much to do with age as it does with the individual using it. I’ve been computing since the 80s but fell in love with thumb driven track balls in the last 10 years.
Is this like the desire for piano weighted keys on a keyboard (as in musical instrument)?
Personally, I don’t get it either.
There is something about that.
The music is different between synth. keyboards, organs, harpsichords and pianofortes. Not only because the voices are different, but keyboard dynamic also influences the music : A mechanical piano is a percussion instrument.
Like a typewriter !
I have always wondered what could be done if keys were sensitive to velocity : Strong presses for uppercase, light presses for searching…
(Usually synths have two contacts per key and mesure the time difference between the up and down positions)
I really don’t understand how you can’t understand. Having a weighted keyboard vs not is a world of difference. It really messes with me to play on a non weighted keyboard. Its just wrong.
Have you ever played a real pipe organ? That’s a whole other feel as well. And is one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to pick it up. Well, that and the whole hand foot coordination thing you have to do.
A pity Das Keyboard doesn’t have a version with Unix layout (Ctrl instead of Caps Lock and so on).
I will never understand why to this day they still put that stupid Caps Lock key on keyboards.
Also kudos to Cooler Master for getting rid of that number block. Hardly anyone is typing colons of figures any more these days. For the rest of us the number block unnecessarily increases travel distance of the right hand between mouse and keys.
On the other hand I think media buttons, or at least a mute button, should come standard on keyboards these days. Also I found that a calculator button replaces a desktop calculator if you get the hang of using it.
The number pad is necessary for typing numbers one-handed without looking at the keyboard. Pretty much anyone who needs typing in numbers from real-world objects wants one.
I’m going to guess you aren’t using a keyboard layout that puts the numbers as the first level on the top row. Otherwise competent touch typing would let you type numbers just as easily as letters without looking, though not one-handed. Never did understand why the French keyboard layout, for example, puts the numbers as shifted elements on the top row.
Even ignoring the spreadsheet work I do occasionally have to do, I collect books and a lot of them either predate bookland barcodes or are from a printing that cut costs by omitting the bookland barcode rather than printing it on the inside front cover after the UPC for supermarket sales displaced it from the back.
You can pry my numeric keypad from my cold, dead, ISBN-typing fingers.
…and I sometimes run into a retro game from GOG.com that plays much more comfortably with the numeric keypad not hidden behind an Fn key.
Edited 2015-04-09 00:13 UTC
Annoying, but not unsolvable.
There are vendors like WASD Keyboards which will sell you either blank Cherry MX keycaps or custom-printed ones and you can define a custom keymap.
(In any OS, for that matter. X11 just makes the definition files a bit easier to hack.)
Edited 2015-04-09 00:12 UTC
Ah, that looks interesting, thanks!
I’m using Sun Type 5 now, and besides may be a Happy Hacking keyboard (which is way too minimalistic for me), it’s hard to find keyboard with hardware defined Unix layout (which wouldn’t require you to reconfigure input maps and etc).
Edited 2015-04-09 01:14 UTC
Unicomp does, though it was PS/2 only last I checked. It’s called Linux layout 1 (layout 2 has the meta key where caps lock is).
Of course, especially on Linux, you can map these any way you want to thanks to keymap and xmodmap files so it’s only relevant if you need this layout at the boot screen. There are ways to do this kind of mapping on every major os out there.
When I was like 18 (1990) my future mother-in-law bought a really shitty IBM PS/1 (286) that I set up for her. It only lasted about 2 years as it was a real POS, but it came with this truly wonderful piece of technology – an IBM M2 “Slim” keyboard:
http://www.electronicdiscountsales.com/images/image.php?id=13338258…
I used that keyboard for almost 20 years… It was like my prized possession. I must have went through 15 different computers in that time period, but the one and only thing I kept every single upgrade cycle was that keyboard. I went through 2 controller boards and even did some surgery once on a couple of caps to keep it going. In the late 2000s I even bought an active USB adapter just so I could keep using it on machines without PS/2 ports.
