Ducky Shine 3 vs Filco

[zenko]

Hi everyone, i'm newbie here.
I'm considering between Ducky Shine 3 and Filco Ninja, both of them are great keyboards. I love the way Filco Ninja get front letters, it's so cool, but Ducky Shine 3's led is charming me. What should i do 

At my country, Ducky has a year warranty, and Filco is 5 years 

[rowdy]

Get both.

/thread

[lazerpointer]

Welcome to Geekhack 

Go with the Ducky. Something goes wrong, sell or get it repaired using GH!

Plus, those lighting effects.... OMG (I hear they will have firmware updates as well, offering more lighting modes!)

personally I'm waiting on the Ducky Shine 3 TKL to come out. I've got a set of clear caps and some EK soft landing pads ready to be installed as soon as I memorize the lighting effects keys

[heissler]

The general consensus around here is that Filco offers better build quality, while Ducky is only slightly worse in this regard but offers backlit boards. You can't go wrong with either of these, so decide at your own gusto!
You can also get front-printed keycaps (like the Filco Ninja has) for the Ducky.

[Grim Fandango]

I think another difference, and the one that is actually the most relevant to me, is the difference in the stabilizers the two boards use.

While the Filco has Costar stabilizers the Ducky has Cherry ones. This is where most of the difference in feel between the keyboards comes from. Different people have different preferences. Personally, I have a strong preference for Costar stabilizers. Strong enough to influence my decision between two keyboards like this. Though not everyone would agree. One boardmember here describes them as wobbly pieces of @#$*. I suspect it will be hard to find out what you prefer. In general, I think a lot of people prefer Costar stabilizers because they offer a more consistent feel between stabilized keys and other keys on the keyboard, having a slightly less "mushy" feeling (though mushy does not really accurately describe the feel of the Cherry stabilizers, it does indicate the difference in feel a little). 

Backlighting is another one of those dividing things. I like to be a little minimalist with my keyboards, and backlighting is not something that you really use. In practice, it is just a glow coming from your keyboard as you are trying to focus on the screen. My experience has also been that legends from backlit keys are actually not as easy to read as legends on keys in a contrasting color (black on white, for example, is easily readable in almost any sort of lighting). But it can look cool. 

[meiosis]

Hi everyone, i'm newbie here.
I'm considering between Ducky Shine 3 and Filco Ninja, both of them are great keyboards. I love the way Filco Ninja get front letters, it's so cool, but Ducky Shine 3's led is charming me. What should i do 

At my country, Ducky has a year warranty, and Filco is 5 years 

You can always buy filco caps, honestly I own a filco and other than it being built like a monster it doesn't offer much else. DS3 has lighting effects that I've never even comprehended before, go for it and get more keycaps you are on gh afterall, can't only have one set

[bahamot]

Built quality between filco and ducky are really closed. Only differed on the top cover, where filco is a tad more solid.
Personally I prefer ducky.

[terran5992]

Filco = Quality
Ducky= Backlight

However in my opinion ducky has really improved their standards in keyboards, and have many new models coming out.
As for filco , it always kinda looked a little plain to me
Just my 5 cents ^^

[jameslr]

If you're interested in replacing stock caps with something better go with the Filco. I'd like to add the quality of the stock Filco caps are marginally better than the stock Ducky caps. I bought a Shine III and while the backlight was cool for 30 minutes or so - I lost interest pretty quickly. I have since returned it. I don't think you can go wrong with the Filco, and that is my recommendation. There are a couple of great deals in the classifieds for them now if you're wanting TKL.

[Lycoth]

Welcome to Geekhack!

I previously had a Majestouch and switched to a Ducky Shine 2 as I really wanted it backlight (+ the White keycaps on the black case looked so tasty). All in all you'll be incredibly happy with either.

Both are very well made, both feel great to use.

I think another difference, and the one that is actually the most relevant to me, is the difference in the stabilizers the two boards use.

Grim is definitely right with regards to the stabilizers. Personally I prefer the Cherry ones, but as he said, it's all personal preference so your best bet here would be to try the boards before you buy them (Which can be near impossible depending on where you live, it sucks I know D:)

Although I prefer the feel of the Ducky compared to the Filco, both with MX Browns (partially probably due to the keycaps being smooth. For some reason I prefer them, I think i'm the odd one out here) the main advantage you'll get from the Ducky is the backlighting which might not be such a huge issue other than looking awesome, but also you get the hotkeys for music and the such which are the main thing I prefer.

If all you care about is a good quality keyboard then the Filco would be perfect. But if you care about the hotkeys for skipping through songs (Which unless you're a gamer probably isn't a big deal anyways) then they Ducky is also great.

[bahamot]

oh and don't forget ducky has replacement warranty and recently filco only offers repair warranty.

[zenko]

Thanks everyone, all your advices are great
Maybe i'll take a DS3 first, then in the next few months is Filco Ninja if my budget can bear

[johndavis33]

The RK-9000 is also something to consider when thinking about a filco!

It's basically a filco clone for close to half the price, about 90 bucks on newegg. I got mine for 60 during a sale! There are a bunch of places you can go to find the differences, especially on GH. I don't own a filco so I can't comment on long term build quality or anything like that, and I've only had my rosewill for about 8 months so while there aren't any signs of wear or tear, it really hasn't been long enough to judge. But I have used a friend's and I know that the filco has rubberized feet on the risers while the rosewill doesn't, and the rosewill has a fixed usb cable port on the right side while the filco has channels underneath like a QFR where you can make the cable come out of either the center, the right, or the left side of the keyboard.

But the big thing is, if price is an issue, then the rk-9000 plus a set of PBT keycaps or custom ones, will cost you the same as just a filco.

If price isn't of concern... well, then buy both boards and all the keycaps you can!

[zoolzoo]

filco tkl

[Photoelectric]

Both are great--you can't go wrong with either one.  Just think which one you like more aesthetically. 

To the person who mentioned that Filco = Quality and Ducky = Backlight--that's not right nowadays.  Ducky Shine quality is top notch.  I've had 2 now, and they are super nice.  Not any worse than my Filcos.  WFD has a video of the internals of a Ducky Shine, and the PCB is really nicely done as well.

[rowdy]

There have been a few reports recently of firmware issues with the Ducky Shine 3 - like the keyboard locking up when changing lighting modes

As the firmware is easily upgradable, hopefully a fix will be available soon.

[heissler]

Both are great--you can't go wrong with either one.  Just think which one you like more aesthetically. 

To the person who mentioned that Filco = Quality and Ducky = Backlight--that's not right nowadays.  Ducky Shine quality is top notch.  I've had 2 now, and they are super nice.  Not any worse than my Filcos.  WFD has a video of the internals of a Ducky Shine, and the PCB is really nicely done as well.

That's why I said that it's the general consensus. I own both of them, and actually like the Ducky more.

[Dreamre]

You're asking this now...I can guarantee you will have both of them eventually. Originally, I was torn between the two and ended up buying a Filco Ninja TKL with MX Blues. I ended up buying a Ducky Shine 2 with MX Reds yesterday... This keyboard hobby is addicting TT____TT.