How did you decide which keyboard is your favourite?

[Jeftha]

I've only tried two different boards. DAS Pro 4 with Cherry blues and HHKB. HHKB is now my daily driver and it's become my favorite. It's currently dental band modded and I think the sound and feel beat Cherry MX Blues. So between the two, HHKB is much more enjoyable to type on. I'm expecting a RF 87U 55G in January and I have a feeling that it might just become my new favorite board. I heard that 55G Topre is the "King Switch".

When you're itching to try something different, move those 55g domes to the HHKB. God mode HHKB right there.

I stopped using (kinda hated) my 55g RFs because of that.

Yeah I've been thinking about doing that eventually, but I'm going to try the 55G on RF first. Maybe in the future I'll try 55G on my HHKB. Why didn't you like your 87U though?

[raymogi]

I've only tried two different boards. DAS Pro 4 with Cherry blues and HHKB. HHKB is now my daily driver and it's become my favorite. It's currently dental band modded and I think the sound and feel beat Cherry MX Blues. So between the two, HHKB is much more enjoyable to type on. I'm expecting a RF 87U 55G in January and I have a feeling that it might just become my new favorite board. I heard that 55G Topre is the "King Switch".

When you're itching to try something different, move those 55g domes to the HHKB. God mode HHKB right there.

I stopped using (kinda hated) my 55g RFs because of that.

Yeah I've been thinking about doing that eventually, but I'm going to try the 55G on RF first. Maybe in the future I'll try 55G on my HHKB. Why didn't you like your 87U though?

I don't like the way it sounds more than anything. I prefer the plastic case of the HHKB. More thock to my ears imo.

[Jeftha]

I've only tried two different boards. DAS Pro 4 with Cherry blues and HHKB. HHKB is now my daily driver and it's become my favorite. It's currently dental band modded and I think the sound and feel beat Cherry MX Blues. So between the two, HHKB is much more enjoyable to type on. I'm expecting a RF 87U 55G in January and I have a feeling that it might just become my new favorite board. I heard that 55G Topre is the "King Switch".

When you're itching to try something different, move those 55g domes to the HHKB. God mode HHKB right there.

I stopped using (kinda hated) my 55g RFs because of that.

Yeah I've been thinking about doing that eventually, but I'm going to try the 55G on RF first. Maybe in the future I'll try 55G on my HHKB. Why didn't you like your 87U though?

I don't like the way it sounds more than anything. I prefer the plastic case of the HHKB. More thock to my ears imo.

That's true. The thock on HHKB is hard to beat. When deciding which Topre I wanted, I listened to a lot of sound comparisons and dental band modded HHKB sounded the best. But I'm willing to give 87U a try. I feel a little guilty about buying it, just to harvest the domes and put them on my HHKB, so I'm not going to do that as soon as I get it. I plan on putting my 87U at home and keeping my HHKB for when I'm on the go.

[bocahgundul]

realforce 55g is my daily driver im waiting for hasu bluetooth controller and some lube to make my hhkb my daily and gonna swap the dome for teh hhkb. nothing beats the hhkb for me because of the layout man

[TopreFan333]

To answer the original question of how I decided which keyboard is my favorite (so far): trial and error.

Starting out, I knew I wanted something sturdy, keys that feel like there's good tactile and some auditory feedback. I wanted a "classic" aesthetic, like something you could see on a computer from 15, 20, 30 years ago or more. Beyond that, I was pretty uninformed except for what I was reading on forums like this.

I bought a cherry brown-based board (KUL) and futzed around with buying keycaps to get it looking cool. I liked it! I could probably have just stopped there and used that board forever.

But I was also reading a lot on this forum and others about Topre boards, and the HHKB in particular. At the very beginning, before I'd bought the KUL, I'd been attracted to the aesthetic and form-factor of the HHKB, but couldn't (yet) justify blowing that much money on a keyboard. Now I decided I'd take the plunge and order one. I liked the feel of the HHKB even better -- particularly the way the switch resistance collapses and falls gently down to the bottom. And of course the pleasing sound, and the compact layout of the board itself. After using the HHKB for a bit, I don't enjoy the feel and sound of the KUL nearly as much as I did before. Cherry switches that felt solidly mechanical now felt and sounded loose and rattly and scratchy, and just nowhere near as smooth as the Topre switches.

I'm sure there's some board that would open me up to some other experience, but I've already blown hundreds of dollars on keyboards. I'll be happy to just bang on this HHKB for however many years it lasts.

[SpAmRaY]

I still have not decided.

[DuckNorris]

Whichever one hurt my bank account the least.

[ndumdr]

It's honestly hard for me to determine a favourite keyboard, but I know when a keyboard isn't my favourite. I also have keyboard commitment issues and I just won't stop spending money on my next 'end game,' as I always believe them to be. But so far, my favourite is the RF 87u 45 that I currently own. I decide it by thinking if it's comfortable to type on or not/switch type and also how efficient in typing I can be with said keyboard.

[SBJ]

As someone else wrote trial, error and a lot of typing.
Also, my favorite tends to switch on almost a weekly/monthly basis.
First I'll find my favorite, I'll use it as much as possible, but then I start getting a craving to use one of my older boards, so I do that.
Then I might get a craving for something a bit heavier. So I switch again.

Although I am extremely happy with the one I'm typing on now I know that in a month I might have my eye on something else.
I'm a keyboard ****. I just want more keyboards!

[Joey Quinn]

I still have not decided.

I'm pretty much here. I rotate through all my boards but I do have 1 I use more than any of the others (78g lubed gat clear GON HHKB).

