Quiet Compact Mechanical Keyboards

[Berwhale]

4. The 65% form factor will take a bit of getting used to. But I'm glad I went with 65% since it has dedicated Arrow keys, Del, PgUp/PgDn. If I chose 60% layout, think I would have struggled too much without these keys. On the other hand, having a smaller keyboard on your desk is beneficial since there's more room for your mouse movements and I'm liking the extra space on the desk now.

I went with the slightly larger, 88 key layout because I still have muscle memory for CUA editing keys (SHIFT + DELETE and SHIFT + INSERT rather than CTRL + C and CTRL +V).

 

[sweetchaos]

Can you guys recommend some good typewriting keyboard options that I can buy for my wife during Black Friday and Cyber Monday? I don't have a budget because I know as little about keyboards as my wife knows about my speakers. All suggestions are appreciated!

Seeing how you're in the US, I would order from mechanicalkeyboards.com, because:
- their prices is not inflated (like some amazon listings are), and they have any type of switch you can think of.
- they usually have colour combinations of keycaps that you might not find on amazon (very nice!)

Which switch?
-Cherry MX, because of their stability/reliability. I mentioned earlier in the thread.

Since we don't know her preference, I would point you to choose either:
- Cherry MX Brown, for typists who want to feel that tactile bump before bottoming out the keycap
- Cherry MX Red (or 'Cherry MX Silent Red' if quiet keyboard is required), for typists who want to type normally

Which keyboard size do you think she'll use?
-Normally, people get the Full-Size (100%).
-If you want to save space on the desk and don't mind the lack of dedicated numpad, get the TKL (tenkeyless) (which is about 80%).
-If you don't need the F1-F12 or PrtSc/ScrollLock/Pause keys, get the 65% (which is what I got).
-If you're a gamer, you probably going to choose the Compact (60%), which doesnt have arrow keys, since they don't use them anyway.

Which brands to choose?
- I would point you to 'Ducky', as I can vouch for the quality.
- But 'Durgot' keyboards are also highly regarded here. Available on amazon.com directly.

I think I narrowed it down so you can choose easily.

I can see Black Friday sales here for Ducky in Canada, but I'm not seeing it for US.

EDIT:
Oops, just saw you said 'typewriting'.
I thought it was just 'typing'.
I don't have much experience with those, so maybe others can chime in.

 

[gorb]

Great choices.
Nice colour combo...orange/blue looks good!
Razer Deathadder v2 also has the 'Optical Mouse Switch', like Viper...so I expect excellent reliability and performance.

The Ducky board I ordered way back in November finally arrived

https://imgur.com/a/skgYYu0

Here’s a seven second video comparing switch noise between a cheap numpad with Outemu blue, Filco majestouch with Cherry MX brown, and the new Ducky board with Cherry MX silent red:

https://imgur.com/a/4rzEvwT

 

[sweetchaos]

Wow a 7 month back-order? You’re a patient man!
The colour combo looks great.
I love my Ducky keyboard. Definitely end-game for me.

 

[gorb]

Wow a 7 month back-order? You’re a patient man!
The colour combo looks great.
I love my Ducky keyboard. Definitely end-game for me.

I really like it! I wasn’t in need of it so I didn’t mind the wait. I actually ended up ordering the ocean blue version with Cherry MX blues this morning lol

I wish I had the skill/knowledge to retrofit all of my other keyboards with a usb-c port. It would make swapping them out so much easier.

 

[digitalfrost]

+1 for Ducky. Got a Varmillo recently but I wasn't happy with all the ping sounds it made.

Got a Ducky One 2 Tuxedo TKL instead.

I love that I can programm the Duckys any way I want.

 

[restorer-john]

Love all these coloured keyboards. They remind me of Point Of Sale (POS) keyboards in stores and restaurants back in the day.

 

[HerbertWest]

I find wooting keyboards to be pretty slick, both the 60E and the standard-sized. The analog Hall-effect keys plus total configurability are unique. Their videos show how all that stuff works in practice.

Wooting 60HE+ | the 60% rapid trigger keyboard

The Wooting 60HE is an analog mechanical keyboard with <1ms input response. It's packed with features like rapid trigger.

wooting.io