Nick’s keyboard guide for total beginners #

Overview & goals #

Hello! I’m Nick, and this is my post recording what I learned when I bought myself a new keyboard in 2023.

I am not an “expert” or “enthusiast” — but you may see this as an advantage, since my choices potentially better-reflect what another beginner may prefer.

There is so, so much information online about keyboards, with advice of all sorts. What confused me most when I looked for keyboard information, was knowing how to answer these sort of questions:

• Just how much do I care about keyboards? Does “keyswitch smoothness” matter? How I do even know where to start? Of course the enthusiasts claim it all matters — but what things really make a difference?
• How can I make an informed decision? I don’t want a resource that says “buy this”, but nor did I know how to interpret advice and reviews without any baseline to judge against.

This guide:

• Says what I did, and why, and how it worked out;
• Does not necessarily tell you to do the same;
• But, hopefully saves you time, if you find your thinking matches mine.

My experience level:

Starting out, I had a Das Keyboard Model S (clicky genuine Cherry MX blues) from 2014, which I used daily for software development, gaming, and everything in between, for more than eight years.

I had not bought a keyboard since then.

Why I bought a keyboard, briefly #

Initially, I wasn’t even planning on buying a new keyboard! I thought when I bought it that the Das Model S would be my last keyboard ever, and it performed for eight years very happily. I thought that $100 on a keyboard was an expensive indulgence, but at least it would last forever.

It was only when I decided to upgrade my home office keyboard, from a $10 Microsoft keyboard (yes, really), that I dipped my toes back into the world of mechanicals.

I didn’t spend too much time on my decision: I grabbed a Keychron K8 Pro (ISO layout, Gateron browns), based on reading and watching a few reviews.

However, when I received it, I was amazed firstly by how solid it was. Keyboard construction has moved on a lot in the last decade, and the Keychron K8 Pro was hefty, with stiff aluminium sides (around ABS plastic base). The Gateron browns were indeed more pleasant-sounding than the blues I’d enjoyed for a decade, and the typing feel was so much better: lubricated switches, on a firm plate, inside a well-constructed case.

I quickly wanted to upgrade my Das Model S (at my workplace office), and went back to reading a bit more about the keyboard hobby, so I could make a more informed decision than I had when buying the Keychron K8 Pro (for my home office).

The keyboard itself #

Broadly, to buy a keyboard, you need to get:

• A keyboard
• Some switches
• Some keycaps

You can get them together, and perhaps that’s advisable cost-wise, but you’ll get something closer to your preferences if you buy them separately. The cost savings of a pre-built keyboard are not extreme, and the time taken to just plug the switches and keycaps onto the keyboard is really very short (fifteen minutes).

Tip: buy a hotswap keyboard. Consider what switches and keycaps you want, even if you end up getting a pre-built.

If you’re scared of “building a custom keyboard”, you really don’t need to be. Buying a barebones hotswap board, and plugging in some switches, is something anyone can do. It’s not an ultra-enthusiast option, like “mod(ify)ing with foam” or “lub(ricat)ing your switches”.

I don’t think you’ll never regret spending $10 extra on a hotswap, since you’ll always have the option in future to customise it, even if you haven’t used that option yet.

Then, you need to pick your keyboard layout. My approach was: start with the layout first, then look to see what you can get with that layout.

To be totally honest: many, many keyboards out there are absolutely fine. Don’t see a review for something you really want, and then regret the fact that it’s not available in the layout you want. There’s no shortage of good keyboards, so you don’t even need to look at the keyboards that aren’t in your preferred layout.

Tip: Determine your layout above all else. You are going to type on this, so work out, and buy, the keys your fingers need.

The main factors in a layout are:

• Size
  • 100% (Full-sized)
  • 96% / 1800
  • 80% (TKL)
  • 75%
  • 65%
  • …others
• ‘Enter’ key shape (ISO or ANSI)
• Compactness
• Ergonomics

The switches #

The keycaps #