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Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

nickjanetakis.com

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Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#121

Post by mdszy »

simonsarris wrote: post #39
pteraspidomorph wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I was thinking. Any decent mechanical keyboard has all of these features and more, and the sound the keys make depends on the switches, of which there are many different types. Some switches are designed to be loud (like the MX Blues) but you don't have to use them. I usually find that people who disparage mechanical keyboards do not actually know a lot about mechanical keyboards...

Which decent mechanical keyboard has the feature of being $14.50?

You really should not cheap out on something you will literally be spending thousands of hours of your life using.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#122

Post by mdszy »

bluedino wrote: post #100
lewisflude wrote: post #33

I'm a keyboard enthusiast, I have a collection of ~15 mechanical keyboards with various switches, hand lubed, modded (spring swapped, stem swapped) various materials and sizes from the plastic HHKB to the monstrous TX1800 (fits the keys you'd find in a full size keyboard into the frame of a TKL). I'm happy the writer has found a keyboard that works for them. Although I think that they'd be able to get a better typing…

You might collect Ferraris, which might all be objectively Robust Wire / USB Cable better than a Honda Civic, but you aren't going to drive one every day.

Why wouldn't you use a more quality keyboard every day though? You're literally spending thousands of hours of your life using it, why cheap out? It's not even comparable to cars like that. It's not like mech keyboards are practically unusable in any conditions like how high end cars are somewhat unusable in adverse weather conditions.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#123

Post by war1025 »

My favorite keyboard is a silicone roll-up keyboard. I first got one probably fifteen years ago as a result of my brother getting in a fight with me and pulling the cord out of the keyboard we had. The Radio Shack in town only had this odd blue silicone roll up keyboard, so we bought it.

Turns out it's basically silent to type on, which was very nice at the time because my dad would always wake up from the keyboard noise and get after us to go to sleep.

Served the same useful purpose in college when I had roommates.

The thing these days that I like most about it is that it's completely flat, which means I can rest my wrists on the desk and not get weird RSI issues from my wrists being out of alignment.

The main complaint people have ever had about using it is that it forces you to learn how to hit the keys exactly on center because just hitting them on the edge will cause the silicone to buckle without hitting the switch. Really I think it's made me a better typist overall.

They do tend to break maybe every five years or so. More often if you pick it up or attempt to at all take advantage of the "roll up" feature.

Also it's sealed, so if something spills on it, you just needs to wipe it up and no harm done.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#124

Post by purple_ducks »

nickjj wrote: post #47
minimaxir wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The operative phrase in the original comment was “without mentioning”.

> The operative phrase in the original comment was “without mentioning”. As a reader you wouldn't be weirded out if the first section of the article was to justify why an affiliate link was used? That would annoy me as a reader a lot more than having an affiliate link used without mention. I mean, I'm not sitting there trying to trick people into clicking links. The blog post is just an honest look / opinion on the k…

What weirds me out more is seeing the phrase "Amazon Basics keyboard ".

You've established the article is just about the Amazon Basics keyboard; just refer to it as the keyboard for the rest of the story.

Way too clickbaity/SEO method of writing it.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#125

Post by Bluestrike2 »

nickjj wrote: post #64
equalunique wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silenced Cherry, Gateron, ZealPC, Aliaz, and Outemu switches are near inaudible when lubed.

Near inaudible is also bad because it's important that you hear something in the videos (this is explained in the article). But I definitely never heard of having to lube your keyboard before using it. I'll look into that just to see what it sounds like. Hopefully someone with high end recording gear has done real world tests.

Silent switches aren't completely silent; near inaudible is relative, and given that you're evaluating switches in terms of their sound on a recording, "near inaudible" might work great for you.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to lubed switches, with the type and amount of lube used having an effect on the overall feel and sound. This is an interesting guide and rather long discussion about methods of lubing Cherry MX switches, for example.[0]

You'll find a lot of videos some decent decent recording tests[1] of switches in general out there, but not a ton that are exhaustive comparisons of different switches and modifications. This video,[2] for example, compares decibel readings from Cherry MX Red, Blue, the Topre 45g, and Cherry MX Silent Black and Reds.[0] Comparing across different tests has obvious problems, and since you're looking for a sort of goldilocks sound level for a specific use case (not inaudible, not too loud, just right for recording), you might wind up wanting to experiment a bit with a switch tester. Other factors like the keyboard case construction and the keycaps you're using are going to have an effect as well; a mat underneath the keyboard will have a noticeable effect for many keyboards, for example. Not to mention how you type and whether you're bottoming out. Personally, I find that kind of experimentation fun but not everyone will agree.

