Hot Cup Thoughts

I've never paid a lot of attention to keyboards. Not until the past couple of years, and even then, it's been a rare occurrence.

A few years ago, while I was working retail, we needed a new keyboard for one of the work computers. We sold them, so we just opened one up and hooked it up. I remember it because even the limited amount of typing I did felt much better. I think the word I used for it at the time was 'crunchy.'

In the past 5 or so years, I've gotten into PC gaming. With it comes a lot of 'gaming' gear and peripherals. As your main input sources, keyboards and mice come up a lot. One 'easy upgrade to take your game to the next level' (insert additional marketese here) is a mechanical keyboard. I've never really given them much thought, as they are quite expensive for something that is definitely not going to turn my mediocre gaming skill into something anyone will envy.

I should specify, the keyboard from work was a 'normal' membrane keyboard. So what's the big difference between membrane and mechanical keyboards? Mainly how they work. Mechanical switches have moving parts, per key, that physically open and close a circuit on a circuit board thus telling your computer what button you pressed. Membrane keyboards have a rubber membrane that sits under the keys and over two plastic circuits. When you press down on a key, it pushes those two sheets together just enough to complete a circuit. The membrane and sheets cover the entire length of the keyboard. I said circuit a lot here, and these processes are kinda difficult to explain via text, so I'd recommend looking up some images to get a better idea of the differences. Membrane keyboards are pretty significantly lighter and cheaper to produce, and most keyboards you'll find today are membranes. At one point, I suspect all keyboards were mechanical. Now they seem to be mostly marketed to gamers.

However, I've recently come across the fact that mechanical keyboards are also a hobbyist thing. Why? I think it mostly comes down to the customization. With many mechanical keyboards, you can buy different keycap sets to change the look of a keyboard. People make their own keyboards from kits, buying PCBs, key switches, keycaps, housings, and custom cabling. There are different formats too, each a little different. At the center of it all is the switch, the piece that closes the circuits and makes for various typing experiences. You see, there are tons of different types of switches and they all vary just a little bit. There are three main types: clicky, tactile, and linear. Membrane keyboards are most similar to tactile. There is a little bit of a bump, or crunchiness, to the key when you press it. Clicky is similar, but also makes an audible clicking sound when you press them. Linear does not have the bump or the click and is just a smooth downward stroke. Like I said though, there are tons of switches. Some combine aspects of two types. Some are more tactile, more crunchy. Some are less. Some require a lot more oomph from your fingers, some are really 'soft' and don't take much to press down at all. People even go so far as to take these things apart and frankenstein their favorite bits together.

I found out about this insane little world over at r/MechanicalKeyboards. I knew immediately I'd started down the rabbit hole. I really recommend you check it out if you are even the least bit curious.

Since I started looking around there, I've been thinking about getting my own. I plan to get a 'hot-swappable' board, meaning you can change out the switches very easily, as opposed to having to desolder them. I am not ready for that yet. I am really hung up on what kind of switches to get through. I'd started to consider just not worrying about it and enjoying all the beautiful keyboards from afar. But a friend of mine got one similar to what I think I want, and I tried it over the weekend. And it is a substantially more pleasant typing experience. Be forewarned, mechanical keyboards are not cheap. But if you do a lot of typing, it might behoove you to take a look at them. I'm not saying you should go crazy, like some folks do, just consider that it's possible you could enjoy the physical act of typing.