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Last year I drank the cool aid and bought a mechanical keyboard. I don't get it. Compared to butterfly they are pretty bad. Extremely long key travel is suppo

Last year I drank the cool aid and bought a mechanical keyboard. I don't get it. Compared to butterfly they are pretty bad. Extremely long key travel is supposed to be save me from carpal tunnel. I find it quite exhausting. More worrying is the tactile feedback. When a butterfly (or any other chiclet keyboard) clicks, it registers. Not so much on a mechanical, not even the tactile. It is worst on the linear gaming keyboards, where resting your fingers on the keys can cause them to register. Normal linear keyboards do need to sink deeper before registering, but again, there is absolutely no feedback. The tactile keyboards have a "click" somewhere, but it is not connected to the actual keypress registraion. On top of that they are ridiculously tall. Like most people I prefer thinkpad or old mac keyboards over the butterfly keys, but they are pretty fine, and I would call them very tactile, but I guess that is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. So maybe I just go with calling them very responsive, with a high correlation between the audible and felt click and key registration.

exergy 8y ago
Unfortunately, you fell for the myth. Mechanical keyboards might just be worse for RSI etc, because it's hard to rid yourself of the habit of pounding on the keys to bottom them out, which one has to do on a membrane keyboard. Most mechanical (certainly most Cherry) switches actuate before bottoming out, and through some mindfulness, it is possible to train yourself to type sedately, without bottoming out. But it's hard, and not possible to do all the time. The long keytravel is also a literal pain. The only reason to have a mechanical keyboard is enjoying the key feel, and noise. Typing at the speed of light is way more enjoyable on a keyboard that clacks along happily as you type your tome. If a membrane keyboard does it for you, all the better. Save yourself $$$ on the expensive keyboards and (worse still) expensive keycaps.
flyingpenguin 8y ago
Because keyboards are a personal preference thing and the nature of mechanical allows for more implementation styles, there are an insane number of types of mechanical keyboards. Here are the variables: Actuation Point (Where does the press register) Linear vs Tactile vs (Tactile + Clicky) Force (IE how much pressure to push down) total travel distance. (There are also some optical switches with adjustable actuation) >The tactile keyboards have a "click" somewhere, but it is not connected to the actual keypress registraion. MX Blue actuates at 2mm but clicks somewhere around 1.75mm, Razer's tactile switch on the other hand actuates right on the top of its click/bump. You can also find some that actuate before the click. >On top of that they are ridiculously tall. https://kono.store/products/hexgears-x-1-mechanical-keyboard https://kono.store/products/hexgears-x-1-mechanical-keyboard Basically just google low profile mechanical keyboard switches. mechanical keyboard travel distance goes from around 4mm down to 1.5~mm. And there are all kinds of thin ones. >It is worst on the linear gaming keyboards, where resting your fingers on the keys can cause them to register. Cherry MX Red: ~45cN force Cherry MX Black: ~60cN force Cherry MX Grey: ~80cN force There are tons of problems with mechanical keyboards but your problems are not them.

exergy 8y ago

Unfortunately, you fell for the myth. Mechanical keyboards might just be worse for RSI etc, because it's hard to rid yourself of the habit of pounding on the keys to bottom them out, which one has to do on a membrane keyboard. Most mechanical (certainly most Cherry) switches actuate before bottoming out, and through some mindfulness, it is possible to train yourself to type sedately, without bottoming out. But it's hard, and not possible to do all the time. The long keytravel is also a literal pain. The only reason to have a mechanical keyboard is enjoying the key feel, and noise. Typing at the speed of light is way more enjoyable on a keyboard that clacks along happily as you type your tome. If a membrane keyboard does it for you, all the better. Save yourself $$$ on the expensive keyboards and (worse still) expensive keycaps.

flyingpenguin 8y ago

Because keyboards are a personal preference thing and the nature of mechanical allows for more implementation styles, there are an insane number of types of mechanical keyboards. Here are the variables: Actuation Point (Where does the press register) Linear vs Tactile vs (Tactile + Clicky) Force (IE how much pressure to push down) total travel distance. (There are also some optical switches with adjustable actuation) >The tactile keyboards have a "click" somewhere, but it is not connected to the actual keypress registraion. MX Blue actuates at 2mm but clicks somewhere around 1.75mm, Razer's tactile switch on the other hand actuates right on the top of its click/bump. You can also find some that actuate before the click. >On top of that they are ridiculously tall. https://kono.store/products/hexgears-x-1-mechanical-keyboard https://kono.store/products/hexgears-x-1-mechanical-keyboard Basically just google low profile mechanical keyboard switches. mechanical keyboard travel distance goes from around 4mm down to 1.5~mm. And there are all kinds of thin ones. >It is worst on the linear gaming keyboards, where resting your fingers on the keys can cause them to register. Cherry MX Red: ~45cN force Cherry MX Black: ~60cN force Cherry MX Grey: ~80cN force There are tons of problems with mechanical keyboards but your problems are not them.