Keyboards — decisions, decisions, decisions.

A keyboard is a high-use item. If, like me, you spend a considerable amount of your day sitting with one underneath your hands, you may be eligible for a self-funded upgrade!

Okay, I wrote self-funded. If you’re studying, replacing your perfectly adequate keyboard is probably a low priority for you; if you’re in employment, your boss probably thinks the Dell* keyboard is perfectly suitable to enable you to meet your daily keyboard tasks; if you work for yourself — maybe you can justify it to your accountant?

I just wanted to treat myself to a keyboard that felt really nice to type on and something that looked good on my work desk. Plus, it was my birthday! So, my quest to replace the standard employee, perfectly adequate membrane, rubber dome, plastic choddy, keyboard began.

It’s been a really long time since I paid any attention to keyboards, but after just half-an-hour of research, I understood what decisions I had to make, apart from aesthetics, it’s a pretty easy choice. You just need to identify which of the following you want:

• Keyboard size — 100%, 75%, 60% (and various options in between).
• Key switches — Red, Brown, Blue (and various options in between)
• Profile — Normal or Low-profile (harder than it sounds)

For me, I need keyboard that’s full-sized, 100%, traditional, with a keypad on the right (yes, if you look hard, you can find them on the left), properly configured navigation keys and arrow keys, in a block, with little bit of vertical spacing to the left and right. Oh, and an inverted L shaped enter key.

Key switches have moved on in leaps and bounds in the last few years, traditionally the only options were silent reds, tactile browns or loud clicky, annoy your neighbour, blues. However, now there are, literally, every colour option you can think of each with a slightly different feel. You could buy a tester set, but if you’re an indecisive person, you’re just going to be more confused than before. I sat on the fence and went with the tactile browns — and I’m loving it!

Profile, hmmm, this was the sticking point. Low profile keyboards claim to be kinder to the wrists, and in my experience, this is true. I have a logi MX Keys low-profile keyboard for my home setup, I do like it, a lot. In fact, it’s really nice and if low-profile is what you’re looking for, then this one rates pretty highly. However, it’s not a mechanical keyboard, and I actually find it’s too low, specifically at the front. I spent days comparing my logi low-profile keyboard with one from Keychron, the K5 Max.

The bonus of mechanical keyboards, apart from their robustness, good looks, charm and feel, is that you can, when the desire comes, get a completely new look or feel, or both! Change the keycaps for a new look or even a themed keyboard, change the key switches for a new feel or sound, and if you really want to, get a custom key cap made just for you that reflects your personality. Mine would be a coffee cup that I’d use as the lock-key at coffee breaks!

So, what did I end up with, well, a picture speaks a thousand words and it’s there for you at the top, a (not low-profile) Keychron V6 Max. I should have ordered the K5 Max at the same time and tried it, but I was all decisioned out. It’s on next years’ birthday list!

*Other brands of perfectly adequate keyboards are available!