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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: gameaholic on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:06:21

Title: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: gameaholic on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:06:21
Why are there no cherry mx gaming laptops yet?  I'm sure we've all thought of it before.  Would you buy one?  If not which laptops today have the best keyboards?
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: keymaster on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:07:29
The keyboard profile may be too high, especially now since the trend is ultra-thin laptops. I'd love to see a Cherry ML or short-throw Topre laptop, though.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: SpAmRaY on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:09:35
The keyboard profile may be too high, especially now since the trend is ultra-thin laptops. I'd love to see a Cherry ML or short-throw Topre laptop, though.

I would think cherry ML would be very doable and awesome to have in a laptop.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: rowdy on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:42:54
Most notebooks have scissor switch keyboards, which are about 1/2 cm high at most.

Not sure about MY switches, but MX switches are much higher than that, and then add the keycap on top of that.

A notebook with a mechanical keyboard would also be heavier, cost more, and look quite clunky compared to other slimmer designs out there.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: The_Beast on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:46:35
Scissor switches found on most laptops aren't that bad.


I don't think I would buy one, I'd rather just carry a 60% with me
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: SpAmRaY on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:47:33
Most notebooks have scissor switch keyboards, which are about 1/2 cm high at most.

Not sure about MY switches, but MX switches are much higher than that, and then add the keycap on top of that.

A notebook with a mechanical keyboard would also be heavier, cost more, and look quite clunky compared to other slimmer designs out there.

But ML switches don't seem to be that much different than scissor switches.

Scissor switches found on most laptops aren't that bad.


I don't think I would buy one, I'd rather just carry a 60% with me

I just need to suck it up and do this.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: davkol on Mon, 03 June 2013, 23:50:54
Some vintage laptops had ALPS switches. However, they had cases as thick as modern R series thinkpads, or even thicker. That's very thick.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: Goodfella on Tue, 04 June 2013, 00:00:07
I also think size tends to be the biggest draw back, especially when you can pack a keyboard in your bag with your laptop. I am currently looking for a decently small leather messenger bag to stash my 11.6" hp lappy and my poker.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: fateswarm on Tue, 04 June 2013, 01:00:34
Because gamers figure out easily that they need good mice (from FPS gaming) but they are ignorant of the fact there are good and bad keyboards. It explains how Logitech, who I regard the Wizard of the input devices world, they literally make magic out of plastic and steel, have a rich range of mice and only 1 or 2 good keyboards (1 rather, and the form factor is for show-offs) (and of course no word for Topre switches).

I will admit that I'm way too many years in computer hobbyism to have learned of good keyboards a few months ago. It took me around 10 years between I figured out I need a good mouse and needing a good keyboard. I will expect the majority of humans are in a same or worse boat since I'm not even a common consumer, I read about those things way more than the average.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: clockwork on Tue, 04 June 2013, 02:53:07
To expand on what rowdy said:
Most notebooks have scissor switch keyboards, which are about 1/2 cm high at most.
The modern laptop keyboard module is about 6mm thick from top of keycap to backside of plate (really a semi-flexible metal sheet). It's pretty amazing you get 2mm of travel from that total thickness, though it cheats a bit by relying on the rest of the laptop to provide most of the rigidity needed.

Not sure about MY switches, but MX switches are much higher than that, and then add the keycap on top of that.
For comparison, the ML switch module itself is 9.6mm (for 3mm travel) and the MX switch module is 18.5mm (for 4mm travel). Neither of these include the keycap thickness above the stem or the required rear covering (since they're both through hole PCB mounted switches). For comparison, my relatively fat little Lenovo X220 (a 12.6" subnotebook, but definitely not an Ultrabook) has a base thickness of ~19mm in the keyboard area not including the screen, or 25mm including the screen. The HDD and motherboard are almost entirely located under the keyboard. A MX switch plus keycap is about as thick as the notebook is when closed.

In short, to use MX switches, you'd have to be OK with a 2" thick laptop without being able to use that extra thickness for better cooling or more expandability (though you could stack a couple HDDs/SSDs in the wrist rest area).
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: kalessi22 on Mon, 08 June 2015, 18:21:00
Now, there is a laptop with a mechanical keyboard. It's called the MSI GT80 Titan. You can read more about it here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8669/msi-gt80-titan-a-beastly-notebook-with-a-cherry-mx-keyboard.  ;)
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: swimmingbird on Mon, 08 June 2015, 18:44:53
Now, there is a laptop with a mechanical keyboard. It's called the MSI GT80 Titan. You can read more about it here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8669/msi-gt80-titan-a-beastly-notebook-with-a-cherry-mx-keyboard.  ;)

Yep what this guy said.

It is so large though it's not really fair to call it a laptop lol
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: Altis on Tue, 09 June 2015, 13:46:52
I'm not sure I'd even want a laptop with MX Cherry switches. I just got a Lenovo T450S and the keyboard on it is excellent for a laptop... highly recommend it. It's also lighter and a bit thinner than I had expected.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: notscott on Tue, 09 June 2015, 21:15:55
Not sure you can call this a "laptop" but..

http://us.msi.com/product/nb/GT80-Titan-SLI-GTX-980M-SLI/#hero-overview (http://us.msi.com/product/nb/GT80-Titan-SLI-GTX-980M-SLI/#hero-overview)
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: hwood34 on Tue, 09 June 2015, 23:08:34
Yeah that MSI laptop is just stupid. Basically it's just portable around the house, though I'm not sure why'd you want to pay 3 times as much just to carry it from room to room sometimes (and if you're actually gaming you gotta move the rest of your setup and find multiple places that are actually comfortable)
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: dorkvader on Tue, 09 June 2015, 23:36:31
The keyboard profile may be too high, especially now since the trend is ultra-thin laptops. I'd love to see a Cherry ML or short-throw Topre laptop, though.

I would think cherry ML would be very doable and awesome to have in a laptop.

its been done in a laptop before.
Title: Re: Cherry MX Laptop?
Post by: swimmingbird on Wed, 10 June 2015, 00:50:08
Yeah that MSI laptop is just stupid. Basically it's just portable around the house, though I'm not sure why'd you want to pay 3 times as much just to carry it from room to room sometimes (and if you're actually gaming you gotta move the rest of your setup and find multiple places that are actually comfortable)

For the amount of money that thing costs you could buy/build an X99 SLI rig and a couple of tvs to use in home streaming with
Plus a wireless GON for true pleasure ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)