OK, so you’ll have to excuse my ignorance here… But I never knew the world of mechanical keyboards was “a thing”.
Heck, I’d never really taken the time to look at the different types of keyboards at all.
I am 100% Apple at home and work, and have been using the wired Apple keyboard with numeric pad for the past 5 years - It does a job, it has the relevant Apple keys, and and it looks nice enough.
I do a fair amount of writing, and I’ve never really thought “Oooooo, I wish I had a more pleasurable writing experience”, but… I’ve never particularly enjoyed using the keyboard either… It’s just… there.
So I stumbled upon a Kickstarter project yesterday called the Keychron K2, and that set me off looking at mechanical keyboards…
I figured if there was ever going to be a place to talk about something as mundane as a keyboard… It would be a banking forum who share an interest in tech
The question for you good folk is… Does anyone have opinions on a good mechanical keyboard for the Mac - There are tons for windows, but very few Mac OS specific keyboards.
Here is the link to the Keychron… They are just shipping their first version, which looks a bit sleeker, but has some issues apparently.
Whilst I don’t know much about apple Mechanical keyboards one thing I would add is that mechanical keyboards are loud… So if you have a lot of phone calls you might want to think about the noise
Yeah, this is the thing… There are different switches, and colour codes etc, that all offer different feedback and noise…
You can get mechanical keyboards that aren’t too dissimilar to your typical Apple keyboard.
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Anarchist
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I started with typewriter keyboards (manual, then electric), which is what I thought you meant, at first
If you do a lot of typing, then, in my experience, mechanical keyboards are better, but there is a slight learning curve. You’ll find it awkward at first, more so if you constantly switch between chiclet type keys and big mechanical keys.
And I’m not convinced paying £50+ for one is worth it. I’d suggest trying a cheap one off eBay first.
Yeah, I like the chiclet style keys of the Apple computers/keyboards, from an aesthetic POV.
But the amount of accidental key presses I do because the travel is so small and the keys so flat can get a bit irritating after a while.
The problem with this is that there aren’t many Mac specific ones - Nearly all of them are built for Windows.
I’m still struggling to get my head around the fact that people prefer a keyboard which most of us will have used 20 years ago… and that somehow, this specific technology has actually regressed with the adoption of chiclet or membrane type keyboards…
I have a copy of Word on my iPad and my study notes are on there so it works really well for me. I just do a final format check on my laptop before submitting for marking.
I get notes, but full blown essay writing is another step.
I think the next evolution of this would be a raspberry Pi with a touch sceen and a full keyboard and mouse with a power pack
I’m kind of worried about the same thing but I think that’s how I feel about Mechanical Keyboards in general. I can’t quite convince myself to buy one when my old school one works fine. I suppose if I leap I might as well buy something that looks nice too And it least it’s not peak hipster like this one …
Comes down to what works best for an individual, doesn’t it?
If you’re the type of person who hammers at a keyboard and wears the letters off the keys, a mechanical keyboard is going to be a better fit for you.
If you’ve got a light touch and your fingers glide across the keys, you’ll be fine with modern keyboards.
I’ve got a standard Apple wireless keyboard (no numberpad) and have got used enough to it that I can write with it. I’ve tried Apple Airbooks and really struggled with them because there’s so little travel it feels like I’m trying to to punch the keys through the keyboard almost.
When I was younger a friend of mine had an IBM keyboard that clicked loudly and satisfyingly with every keypress, and you could probably kill a man if you brained him with it. That was perhaps the best keyboard I ever used. And maybe I could find something similar if I looked at the mechanical keyboard market today. But. See above: I can work with what I’ve got.
Bet you one thing they’ll never bring back, mind - the Spectrum ‘dead flesh’ keyboard. shudders
And it least it’s not peak hipster like this one …