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Can An Old-Fashioned Mechanical Keyboard Change The Way You Type?

This article is more than 6 years old.

It'd been a long time since I'd worked on a proper keyboard. As a freelancer who spends most of his time working out of cafes and coworking spaces, I'd become used to my laptop's built-in keys. The satisfying click and ergonomic design of a nice standalone keyboard had become a distant memory. And minor wrist aches: A fact of life.

Which is why I became intrigued when I stumbled onto the surprisingly rich online world of mechanical keyboard enthusiasts (good place to start: the r/MechanicalKeyboards subreddit). Their claim: That this bygone type of keyboard and its mechanical switches offers superior durability while producing a typing rhythm that is more satisfying and comfortable than the impossibly thin buttons that populate modern keyboards (and especially modern laptops).

Matias

Technically speaking, a mechanical keyboard is designed by the type of switch it uses to register keystrokes. Most modern keyboards use something called "dome-switch" technology, which is basically a silicone cone that makes a circuit connection when pressed (if you've ever removed a keyboard key for cleaning and seen a tiny piece of silicone, that's what I'm talking about). Mechanical keyboards, on the other hand, use an IRL physical switch. Perhaps archaic, but far more substantive.

Lets put it simply: It's the difference between a giant brick keyboard with inch-high keys, and a svelte laptop keyboard that is one step above tapping a touchscreen in terms of its tactile feedback.

Sounds like fun, I thought; so I set out to try one myself. Could a new keyboard ease my wrist pain, while providing the satisfying keyboard "click" that had long been relegated to distant memory?

First step: Find the right keyboard. My feature wish-list: A split "ergonomic" design, Mac-style layout, and a muted noise level so that my clacking wouldn't keep my neighbors up at night. As such I settled for the Matias Ergo Pro Keyboard For Mac, Low Force Edition. Depending on your specific needs, this may not be the best pick for all users; but it ran down my checklist nicely. The Wirecutter keeps a nice list of current top picks, so prospective shoppers are advised to start there.

It should be noted that nice mechanical keyboards are anything but cheap (after all, we're talking a lot more moving parts than a standard clacker). The Matias model I got runs about $200, which is pretty standard for the space. But considering how much time I spend tapping away, investing in a nice keyboard certainly passes the "will I get a lot of use out of this" test.

So do mechanical keyboards live up to the hype (and the price tag)? I think so. It's hard to quantify just how much time many of us spend staring at a screen with our wrists outstretched. The idea that this is something we should cheap out is simply nuts to me. In my time using a mechanical keyboard, I've found myself... maybe not looking forward to spending hours in front of a keyboard, but certainly not dreading it in the way I used to. My wrist pain seems to have decreased a bit, though I still use my laptop keyboard enough in cafes and on the road that it's unlikely to go away for good.

In the end, I can say that I get it. I understand the enthusiasm for the products, and if I was the type of worker who sat down in front of a desktop computer at the same desk every day, I'd buy the best one I could in an instant. And if you're the type of person to whom the concept sounds remotely appealing, you probably should to.

 

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