Sadly, in 2009, a bazillion keystrokes and at least 50 disassemblies/reassemblies for cleaning, something shorted in the membrane beneath the keys. I could not locate another one and thus I had to put it to rest. I won’t go as far as to say it was like losing a family member, but it was rough.
Now I mostly use Macs, which have very nice keyboards (in their own way), but nothing comes close to that keyboard. I’ve tried “modern” Model M clones, Cherry MX keyboards, etc., but the magic is gone. It was the combination of diminutive size, worn smooth keycaps, fully broken in buckling springs, and IBM’s hard-as-iron aged pebbled plastic that somehow resulted in more than the sum of its parts.
Damn I miss that thing
About one computer per 1-2 years? That was intense
I totally agree though! Computers come, computers go, only the keyboard remains. I’m really happy with my Das Keyboard. It feels perfect and it’s unbreakable. I only wish there was an easier way to clean it, i.e. that you could open it from the side or something.
Back at university they had these extremely quiet, flat keyboards that provided pretty much no resistance nor feedback. My fingers start itching by thinking about it.
Mechanical is quite expensive, but it’s totally worth it if you need to use a computer for more than one hour a day.
I’m a developer and a hardware junky. I almost always had 2 computers on a KVM switch at any given time, sometimes 3. Now I do almost everything with a little 11 inch Macbook Air. Times have changed.
[quote]I find that the keys on mechanical keyboards require too much force to press down, which I quickly find incredibly tiring.[/quote]
Are you pressing down with just your fingers or do you use the weight of your hand/forearm? Because using just your fingers will do that.
It’s mostly durability and the feeling it gives you.
I’m a fast typist and generally want to focus more on my code then what my keyboard understands from my typing.
All those small issues with a keyboard not registering a special key combination, some keys suddenly starting not working after some time made me never look back from mechanical keyboard.
It doesn’t make them to be loud but they do offer nicer value and look cool as well (for those of you that also prefer style).
For laptops, the most decent keyboards I tried where those from Lenovo, Asus – especially ROG series and Macbook – though I never got along with the key mapping.
The others are either made for a sweet lady that hardly presses a button after she looks two times if it’s really that one or or simply do not last long.
If it wasn’t for the gaming industry to put them back on the market, nobody ever knew about their existence. Except the N-key rollover support and the individual LED colouring stuff which may give it an advantage, it’s just another way for companies to make money from people that will buy just about anything that’s out there.
IBM M keyboard was and will continue being the best desktop keyboard, mechanical or not, on the earth. And the same for BlackBerry’s keyboards on the mobile.
Edited 2015-04-08 06:52 UTC
There are better IBM keyboards than the Model M. The Model M is actually a cost-cutting version of the Model F, which has a crisper feel (though worse layout). Before that were beam spring switches – used in IBM terminals from 1971 to 1981. I’m typing this with a 1980 IBM 3278 keyboard, connected to MacBook Pro. (see: http://deskthority.net/resources/image/10376)
There were also some great non-clicky linear switches in the 70’s and early 80’s (my favourites were Micro Switch, ALPS, Key Tronic). All of them blow away the mushy rubber domes in my MacBook Pro.
[qThere are better IBM keyboards than the Model M. [/q]
Now that you remind me, the awesomest keyboard I ever used was on an IBM Office System 6 word processor. It felt and sounded *exactly* like a Selectric, right down to the ball going *whap* on the platen.
Sadly, the machine was expensive enough that the school involved wound up buying a buttload of big-keyboard Commodore PETs with a word processing ROM installed instead of trying to shuffle a lot of students through the IBM.
My current favorite is the Apple aluminum. Past favorites have been DEC’s LK201 (VT220 et al), the IBM buckling spring thingie, Heathkit H19, and DEC VT52 (the H19 may have used the same mechanism as the VT52; it’s been a *long* time since I last pulled a keycap off either).
The IBM Office System 6 is almost certainly beam spring, the same as my 3278. IBM’s goal with the beam spring was to replicate the feel of the Selectric typewriter. They did a pretty good job.
