Choosing the right keyboard can be one of the essential parts of your PC setup if you spend a lot of time writing or doing work. It’s also crucial for gaming if you want to have a great experience, but not many gamers are putting an emphasis on the keyboard. The biggest reason is that the majority doesn’t want to spend too much money on it.
But, if you want a better working or gaming experience, you should do a bit of research and find what suits your needs the most. The good thing is that there are plenty of options that you can find online, but it can also be a bit overwhelming if you don’t have a strict budget. You might need it just for checking the odds to win March Madness, where the quality of the keyboard won’t matter as much, but the experience matters as well.
Mechanical or Membrane
There are more options besides mechanical or membrane type, but these are the main two that manufacturers make and that people generally buy. Membrane keyboards are much cheaper and are usually made out of plastic with regular keys that always sound the same unless you buy a gaming version that looks mechanical but doesn’t function in the same way.
On the other hand, mechanical keyboards are much stiffer, and they have different keys or switches, which is the most critical part of the keyboard. They are more expensive just because they have different kinds of switches, and most professionals will use them because of the better efficiency and benefits that it has.
Types of Switches
Three main switches include red and brown, which isn’t an official name, but everyone calls them based on their color. The official name for the red switch is linear; for brown, it’s tactical, and for blue, it’s clicky. These are not the only types that exist because you can find more than 20 on the market, but each one of them can be classified as one of the leading 3.
Red or linear are used mainly by games because there’s no setback when you want to click a key, and the only thing that’s stopping you from clicking is the spring. This means that you will feel the click more compared to other types. They have a shorter travel distance which helps your reaction time during gaming.
Brown or tactical switches are famous for open offices because they have some feedback when clicking compared to red switches, which are smoother and lack the sound that blue switches have. There are many variations of brown switches based on the amount of lubrication they have to make the click smoother.
Blue switches or clicky are basically what the name says; they will have a strong sound so you can register every click. Most people that use mechanical switches like to hear that clicking sound, but they could be more convenient for offices because they can distract people around you. Each model has its own amount of sound produced and feedback it gives to the user for every click.
What To Choose?
Everything depends on what keyboard will be used and even if you need a mechanical one. If you don’t want to spend a lot, membrane type can get the job done, but if you like to enhance your experience, make sure you choose carefully. Some gamers want to have that clicky sound feedback, meaning they will select blue, but professionals always have red switches.
If you are typing a lot each day, brown switches will work the best because you will have some feedback, but there won’t be a lot of sounds. This is important because some people type fast, and it cannot be enjoyable to hear every single click. The best choice would be to buy a mechanical keyboard with multiple switches that you can change when you like.