I wrote a few days ago about How not to spend 8200 Euro, and it was a good experience to let it all out. So for this year, I’m going to make some round up posts in which I’ll describe some of the hardware pieces of kit I have and if I’d get them once more. Today, I’ll begin with keyboards.

Logitech MX Keys

This keyboard is absolutely bonkers. It’s low profile, very very quiet, and although it’s membrane, it offers a very comfortable and precise typing and it’s pretty good at playing WoW, which is one of the most keyboard-intense activity I do that isn’t writing or coding. Unfortunately, this is where it breaks. After about 2 years of usage, the 1-2-3 keys become very unbalanced to the point where they break and pop out of their places. I like this keyboard a lot, and I got another one, but this suffered the same problem after about the same amount of time. So it’s not me, it’s the keyboard’s design at fault.

Do I recommend it? Yes, if you’re not the one that mashes all day the W-A-S-D-1-2-3 keys all day long. The 60% variant is about 70-100 euros, while the full-size keyboard is something around 110 euros. I did find it at about 80 euro on sale, and I must say I’m tempted, but most likely I won’t get a new one as I have the two partially broken for sale.

Keychron K5 SE

I got this because I was upset about the 1-2-3 breaking on my MX Keys because I thought “hey, I’ll get a mechanical, because these are way better”. Well, I managed to get one that has its switches soldered and can’t be changed. I also got disappointed because the keycaps I got (the black ones) are not the chicklet-style gray-and-orange. I was also a bit disappointed because “low profile” means sky high in comparison with the MX keys, but I guess it is what it is.

However, this is where the bad parts end and the good parts begin. After a couple of days, once you get used to it, this is a pretty fun experience. The red linear switches are “quiet” (again with the quotes, because while they are quiet in the mechanical world, coming from a membrane one they are loud), but the typing experience is really good. After a few days of using, the typing is gotten way more precise and comfortable. I did spend 80 euros on this (+20 extra shipping), so it was decently priced. Unfortunately, it’s not for sale anymore, but you can grab a K5 Max for about 100 Euros, which is nice.

Logitech G915 X TKL

After the slow start I had with the K5, I decided to buy another low profile keyboard, this time with brown switches. And since I found this in a corner of a local hardware store, I just jumped on it, even if it was quite expensive, at about 200 euros. It’s way louder, clunkier and the typing experience is what I’d considered “not great” moving from the K5, or “awful” if moving from the MX Keys. After taking some days with it, it does get better, but it still feels like running in snowboard boots. Not only this, but it has a lot of annoying downsides: The Logitech G Hub software is bad, the keycaps are proprietary and one key broke, so now my “B” key says “Scrl Lck” on it. Oh, and to top off the annoyance, it uses a micro-USB port for charging, so this means another cable on the desk in addition to the USB-C I use for charging the mouse and keyboard when needed.

What I liked was that I was able to remap the volume wheel (using an external software of course) into 1 and 2 so the WoW experience sometimes turns from a button mashing experience into a scrolling one. Cute. It’s also good that I can change the backlight to be some kind of white, rather than the whole RGB rainbow, and it’s battery is fairly decent. I also loved the dedicated media keys, which are better than fn+Fwhatever the factory decided. Judging all these and the steep price, it’s something I definitely don’t recommend buying unless you’re shitting gold nuggets.

Apple Keyboard

I have this in the A1243, aluminium, 109 keys variant, as well as its Wireless variant (3rd Generation, A1314, aluminium, 78 keys, the one with 2 batteries), and they are both very very good, with a very low profile and really good typing experience. Unfortunately, their time has passed, because they were used for the better part of 8 years and some keys don’t work properly anymore and they are a pain in the ass to replace (the same issue the MX Keys has). And while you can’t find them new anymore, as they’ve been succeeded by the Magic Keyboard, which I don’t like.

Logitech K400+

This is a cheap keyboard with a trackpad and some buttons and if you want to describe this using only one word, that would be “cheap”. I don’t use it at all, but it’s a decent experience for when using an older computer or a laptop. It does its job and for 35 euro it’s just fine.

Akyta AT-830

This is the definition of a cheap keyboard. Paid about 15 euros for this because I needed a simple keyboard for my home server. It had to be USB and have no fancy things, because the Logitech keyboards don’t have wired connectivity, only charging, and the Keychron needs the OS to be booted to be seen, I couldn’t use any of them to access my home server’s BIOS (or UEFI or whatever server BIOSes are called). The Akyta even has multimedia keys, and a cheap membrane which is terribly uncomfortable to use, but since I’m using this only to type in a password here and then, it’s okay. Also, this keyboard is so obscure, there isn’t a photo of it on the internet and searching for the model reveals a completely different keyboard, a gaming one, which this is not.

In conclusion, there’s a keyboard for each one of us, for every situation, for every budget. Try things before you purchase, but have in mind a few tips: make sure what you want is in the budget, read a lot of reviews before doing a purchase, avoid purchasing stuff on a whim or just because they’re cool. Also try to stick somewhere in the middle price-wise, never get the cheapest thing, it’s going to be bad. Also don’t get the most expensive one, it’s gonna be a scam. If I thought about these before, I probably wouldn’t have bought half of the keyboards I have.