Heathkit H19 did indeed have the same switch as the DEC VT52 – Hi-Tek/Stackpole. I don’t really like the switch – too scratchy and the sliders crack. (I have a VT100.)
Who owns many blu-rays or DVDs these days? Or a real CD.
I think the more virtual and intangible some of our experiences, the more we value the few real physical interactions we have.
Be it the glass trackpads, headphone and DACs or keyboards.
Even a coffee is a more tangle experience.
is over 25 years old. And it still works.
The Alps key switches are reasonably quiet, have good feedback, and still work.
The control key is in the home row where it belongs. And it still works.
It’s hard to find any personal computer components of that age that are still relevant.
DISCLAIMER: I own quite a bit of really old machines, and i am thus inherently biased.
Statement #1: Keyboards are important, much in the way touch points are important in cars.
Statement #2: Your preference is inherently subjective. Mechanical, or dome … you like what you like.
Statement #3: Quality is quantifiable, whether it adds to the usefulness and/or ergonomics of the product is secondary to many.
These are broad, sweeping statements, but i am going to be even bolder by saying they largely apply to all products, not just computers.
I am a mechanical keyboard fan.
I don’t mean gaming keyboards, i mean good old honest keyboards.
A keyboard (and mouse, if you must) is still the primary way of interfacing with your computer. It will define the way you work with/on the machine.
A crap keyboard that misses keystrokes and feels like a damp cloth on plywood will cause frustration.
Aside from the subjective qualities of a mechanical keyboard, there are many advantages to the technology that can be objectively defined.
– Lower physical effort when used properly. Keys don’t have to bottom out to register a stroke.
– Higher accuracy due to the audible cue (blues ftw)
– Severely decreased occurrence of missed keystrokes due to rollover
– Longevity of the hardware
– Serviceability (although that won’t matter to many)
Thom, i think you are referring to the model M. Torsional, buckling spring. They do require quite a firm press, indeed. However, they are simply better than 90% of the crap out there.
Other than that, i don’t think it is fair to say that all mechanical keyboards require more effort to type on. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Just try it for yourself.
Edited 2015-04-08 13:00 UTC
This post contains a number of misconceptions that are fairly common, especially for people who have no experience with mechanical keyboards aside from the Model M. Suffice it to say, not all mechanical keyboards are Model M/buckling-spring, and they don’t all require the same amount of force to depress the keys. If anything, the Model M is an exception – most other mechanical keyboards (Cherry, ALPS, Matias, Topre, etc) use a more complex switch and not the same buckling spring mechanism as IBM/Unicomp. As far as the weight needed to press the keys, the Model M keys are extremely “heavy” even by the standards of other mechanical keyboards.
Most mechanical keyboards are substantially lighter, some requiring less force than most rubber-dome keyboards – and there’s some Topre boards, which use variable weighting so that it takes less force to press keys that are typically used with weaker fingers (so A has a lighter weight than F, for example). On a more subjective side, I would argue that good precision/feedback is (within reason) as, or more, important than the amount of force required to press the keys – when using rubber dome keyboards, I find I end up using more force (and causing my hand more strain), probably because it’s harder to tell when I’ve pressed the key down far enough. It’s not a perfect comparison, but think of trying to dribble a basketball while wearing oven mitts.
The extra thickness can make it harder to positon a fullsize keyboard for healthy hand/wrist position, but that’s really more a factor of your workstation setup: chair & desk height, position of keyboard tray, etc. I do agree that the upward-sloping “wedge” shape of older keyboards is terrible for ergonomics, but I’ve found that fairly easy to overcome by using my keyboard tray’s wrist rest to prop up the front of the keyboard & make it slope downward, away from me, instead.
