Maybe you have had the bad experience of typing on a mushy keyboard, or maybe you have typed on a keyboard that gives amazing tactile feedback. This article’s purpose is to help you find a keyboard that you absolutely love to type with all day. The following features of a keyboard are the most important to look for when you are setting up your home office.
- Keyboard switches
- Wired or Wireless
- Ten Key
- Media Controls
- Extra Macro Keys
Key Switches
The most important feature in a keyboard is the switch type on your keyboard. Keyboard switches are the parts that move underneath the keycaps. The two most common are membrane and mechanical.
Membrane Switches
Membrane keyboard switches are cheap to make and feel very mushy. Typing on these keyboards is much more difficult because these keys often feel sticky and can be inconsistent with their up and down keystroke movement. These keyboards should be avoided
Mechanical Switches
Mechanical switches come in a very large variety of options. Most of these are blue, red, and brown switches. The main advantage of mechanical switches is that they give tactile feedback to your fingers when the key sends its input to your computer. This means you can type without straining your fingers as much due to bottoming-out the keys because on a mechanical keyboard, it isn’t clear when your keystrokes are registered. The main difference between mechanical keyboards are how loud they are.
Blue Mechanical Switches
Blue switches are well known for their very loud clicky sound. These switches the most clicky and give the most tactile feedback when you are typing. This switch type can be very annoying for your coworkers if you share a working space.
Brown Mechanical Switches
Brown switches have a much quieter click sound compared to the blue switches. They also have the tactile feedback that lets you know that your key has registered.
Red Mechanical Switches
Red switches are the quietest of these three options, but they do not offer any tactile feedback. These are best for PC gaming because they are very light and so pressing them and bottoming out is what they were built for. On the other hand, if you want to type efficiently, these switches will slow you down because there is no tactile feedback. Additionally, bottoming out the keys put more strain on your fingers.
Wired or Wireless
One of the major benefits of wired keyboards is that they often have a few extra USB ports. These ports can be the perfect location to place your wireless mouse dongle or a great place to charge your phone or other accessories. Wired keyboards do not require batteries. One significant tradeoff is that having a wire in the middle of the desk can be an eyesore if you are trying to have a very clean set up.
Wireless keyboards are becoming more and more popular with the advancements of better battery technology and better design. A good wireless keyboard battery can last several months. Wireless keyboards connect through Bluetooth or a 2.4Hz USB dongle just like wireless computer mice. Read more about it here. Some users have a hard time with Bluetooth keyboards pairing automatically on their own. That can be very frustrating because you often need to use your keyboard to be able to pair a keyboard. A keyboard with a 2.4Hz USB dongle gives you the reliability of a wired connection while freeing up some valuable desk space.
Ten Key
Ten keys on a keyboard is the number pad on the right of the computer keyboard. Their purpose is to make typing and using numbers more efficient and easy. A ten key is an essential part of any professional that requires to type numbers as part of their workflow. Professions like accountants, data analysts, and computer engineering are a few. When creating a professional work set up, a ten key is a safe choice to default to when selecting which keyboard you should use.
Media Controls
Keyboard media controls give you a fast and reliable way to control the training videos and music you listen to while you work. It can be very distributive to your workflow if pausing the music you are listening to is more than a button away. This allows you to focus on your work.
Not all media controls are created equal. You will want easy access to adjust volume up and down, pause, and skip forward or backward. The most intuitive and effective media controls have a wheel that allows the user to quickly change the volume while having pinpoint accuracy if they have tactile feedback whenever your keyboard sends those keystrokes to your computer.
Keyboard Software and Macro Keys
Keyboard software paired with extra keys on your keyboard allow you to map special shortcuts to your keyboard keys. It is easiest to use the manufacturer’s keyboard software for building custom actions through macros, but you can create your own macros with 3rd party macro building software. The important thing here is to have extra keys on your keyboard to map custom actions to. Common uses for keyboard macros include launching a particular application or opening back up an internet tab you did not mean to close.
Summary
Keyboard switches are really what make your break a keyboard. Brown switches are typically recommended for office work because they aren’t excessively loud, and can provide huge productivity boosts over keyboards that don’t provide typing tactic feedback. Choosing wired or wireless really only comes down to if you need extra USB ports or want to have a cleaner desk setup with out the wire. A keyboard with a tenkey is essential for any worker who uses numbers. Media controls make getting into a flow with your music and videos much easier when working. Extra macro keys can upgrade your workflow leveraging automation for repetitive actions.
My Recommendations
The best wired keyboard that I recommend is the Das Keyboard 4 Professional. The best wireless keyboard that I recommend is the Logitech G613 Wireless mechanical keyboard
Das Keyboard 4 Professional
This keyboard has brown or blue switches based on whatever you choose and they feel amazing while typing. The switches provide great tactile feedback and an auditable click to make typing faster and more accurate. This keyboard comes in Windows or Mac variations. It is wired with two USB 3.0 ports in the top right. The Ten key pad is just as great as the rest of the keyboard. The media controls are incredible. The volume adjusting knob also provides tactile feedback whenever the volume is increased or decreased. This is the keyboard that I use for my home office setup.
Logitech G613 Wireless mechanical keyboard
The Logitech G613 wireless mechanical keyboard is an amazing keyboard that pulls off something that almost no other keyboard does– it has mechanical switches, is wireless, and have a ten keypad. The connection uses special technology that lowers the response time to an unnoticeable delay of 1ms. The media controls are simple and easy to use. Additionally, the software that pairs with the keyboard all you to create macros to speed up you workflow.
