I’m currently on a macbook air laptop (2020). Been using a macbook air for maybe 5 years. This can’t be the best can it? Feels slow, like the keys don’t pop back fast enough.
What is the best keyboard in your opinion? I went to YouTube and read reviews but I feel I am getting targeted by affiliates. There’s a thread here from 2016.
Any suggestions?
the one you are most confortable with. That’s pretty personal, so you will have to find the one that works for you.
You don’t need the most responsive or something like that, you just need a confortable one, as you will spend a lot of time with it
Same with mouse and screen, actually. And whatever else you would use often. You need a confortable set up.
It’s all personal preference. Some of us who are nerdy about keyboards go down deep (and expensive) rabbit holes of layouts and switches and keycaps, but just try a bunch and see what you like.
“best” is incredibly subjective. There’s also the issue of “best”, “best for what?” a keyboard on a laptop is the “best” in regards to mobility since its built in. However the same might not be true if your looking to the “best” for typing, or programming, or gaming, or ergonomics, etc.
If I was shopping for a keyboard for my laptop it would fall into one of two buckets with some overlap.
A wireless to use when/if my keyboard is “docked” to external monitors and used more like a “desktop” rather than a mobile machine.
Ergonomic keyboard for the same reason, but for extended use.
All other cases would probably not apply (gaming), or I’d just use the built in one.
I prefer ergonomic keyboards for extended use as a laptop is usually very un-ergonomic. Your looking down, and angling your arms to meet in the middle, which isn’t as natural as possible. Its fine for spot usage, or not long term heavy use, but I don’t recommend for using a laptop day in and day out.
But again, this is very much a personal decision. Shop around a bit through google and see what comes up. There’s also dedicated Apple products just to stick “with the brand”, which should limit the options.
Generally there isn’t really a 100% bad choice, except picking a keyboard that is too told/broken/incompatible with your system, but those are hard to find.
Yep, there is no best keyboard. There are only your personal preferences. Personally, I like fancy mechanical keyboards, but not everyone does.
If you want to experiment with mechanical keyboards, I recommend getting a switch tester so you can see what different types of mechanical switches for keyboards feel like.
I agree it is very subjective.
I love my WASD keyboard with cherry mx brown mechanical switches. But my wife doesn’t like the noise of the mechanical switches. I tried a cherry red “silent” switch the other day and it was pretty nice - not silent, but a noticeable improvement. I tried a friend’s Kinesis Advantage 2 and liked it but wouldn’t want to do it unless I could spend some more time on it.
If would recommend not going overboard in the beginning. Ergonomic and/or split is good. If noise is an issue, I’d find some membrane keyboard with good key travel.
Noise certainly can be an issue. A guy came into work with a mechanical keyboard with - I don’t know, maybe they were cherry mx blues or something really clicky and load. AND he was an aggressive typer. I swear we could hear him typing out in the parking lot. We eventually had to confront him about it.
But again, it’s very personal. I’d recommend getting something relatively cheap and simple, at most just ergonomic and/or split. I actually prefer wired - whenever I try wireless, there always ends up being moments of lag that make me want to throw it through the monitor. But maybe that’s just me.
Thanks for the response. I live alone. So noise is preferred. My issue is the MacBook Air just feels mushy. I’ll check out a few mechanical keyboards.
The fastest I can type on it is 110. My 70 year old mom can do 140 on whatever she has. Just feel like I’m running in the wrong shoes. Want speed. Don’t care about colors. Thanks.
I was hoping for actual products. I get comfort. So maybe I just try a few? Would be cool if Office Depot was still a store
Honesty, mechanical keyboards are so customizable that I can’t tell you what any specific product will feel like. Seriously, if you are interested in mechanical keyboards, get a switch tester. Once you figure out what sort of switch feels nice, then you can get a board with those switches.
For example, I like Gatteron Blue switches, and I like my keyboards to be the 65% form factor. There are a ton of specific products that meet those specifications.
If you’re interested in diving into the world of keyboard nerds, r/MechanicalKeyboards is a good place to start. Depending on where you live, people sometimes get together to try out each other’s keyboards and there is a used keyboard market. If you just want to try something out, there are pretty good boards to start with that you can buy online without needing to build yourself. Magicforce, Cooler Master, and the Anne Pro are popular keyboards to start with and are available on Amazon so you can return them if the keys don’t feel right. I recommend starting with Brown switches, but if you want them extra snappy and loud then try Blue switches. If you don’t particularly want to buy from Amazon, check out Ducky and WASD. If you want to be able to mix and match switches or change them out later, then you want to look for something that is “hot swappable”, which is a bit harder to find and often more expensive. If you want to try a split keyboard, the Kinesis Freestyle or Mistel Barocco will be the most similar to what you’re used to. The Ergodox EZ is what I use most of the time, but The Moonlander looks awesome too. If you’re interested in assembling your own board or going further from the mass manufactured track, it opens a whole new world.
ETA: My brand and vendor recommendations are based off of my experience in the US. If you’re not in North America, I suggest asking the Reddit folk about places that ship to your country.
We weren’t trying to blow you off before. We see a lot of new programmers who feel pressure to get “the best [piece of equipment] for programming”, so our first reaction is to reassure people that fancy equipment is just nice for comfort and they don’t have to worry about using “what programmers use”. We have people here in a lot of different, and often difficult, situations so we don’t ever want them to feel pressured to spend money on equipment in order to succeed.
Now I want one 
You split keyboard wierdos 
I’m seriously considering getting a Moonlander as my “travel” board.
Thanks! Hope I didn’t come across that way. Didn’t think you were. I get it. I got a mechanical keyboard so excited to see how loud I can type. Ha.
Enjoy click-clacking away!
The best keyboards are usually found in professional laptops.
Laptop keyboards can be ok, but they really aren’t designed to be high quality keyboards in the sense that is being discussed in this thread.
This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.