I feel bad about bullying people in general but "I can't believe you are using a TKL when 60% are leetsauce. Afterall HHKB is 60% and not TKL, it basically speaks for itself!"
But for real tho, if it works for you then that's what matters. The hobby can be extremely expensive so having cheaper prebuilts that aren't the run of the mill Corsair K60 or whatever is actually cool. My first board that got me into the hobby was a cheap no-name with Outemu Blues. Those switches fucking slapped.
Another no-name(ish?) to look for are Gateron(my basic bitch choice). They are better than Cherry, like no contest. Stay away from their Blacks tho. They look very close to Yellows on paper but the spring gets heavier as you press so you don't get that bottom out feeling and they just feel heavy heavy heavy.
I haven't been on /r/mechanicalkeyboards much lately so I'm not sure about what the new hotness is but that sub loved their Creams for a long time and then Glorious Pandas and Boba U4Ts for a while. I personally like Everglide Oreos for MX stems and Kailh Sunsets for Chocs.
I think the main difference between the surface level switches between brands is that a Kailh Brown might feel scratchy and less bumpy than a Gateron Brown but otherwise Browns are Browns, Blues are always gonna be clicky, reds and yellows are gonna be linear. Maybe this is me sounding fighty but I don't get the amount of hate that Cherry gets in the hobbyspace. I don't use them but I think if someone has Cherry Browns and they like them, cool.
I switched over to a column staggered split board and also switched to Colemak-dh at the same time and it took me 6 weeks before I could type confidently again. But like that was my journey. If typing on a prebuild 75% board with dedicated arrow keys work for you and your wife, that's what matters lol.
60% is certifiably NOT leetsauce, I have no idea how anyone gets on without an F row. I want arrows, need an F row and ideally some of the nav keys The 75% is more like a 60% with an F row - I wouldn't usually use the full TKL but wifey bought one :)
I will.keep eyes on for Gaterons, ty! It's good to know that there isn't gonna be a huge gulf of difference between the various keys.
Dang I have seen those column staggered split boards before, kinda spooky but pretty cool. I've never really been super passionate about keyboards so I'm kind of a pleb honestly & appreciate the info,
spoiler
for a long time I thought that the best keyboard I'd used was the Lenovo Thinkpad Chiclet keyboard
I do still kind of want a Dell AT101 or of course a Model M sometime...
The leetsauce 60% comment twas just a joke. Def don't sacrifice what is functional to you for a tiny keyboard lol.
There are some mods/hacks that people have done that add the Thinkpad red nipple to boards and not gonna lie but I think that shit is super dope. It's up there with some of the touchpad builds out there
Maybe I'm not as knowledgeable as I claim. I looked up Unicomp and have seen them in passing but thought they were retro Cherry boards because of the black chassis. Had no idea they are still making keyboards with pointers outside of Thinkpads and the hobbyspace.
I was wondering if that was a thing. I know buckling springs are super hard to come by which is part of the appeal of the Model M, but yeah, no shit, that's cool as fuck.
I feel bad about bullying people in general but "I can't believe you are using a TKL when 60% are leetsauce. Afterall HHKB is 60% and not TKL, it basically speaks for itself!"
But for real tho, if it works for you then that's what matters. The hobby can be extremely expensive so having cheaper prebuilts that aren't the run of the mill Corsair K60 or whatever is actually cool. My first board that got me into the hobby was a cheap no-name with Outemu Blues. Those switches fucking slapped.
Another no-name(ish?) to look for are Gateron(my basic bitch choice). They are better than Cherry, like no contest. Stay away from their Blacks tho. They look very close to Yellows on paper but the spring gets heavier as you press so you don't get that bottom out feeling and they just feel heavy heavy heavy.
I haven't been on /r/mechanicalkeyboards much lately so I'm not sure about what the new hotness is but that sub loved their Creams for a long time and then Glorious Pandas and Boba U4Ts for a while. I personally like Everglide Oreos for MX stems and Kailh Sunsets for Chocs.
I think the main difference between the surface level switches between brands is that a Kailh Brown might feel scratchy and less bumpy than a Gateron Brown but otherwise Browns are Browns, Blues are always gonna be clicky, reds and yellows are gonna be linear. Maybe this is me sounding fighty but I don't get the amount of hate that Cherry gets in the hobbyspace. I don't use them but I think if someone has Cherry Browns and they like them, cool.
I switched over to a column staggered split board and also switched to Colemak-dh at the same time and it took me 6 weeks before I could type confidently again. But like that was my journey. If typing on a prebuild 75% board with dedicated arrow keys work for you and your wife, that's what matters lol.
60% is certifiably NOT leetsauce, I have no idea how anyone gets on without an F row. I want arrows, need an F row and ideally some of the nav keys
The 75% is more like a 60% with an F row - I wouldn't usually use the full TKL but wifey bought one :)
I will.keep eyes on for Gaterons, ty! It's good to know that there isn't gonna be a huge gulf of difference between the various keys.
Dang I have seen those column staggered split boards before, kinda spooky but pretty cool. I've never really been super passionate about keyboards so I'm kind of a pleb honestly & appreciate the info,
spoiler
for a long time I thought that the best keyboard I'd used was the Lenovo Thinkpad Chiclet keyboard
I do still kind of want a Dell AT101 or of course a Model M sometime...
The leetsauce 60% comment twas just a joke. Def don't sacrifice what is functional to you for a tiny keyboard lol.
There are some mods/hacks that people have done that add the Thinkpad red nipple to boards and not gonna lie but I think that shit is super dope. It's up there with some of the touchpad builds out there
Oh ok c:
There were/are also IBM and Unicomp Model Ms with the lil red nipple which were/are super dope. Dream item, expemsive shit tho...
Maybe I'm not as knowledgeable as I claim. I looked up Unicomp and have seen them in passing but thought they were retro Cherry boards because of the black chassis. Had no idea they are still making keyboards with pointers outside of Thinkpads and the hobbyspace.
Catastrophic buckling spring switches
Unicomp bought the original blueprints and such, pretty rad.
I was wondering if that was a thing. I know buckling springs are super hard to come by which is part of the appeal of the Model M, but yeah, no shit, that's cool as fuck.