My story

When I bought Dell Alienware gaming PC three years ago, I thougth “Oh cool, it actually comes with a decent keyboard!”. Then, some time later, beer was spilled. It went dead and I had to buy a new one.

Afterwards it happened two more times, leading to a 100% rational decision of spending even more money on a keyboard. Expensiveness repels beer, did you know?

That new keeb was Das Keyboard Prime 13. At this point I have mixed feelings about the device, but two years ago the jump in quality was impressive.

You can’t simply buy just one keyboard, so after applying to Tele2, Vortex Race III RGB became my daily driver.

And at this point I’ll be replacing good ol’ Das with customized Varmilo Vintage Days VA87AM.

Why do I even need this expensive piece of plastic?

Relative to cheap membrane keebs,

• Build quality and materials are significanly better. Not only is it good plastic, but typically includes a metal base
• There are identical spring-based mechanisms under every key, and they react in the same way to your presses. Membranes, in comparison, feel very janky and unreliable. You won’t really understand this unless you try.
• If you spend more than several hours on your PC every day, isn’t it reasonable to use a good quality tool, like a proper professional (and to show off)?

Careful: good things are very easy to get used to ;)

Main components of a mech keeb

Basically, every keyboard consists of several significant components:

Base / layout

Can be:

• A standard office layout with a numpad. Ex. Varmilo Vintage Days VA108M
• Same, without one. Ex. Varmilo Vintage Days VA87M
• With or without F(1-12) keys. Ex. Leopold FC750R OEM PD Black and Leopold FC660C Black, respectively
• A rectangular layout without space-separated key blocks. Ex. Vortex Race III
• …or even arrow keys for hardcore vim fans or something. Ex. HHKB Professional 2

It’s easier to identify F keys while blind-typing if they are in blocks of 4. Same goes for home / end / pgUp / pgDn if they are separated.

Switches

Spring-based mechanism residing under every key on the mechanical keeb. Most keyboards have multiple switch variants to choose from.

Picking a switch is the most important thing when choosing a keeb, as it’s heavily subjective and depends on personal preferences.

Here’s a small decision tree:

• Want tactility? Typically push keys down until they hit the base? Go for Cherry MX Brown, a jack-of-all-trades. They have a slight tactile feedback, good for both gaming and typing. If they feel too light, try Cherry MX Clear.
• Don’t like tactile bumps? Then Cherry MX Red / Silent Red are your friends.
• Feeling rich? Take a look at Topre, a hybrid between mechanical and membrane switches. They cost twice as much and have a very pleasant sound and feedback, somewhat resembling MX Browns. One can easily hear they’re expensive.
• Used to type with light touches? Choose Cherry MX Speed Silver. They are extremely sensitive and require almost no force to activate.
• A huge fan of clicking sounds and tactility? Pick Cherry MX Blues. But be careful: it will sound like Vietnam war is taking place again. Your family, coworkers and pets will have a sudden urge to murder you. Buy them only if you know what you’re doing.

Without trying out those personally, it’s impossible to tell what you really want. The switches look identical save for the color.

You can buy a tester to compare switches at home.

Keycaps

Keycaps are what you press on with your fingers. They are detachable, it’s easy to clean and replace them.

They have two most significant parameters:

1. Material. Usually it’s ABS or PBT plastic. The latter is thicker and more durable, it’s easy to distinguish them. Have more money? Buy a keeb with PBT caps. Ex: Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate, any Vortex keyboard
2. Profile. Determines shape of the rows on the keeb. They can be flat, so the rows are indistingushable, or have different curvatures (See any Varmilo). More curvature means easier tactile orientation for blind typing, but this is also a matter of preference. Ex: Vortex keyboards are flat, Varmilo VA87Mac has a Cherry profile.

If keeb has a backlight, it will only highlight the spaces between the keys. Keycaps with transparent symbols practically don’t exist, my Das Keyboard Prime 13 is of that rare breed.

Stabilizers

These help switches to prevent large keys such as space, shift and enter to wiggle around. If you press a large key with a good stabilizer, it will move as one. Varmilo keebs have some of the best stabilizers.

Conclusion

That’s it, basically:

1. Choose a model depending on typing habits and personal preferences
2. Try out switches. Clicky! Pick your favorite.
3. Pay a lot of money
4. ???
5. PROFIT

Remarks

Gaming mech keyboards and chinese aliexpress copies are garbage. Don’t ever buy them.

Lubed switches and stabilizers make a noticeable difference. Varmilo keebs have their stabilizers lubed like crazy. Keep your keeb clean, especially if there are pets around.

Bonus: manufacturer descriptions

• Das Keyboard: Better than membranes, but poor relative to every other maufacturer. Let’s position ourselves as premium keyboards anyway and set a similar price tag.
• Varmilo: We lubed the stabilizers 347 times. And put in a backlight. And threw in different color variants. Groovy.
• Leopold: Nooooo!! These expensive keebs are for serious people only! No backlight and only classic-looking designs. Also, we’ve got Topre switches in case you wanna be even more elite.
• Vortex: We’re weird asian dudes, hold my sake, laowai. So here’s cool custom keycaps with huge letters. And a programmable keeb with fully customizable backlight. And a bluetooth keeb. And one that has almost no keys.
• Ducky: Here’s a 50% chance of receiving a malfunctioning keyboard. Otherwise, sorta ok.
• Fujitsu, HHKB: Look at out elite topre keyboards with as little keys as possible! If you’re abe to get used to it, you’re a true Hollywood hacker indeed.