Mechanical keyboards
Discussion
Davie_GLA said:
Well, it's here and it is a decent feeling keyboard.
I've got it running on a mac just now and although it was a bit of a faff to get going it's done now and i've got it set to a solid colour rather than the stroke inducing rainbow effect it ships with.
So far it has one annoyance that i'm not sure i'll be able to deal with. When pressing the space bar it has a dull but very noticible "clang", if that makes sense. It's like the sound you make if you bump a metal water bottle lightly with a dull object. This may be a deal breaker....
Will use it for a couple of days and see how it goes but if i can get over that with perhaps some music on in the background then we might be good.
Slight shift in brain co-ordination needed too as there are 5 customisable "G" keys at the extreme left. My brain is programmed to go to the farthest most left position for keys like shift, tab, ctrl etc and i've struck these keys a few times by accident already.
Will report back for those interested.
I've got it running on a mac just now and although it was a bit of a faff to get going it's done now and i've got it set to a solid colour rather than the stroke inducing rainbow effect it ships with.
So far it has one annoyance that i'm not sure i'll be able to deal with. When pressing the space bar it has a dull but very noticible "clang", if that makes sense. It's like the sound you make if you bump a metal water bottle lightly with a dull object. This may be a deal breaker....
Will use it for a couple of days and see how it goes but if i can get over that with perhaps some music on in the background then we might be good.
Slight shift in brain co-ordination needed too as there are 5 customisable "G" keys at the extreme left. My brain is programmed to go to the farthest most left position for keys like shift, tab, ctrl etc and i've struck these keys a few times by accident already.
Will report back for those interested.
Bullett said:
I'm going to go through this thread for suggestions but anything people recommend. Budget is £130ih as that is what I paid.
[BrokenRecord] Filco Majestouch 2 [/BrokenRecord] As an aside, I swore off Roccat a couple of years ago and have either tirelessly to avoid anyone I know being fooled into handing over money for their wares. For their typically very high price point the build quality of everything I've owned or used has been tragically poor and almost every product they sell has at least one, or in many cases two or three, common issues which are almost always terminal due to the lack of spare parts and which wouldn't have occurred if it weren't for obsessive bean counting.
My favourite was the £60 mice that used a 2mm diameter, 30mm long rod made from the world's most brittle plastic as both the rotating shaft and the sole material support of the scroll wheel...then wondering why they snap after a few hours use.
272BHP said:
mikef said:
On my PCs Filco Majestouch TenKeyless, on Mac a Keychron K1 and a K4. Keychron are a Kickstarter project, solid, cheap (sent from China in a couple of days) and operate wired or Bluetooth. Worth looking up. On all of these you can specify which switches you want
I like the look of these. currently developing on a MB Pro with a dual screen set up and apple magic keyboard that I cant really get on with. do you recommend the K1 or the K4 for a Mac?
@proper@ keyboards
I was an engineer fixing computers in the 80s.
in those days the keyboards were integrated into the terminals and were made by Cherry with individual switches for each character mounted onto a steel chassis. each button was attached to a shaft which held a magnet which operated a reed switch.
keyboard speeds in those days were far higher than people achieve these days and only those trained in data entry would ever get to touch a keyboard.
the best data entry operators could achieve over 25,000 key depressions per hour and that was with a fag burning in an ash tray next to the keyboard which they would pick up and take a drag on every minute or so. the only parts of the keyboard which ever wore were the actual plastic buttons and that was due to finger nails but that didn't matter. each operative would know 'their' keyboard including the wear on the button, the effort required to press each switch etc. and there were serious problems if one was asked to use an alternative terminal/keyboard.
I was an engineer fixing computers in the 80s.
in those days the keyboards were integrated into the terminals and were made by Cherry with individual switches for each character mounted onto a steel chassis. each button was attached to a shaft which held a magnet which operated a reed switch.
keyboard speeds in those days were far higher than people achieve these days and only those trained in data entry would ever get to touch a keyboard.
the best data entry operators could achieve over 25,000 key depressions per hour and that was with a fag burning in an ash tray next to the keyboard which they would pick up and take a drag on every minute or so. the only parts of the keyboard which ever wore were the actual plastic buttons and that was due to finger nails but that didn't matter. each operative would know 'their' keyboard including the wear on the button, the effort required to press each switch etc. and there were serious problems if one was asked to use an alternative terminal/keyboard.
