As someone who’s looking to to get into the hobby, I’m curious to hear if there are any recommendations for budget friendly mechanical keyboards. I had/have a Corsair cherry red mechanical keyboard that I used probably around 10 years ago at this point when I was into gaming, but now I’d be looking for something a bit more refined, and possibly vintage as I quite enjoy using old tech. Any suggestions? I’m in Europe if that matters at all.
Take a look at Keychron. They have a lot to offer for around your budget and they go on sale frequently.
Are you looking to be able to swap switches out? If so you will need to find hot swappable switches.
If you care about backlighting they might be a little more expensive. But Keychron is reasonable. I’ve had their K2 for years and it has a better feel in it vs Corsair or Razer stuff in my opinion.
They look great, thanks for the suggestion.
Are you looking to get into it because you want a good keyboard that feels good; or do you want to get into it because you like the idea of weird layouts, building your own keyboard, trying different switches, weird color schemes, custom key shapes, or all the other interesting but not typing things you can do. Nothing wrong with that second group, even though you can probably tell from my tone that I don’t see the point myself (if this is you I can’t give good advice so stop reading).
I’m going to against the grain a bit. If you liked and want the oldschool Thinkpad feel, look into getting a Topre board. Check out Leopold or Niz, both are decent topre clone brands.
Also, if you live in a metro area check and see if there’s a mechanical board gathering, possibly giving you a broader flavor of what’s out there that might fit your taste.
I’d recommend looking for keyboards with hot-swappable switches. They may be more expensive up front, but they are repairable so they will be much more cost effective in the long term. Plus there are fun things you can do like trying out different switches or even mix-and-matching different types.
I usually have a key fail about once a year or so. For a keyboard without hot swappable switches that’s a new keyboard each time one key fails (assuming it’s a key that’s important, which it usually is - keys you use more frequently are more likely to fail sooner). Keys are like $1 a pop (although you usually have to buy them in bulk).
I used to buy the Corsair keyboard for like $50 each. I switched to a $150 keyboard with hot swappable switches. I’ve had my keyboard for about 5 years now and I think I’ve replaced 3 keys.
Out of interest, were keyboards that had “a key fail about once a year or so” all Corsairs?
I think it was Coolermaster actually. But the brand of keyboard isn’t super important because they all use the same brand of switches (Cherry MX). I’m now using different switches (Hako) but I don’t think the failure rate is really any different.
Ducky is worth a look.
If you want to dip a whole foot you could buy a hot swappable PCB and case to experiment with switches and keycaps. It’s probably not cheaper than a Keychron, but it could be give you more options to explore. I’ve built two Nyquist’s from keebio and a handwired Alice: each has cost less than $100. My first Nyquist is still the cheapest of the three and my daily driver; it replaced a Gigabyte with Cherry reds…
I got a TecWare Phantom 104 for my first, it’s been good so far (about 3 years of use). The “shroud” cover piece helps with noise and light leakage. I have the brown keys, they’re pretty nice. I’ve had to replace a couple of the most used ones, but it came with some extras.
The keyboard comes with a key cap puller tool, but I recommend getting a key puller tool (to remove the keys themselves, not just the caps). They’re cheap and will make changing keys a much better experience.
The price seems reasonable, thanks.
I had the same question a while ago and got myself a Keychron C3 Pro for $40.
What’s your budget? What features are important to you?
Less than 100€, but from what I gather this is quite an expensive hobby! As far as features are concerned I wouldn’t know where to begin. I suppose I quite like the Thinkpad X220’s keyboard experience, if that can be translated at all to mechnical keyboards.
It would blow your budget somewhat, but there is certainly ONE manufacturer to at least look at and smile.
As others have been saying, Keychron is currently the go-to for recommendations for first keyboards. They have a bewildering variety of layouts, most of them at several price points, and they have better European “ISO” support than most pre-built companies.
For switches, if you want it to feel a little more like your old ThinkPad, the biggest move in that direction would be to switch from Linears like your Cherry Red to “tactiles” like Browns. Those recommending “hot-swap” boards have a good point, but you’ll want to make sure the printed circuit board is well supported if/when you put in new switches. The most common damage people get with modern mechanical keyboards is a hotswap socket tearing away from the PCB.
