How it started

When I got into freelancing and building my own products in 2017, I didn't know much about keyboards, I had been working mostly either from a laptop or from keyboards provided by companies I worked at. Usually, there were generic Logitech rubber dome switch keyboards.

What are rubber dome switches?

They are the most common switch technology in keyboards, they use small rubber coverings that are pushed down to complete a circuit, their main advantage consists in lower cost compared to mechanical switches, and their quietness, hence their popularity in a corporate environment. Their main drawback, is their mushy feeling when you type, resulting in a poor typing experience, but most people don't know better and get away with it.

Another drawback that usually goes hand in hand with rubber dome keyboards (although it also exists on some mechanical keyboards), are the ABS plastic keycaps. They are usually the type of plastic that get greasy over time, no matter how much you clean and wipe them, and they have a tendency to have their printing fading away. Also as far as I know, rubber dome keyboard keycaps can't be swapped, which is also a big drawback.

Once you go mechanical, you can't go back

Where I live, New Caledonia, we don't have much choice in mechanical keyboards, actually, all of them are gamer keyboards. While they are decent, they are mostly aimed at gamers and features things I don't care for, like RGB lighting, macros, which are usually huge, and feature mechanism that are optimized for gaming, not typing.

Plus, I only use QWERTY layout keyboards. Even though I lived most of my life in french speaking countries, during my studies at EPITA we were provided with QWERTY layout only as they told us it was a much better layout for programming than the AZERTY one (the french layout). The fact that I also type a lot in english makes it a no brainer that I have to keep the QWERTY layout. That's why I had to order online all the keyboards I tested, which requires a lot of patience since we're not in the US, and you usually have to wait around 3 weeks, and pay a 20% import tax on it, gulp.

1 - Filco Majestouch Ninja Tenkeyless

After doing some research online, I went for the Filco Majestouch Ninja Tenkeyless for various reasons :

• It was decently priced for a first time purchase
• It features MX Brown switches, which are known to be a good starting point for beginers, and aroun't too noisy either, even If at that time I had my own little office.
• The keys were printed not on top of the keycaps, they were side printed... which gave a nice stealth look to the keyboard, almost looked like blank keycaps if you look at it on top. Good way to appear like a badass typer to your coworkers, while still keeping your printing.
• It was a tenkeyless keyboard, or in other words, a 80% layout, which means that compared to a full size keyboard, you remove the numpad, which I didn't care for since I don't often input tons of numbers by hand.
• The build quality is very good at that price, with a metal base that feels solid and stay in place when you type.

While the keycaps looked cool at first, they ended up becoming shinny, since the default keycaps were made out of ABS plastic. so I ordered new keycaps in PBT plastic and the experience was totally different. I got them trough kbdfans.com, they are costly but were well worth their price.

2 - Kono Nightfox

I had been typing for now more than a year with my Filco, however I felt like this layout was still a bit too big, I thought my right hand was traveling too far to the mouse when I needed to, and realized that I was barely using the right part of the keyboard, except for the direction arrows.

I got interested into a keyboard that was barely out of a Kickstarter campaign, so I would be amongst the first users of this product... Exciting! It was also on the higher end compared to the Filco, at a price of around 200$, but the build quality really what top notch, with a fantastic looking anodized aluminum body, and durable PBT keycaps.

Its size was a compact 65% layout, so basically it's like removing the right part of an 80% keyboard, as well as the function keys, so the space-saving was real, and considering how much you use the function keys, I didn't mind accessing them with a combination.

The switches were much different and less common, Hako switches, and are much harder to press than MX Brown. This is because, by design, they discourage bottom out, so you are encouraged to press down the key until you feel the actuation force (feeling a little click). They have a higher learning curve, but once you know how to type on them, they are so quiet since you never bottom out on the keyboard body.

I was actually worried for a bit after receiving it, since my fingers were getting really sore after a typing session, once I learned to touch-type I felt much better.

Also, a big bonus, you can reprogram its layout by accessing its firmware, and since it was reconfigured at the hardware level, it could be used on any OS or device.

I had one day brought this keyboard to work, and lent it to a collaborator, who loved it so much that he asked me if he could buy it, which I did happily since I had since found my end game keyboard.

3 - Vortex Race 3 TKL

I had an eye on this keyboard for a while, it's not a common layout, at 75%, it is a little bit more compact than the Filco but bigger than the Nightfox, not wider, but taller. But the good thing is that it crams so many keys in such a small space. The layout has also some weird places touches and takes a bit of time to get used to.

One advantage of this keyboard is the fact that you could order it with pretty much all available MX switches, so from my experience with the Hako Clear, I went with the MX Clear. They offered a similar typing experience than the Nightfox, maybe a little less stiff.

One thing that caught my eye was the keycaps color scheme, with its yellow, red, green, and blues, it reminded me of a SNES pad, which of course triggered my childhood nostalgia.

While I liked it, it was probably the keyboard I used the less since I was more interested in its quirky design, but less interested in typing on it every day, but I would still recommend it, especially for its affordability.

I actually offered it to a former collaborator who tried it and loved it. So far I've been spreading mechanical keyboard love in Noumea, New Caledonia !

4 - Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional BT

I was lurking on this keyboard for a very long time, I actually didn't order it as my first, since I read that it was for more "advanced" users, and the exotic layout was scaring me a little bit. However, after a few years of testing out different layouts, I knew that I should give it a try.

I bought the keyboard on the Amazon Japan, which was quite an experience since most of the interface is in Japanese. I took advantage of a friend who was visiting the country. To my surprise, everything went smoothly and he came back a few weeks later with the holy keyboard, and I was really overwhelmed.

The typing experience is just so smooth, and completely different from any other mechanical switches I've tried, the HHKB features Topre switches, which are electrostatic capacitive non-contact switches. Basically, they feel like a mix between a refined rubber dome, and a mechanical switch close to Cherry MX Red.

Just like the MX Clear, you don't have to bottom out to reach the actuation force, but the resistance is much lower. However, if you type with force, the keyboard will be a little noisy, mainly due to the key hitting the body, not because of a loud "click" just like the Cherry MX Blue. So I actually ordered silencers, that I had to install, by unmounting the keyboard entirely. It was time consuming and scary, but the result is perfect.

At the time, the keyboard was actually available in the silent version (HHKB Type S) but I wanted the Bluetooth version, which didn't include a silent version... so I had to customize it myself. In 2022 they are now selling a Hybrid version (wired or Bluetooth) with a silencer option.

Besides its touching feel, the thing I like the most about this keyboard is its layout, they actually removed arrow keys, and the tab key, that is being swapped with Control. It feels weird at first, but so far its the most optimal layout I have tried, if you learn it properly you will notice that your fingers aren't traveling that much.

This keyboard has been my main driver for around 3 years now, and I would only change it for a newer version and nothing else.

And to conclude, are is a size comparison, so you can feel what is a 80%, 65%, and 60% layout.