Mechanical keyboard
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A mechanical keyboard is a fairly modular type of keyboard used to enter text into a computer.
It consists of:
- The barebones keyboard itself
- Up to a hundred or so switches (the individual parts that complete the circuits)
- Up to a hundred or so keycaps (like hats for switches, these are the parts you actually touch, that have the letters, numbers, and punctuation printed on them)
Compared to cheaper and more popular membrane keyboards, mechanical keyboards have a few distinct advantages:
- You can mix and match different barebones keyboards, switches, and keycaps, meaning:
- You can find a combination that works especially well for you personally, and that you find aesthetically pleasing
- It's easier to tear down, clean, and rebuild the keyboard as a whole
- If you wear out a single key's keycap or switch, you don't need to replace the entire keyboard along with it
- You don't need to press each key all the way down, which is probably both faster and easier on your fingers
- While it's not an inherent difference, many mechanical keyboards are available that are built to a higher quality, out of sturdier materials
When choosing a mechanical keyboard, there are a few things to consider:
- The keyboard itself should be hot-swappable, so you can swap out the switches and keycaps later on
- It should be made of sturdy materials, preferably metal rather than plastic
- You can have a wired keyboard that connects via USB, or wireless using Bluetooth, or a combination
- There are two main keyboard layout standards, ANSI (for Americans) and ISO 9995 (with regional variations for everyone)
- There are roughly six reasonably popular layout sizes, and more besides, usually measured as a percentage
- Some keyboards let you remap them, so your operating system doesn't have to (you can specify "When I press this key, it should transmit that character")
User interface hardware: Mechanical keyboard
Mechanical keyboards: Keycap | Q7 | Switch (mechanical keyboard)
