For a few years ago it seems that the world of video games is growing stronger and stronger and logically companies develop new technologies or reinvent old technologies and adapt them to the new times. The latter has occurred with mechanical keyboards: they already existed but they create new mechanics to improve the above. But stop ...What is a mechanical keyboard exactly?
In this publication we want to cover almost all possible aspects and make it clear what mechanical keyboards are, what they are for, their target audience and if you need to spend a bit on them.
What is a mechanical keyboard and what is it for?
I'm going to skip the part where I don't need to explain what a keyboard is and what it's for. At this point in life we all know what a keyboard is. What I will say is that currently the vast majority of keyboards used are membraneIn other words, if you remove the keys from the keyboard in front of you right now, you will see that at the bottom it has a rubbery or silicone plastic that "joins" all the keyboard keys. On a mechanical keyboard This is not like this, each key is independent of the others, each has its own mechanism.
Obviously, this is an improvement over the membrane. In membrane keyboards, a failure in one part of the membrane may affect all of it or a specific part, something that a mechanic does not: If a key does not press well, we must repair only that part and not the entire keyboard.
Also mechanical keyboards are very tough to crack, they are made of very resistant plastic and can last up to 10 years longer than conventional membrane keyboards. On the other hand, the sound of the mechanics is much louder, we do not have that rubbery membrane that cushions the blow and that causes nothing at all to be silenced.
We can also mention that the pulsation is progressive and this makes our wrist and fingers not suffer so much with the pulsation avoiding fatigue after long hours of use.
If we can get something negative from a mechanical keyboard, it is the price, and since this type of keyboards have entered the "Gamer" world, prices have skyrocketed and we will hardly be able to choose between more than 4 or 5 keyboards below of 100 euros.
How do I choose which mechanical keyboard suits me?
Sure friends, did you think not? Of course there are different types of mechanical keyboards. As we have already mentioned, each key has a mechanism with a spring that offers different characteristics to each key and even sounds.
Cherry Red mechanical keyboard
It is my favorite and the most used in the gamer world for being one of the most popular. It has a continuous travel without stops and to press it we must activate around 45 g of pressure compared to the typical 60 g in mechanical keyboards. It seems silly but a pulse with such a low weight (even if only 15 g of difference) is a lot and can cause involuntary pulsations.
Cherry Black mechanical keyboard
The black mechanism is exactly the same as the Red, the only notable difference is that to activate the key the pressure must be between 40 g and 80 g. We also want to highlight something about this cherry, and that is that being so “hard” it can tire you in long days of writing.
Cherry White mechanical keyboard
The White as can be seen in the image has a small obstacle to overcome, this causes the upload to be faster than in the previous ones, allowing a faster writing. In this type of keyboard we will notice the two taps that it hits when going up and down, making the writing quite comfortable. Due to the low demand for this type of keyboard, the production cost is quite high. This cherry and the Brown that we are going to see now are practically the same, only the pressure difference changes, which in the whites rises to 55 g.
Cherry Brown mechanical keyboard
This type of mechanism is very similar to White as we mentioned earlier. It could be said that this type of cherry is the most used in general terms, it is the most versatile of all and the most common to find.
Both these and the Reds need the same pressure to make them work 45 g so this type of keyboard is perfect for both typing and long hours of uninterrupted gaming.
Cherry Blue mechanical keyboard
The Blue is the black sheep of the family, although that does not necessarily mean that it is bad. If you look at the image, this type of mechanism is very different from the others, it is made up of pulsations, making the first section very smooth and the second somewhat harder.
It sounds double for each press, that is, each time we press it makes two “tac-tac” and not one.
If we look at the image we will see how even if the key is up, the white mechanism below may not be there yet, this can cause involuntary keystrokes if we do it too fast.
Without a doubt, cherry Blue is the best for long days of written work since it does not tire either the wrists or the fingers, although we need to get used to using it because it is very different.
conclusion
Although there are still some different mechanisms from companies that only use them (such as Razer), these would be the normal ones that we will find in 90% of keyboards.
I personally would use the Reds that seem the most comfortable to play (which is what I do the most) or else I would go for the Brown ones because of their versatility, but hey, for color tastes, you can always go to a computer store where they have them exposed and try them.
Article written by our editor Heiser
