YTechnology

Back in December, I reviewed the Keychron Q3 Pro.  I liked it... mostly.  What I didn't like were the keycaps which were sharp, sculpted, high, and deep. Designed to guide and cradle your fingers, the aggressive shape captured your fingers and tortured them. It took energy, focus, and deliberation to type on the OEM keys. 

  This is the Keychron Q3 Pro TKL. Normally costing $150, Keychron offered it for $125 configured with banana switches. I thought I was getting a deal but I failed to read the fine print. Because the keyboard was shipped from China, DHL invoiced me $25 to cover the tariff. This is not an uncommon story, as any coffee drinker will tell you. You can probably find this keyboard stocked a US warehouse, and thereby avoid any tariffs, but I was looking for the banana switches which are tactile. Think  Gatreon Brown or Nuphy's Wisteria  switches. The Keychron Q3 Pro is a good keyboard with some quirks.  Mechanical, full height with a heavy aluminum base (~3.5 pounds!), it supports three bluetooth connections and one wired connection. The OEM keycaps are sculpted, feel deep, and have a sharp edge. All that works fine until you press a key on the bottom row. The well defined keycap edge cuts into your thumbs, especially when pressing the spacebar. For a work around, look clos...

From Clicky To Quiet: Blue, Brown, Wisteria, Red My Nuphy Air75 mechanical keyboard seems to drop keys occasionally. I ordered it with blue switches, the clickiest available, and also the ones that require the most operating force. This could explain (some of) the dropped keys. Apple keyboards, with scissor switches, have short travel distances and don’t require much force. With muscle memory ingrained, my fingers just glide over the keys with speed and accuracy. But mechanical keyboards provide better, even addictive, tactile feedback. They also offer auditory feedback which, on a subconscious level, helps with focus. Operating forces from the   Nuphy website : Blue operating force: 65±15gf end force: 70±5gf Brown operating force: 55±15gf end force: 60±5gf Wisteria operating force: 55±15gf end force: 50±5gf Red operating force: 50±15gf end force: 60±5gf All switches have the same total travel distance of 3.2+0.2mm Wisteria sits alongside Brown, between Blue and Red. Wisteria’s end...

  Mechanical keyboards offer aural and tactile feedback that, for some, make them a joy to use.  For others, they are just another choice in the world of scissor switches and membranes. I fall into the former category, having pretty much grown up with the well regarded IBM PC Mechanical Keyboard .  I ordered my Nuphy Air75 with clicky blue switches which are the loudest and most mechanical in sound and feel. Avoid, if you have a roommate or an officemate. Get, if you miss the IBM PC keyboard. For the uninitiated, switches on mechanical keyboards typically come in three varieties: red, brown, and blue. Red switches feel the most linear and are the quietest. Brown switches sit between red and blue, and are described as tactile, with an engagement point that needs just a tiny bit more force to overcome.  Blue switches were the easy choice for me, but ideally, it would be best if you could test these switches in person. The Nuphy Air  comes in three sizes: 96, 75, 6...