So recently I've developed a strong interest in a brand new hobby, and that is mechanical keyboards. Since I have been working from home since March, so around six months at this point, I really have been wanting to invest in high quality office gear. The mechanical keybo ard community is actually very strong and prominent. So in this video, I kinda just wanted to talk about what a mechanical keyboard is, what differs a mechanical keyboard from just a normal keyboard, and show you the two that I currently own. Firstly, you might be asking yourself, what is a mechanical keyboard? There are typically two most common types of keyboards: membrane keyboards and mechanical keyboards. So most run-of-the-mill, you know average keyboards are going to be membrane keyboards. These are keyboards that have a soft layer of membrane so basically when a key is pressed, a circuit will register that pressure and send a signal to your computer that that key was pressed. You can think of it as basically just a pressure pad. Here is actually an example of a keyboard that has a membrane based design and this is the magic keyboard. You can see here that it has these soft rubber domes and essentially when you press it, the dome will then press against a pressure pad and again, that's what registers the signal that a key was pressed. The keys on a membrane keyboard are only registered when you press the key all the way down - this is also known as "bottoming out". The keys also wear out a lot more easily. Now mechanical keyboards on the other hand have individual switches under each key
that register your key press. The keys on mechanical keyboards are also registered part-way when pressing a key. Here is an example of a mechanical keyboard - this is my Anne Pro 2. You can see an example of a switch right here. So pressing down on one of these switches is how a key is able to be registered. The keys that go on top of the switches of a keyboard are called keycaps. You can see here that the switch has a cross-stem design. Now this switch design was popularized by a brand called cherry. For a while, cherry switches were actually considered sort of the gold standard of switches and cherry had a patent on this cross-stem design. The patent actually expired in 2004 so since then, a lot of other brands have come up with their own version of the cherry switches, all of which have that same cross-stem design, so that's
why those switches are referred to as "cherry clone switches". There's a lot of talk amongst the
community on which types of switches people prefer, it's really up to your own preference, so gateron red switches for example are a cherry clone switch. There's also a bunch of different types
of switches. In general though, all switches can be placed into three main categories, the first category
being linear switches. So linear switches have no feedback. They feel completely smooth when you
press them all the way down. Because of that, I personally feel that linear switches feel the most
similar to your average, run-of-the-mill keyboard because most memory keyboards also don't have
any feedback when you're typing on them. Examples of linear switches are gataron
red switches and cherry mx red switches. Next, we have tactile switches. Tactile switches
essentially have feedback or a bump that will occur part-way during the keys travel. The bump is
pretty slight, but it is definitely noticeable and a lot of people prefer tactile keys because
the bump/feedback allows your brain to sort of register that a key was pressed, unlike
linear keys in which there's just no feedback. A lot of people will say that they just cannot
tell when a key has been registered. An example of a popular tactile switch are cherry
mx brown switches. I have my Akko 3068 keyboard in cherry mx brown switches and
when you type on it, you can definitely physically feel the bump and you can actually
hear it as well if you listen very closely. Last but not least, we have clicky switches and
this is a type of tactile switch. Clickies not only have tactile feedback, but they also have a clicking sound as well that occurs when a key is registered. A popular type of clicky switch is cherry mx blue switches, but there are a bunch of other switches made by other brands that are also really good. Kailh switches and gateron switches are also very much beloved. So personally, I prefer linear switches because like I mentioned, I feel that they feel the most similar to typing on your average keyboard, so your laptop keyboard or your magic keyboard for example. If you're looking to purchase your first mechanical keyboard, I think that linear switches are a good way to go because they're probably the easiest to transition into. I first purchased my Akko keyboard, so this one has the cherry mx brown switches, and it did feel very strange typing on it at first. I did have a lot of trouble adjusting to typing accurately. I felt like i was missing a lot of keys and the tactile feedback made it feel like I had to apply more pressure when I was typing, vs. i didn't feel that way when I got my Anne Pro keyboard, which has the gataron red linear
switches. It felt a lot easier to just adjust to right away. I felt like for the brown switches, I had to adjust the way that i naturally typed. Each type of switch also requires a different
"actuation force", and this basically just refers to the amount of pressure you need to apply in order to get the switch/key to a point in which the key is registered. Mechanical keyboards also come in a variety of different sizes that contain different numbers of keys, and you'll hear percentages being used to refer to the size of the keyboard. So my Anne Pro 2 has 60% layout. It has 61 keys and it basically just has all of your essential letter, number, special function keys, but it doesn't include arrow keys. However, there's actually a way in which you can use other sets of keys as replacement for arrow keys. My Akko keyboard has a 65% layout and 68 keys, so it has the arrow keys here and the tilda, delete, page up, and page down key on the side. Now
keyboards can also be wired, or wired and wireless. So for example, my Akko keyboard came with a type-c cable that is required to connect it to your computer. My Anne Pro 2 gives you the option of using a cable or connecting through bluetooth with a switch on the back. Since I'm not moving around that much, I actually don't use the bluetooth that frequently. This keyboard is cool though because you can actually check its battery life. The numbers 1 through 0 will light up and the colors correspond to how much battery is left. Some keyboards like my Anne Pro 2 have RGB. It's
this awesome colorful back lighting of the keys. For this keyboard in particular, you can actually customize your own colors through a software. RGB is definitely a super cool extra
feature, but not essential for a keyboard. You can also switch out the keycaps, which makes it really fun. You can essentially just order an entire new set of keycaps, and kind of feel like you have an entirely new different keyboard. A lot of people will actually build mechanical keyboards from scratch, so they'll pick out a board, the switches, the keycaps. Essentially mechanical keyboards just have so many different options, so it really allows you to be able to find the perfect keyboard for you. A lot of people actually find mechanical keyboards more ergonomic as well. As I mentioned before, for membrane keyboards, you need to press a key all the way down in order for it to register. For mechanical keyboards, because you only need to press a key part-way down for it to register, a lot of people find that they can type lighter and more comfortably for long periods of time. One of my friends who's really into mechanical keyboards basically described it as: because he's not bottoming out the keys, he's not experiencing that really harsh feedback from when a key bounces back from hitting the bottom of a board. So that makes him feel like he's draining his fingers less and it just makes it more comfortable for him to type. Some people find that they are more accurate typing on mechanical keyboard because each key press is a lot more obvious and intentional. Lastly, for a lot of people, it's just a
really fun hobby because there's just endless ways to be able to customize your keyboard as I described. In conclusion, I've been really happy with both of my keyboards so far, and I definitely think I just fall under the category of people who just find this as a really cool and fun hobby. I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you enjoyed learning more about mechanical keyboards. If you decide to get one, let me know in the comments which one you got and how you like it, and with that, I'll talk to you next time, bye!
