geekhack Community > Keyboards
Best full sized mechanical keyboard in 2021 - Cherry brown or similar
didjamatic:
Hey kids, just checking in to see what your thoughts are on the best currently available full-size 101-104 key in cherry browns or other non-clicky switch around 45g range.
Chalkboard:
iKBC makes the MF108, which is a full size CNC aluminum keyboard available with Cherry MX brown switches. All things considered, it's not a bad deal at all for the asking price.
If we are referring to keyboards that are commercial off the shelf and currently in production, my favorite is the Cloudnine C989m. It's split with a small amount of integrated tenting, integrated palm wrests, a rotary encoder, and passable customization software. I actually prefer the customization software to most others including QMK, but hey I prefer GUI tools versus having to write "code" to program macros. It also has an extra two columns of macro keys on the left, so I guess you could call it an ergonomic battlecruiser. The downside is that it is all plastic.
didjamatic:
Thanks for the recommendations Chalk. That Cloudnine looks awesome but I'm committed to straight keyboards because it's too hard to switch to other people's computers once you get used to ergonomic.
The iKBC looks interesting and the 5lbs of aluminum alone... I'm going to give it a shot. I'm hoping I can disable the LEDs because I don't want lights and I always swap caps to blank PBTs.
Riverman:
You should also look at Leopold. They're extremely nice, and pretty reasonably priced from Mechanicalkeyboards.com. Ebay sellers typically want insane amounts of money for them. Varmilo keyboards are also very good, if you can stand their fake wood grain case, and the newest Ducky keyboards, like the One 2, are also good. All three of those brands also come with PBT keycaps (doubleshot from Ducky and Leopold, dye sub from Varmilo). Have you looked at Topre? If you can stomach the cost, and want a very tactile keyboard, they're quite a bit more refined than any MX brown keyboard.
didjamatic:
I've owned many Topre keyboards and love them. The 2 fastest I've ever typed on were a Topre 87u and an IBM Model F PC AT. In the past they only offered the 101's in variable and for some reason, the pinky keys on the 101's were much lighter than the pinkies on the variable 87u's. They did not offer an all 45g option in the 101, but apparently they do now. I really prefer blank key caps and no one makes them for a full sized realforce 101.
101's in all 45g - very tempting. I wish they still had the older, more organic case shape and the dip switch to remap caps lock to ctrl. That's the first thing I do on a new computer is remap that key in the registry, but I like the concept of dip switches to do it as you see on the old Realforce boards and old Northgates did it as well.
https://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/R2SA-US4-IV/
https://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/R2SA-US4-BK/
Realforce site shows the 87u discontinued. https://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/87U_SE07T0/
I'm digging the Leopold vintage color schemes - one is very IBM and the other a tribute to the old Dolch PAC60 keyboard. When I was in the height of my keyboard mania I had at least 6 Dolches at one point in my garage, lol. I will never confess how many IBM's I had :)
https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3563
https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=5654
Varmilo looks cool but I don't see it as an upgrade over the DAS 4's that I've been using.
Thanks for the info River.
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