Most important for me is how the board feels but what I'm looking for feeling wise changes depending on what I'm doing. I'd say smooth linears and crisp but still smooth for clicky or tactile, on top of that a board looking amazing is just a bonus.

As someone else wrote trial, error and a lot of typing.
Also, my favorite tends to switch on almost a weekly/monthly basis.
First I'll find my favorite, I'll use it as much as possible, but then I start getting a craving to use one of my older boards, so I do that.
Then I might get a craving for something a bit heavier. So I switch again.

I think this is the best answer

[Targa-TV]

Unfortunately I decided which keyboard was my favorite by making my wallet wail for months in purchases and trades. It's good that mkb are so hype now that there are placed like forum sections and subreddit hosting an active market for used boards.

I don't know how other have chosen theirs, I'll read the messages in a moment, but I chose mine by making purchases and regretting them until I made a purchase that I'm not yet regretting. So believe it or not my favorite board is now an old, extremely second-hand G80-3000.

In terms of criteria I now rank reliability, switch feel, switch sound, moddability, caps feel, caps sound, layout, build and aesthetics in this order.

[Doluded]

I still haven't decided what my favorite is because I haven't touched all of the keyboards yet. A lot of them have different feel depending on a lot of factors but so far my favorite seems to by my Type-S. I'm definitely wanting to buy a custom MX board like the Moon that has a group buy running right now so we'll see

[dante]

I woke up one day and saw what I was doing: trying to get my mechanical switches to emulate the rubber dome I kept returning to.

[noisyturtle]

I bought about 15 boards and hated them all. Then I decided to take the bits of each board I actually liked and build my own, and that's the same board I've been using for 4 years or so. If I could change anything about it I'd get a better case and backplate, but that's it. And really in the end the difference would be so minor it's not worth my time or money to do so.

[Bucake]

of all the keyboards i've typed on, i just respect the model f xt the most. it's not even the keyboard i use the most, but it's my favorite one nonetheless.

[Hyde]

My favourite is the one I always go back to.

I keep buying new keyboards to try things out, so I'll constantly switch keyboards.  But eventually once I get bored of the new toy syndrome then go back to my "daily driver".

So the ones that sticks around and I keep going back to are my favourite.

Currently my top 3 are:

Filco Majestouch-2 (MX Red)
Das Keyboard 3 (MX Brown)
Topre Realforce 104 UW.

[Lazylewis]

My favourite is the one in the mail.

[Snowdog993]

That is truly hard for me to answer.  I really like most every keyboard I have.

Show Image

And that's just part of what I have too.  This picture is older.  There are more there now.

But yours are mostly the same, albeit with a different number of keys, or a different colour :p

I guess I should say I like Model M keyboards. My bad.

[fohat.digs]

So the ones that sticks around and I keep going back to are my favourite.

This is about it.

To expand on this, an ANSI-modded 122-key Model F has sat on my desk 90% of the time for the past 4 years.

Unfortunately I recently started a new job where my desktop space is limited, my keyboard is in danger of damage, and there are people around with telephones who can be bothered and distracted. To that end, I brought in a black IBM KB-8923 with half a dozen beige caps swapped in on commonly-used keys, and it is acceptable.

An all-new variety of keyboard needs a week or so of evaluation to be understood properly, unless it is truly horrible and gets ditched after seconds/minutes/hours. Also, since I am an old man with muscle memory stretching back decades, odd layouts bother me even when populated with excellent switches.

I have about a dozen keyboards (my "collection") boxed up and stored away, and keep a couple of Dell AT101Ws and Northgate 101s (with transplanted blue or orange Alps) out to rotate in for a few hours or days at a time when the mood strikes me.

[Pretendo]

For me, it breaks down roughly as follows:

Key feel: 40%
Utility: 40%
Sound: 20%

If a perfectly well laid out keyboard feels like garbage, then it's garbage.  If a wonderful feeling keyboard is laid out in a way that's unusable to me for coding, it's useless to me (most very old boards are disqualified for this reason.)  A non-annoying sound is nice, but not a deal breaker.  I don't care about much else. 

Right now, that brings my remapped (closer to ANSI) 122-key Model F to the top of the pack.  Even before refoaming and real layout modding (that damn left shift key) the feel is excellent.  It's like a crisper, lighter version of a Model M. There's nothing to knock about that.  I also don't find the chatter any more annoying than that of the M (some people do) so it doesn't lose any points there.  The extra keys have been put to good use with the remapping capability of Soarer's converter, and I even sort of like the tall enter key.

I don't have the largest mechanical keyboard repertoire out there, but I don't see this monster leaving my work desk any time soon.

[GroovyGI]

Tried KUL ES-87 didn't feel very sturdy and made some strange noise when typing, Das Keyboard 4 (my secondary due to being a Christmas gift) don't need a numpad as it makes the board too long, then Filco very nice but not as sturdy feeling as Leopold.

The one easiest to live with has mechanical switches, must be heavy enough to stay put on the desk, no numpad needed, TKL is perfect length for mouse use when gaming, no lights, no programmable keys, must be able to take some abuse. Winner is the Leopold C750RTN whatever switches you want but this is a solid keyboard for $114.00. The side printing on keycaps is just a plus.

[rowdy]

I am still using my CODE with MX clears at work, sometimes alternating with an SSK.

Same collection at home, although the HHKB seems to get rotated in a bit more often, mainly as it is one of the quieter keyboards.

[Lazylewis]

 Can't really pick favourites as i like to rotate. But some boards do fall out of rotation and I sell those.