Recently, for some reason, a lot of my friends have gotten really into mechanical keyboards. They spend like triple digit dollars on these keyboards, and online the main topic of conversation seems to always be keyboards. At hangouts, they even just bring their keyboards and so they can just sit down and try them out.
Personally, I don't really understand it, but I have been trying to at least dip my toes in and understand the basics. I also thought it would be a good idea for me to buy a mechanical keyboard, because my mom also recently bought a new laptop stand for me. It's very uncomfortable to type on the laptop keyboard while it is on the stand, so I would like an external keyboard. Besides this, I have a few issues with my laptop keyboard as it stands. The z key is slightly broken, and also I've played so much Tetris and other games that the A, S, and D keys have all worn off. The z key being broken is the biggest problem, because it makes certain games very hard to play. For example, A Short Hike has a fairly important keybind set to z, so I had to use an external keyboard to play that game. (This external keyboard I used was very uncomfortable, so I was very against using that as my main keyboard).
So, with Black Friday coming up, I decided to go online to do research and try to find some keyboards to buy. From what I understand, there are three types of mechanical keyboards: linear, tactile, and clicky. Linear keyboards go smoothly all the way down when you press them, while tactile have a sort of bump in the middle that people seem to enjoy for some reason. Clickys also have a bump in the middle, but they also make a really loud click sound, which normal tactiles don't have. There are also many different brands of switches, but after a bit more research, I found out that apparently Cherry MX is the baseline for solid switches. Cherry makes a lot of switches, which felt a bit overwhelming at first, but I learned that each type of switch is distinguished by their colors. For example, reds are linear, blues are clicky, and browns are tactile. I had tried out browns before at a hangout, and I didn't think they were bad (I think that although there were minute details in the switches, I didn't really have a preference for whichever one was better than the other), so at first I wanted to buy those, but after talking to my friends I found out that apparently browns are pure shit. So, I decided to choose a keyboard with red, linear switches, because I don't want to wake up my family in the middle of the night by my typing. There are also many different types of sizes for keyboards, but I was too lazy to learn them all, so I just chose 87 keys, which means I still have my f keys, and also some arrow keys.
With my research completed, I went online and asked my friends to recommend me some keyboards. And here I ran into some issues. First off, all mechanical keyboards feel super, super overpriced. The keyboards my friends have are all over 100$, and there is no way I am paying over triple digits just for me to try out a keyboard that I still don't even know if I like. There were some cheaper options, but those were still pretty pricey. I almost bought a keyboard that was 70 dollars, but I decided against it when it turned out that shipping was 20$. (What an actual scam) Since my mom was going to help pay for my keyboard, I knew I was going to have to buy something cheap, and after a friend sent a keyboard that was just 30$ (the Redragon K552), I pretty much bought it instantly.
Now, there are a few problems with this. Since it is so "cheap" (wow, only 30$ for a keyboard?), there is a chance that this keyboard might break, and there is a guarantee that it won't be as high quality as other keyboards. For starters, it doesn't actually have actual Cherry red switches, but instead they have Cherry red replicas. Thankfully for me, I can't tell the difference, and even if I did, I don't think I would even care. I did read the reviews for this keyboard online before I bought it, and for the most part everyone seemed to like it. People on reddit and other websites also seemed to agree that this was a keyboard that was definitely very worth it. There is also a chance that that this keyboard might break in the future, but I haven't seem maybe people online complaining about this particular keyboard breaking. Another con for the keyboard is that it is wired, but the keyboard does also light up with pretty colors so I guess those things even out.
After around two days (thanks Amazon Prime!) the keyboard came. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that keyboard came with a tool to take off the keycaps so you can see the switches, which was pretty cool. It also instantly worked just from me plugging it in, which was nice because I did see a comment saying that the keyboard didn't work on the laptop log in screen.
Now it's time for some testing. I first tested my typing speed on monkeytype.com, and I got around an average of 65, with an accuracy at around 85%. This is quite the difference from when I was typing on just my laptop keyboard, where I average around 110 wpm, with around 95% or higher accuracy. Of course, a very large part of this is due to the fact that I wasn't used to the keyboard at all, but I didn't expect my typing to take this big of a hit, so that was slightly disappointing. I did notice that my wrists also started to hurt after a little bit of typing, and I think that this was due to my wrists being too low and the keyboard being too high while I was typing. I'll probably have to buy a wrist rest in the future (more money spent! How fun), but for now I'm just using my planner, which is working surprisingly well.
I then played a few games of online Tetris. I could definitely feel myself playing worse, as I was making a lot of misdrops and over rotations, but I think this is again due to me not exactly being used to the keyboard, and the time it takes for me to press down on the key before the input registers. While there was a notable difference, it wasn't too bad, and it was something I can deal with. (Something interesting to note is that I actually did do around the same while playing Tetris with one of my friends overpriced keyboards, so maybe price does make a difference)
The final game I tested the keyboard with was Valorant. Here, I again played pretty bad. I placed second to last in a deathmatch game, which actually is my worst placement in a deathmatch ever. The keys are spaced out really far, and its very difficult for me to reach the control key to crouch while having my other fingers still on WASD to move around. It's also here that I realized that my shift key feels different from the other keys, which does feel a bit uncomfortable. I asked my friends and they said this feeling was probably because that key was depressed, which is weird because I didn't know that my keyboard could have feelings.
