Five top tips when choosing a keyboard

Five top tips when choosing a keyboard

By Jesse

Keyboards are an often overlooked aspect of ergonomics, which is a pity, given how many of us spend a lot of our workdays pecking away at these devices. Just like chair and desk height and the angle of your footrest, it’s important to have a typing experience that works best for each unique person. (As someone with small hands, I learned this pretty quickly).

This blog post may or may not also be fueled by my passion for mechanical keyboards, a hobby I’ve been interested in for years.

If you’re in the market for a new keyboard, I’ve listed five things to consider when looking for your perfect typing match.

Aesthetic

Keyboards are quite a big periphery in the gaming industry because so many people play games on their computers, using their keyboards.This sparked a whole sub-genre of keyboards specifically geared towards playing games.

When you’re looking for keyboards for everyday use, gaming keyboards are a solid option because of the functionality they have in mind with their design – the intention is to make them comfortable to play on for hours at a time, and this translates to using them for work and in general really well.

The problem comes in when someone wants the comfort of a gaming keyboard, but less of the “gamery” aesthetic, which is quite the balancing act.

A lot of gaming keyboards will have backlighting, which is cool but distracting. They also tend to have shine-through letters on the keys to accompany the backlighting, which can look a bit weird when the lights are off. Sometimes the fonts on the keycaps are also “gamery”, and not the most legible.

Most people tend to prefer a more cut and dry office keyboard look, but it is possible to get something close to that with the benefits of a gaming keyboard.

Comfort

The comfort of a keyboard depends on two main factors:

  1. The force it takes to type
  2. The height according to your hands

There are two main types of keyboards, which have different comfort levels:

  1. Membrane
  2. Mechanical

Office keyboards are (mostly) exclusively “membrane” keyboards, which means they work by having an internal piece of rubber (the membrane) with little convex bubbles sit under the keys. Under this is an electrical contact, and when the key is pressed down to type, the bubble becomes concave, and the electrical contact makes contact with a circuit board, which registers a keystroke.

When you’re typing on them you’re pushing on a piece of silicone-like plastic, so people describe them as “mushy”. They tend to take a lot of force to press down on the key, which can lead to fatigue in your hands.

Mechanical keyboards, which tend to be how gaming keyboards are constructed, use a hard plastic mechanical switch. There are two pieces, each with their own copper piece, and when the key is pressed down, the two copper pieces make contact and register a keystroke. Because it’s two hard plastic pieces sliding against each other, the experience is smoother and easier to press, so it’s easier to use for a longer time.

As a result, mechanical keyboards tend to be more comfortable for longer, but on the flip side, membrane keyboards tend to be flatter (lower profile) and mechanical keyboards tend to be taller (higher profile) because of the shape of the switch.

For people not used to it, or people with smaller hands, taller keyboards can cause more fatigue. A great way to combat this is to use a wrist rest to elevate your hands, and it has the added benefit of giving you a comfortable surface to rest against.

What I’ve done for my most used keyboard (yes, I have more than one) is to get a mechanical low profile switch, which is flatter, but more expensive and less popular.

Keyboards - ProfilesPrice

You can guess that membrane office keyboards are much cheaper than mechanical keyboards, because of the parts that go into them and complexity of the construction.

You can get membrane office keyboards starting from R80 on Takealot, but in contrast the cheapest mechanical keyboard I could find was R320.

It’s important to balance your budget and comfort, and go with an option that fits your body and budget.

Size

This is something that a lot of people who have never used anything other than an office keyboard might not have thought about before, but it’s quite common among mechanical keyboard users to have a smaller sized keyboard.

They’re usually measured in percentages of a full sized keyboard, or the number of keys the board features.

My favourite size is 40% – I think it’s a nice size and good ergonomically, but it can be annoying to type numbers and special characters, as these keys are missing and can only be typed using the function button.

Keyboards - 40%The keyboard I built is a 60%, which is great for gaming because it has a number row. (If you were at all unsure about how deep my obsession goes, that line should clear it up, I guess.)

Keyboards - 60%Keyboard size guideCredit: Minehacks on Reddit

Customisation

This is where things get more niche, but the difference between a mechanical and membrane keyboard is that mechanical keyboards offer much more customisation.

When I built my keyboard I got to choose:

  • The case it sits in: It’s a lunchbox-style bamboo case, which means it comes with a lid that can close to protect the keyboard from dust. The lid also doubles as a wrist rest.
  • The circuit board: This allowed me to choose a “hot swappable” board, which means I can change the switches out if I want to, and they don’t have to be soldered down.
  • The mechanical switches: I chose “yellow” switches because they’re linear, which means there’s no physical feedback when I press a key, and the force needed to push down on the keys is less, which is nice for my small hands.
  • The keycaps: I chose PBT caps, which is a sturdy plastic that washes well. I also chose keycaps that weren’t too tall, and that had a nice dip in the middle, to rest my fingers on.

This way I had control over the size, texture, actuation force, sound, and height of the keyboard, so it’s perfectly tailored for me.


As you can see there can be a lot that can go into a keyboard purchasing decision, but it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Online IT stores have a lot of great options no matter what you’re looking for – and now maybe you have some idea of what would work well for you!