Hey everyone, new user here looking for some keyboard advice. I recently got a Crossfire TK (blue), my first mechanical keyboard, after seeing them get very popular over the past few years. I'm constantly at the computer for both work and play, so I figured it'd be well worth the purchase, especially since there are so many cheaper ones now.
After a week of using it, I've come to the conclusion that this type of keyboard is just not for me. I've spent the past 5+ years using a slim/low profile keyboards. The way I type is far from correct; I tend to glide my fingers across the keys rather than press straight down, and the short travel of slim keyboards suit me much better than full-sized switches. I decided to order some o-rings (50A) to see if the reduced travel helped me any. It's definitely better (and sounds even more awesome...), but still not what I'm looking for in terms of feel.
To give some additional insight, I've used this cheap i-rocks for the past 3 years at least:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823204019. Fairly sure it's rubber dome (ew!), but feels light and somewhat snappy despite that. I liked it enough that when I spilled something on one years ago, I just replaced it with the same model without much hesitation.
Before that, I used this slim Logitech:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I4UQZM. Uses scissor switches, was okay at first, became a piece of crap pretty quick (some switches just did not like to register after a while, particularly left shift). I do like this one better overall, mostly since the keys are not chiclet. Too much force required for activation, though.
I've done some research on here and elsewhere, mainly this thread:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=9808.0. Some time has passed since then, some models harder to find/discontinued/changed/updated, and maybe some new models have been released. So I thought I'd post up and see if anyone had any model recommendations or additional insight on what my better options would be.
What I'm looking for:
- Slim (duh). Not looking for any particular kind of switch, but scissors seems to be what I'd most likely want. Possibly Cherry ML?
- Wired (must)
- Dedicated numpad (must). I thought I'd be ok with the toggle numpad on the TK, but I just end up hitting arrows or nav keys when I want numbers, and vice-versa.
- No chiclet keys (must), i.e. no space between keys. The cheapo i-rocks had this, but after trying my old Logitech again, I greatly prefer that keycap style.
- No major key ghosting issues (must).
- Backlit (a plus, not a must by any means)
The model I keep going back to is the
Zippy BL-741 . It has the layout and key style I want, and it's backlit to boot. However, it's discontinued (?), or at least hard to find. I've heard of the LED going out and other weird problems. There's also a model by 'Azend', looks like just a re-branding. Really would appreciate hands-on-feedback for this one in particular.
I've also considered the
Cherry G84- 5200, but I'm not sure I'd like the MLs over scissor switches from what I've seen. It's also overpriced (I saw that eBay seller that was selling the 4100 version for like $15 earlier this year, and they go for like 80-100 usually), hard to find. Many parts of the layout are strange, too.
Most of the seemingly go-to models in this area have chiclet, so Apple wired, Logitech Illuminated are out. Lenovo stuff has too big of a footprint. There's a ton of random keyboards that probably fit my requirements, but it's hard weeding out all the crap ones. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
