Welcome Back!
I'm glad things are finally starting to get somewhat back to normal for you and your fiancee.
I can only speak for myself, but:
- I'm beyond THRILLED about the option for an open (Corsair K70-style) keyboard design - SOOOO much easier to clean without necessarily having to pull keycaps (with three cats, that's a big plus!). I also just love the look - visually cleaner and (imho) more modern/attractive.
- As for the thumb cluster, my biggest hopes are/were that it has enough buttons within easy reach so that I can: Space with the left and Backspace with the right, plus program Ctrl, Alt & Shift keys in order to give my pinkies a break. Six buttons is plenty! That said, I had a thought; would a single, long key work for the third row, if the goal was to hit it with the heel of your thumb/edge of your palm, and not the end of your thumb? If so, they'd work great as Space/Backspace, or potentially even mod, function or layer keys depending upon user preference.
- My personal switch preference is: Backlit Cherry MX > Backlit Matias > Cherry MX > Matias > Backlit Kailh > Kailh. I tend to use my PC in a dim room, and while I touch type, I don't
exclusively touch type, so I want/need to be able to see what is what!
I love Cherry switches, but I'm open to trying Matias switches. Being limited for custom keycaps (I forget, would they have cherry stems?) would be a concern, but that's a pain for any backlit keyboard, realistically. As for the suggestion to check out Kailh by another member, I personally hope you don't. I haven't read many good things, just a few people with brand new boards that claim they don't have issues
yet (whoopie!). I acknowledge that it's impossible to say whether many or all the negative comments are based more out of snobbery over a "made in China imitation" than truth.
TLDR: Only time will tell if Kailh switches are true switch contenders, or just a cheap (price/quality) knock-off.
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It might make me a bad person, but I can't help but feel more confident about Cherry, with their proven track record for quality and their German manufacturing, over some newcomer out of China (I know the company might have been around for a while, but not their Kailh switch). "Made in China" doesn't mean a product can't be good or even great. But, it's also true that I've personally had just enough bad experiences with various Chinese-manufactured "bargain-priced" or knock-off products, in conjunction with enough bad experiences with (poor quality) knock-offs regardless of WHERE they're made, that I lack out-of-the-gate faith.
Regardless of any current user claims that their keyboard is fine, it's early days yet, and it doesn't mean the switches will hold up over time. To truly know that will take...time. Numbers based off of tests using a machine (which methodically presses a key over and over in precisely the same way each time) is imho NOT the same as the wear-and-tear a keyboard's switches will experience in the hands of an actual human being (hitting keys with varying force, at varying angles). I've also heard, among other issues, that Kailh switches don't feel the same as Cherry switches, that Kailh switches have looser tolerances, and that they're made with cheaper plastics - all of which are of concern. Just my two cents - well, as windy as I was (sorry), it's probably more like a couple dollars. lol