For Beginners Guide to Mechanical Keyboards

Hey guys,

What is a mechanical keyboard? How does it differ from a membrane one? What are the various sorts of switches? I will be going over of these questions during this mechanical keyboard video for beginners!

I live in san Francisco and I work in tech so  recently I have developed a strong interest  in a brand new hobby and that is mechanical  keyboards since I’ve been working from home  since march so around six months at this  point I really have been wanting to invest  in high quality office gear the mechanical  keyboard community is actually very strong  and prominent so in this video I kind of just want  to talk about what a mechanical keyboard is what  defers a mechanical keyboard from just a normal  keyboard and show you the two that I currently  own so firstly you might be asking yourself what  is a mechanical keyboard so they’re typically two  most common types of keyboards membrane keyboards  and mechanical keyboards so most run-of-the-mill  you know average keyboards are going to be  membrane keyboards so these are keyboards.

That have a soft layer of membrane so basically  when a key is pressed a circuit will register  that pressure and send a signal to your computer  that that key was pressed you can think of it as  basically just a pressure pad here is actually an  example of a keyboard that has a membrane based  design and this is the magic keyboard you  can see here that it has these soft rubber  domes and essentially when you press it the dome  will then press against a pressure pad and again  that’s what registers the signal that a key  was pressed the keys on a membrane keyboard  are only registered when you press the key all  the way down this is also known as bottoming out the keys also wear out a lot more easily  now mechanical keyboards on the other hand  have individual switches under each key.  

That register your key press the keys on  mechanical keyboards are also registered part  way when pressing a key so here is an example  of a mechanical keyboard this is my and pro 2.  so you can see an example of a switch right here  so pressing down on one of these switches is  how a key is able to be registered and the keys  that go on top of the switches of a keyboard are  called keycaps so you can see here that the switch  has a cross stem design now this switch design  was popularized by a brand called cherry for a  while cherry switches were actually considered  sort of the gold standard of switches and  cherry had a patent on this crosstem design the  pattern actually expired in 2004 so since then  a lot of other brands have come up with their  own version of the cherry switches all of which  have that same crosstalk design. 

So that’s  why those switches are referred to as cherry  clone switches there’s a lot of talk amongst the  community on which types of switches people prefer  it’s really up to your own preference so got  around red switches for example are a cherry clone  switch so there’s also a bunch of different types  of switches in general though all switches can be  placed into three main categories first category  being linear switches so linear switches have  no feedback they feel completely smooth when you  press them all the way down because of that I personally feel that linear switches feel the most  similar to your average run-of-the-mill keyboard  because most memory keyboards also don’t have  any feedback when you’re typing on them. 

So  examples of linear switches are gataron  red switches and cherry mx red switches next we have tactile switches tactile switches  essentially have feedback or a bump that will  occur part way during the keys travel the bump is  pretty slight but it is definitely noticeable and  a lot of people prefer tactile keys because  the bump slash feedback allows your brain to  sort of register that a key was pressed unlike  linear keys in which there’s just no feedback  a lot of people will say that they just cannot  tell when a key has been registered an example  of a popular tactile switch are cherry  mx brown switches so I  have my echo 306  8 keyboard and cherry mx brown switches and  when you type on it you could definitely  physically feel the bump and you can actually  hear it as well if you listen very closely last but not least we have clicky switches and  this is a type of tactile switch cookies not  only have tactile feedback but they also have  a clicking sound. 

As well that occurs when a key  is registered a popular type of cookie switch is  cherry mx blue switches but there are a bunch of  other switches made by other brands that are also  really good tail switches and gateron switches are  also very much beloved so personally I prefer  linear switches because like I mentioned I feel  that they feel the most similar to typing on your  average keyboard so your laptop keyboard or your  magic keyboard for example so if you’re looking  to purchase your first mechanical keyboard  I think that linear switches are a good way to go  because they’re probably the easiest to transition  into I first purchased my echo keyboard so  this one has the cherry mx brown switches  and it did feel very strange typing on it at first  I did have a lot of trouble adjusting to typing  accurately I felt like I was missing a lot of  keys and the tactile feedback made it feel like.

I had to apply more pressure when I was typing  versus I didn’t feel that way when I got my and  pro keyboard which has the gataron red linear  switches it felt a lot easier to just adjust to  right away I felt like for the brown switches  I had to adjust the way that I naturally typed  each type of switch also requires a different  actuation force and this basically just refers  to the amount of pressure you need to apply in  order to get the switch slash key to a point  in which the key is registered mechanical  keyboards also come in a variety of different  sizes that contain different numbers of keys  and you’ll hear percentages being used to refer  to the size of the keyboard so my am pro 2 has  a 60 layout it has 61 keys and it basically just  has all of your essential letter number special  function keys but it doesn’t include arrow keys.

However there’s actually a way in which you can  use other sets of keys as replacement for arrow  keys my aqua keyboard has a 65 layout and 68  keys so it has the arrow keys here and the tilde  delete page up and page down key on the side now  keyboards can also be wired or wired and wireless  so for example my echo keyboard came with a type  c cable that is required to connect it to your  computer my ampere 2 gives you the option of using  a cable or connecting through Bluetooth with a  switch on the back since I’m not moving around  that much i actually don’t use the Bluetooth  that frequently this keyboard is cool though  because you can actually check its battery life  the numbers 1 through 0 will light up and the  colors correspond to how much battery is left.

Some keyboards like my amp pro 2 have rgb it’s  this awesome colorful back lighting of the keys  for this keyboard in particular you can actually  customize your own colors through a software  rgb is definitely a super cool extra  feature but not essential for a keyboard you can also switch out the keycaps which  makes it really fun so you can essentially  just order an entire new set of keycaps and kind  of feel like you have an entirely new different  keyboard a lot of people will actually build  mechanical keyboards from scratch so they’ll  pick out a board the switches the keycaps  essentially mechanical keyboards just have  so many different options so it really allows you  to be able to find the perfect keyboard for you a  lot of people actually find mechanical keyboards  more ergonomic. 

As well as I mentioned before  for memory keyboards you need to press a key  all the way down in order for it to register  for mechanical keyboards because you only need  to press a key part way down for it to register  a lot of people find that they can type lighter  and more comfortably for long periods of time  one of my friends who’s really into mechanical  keyboards basically described it as because he’s  not bottoming out the keys he’s not experiencing  that really harsh feedback from when a key bounces  back from hitting the bottom of a board so that  makes him feel like he’s draining his fingers less  and it just makes it more comfortable for him to  type some people find that they are more accurate  typing on mechanical keyboard because each key  press is a lot more obvious and intentional  and lastly for a lot of people it’s just a  really fun hobby because there’s just endless  ways to be able to customize your keyboard.