KEYBOARDS

Mechanical keyboards are good, but they're not the saviour rabid fanboys want you to believe they are. Yes they are great for some people, but not for all. There are plenty of reasons other than cost to go for a membrane keyboard but that varies from person to person.

Given the increase in mechanical keyboards available over the last few years, in five years time those reasons against mechanical keyboards should decrease.
Mechanical keyboard enthusiasts are to the keyboarding industry what audiophiles are to the audio industry. They're the people who buy the expensive equipment then pester the heck out of anybody using anything else but "enthusiast" grade gear.

If you're considering a mechanical keyboard but want more information, Overclock.net has the most definitive guide on individual components

I have a mechanical switched keyboard - the Corsair K60[^1] - and I like it. I want my wife to switch (pun not intended) because Ienjoy typing on my keyboard, but I know that she shouldn't change. It seems contradictory, doesn't it, that any fanboy would recommend against the system/device that he uses and enjoys?

Why shouldn't my wife use a mechanical keyboard? Because there is none on the market that meets her needs. Currently she uses the gigantic Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000, a wireless, ergonomic shaped, rubber dome keyboard. Emphasis is used to highlight the "issue" with mechanical keyboards. There simply isn't any easily available ergonomic or wireless (let alone and!) mechanical keyboards.

Looking at ergonomic shape first, Truly Ergonomic produces one keyboard (one keyboard, 4 variations which come mostly down to the labels on keys) that goes for USD229, plus shipping, and has been on back order for most of this year. I've found few ergonomic keyboards, and even fewer of those are mechanical, but the Truly Ergonomic keyboard is sadly the lowest priced. USD229 is a significant amount of money to "blind spend" - there is no way to test in a store or by comparing other products to see if you like their unique layout.

What about wireless? While the argument against wireless (usually) is battery power, with so many consoles and remotes in the house, we invested in a quality battery charger years ago. While every other membrane keyboard these days is wireless, I could only find two wireless mechanical, the XArmor U9W and the KBTalKing Pro (bluetooth), and neither available directly in Australia, with prices ~$50-100 higher than other mechanical boards before shipping. It boggles the mind that you can get a membrane wireless keyboard for as low as $25, but will pay huge premiums for it if it is in a mechanical keyboard.

So why are they gaining popularity?

Gaming

It is easiest to demonstrate common advantages of (most, but not all!) mechanical keyboards if you play games. Membrane keyboards typically[^3] let you press two keys (plus 'modifier' keys such as shift, alt, ctrl) at any one time. This is known as "Two-Key-Rollover", or 2KRO. Most mechanical keyboards will give you a "KRO" of 6 or more. My keyboard allows 20 keys to be pressed at once, and many other mechanical keyboards give NKRO (or all keys at once) if they're over PS/2 (instead of USB).

Why is 20KRO (or more) important? Well, it probably isn't. 6KRO is great and a big step up from what many membrane boards allow. 2KRO can easily be a limitation, one which I ran into using my previous keyboard (and confirmed that the Natural Ergonomic 7000 suffers from this too) - by playing a game like Battlefield 3, I could press W+A/D (forward + strafe) but not the key I use for push-to-talk voice chat at the same time (~). End of the world? Certainly not, but it was frustrating when I had to stopmoving to be able to talk.

Typing

By only requiring half the actual distance travelled to actuate, gains in typing speed as well as the feedback/springback over membrane are noticable. Many touch typists prefered the IBM Model-M keyboards which had buckling spring keys. Personally I do prefer typing on my mechanical keyboard, typing on a membrane board now feels "squishy" rather than "accurate".

Nostalgia

While this obviously applies to older generations (25+), many people are nostalgic for "early days" of computing which did often involve buckling or alps switched keyboards.

Should I get a mechanical keyboard?

Yes, no and maybe.

• If you want a wireless keyboard, it's probably best to get a membrane or scissor keyboard unless you're happy to pay significantly more and import the keyboard yourself
• If you want an ergonomic keyboard, you've probably come to terms with the fact that you're going to pay more for an ergonomic setup. Ergonomic membrane keyboards can be had for $50 (Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic 4000), but range upwards of $300 (Kinesis), which puts mechanical ergonomic keyboards about on par, but you'd be "blind buying" unless you know somebody else who has one. I'm not doubting products like TrulyErgonomic 209, but I'm not willing to part with that much money without trying it out first
• If you want every advantage you possibly can get in games, yes, you should.

The future of mechanical keyboards

It would be folly to try and predict specifics, but this is what I'm imagining will take place over the course of the next 5 years.

• Average price for mechanical keyboards will fall to under $100AUD, but still above $50AUD.
• Logitech will enter the mech keyboard market with a range of gaming keyboards - a G15 (or is that G19, or G510?) successor (that is, keyboard with a LCD and macro keys) and probably one entry without the LCD. While they'll be late to the party, they'll bring some feature people "must" have, or at least drive prices down further. The design will resemble their existing keyboards, as frankly thats what Logitech loyalists want.
• There will probably be a few new entries using the Cherry ML switches - they're "low profile" mechanical switches, like laptop keyboards. They're likely to become the most popular, if they're priced right.

What about Microsoft? Well, they've resurrected and killed the Sidewinder brand enough times that I can't really see them committing to building substantial products.

Ergonomics

In the realm of keyboards, ergonomics aren't popular. That doesn't mean they're not important just in todays world, most people don't care and that largely comes down to cost. Ergonomic anything costs a lot of money. Good ergonomic chairs start at $500 and go for many times that, yet most people are happy to head down to OfficeWorks and pickup a $99 cheapy.

Keyboard ergonomics can be effected by three major attributes

• switches (specifically energy spent actuating keys)
• board shape
• board angle

I'm not going to talk about the differences between DVORAK, QWERTY/QWERTZ, Colmak, etc, as for all intents and pursposes QWERTY has "won".

Mechanical switches, in theory, allow you to use the least amount of energy as you have the smallest amount of travel and consistent (over the longer lifespan of a mechanical switch) pressure required (membrane keyboards as they get worn out require more and more force).

Board angle refers to what degree your hands are sloping "up" to type. Generally you want as flat as possible to reduce wrist strain. Elevated keyboards (even if flat) are also going to cause typing fatigue.

Board shape is probably the most debated, as even in the ergonomic circles there doesn't seem to be one specific agreed shape that beats all the others. Although specifically slanted towards Truly Ergonomics products, they have produced an image which sums this up nicely:

 

It's important to realise that majority of the people blabbering about how mechanical keyboards are the be all and end all of keyboard ergonomics use the least ergonomic board shape. As infallible as I am, even I'd classify myself as a beginner in the arts of ergonomics.

"TKL" (TenKeyLess)