I haven’t taken a keypuller to one of them, but I would bet that those use scissor switches – that’s what people typically mean by “chiclet” keyboards, since most of them use scissor switches. Though they’re not exclusive to chiclet-style keyboards, that’s the same mechanism Thinkpad keyboards have been using since at least the late 90s (and one of the main reasons why Thinkpads have long been considered to have the best laptop keyboards). Personally, I consider scissor switch keyboards to be semi-mechanical – they do use a rubber dome, but have a small hinge (that opens & closes like a pair of scissors) that makes the keys more precise and less-wobbly than regular rubber dome. I’ve also seen them referred to as “stabilised rubber-dome”:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Scissor_switch
I know the conventional wisdom is that shorter key travel is worse for hand/finger strain, because it causes you to bottom-out on every keypress. But in the bigger picture, I think they’re still almost always better than most plain rubber dome/membrane keyboards: given a choice, I’ll personally take short-but-crisp key action over long-but-mushy key action any day.
Great post, thanks! I can’t upvote it anymore so I’ll just say it.
Thanks! I’m not an expert by any means, I just ended up jumping down the “keyboard geek” rabbit hole about a year ago, without really meaning to – after one of the fingers on my left hand went partially numb. The post was basically a distillation of a year or so spent reading the deskthority wiki & lurking on geekhack.
The most surprising thing I learned was just how bad most keyboards are in terms of ergonomics. Most of them are downright terrible, and even most so-called “ergonomic” keyboards are only slightly-less terrible. The only “good” keyboards, ergonomically speaking are those that are completely split and allow the two halves to be positioned independently – because the ideal position of the hands/keys varies from person to person, depending on how broad your shoulders are.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many options. I only know of 4 fully-split models that are available today: Kinesis Freestyle, the Fentek/Comfort Keyboard line, the Matias Freestyle Pro, and the ErgoDox. Of those 4, the Matias Feestyle is the only pre-assembled one that uses mechanical key switches (and it’s only available for pre-order, having missed 2 or 3 release dates since last August). The others all use rubber domes, except the ErgoDox – its trade-off is that you don’t get a finished product, but a bag of parts that have to be assembled & soldered together.
I started developing pain in my pinky fingers at the end of the day until I switched to mechanical keyboard — namely a Topre Realforce with variable weight (meaning keys on the sides are “lighter” than keys in the middle, because your pinkies are weaker than your index/middle fingers).
As many said already, there are many different types of switches, with different forces, sounds, feeling, and travel distances (among other factors). When you type at a keyboard most of the day, it would be foolish not to find the very best keyboard for you. If that’s a chicklet keyboard, that’s fine too.
On numeric keypads, people often forget that they’re very useful for left-handed people. They don’t change the distance between the main keys and the mouse, since the mouse is on the left, and it does add a much needed square of keys that we use for gaming (we can’t use WASD since that’s awkward when the mouse is on the left).
This thread finally made me order a new keyboard… I used to love my model-m, but I lost it when changing jobs, and since I never could find a working ps2->usb converter that didn’t drop shift status while selecting text, I never went back for it. Then my keytronics variable force keyboard died. I replaced it with a 10 euro microsoft keyboard, which always left me unhappy.
When that died, I still thought I could make do, so I got a new wireless microsoft keyboard. Now I’m in pain every evening, so I’ve ordered a wasd 87 keys keyboard. Let’s hope they deliver soon!
I have the same keyboard. WASD minus the number pad. Coincidentally, it was purchased because 1) I could never find a decent USB adapter for my Model M and 2) my wife complained about the Model M’s noise. I went for a Thinkpad color scheme, but the blue is way too light (Carolina blue vs Duke blue on the Thinkpads). Minus that, I’m loving the decision so far. Maybe one day when I have a bigger house I can justify bringing the Model M (okay, I have multiple Model M’s) out of retirement.
Like other commentators said, modern mechanical keyboards need less force than the old ones.
I personally use rubber dome keyboards at work in shared workstations, and after a couple of years, they become pretty rough and hard to press.
Cherry MX Blue and Brown are actually softer than rubber domes, and nothing beats the softness of the Cherry MX red, which, unless you always type the same way, is very prone to accidental mis-typing.
I personally use Cherry MX brown at home, since they’re quiet and provide some feedback to prevent you from mistyping.
On a side note, I do really like the pre-retina macbook pro keyboards, they’re almost the same feel as a cherry MX brown with less travel.