marfig
No ROM battery
I'm currently on the market looking for a good keyboard (again!). I don't know about you folks; but to me, keyboards are the most replaced computer element since rubber-dome keyboards became a norm. This has actually made me go red eyed on a few occasions, since the only efforts I witness into upping quality and production costs of keyboards is for the gaming segment. Whereas us, typists, are left in the cold with inferior pieces of garbage being touted nonetheless as great keyboards, but that just simply break after 6-9 months or slowly degrade their quality during that time to the point of becoming useless (keys don't respond so well anymore, noise levels increase, imprints fade away, etc...).
Anyways, I'm tired and want to fight back. I'm looking for a serious keyboard, something that can last me a couple of years with reasonable quality standards and durability to withstand someone who spends everyday typing. I'm a professional programmer and it's pretty much a done deal I stress my keyboards greatly over the course of an year.
SteelSeries 7G
For that effect I first looked at mechanical keyboards. The SteelSeries 7G soon caught my eye. It's everything I want in a keyboard. Good sized keys (including the function keys that for some inexplicable reason have been becoming smaller and smaller in recent keyboards), no nonsense make-me-a-coffee special keys and it is advertised (and apparently agreed by reviewers) as a keyboard durable enough to serve also as a swinging club. And if you spill coffee over it, just send it to the washing machine and hang it for drying. It lacks a Windows key, having replaced it with a type of FN key that gives access to just some elementary media functionality. But I'm sure I could map it back to a windows key.
I was able to finally found it on a store not far from here where I gave it a quick test. Types like a dream! A bit expensive but worth every cent. My hands just wanted it so bad!... But my ears refused the hands obscene proposal. It's loud! Not so loud, I hear, as the Das Keyboard utter nonsense, but still loud enough to not be something I can possibly use as a tool for work.
And that's my problem with mechanical keyboards. They are loud. Some even made to be loud just in the name of some obscure celebration of what is (no doubt) one of the best keyboards ever made but also one of the loudest. Those days of offices filled with a loud racket every day are thankfully gone. But some users -- many of which weren't even born when the IBM M was the subject of contemporary criticism by its users, not praise -- apparently think they should return.
The 7G actually has a more muffled sound. Not so offensive to the ears. But still a problem for anyone typing for long periods of time and who actually shares the room with other people who also want to work.
What then?
Nothing. I considered the possibility of looking into gaming rubber-dome keyboards (however few there are) since I would expect these to be more solid builds. But most are so shockingly tacky, I'd feel embarrassed to bring one of these things to the office.
I looked into the Logitech MX5500 bundle (with an excellent mouse, btw) hoping that a more expensive keyboard means a better keyboard, but the extra money is basically all going into the mouse and into an LCD screen on the keyboard I could do without.
What's the deal with making silent mechanical keyboards? I'm pretty sure this isn't impossible since most of the sound comes from flooring the key where a thin rubber layer could eliminate most of the clack clack. And what's the deal with simply no one making keyboards for typists that actually share the same principles of gaming keyboards in terms of durability and reliability?
Anyone, anywhere, knows of a great keyboard for a programmer? Or is the dream keyboard... exactly that?
Anyways, I'm tired and want to fight back. I'm looking for a serious keyboard, something that can last me a couple of years with reasonable quality standards and durability to withstand someone who spends everyday typing. I'm a professional programmer and it's pretty much a done deal I stress my keyboards greatly over the course of an year.
SteelSeries 7G
For that effect I first looked at mechanical keyboards. The SteelSeries 7G soon caught my eye. It's everything I want in a keyboard. Good sized keys (including the function keys that for some inexplicable reason have been becoming smaller and smaller in recent keyboards), no nonsense make-me-a-coffee special keys and it is advertised (and apparently agreed by reviewers) as a keyboard durable enough to serve also as a swinging club. And if you spill coffee over it, just send it to the washing machine and hang it for drying. It lacks a Windows key, having replaced it with a type of FN key that gives access to just some elementary media functionality. But I'm sure I could map it back to a windows key.
I was able to finally found it on a store not far from here where I gave it a quick test. Types like a dream! A bit expensive but worth every cent. My hands just wanted it so bad!... But my ears refused the hands obscene proposal. It's loud! Not so loud, I hear, as the Das Keyboard utter nonsense, but still loud enough to not be something I can possibly use as a tool for work.
And that's my problem with mechanical keyboards. They are loud. Some even made to be loud just in the name of some obscure celebration of what is (no doubt) one of the best keyboards ever made but also one of the loudest. Those days of offices filled with a loud racket every day are thankfully gone. But some users -- many of which weren't even born when the IBM M was the subject of contemporary criticism by its users, not praise -- apparently think they should return.
The 7G actually has a more muffled sound. Not so offensive to the ears. But still a problem for anyone typing for long periods of time and who actually shares the room with other people who also want to work.
What then?
Nothing. I considered the possibility of looking into gaming rubber-dome keyboards (however few there are) since I would expect these to be more solid builds. But most are so shockingly tacky, I'd feel embarrassed to bring one of these things to the office.
I looked into the Logitech MX5500 bundle (with an excellent mouse, btw) hoping that a more expensive keyboard means a better keyboard, but the extra money is basically all going into the mouse and into an LCD screen on the keyboard I could do without.
What's the deal with making silent mechanical keyboards? I'm pretty sure this isn't impossible since most of the sound comes from flooring the key where a thin rubber layer could eliminate most of the clack clack. And what's the deal with simply no one making keyboards for typists that actually share the same principles of gaming keyboards in terms of durability and reliability?
Anyone, anywhere, knows of a great keyboard for a programmer? Or is the dream keyboard... exactly that?
So I decided to leave it alone.
