Ask HN: What are some good keyboards? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#61

Post by LichenStone » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 3:56 AM UTC

iroddis wrote: post #21

I have a few Vortex Pok3rs (60% with brown, red, and clear cherry switches) and love them. It’s not as important now, but one thing I really like about them is how portable they are. If I have to travel to work at a client site or visit an office, a Pok3r is trivial to bring along. Once you’re really used to a semi-exotic keyboard, it’s really frustrating when they’re not available.

I really like the Vortex Race 3 as a gaming keyboard with some Kailh Speed Silver linear switches. It has almost no bezels and the layout has everything but a numpad, I love boards that don't take up more desk space than is absolutely needed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#62

Post by sk1pper » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:00 AM UTC

Logitech K380. I can type faster on that thing than any mechanical keyboard. It feels like the old gen MacBook Pro keyboards to me, but more crisp. (The gen before they started doing weird Touch Bar stuff.) It has 3 bluetooth channels so I switch between my work laptop, personal laptop, and desktop with it. Works great between macOS and Windows, too. And I’ve had it for a year and haven’t had to change the batteries yet.

Mechanical keyboards are cool but turns out they aren’t for everybody. I spent a lot of money on them and ultimately discovered I don’t really like any of them. They’re clunky to type on for me. I tried Cherry red, blue, brown, and also Topre, and I still just like my dumb $30 keyboard more.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#63

Post by amanzi » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:00 AM UTC

I'm firmly in the Logitech camp - I have a bunch of dongles that pair to multiple mice and keyboards across a number of devices. My favourite Logitech keyboard is the K580 (https://www.logitech.com/en-nz/products/keyboards/k580-multi...) which is small and thin, can connect to two devices, and supports both Bluetooth and dongle connections. I use this with the MX Master 3 mouse, which also supports both Bluetooth and dongles. I do have a couple of nice mechanical keyboards too, but I find that most mechanical keyboards sit way too high off the desk so require an additional wrist rest to be comfy.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#64

Post by amanzi » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:05 AM UTC

TrispusAttucks wrote: post #18

If you just want a great keyboard and don't want to learn a new layout or form factor and don't want to build your own I present the best mechanical keyboard. [1] FILCO Majestouch Ninja - Cherry MX Browns Make it yours with a nice pack of keycaps.[2] If you're not sure which Cherry MX switches to get read more about them here [3] and search for comparisons. I hate reds. I love blues. My wife's ears hate my blues. Now…

I like the 96% layouts (100 keys) - similar size to a TKL, but still has the option of using the number pad. I much prefer typing lots of numbers with the number pad, and I'm no accountant or mathematician.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#65

Post by jmu1234567890 » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:09 AM UTC

Has anyone tried to extract the Touch ID module from a magic keyboard so that it can be used with another keyboard? I can’t imagine not having Touch ID when laptop closed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#66

Post by smartbit » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:11 AM UTC

cjbprime wrote: post #40

Keychron seems to be the current best value, just choose a model based on whether you like low profile laptop-style keys or taller desktop keyboard keys.

Keychron send non-standard scan codes, either Windows or Apple. I couldn’t successfully get it to work with Linux. IMHO look elsewhere if you’re planning to use keychron keyboards with Linux.

Also the brown keys of the K3 had production issues and in my case more than 10 of them broke, more than the number of spare keys delivered. Reportedly efforts to have Keychron ship replacement keys under warranty have failed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#67

Post by sethammons » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:29 AM UTC

I am a fan of the cloudnine mechanical split ergo. It is as close as you can get to the Microsoft ergo 4000

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#68

Post by alanbernstein » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 4:35 AM UTC

qudat wrote: post #17

kalessin wrote: post #12

I strongly recommend split hands, ortholinear layout and thumb clusters too, as well as a programmable firmware so you can setup your own layers.

I’ve been using corne (40% ortho split) for software development for over a year now. It is most definitely the way to go. Having common symbols () {} be on a layer on the home row is so fantastic for typing speed.

That makes sense. I recently got a keyboard with configurable layers, but I'm using mostly standard qwerty to start out, adding custom bindings one at a time. I think I'll try out your suggestion, would you mind sharing more details of your configuration?

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#69

Post by jareklupinski » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 5:23 AM UTC

sk1pper wrote: post #62

Logitech K380. I can type faster on that thing than any mechanical keyboard. It feels like the old gen MacBook Pro keyboards to me, but more crisp. (The gen before they started doing weird Touch Bar stuff.) It has 3 bluetooth channels so I switch between my work laptop, personal laptop, and desktop with it. Works great between macOS and Windows, too. And I’ve had it for a year and haven’t had to change the batteries…

I switched from mechanical keyboards to a Matias for the same reason, I was always faster on a macbook keyboard.

The Matias comes close.... very close... but not quite.

I never would have guessed that quirky looking circular thing could be worth it, but maybe it's not a bad swing I guess :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some good keyboards?

#70

Post by runjake » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 5:26 AM UTC

smartbit wrote: post #66

cjbprime wrote: post #40

Keychron seems to be the current best value, just choose a model based on whether you like low profile laptop-style keys or taller desktop keyboard keys.

Keychron send non-standard scan codes, either Windows or Apple. I couldn’t successfully get it to work with Linux. IMHO look elsewhere if you’re planning to use keychron keyboards with Linux. Also the brown keys of the K3 had production issues and in my case more than 10 of them broke, more than the number of spare keys delivered. Reportedly efforts to have Keychron ship replacement keys under warranty have failed.

I use my Keychain K8 with all 3 of those OSes, but especially Linux (primary daily OS) and I’ve had zero issues.