Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

I usually find that people who disparage mechanical keyboards do not actually know a lot about mechanical keyboards...

I use the MacBook built in speaker (not a detached microphone like he does in the video). My keyboard is on a wooden desk directly in front of the the laptop (with an open screen for even worse acoustics). Maybe I'd have better luck with a raised microphone like in the video in the article, but I would not say this is a particularly quiet keyboard.

Do you have a high end recording set up? A good mic, boom stand, etc.? It would be curious to hear your set up on how it comes off on video when typing at your max WPM.

But, I switched to a noise reduction headset and my screen sharing partners say my keyboard noise is now equivalent to people with rubber dome keyboards (you can barely hear it).

I have a keyboard on order with "silent red" mechanical switches. From what I understand, they're similar to rubber dome keyboards in noise level and if that's true then I won't have to use the headset all the time.

It also hurts their fingers. My brother loved his mechanical keyboard (Cherry MX blue). Very loud (he bottomed out), very satisfying, but he had to quit because his fingers hurt.

How well isolated the keyboard is from the table can also make a big difference so it can be worth to put a piece of folded microfiber cloth or something underneath it.

[1]: GMK QMX Clip sound test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UroBHvL5LZ8

I have maybe a 2014 version of the Apple keyboard (wired/numpad) at the office and I love using it. I can work long hours, not feel fatigue, it's never failed, etc etc.

I also use a Logitech K840 at home: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/k840-mechanical-corde...

And it suits me just fine. Also a pleasure to work on. Though I'm not a switch purist, either. And I'm a sucker for the aluminum... (mainly because I'm likely to drop something on it, or drop the keyboard itself at some point) it's solid for a decent price. I think I even waited to get it on sale.

There is no significant contortion needed to operate a standard keyboard. Sadly, the standard keyboard does encourage a regrettable bending of the wrist, but I have found it straightforward to learn not to yield to that encouragement. (Boards such as the Amazon Basics or Apple's keyboards in which the top of every key cap is flat rather than cylindrical help because cylindricality encourages the typist to line the finger up with the axis of the cylinder.)

I have learned to pay attention to the bend of my wrists (the bend in the vertical plane, that is). Once that became a habit, it has taken very little of my mental bandwidth to periodically bring my attention back to my wrists. I do lots of typing and have not had any RSI since about 2004 despite my having a chronic health problem that causes chronic inflammation, which in turn makes me more susceptible to RSI and despite my using membrane keyboards for the last 10 years or so. Specifically, I used 3 of the relatively expensive and fragile Logitech K750 (not recommended unless you are rich), then one cheap K120 (not recommended), then 3 Amazon Basics (recommended).

The Amazon Basics is $13 incl shipping ($10 each if you buy ten) whereas the cheapest configuration (no tilt kit, no wing rests) of your board is $270. Advocates of mechanical keyboards will reply that the mechanical switches will last about 10 times longer than the membrane switches of the Amazon Basics, which I do not dispute, but if you keep your keyboard that long, you've got to clean it very well every year or 2 to keep the population of germs to reasonable levels. My personal experience with mechanical keyboards is that I never find the time to do the thorough cleaning maybe because of a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that even a thorough cleaning won't reduce the germ levels to anything nearly as low as the levels of a new keyboard.

And by the time the mechanical board is 10 times older than the age at which the keys of a membrane board start to become mushy, you've probably had to do 1 or 2 repairs of electrical problems on the mechanical board. Case in point: for a few (not more than 4) years in the 1990s I used a Kinesis Advantage, which consists of about 10 PC boards internally. When one of these 10 boards failed somehow (rendering the board useless) the manufacturer told me it could be replaced by them for 50 bucks, back when a new board cost about 270. (I decided not to pay that because I had learned by then that I didn't like typing on that design of keyboard.)

In summary, being able to afford to replace my keyboard every year or 2 saves me from tedious cleaning an repairing tasks, which I find worth the cost of my having slightly less attention to give to the cognitive content of whatever programming task or writing task I am engaged in when I am typing because I reserve a very small fraction of my attention to how bent my wrists are.

Actually, the case for cheap keyboard is even strong than that. Here goes.

When a typist switches from a standard keyboard to an ergonomic keyboard, the sheer unfamiliarity of the new keyboard basically forces the typists to pay much closer attention to the physical act of typing than he needed to pay while using the familiar keyboard. I believe it is this increase in paying of attention that is the cause of most of the reports of ameliorations of RSI after switching to an ergo keyboard, and that if the RSI sufferer had been familiar with an ergo board, then switching to a standard board would produce ameliorations at roughly the same rate and to the same degree!

