How to Choose a Mechanical Keyboard

When it comes to buying mechanical keyboard or how to choose a mechanical keyboard for gaming online from Amazon or any other place you want to buy. Number of things you always need to consider before making a final decision. Here we’ve made the list of all the yays and nays you need to consider before buying what’s best for you.

In our quest for best tenkeyless mechanical keyboards, here are our few recommendations before getting a hands-on understanding. We believe that after reading this post, you will be in a position to know how to choose mechanical keyboard for you and for your loved ones.

How to Choose a Mechanical Keyboard

1. Testing Switches: Getting A Feel

A feel is what all matters for gamers and typing professionals. If it’s not comfortable, you won’t be using the keyboard for long. A good switch makes a great mechanical keyboard, that’s what we gamers say. Speaking of the best switches for mechanical keyboards, the ones with a crispier sound and lesser noise will do the job.

Cherry MX switches are best of all for all the three switching types. The Red one is with a linear switch mechanism with the simplest operation. They work ordinarily with the up-down movement and without a specific noise. They have a smooth touch and a good actuation. The brown ones produce tactile feedback, they have a considerable bump with typing-friendly half-key-press feedback when clicked.

Cherry MX Blue is a clicky switch with a proper Click sound when a key is pressed. They are, more or less, similar to tactile switches with a more friendly response for gamers.

Apart from the common ones, the rubber dome switches, scissor, and box switches are preferred for limited purposes. All the Microsoft switches are rubber dome and are cheaper and useful for laptops and PCs in low-end MS and Logitech systems. Like AUKEY Mechanical Keyboard is no doubt one of the great choices to use with the laptops for real estate agents.

2. Pay for What you Wanted

If you are a medium-range gamer, buying a $200 mechanical keyboard, you are wasting your bills away for nothing good in return. If you are a professional typist with a little to spend, you are wasting the money, give or take, buying only the similar mechanical keyboard with more prices. For a good upgrade, all you need is considering a budget worth an upgrade or you will end up spending it down the memory hole.

A good, responsive mid-range tenkeyless mechanical keyboard can be bought for anywhere in between $29-$100 at max. For serious gaming and overclocking modes, buy a professional hardcore keyboard worth a few hundred, or wait for it till you are ready for an upgrade.

3. Lightings and Patterns

Gamers prefer dancing lights and illuminations before starting a game. Modern mechanical keyboard for gaming is fully equipped with all the dancing lights, 16 Million color patterns, and what not. For typing, a faded monochromatic LED background is the best pick.

Most of the gaming keyboards have dedicated onboard controllers and space for colored patterns, brightness levels, and rainbow modes. A few have only a single-light coloring mode, meant for workstation usage or office use.

The most advanced keyboard has their app or PC integrated controllers that sync lighting with other compatible components and with the games. For gamers, a completely synced lighting mode is the one worth a buy if there are enough budgets.

4. Keycap Construction

Keycap construction is important for marathon usage. There are two widely used plastic materials for keycap construction: ABS and PBT. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene or ABS, in short, is made of thin surfaced plastic and has a shiny surface with smooth touch when clicked. It wears off quickly and the alphabets and numbers fade in a couple of years or so.

ABS is a preferred keycap to choose for double-shot molding, they take the lesser raw material to build, shrink less, and make a great marathon run if it’s not for alphabet wear-off. Also, they can be laser-burned, pad-printed, and engraved with laser technology without losing their shine.

Polybutylene terephthalate is thick and sturdy. It is coarse in build, has more powerful chemical embedment and lasts for decades without misprints after a longer usage span. It is heat- and water-resistant, doesn’t look pale when used for longer time periods or with exposure to UV light, and can be dyed as per manufacturer’s need. PBT is rough and difficult to be molded. They aren’t used for space and enter bars as they have a tendency to shrink faster.

5. Keycount is Vital

Keycount matters, for the most part, be it for gamers or typing enthusiasts. A usual mechanical keyboard has nothing less than 50 Million keystroke endurance guarantee provided by the manufacturer. For typing, more is better and a little more is best. Opt from anywhere between 50 Million to 100 Million+ keystroke endurance for a great and long-lasting usage. Keycount is vital for better working of your mechanical keyboard.

6. Compatibility

Not all the mechanical keyboards are synced with any PC and operating systems. Before buying it for a lesser price, make sure it actually is compatible with your system. A few high-priced mechanical keyboards work great with all the OS i.e. Windows, Mac, and Linux. A few only works well on Windows OS, some with Mac only, and so on.

Summary

Choice of mechanical keyboard a lot depends on your need and requirements. A long with above mentioned features, make it sure to check keyboard compatibility with your system. Rests all above things are secondary and most of the keyboards have all these features. Whenever new addition of product comes, a very minor makes it different from others. Rest we believe that after reading this how to choose mechanical keyboard, you will be in a position to choose the right option for you and loved ones.