Overall, I'm getting pretty much what I expected from this keyboard. It's definitely better than the other keyboard I was using before, but it will also take some time for me to get used to. As of right now, day one, I'm still not getting the mechanical keyboard hype, but maybe it'll change in the future.
*Note that I'm adding in post because I couldn't find a way to fit it into the original writing: the keys also make a little quiet spring sound when I depress the keys. I don't know if this is on purpose or not, but it is a little bit annoying to me.
Part 2:
On November 27, I published a post describing my first experiences with my first mechanical keyboard. I was going to publish a follow up one month later, but I forgot about it, so I was going to do another one two months later. However, just two days ago, my mechanical keyboard broke.
More specifically, the w key on my mechanical keyboard broke, which is somewhat of a very big deal, because that is one of the most important buttons in the games that I play. It's also probably one of the most used buttons because of its important, which might explain why it broke. I always knew that there was a high chance that the keyboard would break sooner or later, but I thought it would last at least a year before anything funky happened.
When I first got my keyboard, I honestly didn't think much of it. Asking around with my friends, they all described getting mechanical keyboards as life changing and something amazing, and I thought maybe I would eventually get the hype, but as time went on, nothing changed. My stance on mechanical keyboard has pretty much stayed the same, and that stance is: meh. I honestly don't understand the appeal of all the clicky keyboards, and I couldn't give a shit about whether there is a bump on a keyboard or how much actuation force is required or whatever.
In fact, I've had some problems with it. Since it is pretty big, sometimes if I'm writing things down, I won't have space on my desk to fit all my papers on. Also, I specifically bought a quieter mechanical keyboard, but I've had my brother come into my room and tell me that he can hear my keyboard from the living room even when I have my door closed. Another nitpick is that the control key is just at the right distance where my pinky can't reach it, but its too short for me to use my palm to touch control. This is especially annoying because I pretty much can't crouch in shooter games unless I break my hand somehow.
And finally there's the issue of my keys just not working. This might be due to me just buying a "very cheap" mechanical keyboard, but I'm very surprised that it broke this early. Around a month in, I had noticed that sometimes my A and D keys wouldn't move my character to the left or the right, so I would sometimes die counter strafing in Valorant, even though I was already pressing the button. It didn't happen very often, however, so I wasn't too bothered by it, however one day the W key straight up only started to work around 50% of the time, and in the middle of a Valorant match, which was very, very unfortunate.
But what did I think about the keyboard before it broke?
One of the reasons I bought the keyboard was that I've heard that some people buy keyboards to help with gaming. (For example it seems like every single hardcore gamer has an expensive mechanical keyboard.) Honestly, for me, I think the keyboard slightly worsened my gaming experience. One thing that I had to get used to was the longer travel time on the keys, which threw me a bit off with games that need precise and accurate keystrokes, such as SSF2 or Tetris. For other games like Fortnite or Valorant, however, the keyboard didn't make too much of a difference. The main complaint I have is the issue with the control key, which I mentioned before. Crouching was much harder than it needed to be in shooter games, but in the big picture I don't think that switching keyboard made any significant difference in my games. (to clarify, the lack of crouching is an issue, but the things that got me killed in shooter games wasn't usually due to me not being able to crouch, so overall the control key didn't bother me too much)
Another reason people buy mechanical keyboards is to help with wrist pain and speed while typing. A day before my w key fully broke, I decided to do a few typing tests with the mechanical keyboard, and I reached around 100 wpm, with a bit less than 95% accuracy. I didn't do many tests, but this is still a little bit worse than when I was just using my laptop keyboard. In fact, less than a day after I quit using my mechanical keyboard (aka just now), I did another typing test with my laptop keyboard, and I actually managed to hit 114 wpm just on my second try. I haven't even typed with my laptop keyboard in just over one month, and I still managed to type faster on it than I have ever typed on my mechanical keyboard.
Also, buying the mechanical keyboard didn't help my wrist pain at all. Typing on the mechanical keyboard actually made my wrists hurt more, and that caused me to spend money on a wrist rest. However, sometimes my wrists would still hurt even with the wrist rest, which I honestly really, really hated. I felt like I was just wasting all my money away, first buying the keyboard and then the wrist rest, only for my wrist pain to still exist.
Overall, I'm a bit dissatisfied with my keyboard, and I don't think I'll ever spend over 30$ on another mechanical keyboard again. I really thought that maybe buying a mechanical keyboard would help me understand why people like them so much, but the idea of mechanical keyboards is just so foreign to me I honestly sometimes think that its just some elaborate prank by my friends.
I rate the experience 2/5. Not life changing, but I learned a lesson.
Comments
Post a Comment