In particular, regardless of what kind of keyboard we are using, we should pay enough attention to the physical act of typing to ensure than (1) our wrists are in roughly neutral position, (2) at the moment the tip of our finger hits a key cap during a keystroke, the tip is moving faster than it would have been able to move if the tip were resting on the key cap at the start of the keystroke (3) at the moment of contact, the finger tip is moving roughly in the same direction that the key will travel.

I am told that the reason (2) is important / desirable is that the human brain is better at striking accurately than it is at pushing accurately. I am also told that there is something about the "backswing", that is, the moving of the finger tip away from its target in preparation for a movement towards the target, that improves accuracy and consequently reduces the strains that lead to RSI.

If they made a cheap keyboard that did not encourage the typist to bend his wrists and was otherwise as good as the Amazon Basics, I would switch to it. But no matter what board I use, to avoid RSI I have learned I needed to pay slight attention to ensure (2) and (3) above. Given that, it is very little additional trouble for me to ensure (1).

> Out of everything listed about this keyboard, its rollover is its biggest weakness as it only supports a 2 key rollover in the worst case.

I've had a similar problem (although I'm using Windows). I bought a surface keyboard for its thinness, but my wrists were still at a semi-painful angle when typing.

I looked at many wrist pads, but they're all "mushy" and not "wide" enough to support my forearms.

So, to deal with the wrist issue, I "built" this (https://imgur.com/a/cYBksBO) from my kids' Legos. YMMV, but it has worked tremendously well for my wrists and forearms.

If you are bending your wrists to type, then you need to reposition or re-orient the keyboard, and/or change your posture or arm position, or you are setting yourself up for RSI.

For most comfortable typing, neither arms, wrists, nor palms should rest on any surface. But the palms should definitely not be resting directly on the table, even with a low-profile keyboard.

Generally it’s a good idea to have the keyboard close to the edge of the table, and oriented so that its surface is parallel to your forearms while typing. With the keyboard relatively close, the upper arms can remain close to the body with the shoulders relaxed, and the torso and head upright.

Most office workers use a desk which is uncomfortably high for typing when sitting on their chair. So the most obvious first thing to try is lowering the desk, installing an under-desk keyboard tray, raising the chair, adding a booster seat above the existing chair, switching to a standing desk, or similar.

If the furniture can’t be changed, then the keyboard must be tilted up at the back so that when the upper arms are kept close to the body, the keyboard surface sits parallel to the forearms. For many office furniture setups this tilt must be very aggressive (think mid-20th-century typewriter).

Office workers often instead compensate for the high desk by pushing their keyboard far in on the desk, with their elbows either extending out to the side or far in front of the body, and either slouching or hunching their backs, and uncomfortably bending their necks. To take strain off their shoulders they rest elbows, forearms, or palms on the table or an armrest or palmrest. All of these workarounds are causing static muscle load and non-neutral joint positions for the back, neck, shoulders, etc. That’s fine for very short bursts for someone who frequently changes position (and better than having bent wrists), but pretty bad for long stretches for someone who sits in more or less the same position throughout the workday.

My hands aren't on the home row but I do type by touch. I don't look at the keyboard except for a few weird key combos.

* The Natural 4000 space bar was the worst offender. On my Sculpt Ergonomic, I've lost an 'L' and 'F5'.

I wish there were alternatives that I knew of as it is far and away my favorite and I haven't found much in the way of other options.

I enjoy the Sculpt, enough to buy one for home and office, as well as a replacement when one crapped out (hard to navigate tmux when your prefix key dies!). I can't type on non-ergo keyboards for very long, my wrist pain almost immediately comes back. I'd probably try an amazon basics ergo keyboard if they made one.

I'm sure I could have saved a few dollars over the years by finding the exact right mechanical keyboard and it would have lasted forever, but I can also go on amazon and order a replacement keyboard and get it by Thursday, and not worry about spilling coffee on my $300 hand-crafted, certified organic mx blueberry waffle keycaps.

It hits sweet spot - it is slightly curved but not to the extreme where one would have to re-learn how to type, battery also lasts extremely long. Only issue I have with it is that additional functional keys switch is literally a switch, one needs to change its position to be able to use alternate keys function - for me it would be more convenient to have "Fn" key just like in notebooks keyboards.