Davie_GLA said:
Forgot about this thread but would recommend the G910. Seems to have bedded in nicely.
I still hit the custom keys by mistake now and then but overall it's a good keyboard.
I'm a happy 910 user as well though I gave up on the ARX side - complete waste of time aside from watching some PC stats when you can connect - the extras I assume it would provide to games it supports appears to be the ability to start the game from the phone/tablet - wow so exciting.I still hit the custom keys by mistake now and then but overall it's a good keyboard.
My Keychron K2V2 ISO UK arrived and so far I’m really liking it.
I won’t go in to all the positives as they’re well reviewed but there are a number of negatives, some of which I knew about and some of which seem to have bypassed all the “reviewers” who are to be honest mostly American “influencers” who tend to fixate on the wrong things.
Negatives I knew about:
I won’t go in to all the positives as they’re well reviewed but there are a number of negatives, some of which I knew about and some of which seem to have bypassed all the “reviewers” who are to be honest mostly American “influencers” who tend to fixate on the wrong things.
Negatives I knew about:
- ISO spares extremely hard or impossible to get
- No choice of key colours or caps from Keychron on ISO version
- Quite thick
- Some keys are non-standard size
- No way to adjust auto-off time
- No battery level feedback to Mac. You can fn-B to get a rough idea though.
- Build quality dubious in places. Metal surround has gap where it meets.
- Dubious quality control. See del key photo!
- 3#£ key misprinted. It should be 3£#. The 2@€ is correct though.
- No way to adjust backlight off time
- For all the silly RGB modes the actual useful one (single colour or white permanently on) doesn’t switch off after 20 seconds or so like you’d expect.
- No ambient light sensor. Yes, I knew this but none of the reviews mentioned this as a lacking feature.
- No proximity sensor. Same as above.
- No easy single-key way to switch backlight on/off. Its either multiple presses on the appropriate fn key, or fn-bulb.
- black on black labelling in minute writing fir switches. Even my teenager couldn’t read it.
Edited by page3 on Saturday 27th March 09:42
page3 said:
My Keychron K2V2 ISO UK arrived and so far I’m really liking it.
I won’t go in to all the positives as they’re well reviewed but there are a number of negatives, some of which I knew about and some of which seem to have bypassed all the “reviewers” who are to be honest mostly American “influencers” who tend to fixate on the wrong things.
Negatives I knew about:
Good review.I won’t go in to all the positives as they’re well reviewed but there are a number of negatives, some of which I knew about and some of which seem to have bypassed all the “reviewers” who are to be honest mostly American “influencers” who tend to fixate on the wrong things.
Negatives I knew about:
- ISO spares extremely hard or impossible to get
- No choice of key colours or caps from Keychron on ISO version
- Quite thick
- Some keys are non-standard size
- No way to adjust auto-off time
- No battery level feedback to Mac. You can fn-B to get a rough idea though.
- Build quality dubious in places. Metal surround has gap where it meets.
- Dubious quality control. See del key photo!
- 3#£ key misprinted. It should be 3£#. The 2@€ is correct though.
- No way to adjust backlight off time
- For all the silly RGB modes the actual useful one (single colour or white permanently on) doesn’t switch off after 20 seconds or so like you’d expect.
- No ambient light sensor. Yes, I knew this but none of the reviews mentioned this as a lacking feature.
- No proximity sensor. Same as above.
- No easy single-key way to switch backlight on/off. Its either multiple presses on the appropriate fn key, or fn-bulb.
- black on black labelling in minute writing fir switches. Even my teenager couldn’t read it.
I have been thinking of getting a compact keyboard as I am now doing one day a week in the office, but all keyboards of confistacted for covid and typing on the built in keyboard of my Precision 5540 i awful. Our own personal Latitude as a much better key/action feel.
Anyone used this?
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cherry-slim-line-c...
