Why?

Why keyboards? Someone asked that question. If you are a laptop user, you have a keyboard built in. For a few dollars, you can get a cheap membrane keyboard.

So, why a mechanical keyboard? Well, for one, this was what many of us grew up with. There is a certain responsiveness and feeling to a keyboard that is lacking in the cheap membrane keyboards.

There was a period where mechanical keyboards became a niche product, but more recently, not only have they become increasingly popular, the variety has gone up and the cost has gone down.

Alternatives

The two popular alternatives are membrane keyboards and scissor keyboards. Macs tried another design, the buttefly, but it was prone to problems and ultimately discontinued.

Scissor is very common on laptops, which makes it the one most are familiar with.

There are higher quality versions of both of these items, and some of them are a good experience, but…

Mechanical

Mechanical keyboards offer a lot more flexibility. There are two basic options for these boards.

• Soldered – which means unless you went to desolder them, what is in them is what will stay there.
• Hotswap – there are sockets you insert the switches into which means they can be removed if need be with just a simple tool

There are dozens of types of keycaps you can put on these switches, allowing for further customization.

There are dozens of types of switches you can add.

And all of this makes your board customizable to your preference.

Customizability

If you are a frequent computer user, then you are using a keyboard all the time. Should that keyboard not actually meet your preferences? Not just the aesthetic preferences, but the sound, the feel.

Do you like silent typing? Clicky?

Do you like a tactile bump when you press the key down or a smooth feeling?

How much pressure do you want to register a keypress?

What about layout? Do you like a full size keyboard or something a bit smaller? Number pad or no number pad?

The only way to figure out what you like is to experiment. Try things. If you are lucky, someone will loan you a keyboard to try and start your journey. Maybe you’ll discover you don’t see the advantage, or you will.

You might not become a keyboard enthusiast, with a collection. That’s fine. But you may find the perfect thing for you.