Edit: oh and maybe another one - missing physical switch on the back to disable keyboard, now one needs to remove battery or put some scrap of paper/plastic between contacts to completely "power off" device.

My main problem with it is that it isn't a standard layout. For that reason, I went with the Surface Ergonomic instead, which, while still not standard, is more standard than the Sculpt.

The included mouse feels great, though - at least on Linux, where I could remap the Start button to something useful.

I eventually settled on a Kinesis Advantage 2 [1] with linear switches and is very happy about that.

[1] - https://kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards/advantage2-keyboard/

I can't type performantly on non-ergonomic non-split non-tilted keyboards any longer, after ~20 years of typing on split ergo keyboards. The way that straight keyboards orient my wrists causes discomfort within an hour or two of use.

In my case the Microsoft battleship keyboard, the 4000, is the only thing I find comfortable. I can type on it all day with zero stress on my wrists or hands. Anything else and I suffer noticeable hand & wrist stress after a full day of work. The base of my hand / wrist area also likes the subtle padding on the 4000, it's just enough to provide some additional comfort without being annoying.

If Microsoft were to bring back the original Natural keyboard today and just replace the PS/2 connector with a USB one, it'd single-handedly improve the line more than 20 years of redesigns have managed to.

I used to go for Microsoft split-ergo, and before that, the Logitech split one until it was discontinued. No more. FS2 may look funny but it's great for hands and the silent caps don't cause aural disturbances either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scroll_Lock

The idea of also using it to pause scrolling console text, I think, originated in Linux.

Then, one day, on a bare terminal, output was flying by that I needed to read. The lightbulb went on, and I pressed the key.

[1] https://symless.com/synergy

At least so far, I've won that lottery. I'll take it.

I don't think those are fair comparisons but if you did buy my course, thanks for the support (it really helps).

Now for the fun stuff, let's break down those posts you linked!

I built the standing desk because it fits my exact use case for what I want in a standing desk and I have the ability to build it, so I built it. Price wasn't even a factor, it just so happens you can build something cool for $50 so I did it.

I wanted a 3 tier desk:

A top tier for my 2 monitors

A middle tier for my keyboard and mouse to fit exactly at the height where my posture is perfect

And finally a bottom tier for my regular desk with enough room where I can use a laptop and do other "desk things" without the standing portion getting in the way. I also happened to have this regular desk beforehand and think it's a great size for my office. I had no reason to switch it.

Very shortly after building it, I built a 4th tier where I now have a stylus / drawing pad hovering over my keyboard on a ledge and it doesn't get in the way so I can draw live slides in my courses. You can see a picture in another blog post you missed where I built an 8x4 whiteboard for $15[0] (:D). Oh and my mic's boom arm latches on from the side now where it doesn't get in my way at all and minimizes keyboard rumble.

There's no standing desk at any price point that accomplishes all of the above in a way that works for me. To me what I built is the perfect desk because it addresses everything I need it to address. The fact it was only $50 (well $60 now due to adding that 4th tier) is just a nice side effect.

[0]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/build-your-own-8x4-foot-white...

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As for the Toshiba Chromebook. After dozens of hours of research and a few recommendations I picked it up because it's an amazing piece of hardware. A 1080p display, IPS panel, good keyboard, good trackpad, upgradeable SSD, weighs less than 3 pounds, SD card, USB ports, 3.5" jack (!), decent battery life and it runs native Linux.

Why wouldn't I use it? Sure it costs $350 (fairly cheap in price) but why would I purposely spend more money for something equal or worse just for the sake of it? I still use it all the time 3+ years later and it's working fine for what I use it for (a portable computing device where I can do on the road dev work or comfortably read outside or in bed).

If you squint you can see that Toshiba getting some usage when I went to Cloud Field Day last year. I'm in the back left: http://nickjanetakis.com/assets/blog/cards/coming-back-to-cl...

> IIRC he also has a course where he teaches you to build a SaaS app with flask, but you don't build it from scratch - he starts with a fully built app and walks you through it/has you implement parts of it. It's a project he used for clients, and instead of investing time to reimplement it from scratch he just made a course based on the existing app (which is fine and better than no course, but an example of his frugality)

We don't build it from scratch because it's a very involved app. It has 4,000+ lines of just Flask code. You can't make a video course and code something like that up line by line from scratch. It would be an unreasonable amount of video (possibly even approaching 100 hours of video), and when I asked thousands of people if they would rather have an 80+ hour course or a ~10 hour course they all picked 10 hours.

