What a Good Keyboard Can Do For You
A couple of months ago, was chatting with someone at work and he mentioned that the keyboards for the newer MacBook Pro's performed poorly and that people were pretty upset at Apple because they produced such a lousy keyboard. I never really stopped to think about it, let alone realize that this was the case. But after his comments I started paying attention to my Magic Keyboard I have at work and the keyboard on my 2018 MacBook Pro and was shocked to see how poorly it did perform. I went ahead and Googled what people were saying and there were a lot of comments about keys not registering when you selected them and that the feedback of the keypress was really crappy. And sure enough, I had experienced all those things and then started wondering how I missed the fact that the keyboard I was using, really did suck.
Fast forward to earlier this, I finally decided to do something about it. I've been spending more time on my laptop lately and the missing keystrokes were really starting to get on my nerve. So, I did another Google search for keyboards good for writers. I figured if anyone would have an opinion on keyboards it would be writers. It didn't come at no surprise that writers give considerable consideration in the keyboards they use. But, what did surprise me was the amount of variety in keyboards that are on the market.
Confused and overwhelmed, I started noticing keyboards around the office and that a lot of people had really cool and strange looking keyboards at their desks. I started looking at the brands and several of them matched the recommendations I saw on the Internet from writers.
What? You mean to tell me that a better mouse trap does exist and it was under my nose the entire time.
What came next was a bit of luck. It just so happens that one of the members of my team takes his keyboards very seriously and that he had a little pad that let you try the different type of switches. Another "I had no idea moment" just came over me and I got a lesson in the different type of switches (how the keys behave when you press them). There are 9 different types of switches that range from very quiet with no clicks (red switches) to very loud with pronounced clicks (blue switches). After pecking away at them for a few minutes, I decided to take the Goldie-Locks approach and went for the switch right in the middle, the brown switch.
Now that I identified the switch that suited my style of typing, I set out to pick a keyboard. I was amazed at the price ranges I saw, anywhere from $40 upwards to $300 for a keyboard. And interestingly enough, the keyboards that are good for writers are favored by gamers. As such, many of them have programmable LED backlight settings with a rainbow of colors that can add that extra coolness factor to your keyboard. And with that, I had to go for an RGB (rainbow colored LED lights) style. I finally landed on the HyperX Allow Elite RGB model priced at $140.
I received it today and was amazed at the difference in typing that this keyboard offered. I became so excited, that I had to write this blog post so I could spend this half hour pounding on the keys getting use to it. I feel like I've found the fountain of youth in my typing. Typing is fun again and I'm not so disenfranchised with the lousy input (keyboard) mechanism for interacting with my computer. And, just like the PF Flyers sneakers in the movie The Sandlot promised to make any kid run faster, this new keyboard has increased my typing speed.
Bye bye Apple Magic Keyboard, there's a new sheriff in town. Seriously though, I understand that most of the people who will read this blog post already know about mechanical keyboards and the better performance they offer. But, in the off chance that you are living in the dark ages like me and didn't know this, I hope you find this article useful. I had a lot of fun typing it out on my new keyboard.