Well if you're like, you love the sound of mechs but they aren't always practical. Plus I have a soft spot in my heart from years and years of ThinkPad use. I had sold my Model M on Craigslist for $100 (too much, I know) and replaced it with the cheapest knockoff Blue board I could find. It was fine, but just..... fine. After about a year I spilled a little water on it and ever since then it would randomly input an "o" character when it wasn't being typed. So it was time to stop just lurking here and sign up.
First thing that caught my eye was the oft-mentioned QSENN DT35..... Which is no longer with me.
I don't know who will care here, but I did a shootout of three "popular" switch boards, plus one I hadn't heard of, but rumor was it was a scissor.
1. QSenn DT-35
2. Lenovo SK-8835
3. Dell KB1421
4. SolidTek scissor keyboard ($11 on
Amazon5. Kesingston Keyboard For Life (lol what a name).
The QSenn DT35 was not bad but got tiring quickly. So why pro gamers loved this, I don't know. Maybe everything else was even worse in the early 2000's.
The Lenovo SK-8835 was nothing special. It felt just slightly more natural than the Dell to me but still not great in any way. Has the bank/cashier keyboard sound though.
3. Dell KB1421 - These are **** no matter how you look at them. It's okay for a little basic typing but doing actual work on it will make you cry.
4. The SolidTek which got amazing reviews on Amazon was extremely disappointing. Good if you want silent typing, but it feels just like typing on a budget laptop. so, not good in feel or sound.
5. The Kesingston.... I was suprisingly shocked by. It has the feel of a Happy Hacking Lite2. It's almost ridiculous how much nicer is it to type on this than the others. I don't know if it's dome or scissors (haven't ripped off any keys but with the exception of the space bar, all the keys are FAR lighter than all the above mentioned ones, and probably on par with the SolidTek.) It has a nice rubber clack like the others and is more high pitched than the mush clack of stuff like the Dell or QSenn.
TLDR, if you're poor or can't get or don't want a mech clack for some reason, the Kesingston Keyboard For Life gets my vote for best sub $30 keyboard.
Will I keep using it when my mech gets here? Lol, doubtful. But, I can type for a long time on it without pain, so there's something.
BTW, I have a smoking hot girlfriend and I picked her up
(and all the ones before her) without any sort of computer involved, unless you count AIM flirting.