This is also made aware on the course description's FAQ at https://buildasaasappwithflask.com (near the bottom, 2nd FAQ item down from the top) so I'm not trying to hide it and we also do cover every single line of the code and you get to see it all come together from 1 file to the final app in stages, and you have git diffs to see what changed between each section. There's also 50 to 100 hours worth of coding exercises to add features into the app to get experience building specific things.

That decision wasn't due to frugality. It was out of necessity and user feedback. It also took me almost half a year of full time work to make the course. If anything it would have been faster to do it live from scratch because then I wouldn't have had to break things up so carefully into sections. The course is based on -some- existing production code I used in the past, but that's not a negative thing. It just means I used well tested code in the course instead of building some untested toy example for the sake of the course.

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Lastly, just to wrap up, you skipped commenting on my audio / video set up. I spent close to $1,000 on everything and the reason I spent that much is because I felt it made a big enough difference in the quality of my audio to warrant spending that amount.

I could have just bought a Blue Yeti for $100 bucks and called it a day (I actually did this in the past, which I didn't factor into the above cost since I don't use it anymore) but I didn't stick with it because I believe the set up I use now produces better audio than my older videos. Basically I spend money when I feel like it makes a positive difference.

If there were a $100 keyboard that's better than the one I'm using now in every way shape and form with zero compromises I would instantly buy it, but I don't feel like typing is my bottleneck and I haven't found such a keyboard.

The Windows logo is on the Meta key. Super (and Hyper) are other keys.

This is a hill I would die on: wth did Lenovo ruin the greatest laptop keyboard is beyond me.

The lack of the 7th row mades many of my go-to shortcuts unwieldy (Winkey + Pause/Break) or impossible; e.g., ALT+codes for non-Latin characters.

I shouldn't have to open charmap.exe to get a stinkin' em dash.

/rant

My workstation keyboard is a Ducky One with MX Browns and doubled bumper rings ... but I already have leds dying after two years <sadface>. fwiw, I'm interested in a Topre or Topre style key action for my next primary keyboard, whenever that happens. /aamof, I'm going now to comb the comments for any specific mention of those.../

I've never been stabbed by it and the corners are all rounded. The long edge running across the bottom under the spacebar is the only thing that could maybe be described as sharp but it's nothing like the edge of a piece of wood or anything sharp. I wouldn't have even noticed it after years of usage without you mentioning it. I've also never once hit it with my hands.

I also used the device on Debian without issues. It just worked out of the box. No idea about a Raspberry Pi but Google mentions others are using it without problems.

Maybe you had an older model of this keyboard?

[1] https://www.amazon.com/VELOCIFIRE-TKL02-Mechanical-Copywrite...

This is some generic rubber-dome over membrane keyboard.

When I look at it from the side you can see the keys sink towards the middle, but it's a lot less than other keyboards where this feature is more distinct. It's much less than the Thinkpads.

Thanks for the tip though. As I was writing the post I was thinking about what other characteristics there were of keyboards and I never thought about that one.

I'm 46 years old, been programming a computer since I was 10 (TRS-80 Color Computer 2 - with the "melted" keyboard - not exactly ergo), and I currently use a classic Model M (not a Unicomp - a real one made by Lexmark, that inexplicably has the flow-thru option on it for some reason - bit of a unicorn from what I gather).

I've used keyboards in my career of all types, including ones on a VT-100, VT-220, and WYSE-320, 370, and 380...

I have never had any RSI issues. Not saying it can't happen, but one would think something would've happened by now...

Skepticism is good, but you should also be skeptical of the first conclusion it leads you to.

edit: apparently there's an affiliate link. Didn't see it on first read. Still a good keyboard imo though...

This is a personal message, and not openly sponsored. There is an affiliate link used, which is to say, the blog author likely hopes to make money off his post (even if that's not the primary impetus for his writing.)

As people that use products such as keyboards, I think we're receptive to well-documented personal messages about the products we enjoy using. I don't imagine anyone will get rich off this blog post, and I doubt that was the reason it was written.

If you're a professional who uses the keyboard regularly, unless you have some special needs or wants, why wouldn't you go with an ergonomic keyboard as the base option.

I'm the author of the post. I've used this keyboard for half a decade before I decided to write about it.

If you read a few paragraphs of the article you'll see I am using this "generic" keyboard because it's great.

Typing is also a pretty important thing for programmers and I've seen plenty of like/dislike posts about various keyboards. It very much applies to developers.