Mechanical Keyboard Size Guide from Smallest to Largest

hey guys welcome back to the channel and it seemed like a lot of you really liked the clicky versus linear versus tactile video and if you haven't seen that i'll link that right here but in this video where we will be going over all the common mechanical keyboard sizes and layouts from smallest to largest so that you know for the future what everything means so we're going to start with the smallest and that is the macro pad these are very small and pretty much can comprise of as little as two keys even one key up to like nine keys on a three by three and it just depends on what you're looking for in a macro pad are supposed to function in the way of like the stream deck that elgato makes or i don't know pretty much anything can be done with a macro pad you can customize it for productivity or macro combinations for gaming these are usually custom they could have a rotary knob for volume controls and or they could be a place to display custom key caps if you're into that so if you see those around that's what they are they do sell them some places we tried getting a hold of one however it got lost in the mail during the times right now so that's why we don't have one and then let's move up one more size and that is the number pad it has about 20-ish keys we did review a number pad and i believe it had 21 keys i'll link that review right up here and for number pads usually you want to put them on the left side for productivity you could put them on the right side too and you can move it out of the way when you're gaming if you're working you can bring it in if you're not working you can take it away it's very convenient you can also function as a macro pad as well so very convenient and then we'll move one more size up and that is the 40 percent layout 40 percent is what people consider to be the smallest but still functional layout that you can go these have about 45 to 49 keys on them and they don't have arrow keys they don't have the nav cluster they don't have the function row they don't even have the number row so it's pretty much all the alphabet keys some mods on the sides and with 40 keyboards you have to master your layers you have to go up or down layers to really access what you want you can program in arrow keys numbers on different layers usually they are customizable and programmable via different software like via or qmk or their own proprietary software that the company makes so some of these keyboards could be like the planck which is ortholinear or there's the keysight magic force 40 that we reviewed i'll link that right here as well they can be staggered or ortholinear ortholinear just means that they're in a columnar layout and it's just boxes like a grid pretty much and this layout varies really widely some have a larger space bar some have split space bars some have like just a one u key for the space bar it just depends on that person's preference specifically they definitely take time to get used to though because you don't even have your number row that was the part that was really difficult for me was losing that number row like typing in my passwords or trying to game with it was really hard but yeah use your layers if you're going 40 and then we'll go up to a very popular layout the 60 layout is basically a full size but you're going to chop that right side off and you're going to chop the forehead off and you're left with the rectangle and that is a 60 layout the great thing about 60 layout is is that it's compatible with pretty much all standard keycaps because there's no special sizes for right shift or left shift or arrows or the mods on the bottom row none of that it's just a standard layout without all the extra keys this layout seems to be really popular with gamers right now it's very aesthetic it's very compact it's pleasing to look at and there are budget options there are more expensive options there are custom options it's so expansive within the 60 layout they're also cheaper to build since you only need about 61 to 65 keycaps to really make this work and that means that many keycaps that many switches too so it is cheaper to build overall and it's easier to find more compatible cases as well if you want to upgrade from plastic to aluminum okay next size up is one of my favorites and one of the most functional layouts in my opinion is the 65 layout this adds arrow keys to the 60 layout and then you also get some modifier keys like parts of the navigational cluster if you want or insert and delete which is what i use more often the arrows are a must for me but with this layout you do have to look at the sizes of the keycaps since not everything could fit this sometimes you have a 2u right shift sometimes you have a a 1.75 right shift so it just depends and then of course those modifier keys on the right side they could look a little bit weird because of the profile the keycaps are using and the rows might not be accurate but it's functional one of my favorites actually actually everything from 65 to 80 is my favorite and then above that's too big and below that's too small so one step up over here would be a 75 percent keyboard this has the 60 layout and then you add the arrow keys you add some nav cluster keys and you add that top function row back in an example of this would be like the kikron k2 in my opinion it looks a little bit bulky and strange but it is very functional if you need most of the keys of a keyboard it's very similar to tkl except everything's more smooshed together all right so tkl also known as 80 is what you see in a full-size keyboard except you cut away the number pad side you still have the navigational cluster the arrow keys and then you have a bunch of extra space in between and that's okay if you're looking for that kind of aesthetic it's also good that it's compatible with most keycap sets some of the things about tkl are starting to bug me a little because there's so much space there and i don't want to reach around all that space but aesthetically it looks pretty good they have 87 keys some have 84 keys depending on what some of those other buttons do it used to be one of my favorites i would say it still is one of my favorites it's super functional if you're in the dark about mechanical keyboard layouts and you want something more compact this would be the one to pick you're just ditching the number pad you have everything else up to your disposal going too small might leave you wanting a little bit more but going to this size is pretty good and then of course there's the 100 keyboard and that's what you typically see when you buy a full-size keyboard or the keyboard that you get with your computer when you buy it it has the number pad on the right it has a function row on top it has the alpha numeric keys arrow keys nav cluster it has it all however it's really bulky and that's what i don't like about them to be a little bit more compact consider getting like a 96 keyboard like the k4 or something like with it like a 1800 compact layout like a leopold fc 980 i think that was what the name was a 1800 compact keyboard and then there's things that are even bigger than that 100 and plus size keyboards like a lot of gaming keyboards that we see nowadays where it has everything and then on the left it adds 5 10 8 macro keys to use just for gaming i guess they can be used for productivity and things like that too but they are in gaming keyboards so i assume they're to be used for gaming in something like world of warcraft where you need a lot more macros than other games so that was all the more common mechanical keyboard layouts 65 and 80 or tkl are my favorite they are the most functional for me 75 is okay however i think it looks a little bit bulky it's really up to you and your preference we have a really great pictorial and word guide on our blog down below that i'll link to it has a ton of pictures and easy to understand infographic if anything i said was really confusing for you hope this video was helpful and i'm going to link you guys to our tkl friday series here where we primarily review tenkeyless mechanical keyboards which we used to do every friday it's on hiatus now but it's coming back in the fall later this year and then our mechanical keyboards tips and tricks playlist right here and subscribe here if you want to i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Switch and Click

Views: 10,966

Rating: 4.9362187 out of 5

Keywords: mechanical keyboard size guide, mechanical keyboard sizes, mechanical keyboard size types, mechanical keyboard size chart, macropad, numpad, numberpad, 40% keyboard, 60% keyboard, 65% keyboard, 75% keyboard, TKL, tenkeyless, 80% keyboard, full size keyboard, mechanical keyboard size, mechanical keyboard size comparison, mechanical keyboard size explanation, mechanical keyboard sizes comparison, mechanical keyboard, switch and click, mechanical keyboard size type, mechanical

Id: cM0hgDJHX7E

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2020