Daniel
dhutch said:
Anyone used this?
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cherry-slim-line-c...
Yes - slightly short travel (which I don't find a problem) definitely smaller than a standard key spacing - outside of "Z" to outside of "M" is about 125 mm , vs 130 mm on my normal TKL (and the two 13" laptops I've got handy) - unfortunately I find that difficult to work on, which is a pity as I really like the overall layout.https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cherry-slim-line-c...
Bumping this as I am in the market for a mechanical keyboard - ideally, I want an ISO/Mac layout low profile TKL, but I'm yet to identify a suitable model. It looks like Keychron K3 or Logi MX Mechanical Mini, although both are 75% layout, rather than TKL.
Has anyone got feedback on either of these keyboards, or even the Keychron Low Profile Optical Brown vs Kailh Choc V2 Low Profile Brown switches?
Has anyone got feedback on either of these keyboards, or even the Keychron Low Profile Optical Brown vs Kailh Choc V2 Low Profile Brown switches?
Craikeybaby said:
Bumping this as I am in the market for a mechanical keyboard - ideally, I want an ISO/Mac layout low profile TKL, but I'm yet to identify a suitable model. It looks like Keychron K3 or Logi MX Mechanical Mini, although both are 75% layout, rather than TKL.
Has anyone got feedback on either of these keyboards, or even the Keychron Low Profile Optical Brown vs Kailh Choc V2 Low Profile Brown switches?
I have had 3 Keychron keyboards including one low profile.Has anyone got feedback on either of these keyboards, or even the Keychron Low Profile Optical Brown vs Kailh Choc V2 Low Profile Brown switches?
Low profile was very unsatisfactory for me and I just didn't get the mechanical feel that I was after. Currently on a Keychron K2 with brown switches and I am very happy.
Go with the aluminium frame if you have the choice - so much better.
Still using the Model M that came with the IBM PS/2 that was the first PC I had at work after graduating. The computer is long gone but the keyboard has come with me to every replacement since. Talking to one of our distributors recently on the phone and typing away at the same time, he says "you've STILL got that really loud keyboard???" 
. They go on forever. I have them at home on both my desktops as well, which I bought about 20 years ago from a second hand ex-corporate disposal shop for £3 each..
If it ever fails I'll buy one of the new Unicomp replacements, but I don't think it will.
. They go on forever. I have them at home on both my desktops as well, which I bought about 20 years ago from a second hand ex-corporate disposal shop for £3 each..If it ever fails I'll buy one of the new Unicomp replacements, but I don't think it will.
Craikeybaby said:
Some information has come out about Keychron's K3 Pro - unfortunately, it is not available in an ISO layout (yet), but I thought it was interesting that it will not be compatible with the Keychron optical switches.
Have you looked at the Nuphy Air60 or 75?I noticed the 75 a while back but waited and waited for them to bring out a UK layout but they never did... I finally bit the bullet and ordered one when they had a deal on - I really like it, build quality is right up there and have got used to the layout now - I also have my laptop open as I need to for the Hello logon so can use that keyboard to if needed but hardly ever need to.
272BHP said:
Craikeybaby said:
Bumping this as I am in the market for a mechanical keyboard - ideally, I want an ISO/Mac layout low profile TKL, but I'm yet to identify a suitable model. It looks like Keychron K3 or Logi MX Mechanical Mini, although both are 75% layout, rather than TKL.
Has anyone got feedback on either of these keyboards, or even the Keychron Low Profile Optical Brown vs Kailh Choc V2 Low Profile Brown switches?
I have had 3 Keychron keyboards including one low profile.Has anyone got feedback on either of these keyboards, or even the Keychron Low Profile Optical Brown vs Kailh Choc V2 Low Profile Brown switches?
Low profile was very unsatisfactory for me and I just didn't get the mechanical feel that I was after. Currently on a Keychron K2 with brown switches and I am very happy.
Go with the aluminium frame if you have the choice - so much better.
Although this is a compact keyboard I’d like to go smaller, having trialed losing the number pad I’m now ready to lose the function row and use hot keys instead so on the hunt.
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