I’m looking to buy a decent keyboard - nothing ridiculous as I’m not a keyboard enthusiast, but decent enough for regular use. In particular, I’m looking for something…
- tkl or full size, nothing with a non-standard arrow key layout
- Pink or pink and white (or white but cheap enough I can buy keycaps with it)
- Quieter switches and shorter travel are perfered, but not a deal breaker
- Available in Canada
Currently I’m mostly looking at the Razer BlackWidow V3 for $122 CAD. I’m not exactly a Razor fan, but the only competitve option I found was the Ducky One 3 TKL for $171 CAD. I’m sure the quality is better, and the hotswappable switches are very nice, but it lacks the backlight and the media controls while being $50 more expensive.
Is there a better option I’m missing, or a good reason to pick one or the other?
Keychron k10 100 wire/wireless
Check out offerings from Yunzii, specifically their aluminium keyboards. Should be far better quality than Razer, also at a better price point for what it is.
A few other options include ajazz, Epomaker, aula, or royal kludge like a couple comments mentioned. They are all similar and offer great bang for your buck.
All are hotswappable and depending on which model you pick, there should be some leftovers for a set of keycaps if the Razer keyboard is your budget.
IDK about the options available, but I’ve found that choosing a wired keyboard can bring the price down significantly. This is no trade-off because I wouldn’t use a wireless keyboard anyway.
Keychron keyboards are solid and maintainable, and available in Canada. Pick a model that supports swapping switches, and start with brown switches perhaps - they’re on the more quiet end of the spectrum, but common so you won’t break the bank. Then over time you can customize it as your budget allows - different switches if browns are not the right fit for you, keycaps of your preferred colour, etc.
Yeah, OP should just find a hot-swap Keychron they like and call it a day. If the keeb bug bites, it’s plenty good enough not to find embarrassing. If it doesn’t, it’s a solid and repairable board to use for a long time.
I have a full-size Keychron, and I love it, I think it was fantastic bang for buck
Royal Kludge makes some good keyboards for less. Their wired one is super affordable but does have longer, louder travel.
I got an RK recently and have been very happy with it. Multiple connection options (wired, usb, or 2.4ghz), nice white and green colors, switches and caps all feel very good for such a budget model. Only thing I dislike is they made it full size but inexplicably decided no one needs an “End” key anymore. Its an Fn-layer button (on Page Down?!), along with Pause, PrtSc, and ScrLk. Admittedly I never need those other keys but I use End failry often and it’s an odd choice, especially since they kept the numpad.
Thirded on RK. I’ve night two of their boards, RK71& RK84, both black BT/RF. The 71 I derped on as it didn’t have a dedicated F key row and it impacted gameplay at times. Took that one to the office and daily drive both. I think both are brown switches.
My current daily driver is a 13€ blue switches thing for AliExpress with 20€ DSA keycaps also from AliExpress. Both are fine.
Ducky One 3 RGB in white for $130 @ mechanicalkeyboards.com but it’s on backorder until mid-month. Is that the $170 CAD?
I’d get the Ducky because I am familiar with their quality and have heard the service is good. In addition, you can get Cherry MX keycaps everywhere, and PBT keycaps are the luxury version compared to ABS. Feels more solid somehow.
Cherry Reds feel like mush to me, Browns are silent but have a slight tactile bump and are my preferred switch.
ETA: Oh, the Duckys last years, decades even. The Razer might too, I don’t know but Ducky is basically the workhorse of the MK world.
Ducky One 3 TKL RGB in white is $179 CAD, so even more expensive. That said, I guess its probably worth the extra money compared to the backlight-less version at least.
like $8 to have RGB? Yeah, totally worth it.
I would not buy a Razer if they paid me $120. Do yourself a favor and don’t. I’ve owned a fair few Razer products in my life and they’ve all been overpriced flimsy pieces of shit, and when they break Razer will do anything and everything to weasel out of doing anything about it. As a matter of fact, the last Razer product I had break on me was a Blackwidow Chroma, and not coincidentally it was the last Razer product I will ever buy. I think it made it a whole nine months.
Anyway, I was in this very boat not too long ago and settled on the Glorious GMMK 3 100% for my wife, which is indeed available in white. It’s $140 USD list price, so I don’t know how that fits your budget. She got some nice cat themed keycaps for it and she’s having a ball. You can get it with various keyswitch options prepopulated, or even swap the switches around as you see fit. She got the “Fox” linear keyswitches which are not short throw but are definitely quiet.
I use a Logitech G512 Carbon at the moment, myself. It’s not white but it has otherwise been bomber for over a year.
This is a sterling endorsement for me. I don’t know if anyone’s noticed but I type a lot. Not just bickering in the comments, but for work as well. I am not rough on keyboards and mine never moves from this spot, but I will tickle the keyswitches on any 'board a couple of million times in short order and I probably find the service limit on all the keys that are not W, A, S, or D more quickly than the average penguin.
I have a Redragon keyboard using their off-brand CherryMX knock offs and it feels the same as the Corsair I had with actual CherryMX switches.
The Corsair is almost $200. The Redragon was $40, and came with a mouse, a headset, and a big ass mouse pad. But I don’t think they come in something that isn’t lighted in some way, if you don’t want RGB bs.
Well they don’t have it in pink but a unicomp is the best keyboard made.
I have two model m keyboards. Both are older than my wife. They are my work and personal PC daily drivers.
You can buy new USB versions on the net or Amazon.
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Cheap
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Your specific requests
Pick one.
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I’ve been able to get Razer ones when sales are going on.
Model M
currently typing this out with a blue badge model m
I’m currently using a model M clone (thats like 40 years old) but the lack of N-key rollover is killer for even simple games.
You want a newer Unicomp Model M.
