Comment by executesorder66 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by executesorder66 | Hacker News Reader

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executesorder66

I did not know you could get low profile keys. That's interesting and I'll look into that. Why aren't they the default though?

But even with everything you say, I still don't see the point. You'd have to find specific switches and keys (which will probably be more difficult to find and more expensive) just to end up with something that roughly matches a rubber dome keyboard.

And yeah, I admit they look cooler overall. And they have a more "hacker" vibe to them which I can appreciate. But again I still can't think why I'd spend all that extra money/effort on something that struggles to match a normal keyboard for typing.

And yeah, when I'm coding I hardly type, I spend most of the time thinking. But I still do a lot of typing in general. Writing online comments, group IM chats, searching stuff on the internet, typing commands into a terminal. And whenever I've tried any of that on a mechanical keyboard, it just feels like my typing speed is unnecessarily slowed down. I get irritated by the latency in the same way I get irritated waiting for a website to load all it's useless extra js scripts that will have no effect on the bit of text I want to read.

Low profile mechanical keyboards seem to be pretty slim pickings, still. https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-k1-wireless-mecha... is one of the first I saw gain pretty wide popularity.

I bought the K3 from them (low profile, 75% layout) and I gave it an honest shot for a few weeks, but before long just went back to an Apple Magic Keyboard. I liked the feedback, but the travel was still longer, the keys were much louder, I wasn't a fan of the layout, and frankly, I just prefer chiclet keys. I really wanted to like it, but after that experience and working with another, more traditional mechanical for a while before it, I just cannot imagine using them for day-to-day development work.

The K3 was about as close to a replacement for the Magic Keyboard that I have found, though. It's a good keyboard and if I wasn't so used to and familiar with the Magic Keyboard, I probably would have loved it. I just think the Magic Keyboard is better for my preferences.

I'd had my eye on the K1 and now the K3, and have hesitated for the reasons you cite: at the end of the day, flattening a mechanical keyboard just feels like incompletely reverting back toward what is admittedly the superior typing experience of the Apple Magic Keyboard.

I'm actually typing this on a Keychron K2 version 1 with Gateron brown switches, and it took a few weeks of trial and error as well as a wrist pad to be able to type anywhere near the comfort and speed of what had worked for me for years (but seemed like a recipe for disaster): hunched over my laptop's built-in keyboard and display at a standing desk, no external monitor or keyboard needed or desired.

Infuriatingly, the Keychron series' spacebar is noticeably longer than on Apple keyboards. The Keychron spacebar partly overlaps X and comma, whereas Apple keyboards for as far back as I can recall are exactly aligned with the outer edges of C and M. I also miss the Fn at far lower-left of Mac keyboards.

> The Keychron spacebar partly overlaps X and comma,

This was part of my "wasn't a fan of the layout" comment. The alignment of the X and Comma with the Command key, which is a key your thumb reaches to a thousand times a day, is so much more comfortable than any other keyboard I've found. And it really created some strain for me on the K3. I also wasn't a fan of the right shift being shorter to make room for the full size arrow keys (I'd rather have a tenkeyless or, preferably, the half-height keys on Apple keyboards) or of the function key on the right.

Really, I just wanted the Apple Magic Keyboard, the 60%/65% one, with a more tactile feel to it and preferably in black. I've looked at dozens of keyboards over the last 8 months and the K3 was the closest I found. So I'm just going to stick with the Magic Keyboard.

I just bought the K2 v2 about a month ago and it's pretty great. From what I've seen, they updated the design so that it wouldn't be as flat. You can change the height of the back so it slopes better. I don't find myself needing a wrist pad.

Still getting used to it over the Magic Keyboard though.

Another option is getting speed switches like Cherry's speed silver or Kailh's Copper/Bronze/Gold. They're the same size as normal switches and support the same keycaps, but you only need to press them halfway compared to how far down you need to press other switches to activate them. Some even have a shorter activation distance than the one you linked.

- Why aren't [low profile key caps] the default though?

I can't say. I came to mechanical keyboards to get away from the crappy Apple laptop keyboards, so would never occur to me to use key caps like that.

- You'd have to find specific switches and keys (which will probably be more difficult to find and more expensive)

Have to? Or get to? Sourcing parts for your dream keyboard can be fun. At least as fun as any other hobby. At the end of the day, if you like the keyboard you're using, you're doing it right.

The one thing I will say, is that my fingers probably touch my keyboard more than any other item in my house. I'm a developer and I might spend hours straight at the computer. When you consider that, the $150 I spent on my keyboard or the $99 I spent on my trackball don't seem like so much money.

>Why aren't they the default though?

Historical reasons, I believe. Computer keyboards started out as typewriter keyboards modified to work with mainframes, and the typing experience was something that keyboard designers put some effort into recreating when designing things like the DisplayWriter or model f keyboards.

Personally, I hate low profile keys, but that's a matter of taste. It probably has to do with the fact that I learned to type on an IBM selectric II; still the best typing experience I've ever had, by far.

Keyboards are recipes with varying proportions of ergonomics, style, DIY “hacking” ... depending on the person.

It’s an accessible hobby, requiring less time, skills and resources than drone racing or woodworking...

So you don’t “have to” spend money if it does not scratch an itch nor bring any satisfaction.

Fashion aside I love those small grid programmable keyboards. I don’t care too much about style, though my wife loves the plank ez “discokeyboard” as she says.

This is not strictly a feature of mechanical keyboards, and sure you can often do some limited remapping in sofware, but enthusiast keyboards tend to have a wider variety of layouts as well. IMHO everyone who uses the Ctrl key on a regular basis should try remapping Caps Lock as Ctrl for a day.

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