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André König
André König

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What is the best mechanical keyboard out there?

First of all: I have to admit that I'm more or less a newbie when it comes to mechanical keyboards.

There are a lot of engineers who seems to favour this kind of keyboard over the others. A couple of weeks ago I tried one by myself and was kind of flashed. It feels so much better than the common Apple keyboards I'm usually hacking on. Therefore, I did some research and found the CODE keyboard which seems to be a nice fit.

Before buying one, I thought it might be a good idea to ask all of you: What keyboard do you feel most comfortable with?

Top comments (38)

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smaquois123 profile image
JC Smith

This will be an odd one to most people on here...the original IBM PC keyboard was the best computer keyboard ever made. Somebody somewhere is making a version of it that’s supposed to be pretty close, but I don’t remember who it is. Obviously, because I must be pretty old to have owned some of the originals (first available in 1983!).

No good for gaming, just typing.

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Omar Faruk

Model M is a delight to use.

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Brett Stevenson

I'm pretty happy with my tenkeyless WASD keyboard (the same company that makes the CODE keyboards), with MX Cherry brown keys and front-printed keycaps. I like the solid minimalistic design and gives the same mechanical feel without the overwhelming sound that tends to drive my girlfriend crazy.

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Romina Suarez • Edited

I have had the Corsair K60 with Cherry MX Red keys for many years now, and never had a problem with it. It's also good for self-defense, so a win-win =) Only thing to keep in mind is that this is a very loud keyboard, so it might be annoying in an open office.
amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CH-900004-UK-...

The wrist pad is fantastic while playing, and it's detachable so it doesn't bug you while you code. The red WASD keys are also switchable for normal black keys.

I also have a mechanical Razer Blackwidow, and it doesn't come close. The Blackwidow was pretty much unusable by the six-month mark, with keys not moving as smoothly as they should... and it was never so good to begin with. It always felt more like a toy TBH.

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Valentin Baca

I had this one: smile.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFir...

It's a dream to type on however I use my left thumb for Apple's Command key and on the mechanical keyboard the button to the left of the space (which I naturally mapped to "Command") was too far to the left.

This made me have to tuck my thumb in if my hand is on the home row. It's just a few centimeters but combined with how often that key is used on macOS, I ironically ended up getting RSI.

I now just stick with the built-in Macbook Pro keyboard.

Just something to keep an eye out for.

Listen to your body.

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Enno Rehling (恩諾)

I still haven't found an external keyboard for the Mac that works for me, but I've used the CM Storm, and the very similar Filco Majestouch 2, with Linux and Windows for years, and love them both. IMHO, macOS just needs too many modifier keys to operate.

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André König

Ah yes, I also considered that keyboard – It is funny that the keys are blank (what I really like!).

Thanks for your briefly field report and I'm sorry to hear that the keyboard caused RSI which is definitely an aspect that speaks against that keyboard.

I hope that you feel better now!

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Andrew Breen 👨‍💻

I ended up re-mapping the key layout in OSX for use with this KB. Muscle memory had set in so I kept hitting the wrong keys.

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Moriah Maney

Right now I have a WhiteFox with MX Clears & am waiting on my Varmilo VA87M Sakura with MX Clears to come in. Clears are my favorite because of the heavier switch; I tend to type really hard so it's nice to have a decent amount of pushback. One of my other favorite boards is the TADA68/Saber68. I tend to stick to at least a 65% keyboard because I like my arrow keys too much to not have dedicated keys for them.

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Tom Horn

I have the Vortex Race3. It's a beautiful thing an absolute pleasure to use. It has got some flack from the hardcore mkb community beacause the esc key is 1.5u wide (harder to find custom replacements), but if you don't need to have a sculpted Hulk face for esc it is a non issue.

It comes with very high quality keycaps that feel amazing (with some coloured extras to make things more interesting). It has all they keys of a Tenkeyless but in a 70% package.

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Adam Bennett

Nice, I'm considering buying one (although they're difficult to find in the UK). Everyone seems to love the Race 3.

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Noah Betzen

I am a huge fan of ergonomic keyboards. Therefore I highly recommend the ErgoDox EZ: ergodox-ez.com/

It's highly customizable and you can either build it yourself or have it built for you.

I recommend getting a mechanical key test board like this: amazon.com/Akwox-Cherry-Switch-key...

Here is a reference for how the various switches work: i.warosu.org/data/g/img/0591/43/14...

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Jani Hartikainen

+1 for Ducky. It's perhaps a bit less known outside of keyboard circles, but it's got a reputation for great reliability and quality. All of their features are implemented in hardware (LED controls and all) so they don't require any extra driver software whatsoever. Only downside to that is you may have to dig up the manual because remembering how to re-do some of the settings isn't always easy - but it's mostly a set it once and forget thing anyway.

I accidentally poured soda on my Shine4 and it still works just fine after drying :P

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Adrian B.G.

After more than 20yrs on mechanical keyboards I realised my fingers started to hurt and I switched to a lower-height keys, it also improves the typing speed (you have to press less with a smaller force), so I wouldn't recommend the CODE or logitech ones.

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Sami Pietikäinen

I'm currently using Logitech G610 Orion Brown which has cherry mx brown switches. Nothing fancy, just a basic black keyboard with great switches. It was hard to find a mech keyboard with nordic layout at reasonable price so that was one major factor when I chose it. I also installed O-rings to the keys for dampening. That's a winning combination for me browns + O-rings.