
If you are in the process of buying a new keyboard, make sure you check out our list of the best mechanical keyboards to buy in 2021. Similarly, opting for a keyboard that offers a short key travel distance means that you don’t have to mash every key. A strong spring force can tend to put a strain on your fingers.

Speaking of which, ensure that you invest in a keyboard that offers the right amount of spring force as well as travel distance. These should work well for users who have smaller hands or don’t type with heavy force. Certain keyboard manufacturers offer low-profile keycaps to reduce the overall weight. Make sure you get the right switch with the right set of keycaps. Avoid buying a keyboard with cheap or unknown mechanical switches at all costs. Usually, mechanical switches have a lifespan ranging up to 50-80 million keystrokes, with Cherry MX switches offering a guarantee of 100 million keystrokes. You don’t want to spend a lot of money on a keyboard that doesn’t have a solid shelf life. We will be discussing them in detail in a future post.įirst and foremost, you need to make sure that the key switches last a long time. Depending on the keyboard OEM, these can differ but most of them are aligned with Cherry’s color-coding. Primarily, you need to know that Red or Black switches are linear, Brown or Clear switches are tactile, while Blue or Green switches are clicky. Cherry MX is the most popular and widely accepted key switch and was also one of the first to classify them by color. Which Key Switch should I get?īased on the above characteristics, you’ll find various types of switches offered by several manufacturers. If you like having a nice clicky keyboard, you could look at Cherry MX Blue switches. However, this can be annoying for people around you, especially in an office environment. These key switches offer a bump along with additional audio feedback, which is pretty satisfying, almost like an old typewriter. Cherry MX Brown switches are one of the most popular among the variety of tactile keyboard switches available in the market.Ĭlicky switches follow the same concept as tactile switches, which means they’re bumpy, but at the same time, they are louder by design.

This enables a faster typing experience since the key doesn’t have to travel all the way down to actuate, thus becoming the preferred choice of typists. This bump signifies the actuation point, which means that a keypress is registered before it fully bottoms out. Tactile switches have a similar construction as linear but include a bump halfway through the key’s downward travel. Many gamers prefer investing in keyboards with linear switches, with the most common one being Cherry MX Red. The actuation or the registering of a keypress happens when it bottoms out, and since there are no bumps in between, linear switches glide down rather easily. Linear switches usually feel smooth and offer a consistent actuation without any tactile feedback. Depending on their characteristics, they are either linear, tactile, or clicky. ReadCube users also enjoy seamless interactions with ReadCube’s publishing and institutional partners, enabling readers to add articles direct from publishing partners sites including, and access articles through ReadCube's innovative rental and cloud access program.Mechanical keyboard switches are broadly available in three categories.

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