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Discussion on: Any love for mechanical keyboards?

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joshransley profile image
Josh Ransley • Edited

I got a mechanical keyboard kind of by accident. I started my first job and had a normal generic full size keyboard, but I was used to narrower Mac & Macbook keyboards and my right hand felt so far out to the side.

So I went looking for a good tenkeyless keyboard that would work with Windows. I wasn't looking for or even aware of mechanical keyboards.

When I find what I want and I can afford it, I don't mind paying a premium so £125 later a Filco Majestouch Tenkeyless keyboard arrived. It looked... like a keyboard. A loud keyboard.

I used it for a while, thought it felt a bit better but didn't think too much about it. I only wanted it because it was narrow. Then I had to use a normal keyboard for some reason and wow it felt like typing on a keyboard covered in honey. Slow and gooey. Not what you want from a keyboard.

The keycaps felt weird too – not something I ever thought I'd think about.

I now have two of the same, one for work and one for home. I use them on a huge neoprene mat to try and cut down on the noise for the sake of my colleagues' sanity. I took the new one to work and left the old one at home. The old one had been used for 2-3 years everyday and did feel different to the new one.

Two Filco keyboards next to each other on a wooden desk

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

Nice setup! I felt the same way when I tried to type on my Mac keyboard.

I gotta have my num pad. I had been wondering if I should do a minimal keyboard like a 65% but with function key row. Then build a num pad separately. In the end I gotta have arrows, num pad, function keys, and maybe an additional vertical row on the left side for macros.

I'll probably play around with the keypad first to make the custom pcb.