Because you're recording, it might be easier to look at testing different microphone positions and experimenting with positioning a few layers of foam between your keyboard and microphone to absorb some of the higher frequencies. You won't be able to make it entirely silent, which isn't the goal, but you might be able to get it to a level that sounds pleasant in your recordings.

0. https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=34332.0

1. https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56648.0

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdFIht3A2To

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#126

Post by pmiller2 »

stronglikedan wrote: post #98
pmiller2 wrote: post #93

I know it’s been mentioned already, but my favorite is the MS Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard. I picked it up when I was starting to have RSI issues in my wrist and forearm. Together with some wrist braces, I was able to eliminate all pain in a few weeks. When I was looking, my criteria were: comfort, usability (bonus points for a standard layout), and PC/Mac interoperability. The Ergo Sculpt met all of those well, althoug…

> bonus points for a standard layout...The Ergo Sculpt met all of those well 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.

What do you find nonstandard about it? I was able to start writing code on mine right away, and I’m a touch typist.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#127

Post by rhinoceraptor »

bluedino wrote: post #100
lewisflude wrote: post #33

I'm a keyboard enthusiast, I have a collection of ~15 mechanical keyboards with various switches, hand lubed, modded (spring swapped, stem swapped) various materials and sizes from the plastic HHKB to the monstrous TX1800 (fits the keys you'd find in a full size keyboard into the frame of a TKL). I'm happy the writer has found a keyboard that works for them. Although I think that they'd be able to get a better typing…

You might collect Ferraris, which might all be objectively Robust Wire / USB Cable better than a Honda Civic, but you aren't going to drive one every day.

You wouldn't drive a Ferrari every day because they're not comfortable or practical, and because they have short service intervals and very expensive consumable parts. And a high performance car is almost necessarily not a reliable car since it's operating near the limit, especially once it has tens of thousands of miles on it.

OTOH a mechanical keyboard is much more comfortable than rubber domes for many people. And they can last almost indefinitely, even if a switch breaks, you can fix it in a couple minutes if you have a soldering iron. If you spill coffee on it, you can clean it with isopropyl alcohol and most of the time that will fix any issues.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#128

Post by Spearchucker »

maxaf wrote: post #83

I’ve used many different keyboards. I can’t say I’m a keyboard connoisseur, but I’ve probably used every possible combination of “keys” arranged on a “board”. My takeaway from all this is that the switches matter a lot less than how keys are arranged. You see, human hands will become injured over a prolonged period of contortion into the shape needed to operate standard keyboards. For this reason I prefer ErgoDox. ht…

Best keyboard I've ever used. And after all the horror stories about how long it takes to relearn I was back to normal speed after about a month.

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#129

Post by gurkendoktor »

pmiller2 wrote: post #93

I know it’s been mentioned already, but my favorite is the MS Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard. I picked it up when I was starting to have RSI issues in my wrist and forearm. Together with some wrist braces, I was able to eliminate all pain in a few weeks. When I was looking, my criteria were: comfort, usability (bonus points for a standard layout), and PC/Mac interoperability. The Ergo Sculpt met all of those well, althoug…

I really wanted to love the Sculpt Ergonomic, but even after weeks of using it I found it hard to distinguish all the keys in the "right pinky" area without looking (Return and neighbors). The uniform spacing between keys looks fantastic, but my right hand could never figure out where it was. The F keys suffer from the same problem (no grouping), and are extremely mushy. I'd love to see a redesigned version.

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

Re: Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

#130

Post by flamtap »

connor4312 wrote: post #79
sli wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no offense to the author, but this article read like one written by someone who really doesn't know much about keyboards. There is a whole slew of different silent, non-clicky, tactile and linear switches to choose from, as well as sound dampening o-rings.

There's also several new 'silenced' switches[1][2] which have dampening built-in by moulding in a softer plastic into the switch stem. I can't stand the feel of o-rings; I use a Zilent switch keyboard for work and it's quieter than a lot of my coworker's non-mechanical/rubber dome boards. 1. https://zealpc.net/products/zilents 2. https://kbdfans.com/products/pre-orderaliaz-silent-switch-ta... (unaffiliated with eithe…

The o-rings also don’t dampen the upward click of the key in release, whereas the dampened switch models do.
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