Can anyone recommend a good keyboard brand? I’m looking for one that’s comfortable and has color and character and not boring. I saw some keyboards from a brand called Yunzii but I’ve read some mixed reviews on them. I also want to make sure I get a keyboard that doesn’t collect or share data, since everything collects data now. Doesn’t have to wireless, wired works.
I like low profile keyboards, not Mt Everest leycaps. My go-to is the Keychron K5 SE. Full numpad, low height, quiet optical mechanical keys. I made my office buy me one, and bought myself the same one for home use so I don’t have to adapt to a slightly different layout at home.
It can be Bluetooth connected, buy I keep it wired. Lots of backlight colour options, fancy splashy ripple stiff, but I like a plain white backlight.
Keychron.
I have the Keychron V6 QMK with Red keys and love it. I do a lot of typing, which the Reds are not optimized for, but once I got used to them I’m not going back. The build quality is top notch. The software works well, my only complaint is that it only works on Chromium based browsers.
The nice thing about mechanical keyboards is you can always change out the switches. Or even have different switches on various parts of the keyboard.
I really enjoy my Keychron a lot.
Keychron is my current preference. Open source firmware (QMK/ZMK), excellent build quality, highly customizable, and their stock QMK/ZMK firmware works with their web-based Keychron Launcher in any Chromium-based browser or you can use any other app that supports the VIA protocol. Keychron also has their own per-key RGB extension to the VIA protocol and I’ve recently added support for it in OpenRGB, so my Keychron keyboards sync with all my other lights. The only problem is their firmware has a limitation on the lighting configuration where each key has to be the same brightness in per-key RGB mode. I’ve opened a PR on their GitHub to fix it and flashed custom builds to my Keychron Q2 (QMK) and Keychron Q6 Ultra 8K (ZMK).
I’ve recently added support for it in OpenRGB
What? OMG. Can you link this? I’ve been struggling with HE and RGB without their official shitty webapp for some while.
Keychron support made it into OpenRGB 1.0rc3, so just grab the 1.0rc3 version from https://openrgb.org/. To patch your firmware to fix the color issue, see this PR: https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/pull/492.
Thank yooooooou! I’m not sure if my K4 HE supports QMK but I’ll have a look when I’m at home again!
I’m pretty sure all of the HE boards use QMK. If you can use per-key RGB in Keychron Launcher you can use it in OpenRGB.
A lot of love in here for Keychron. I bought one and really disliked it. I changed the switches and it got a bit better but I still wouldn’t go with them again. I just don’t like the feel.
I’ve also got an Epomaker which is fantastic.
I’ve tried all sorts of mech keyboards, Epomaker are the only ones that really took my fancy. The Wisteria V2 switches are top notch
GMMK keyboards allow any colors and pretty much any switches as everything is modular. However, their new keyboards don’t appear to be as good as their old ones. If you can find a GMMK or GMMK2, those are the good ones.
I use a 40% keychron with low profile brown switches. I use qmk to set caps to control, left alt + hjkl to arrow keys (vim everywhere!) And right alt to escape. I have two. One for home and one for work. Best hardware purchase I’ve ever made. Highly recommend!
General use - Keychron. Great build quality, well priced, feels great to use
Ergonomics - Kinesis. The software is underwhelming but the actual keyboards are rock solid, I’ve daily driven the same freestyle pro for 5+ years without issue
Gaming - Wooting. Delightful feel, great build quality, and the configuration software doesn’t totally suck. Premium price but worth it if you care about things like actuation point and trigger speed.
aw this isn’t about synthesizers :(
Korg minilogue has been a favorite of mine for years (since I can’t reasonably afford a Moog).
It’s a great synth! I love that Korg kind of does their own thing they have made some really cool stuff lately, yeah Moogs are nice, they have made some cheaper ones but even those like the sub37 are well over $1k, what do you make with it if you don’t mind me asking?
what do you make with it if you don’t mind me asking?
A bunch of trash 😅 but if you’re interested, I made a bunch of stuff earlier this year when I was less busy (essentially, the challenge was to make a whole song every week of the year, which I failed to keep up with haha)
A lot of it is with software synths, but I did use my hardware synths like the minilogue, Dirtywave M8, and Roland SC-88 on a few songs.
Generally, you can find me on streaming services and Bandcamp under Jentu if you like any of it. I mostly just make music for myself without really caring much how it is received.
Do you make music too?
I’m a huge fan of Kechron for keyboards. Fantastic quality. They are shit at making mice though. Get those someplace else.
With a mechanical keyboard, you can get a set of keycaps to suit your preferred aesthetic- including pudding caps to let RGB lighting do the styling.
Been a big fan of Keychron for quite some time now.
On the cheap end of the spectrum, I have several $30 RedDragon mechanical keyboards that are still going strong after 5+ years of daily use.
My brain went a whole direction with “pudding caps.” I had no idea that’s what you called them.
You need to set a budget if you want a good recommendation. Because if you can afford a Svalboard, that is absolutely the peak keyboard experience.
A tier lower than that would be the Bastard Keyboards Charybdis. Here is literally mine.
https://quokk.au/c/ergomechkeyboards/p/676194/blacked-out-charybdis
The Bastard Keyboards Scylla is even cheaper, if you don’t want the integrated trackball of the Charybdis.
Regardless, check out the community for more ergonomic keyboard suggestions: !ergomechkeyboards@lemmy.world
If you don’t need something that’s ergonomic, Keychron is the go-to for cheap-yet-quality mechanical keyboards.
Svalboard is peak keyboard design.
Been liking keychron. Somewhat expensive but also nowhere near as expensive as it could be, especially given its quality
A couple I have enjoyed are the vortex pok3r 60% with cherry MX switches and pbt key caps or epomaker aula f75 75% 3 way wifi/Bluetooth/wired.
I have a Wobkey Rainy 75 and it’s by far the best keyboard I’ve ever bought/used. That being said, don’t go out of your way to buy one since they have gotten far more expensive than when I bought mine AND support for it has been very difficult. Yeah this was one of the many Kickstarter keyboards that was sent to a bunch of keyboard reviewers and they hyped it up massively, which I got swept up in. I’m just glad my keyboard was actually delivered at the end of the day.
I had a used keychron for a long time and loved it except for the non-swappable clicky switches. Highly recommend them.
