I’ve had a Razer Blackwidow Stealth for a good while now, but the day has finally come: it’s dead. Like, dead-dead.
It seems like Razer has kind of enshittified since I started using their stuff though, so idk if I want to get another of their products to replace it. Got that one on the advice from a mechanical keyboard enthusiast, and I honestly kinda miss the lighter touch and quieter input of a membrane switch. Fighting words, I know… my bad!
I am kind of intrigued by the magnetic switch mechanicals though - if there’s a model of those that operates quietly and has short range to bottom out, I’d be interested. Kinda shooting for the feel of like an old school Lenovo laptop keyboard - hair trigger, if that makes any sense.
The rest of my feature wish list:
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Backlit. Idgaf about RGB, but some faint red glow or something not too glaring: I just want to be able to glance down when it’s dark and see which key is which.
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Wrist rest. The Razer’ was only like an inch, but the trash temporary one I dug out of my bin-of-electronics has none, and even that little difference is driving me nuts. I’ve seen models with a much wider area for the wrists to land on - would gravitate toward those.
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Programmable keys. Low priority on this one, but if it’s an option, I’d get some use out of it. If not, that’s not a deal breaker.
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Wireless? I’ve always thought these weren’t good for gaming due to a noticeable delay in keystroke vs the action it’s supposed to cause, but I’ve been told that’s not really a problem anymore. If it doesn’t impact performance, wireless would be great! My computer chair is the living room couch lol, so the less cable clutter the better.
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Price… I know some peripherals get pretty crazy pretty fast. Shelling out hundreds of dollars for one of these seems insane to me, especially after forking it out for the Blackwidow and not really loving it. If there’s a $150 option that checks all the boxes, I’d be pretty tempted: if there’s a $50 option that gets close, that’s probably what my cheap ass will go for.
Anyway, if you’ve got any recommendations, please hit me with em!
Thanks all!!
I absolutely swear by separated keyboards now that I’ve had one for a couple years. Life changing for my shoulders. I have the non RGB version of this, without the tent or wrist rest. https://kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards/freestyle-edge-rgb/
It’s great too because I can just push them to the outside for lunch, put up YouTube and eat my soup and if someone hits me on Teams I just reach a little wider.
It’s not got the switches you like but they’re pretty light and reasonably quiet.
If you’re going to go split you should really go ortholinear. Check out zsa moonlander or zsa voyager as good intro options.
I like Keychron. They used to fill the niche of “good quality keyboards for mid-end prices.” Now I think they’re more “high end keyboards for high end prices.” But you could probably still find something to fit your budget and needs.
I’m a fan of the keycron brand. They aren’t cheap and probably close to your max but meet all of your requests.
I got the Keychron K10 a couple years ago and it’s been rock solid the whole time, both wired and wireless. Just checked the price, around $70. No macro keys on it, I prefer those on my mouse
Keychron is very good.
I’ve had a Ducky keyboard for 3 years now which I’m super happy with. I see they do wireless ones too so may be worth a look.
No idea about other brands as my previous keyboard was Razer too. One of the arrow keys on it never worked from the day it was delivered. I’ll never buy Razer again.
Get a Realforce.
Kinda shooting for the feel of like an old school Lenovo laptop keyboard
If you’re specifically set on that, there used to be a USB-attached version of those. Dunno if they still make them. Wasn’t really interested myself, since I don’t like low-key-travel keyboards if I can avoid them, but I distinctly remember seeing them.
searches
Apparently it was called the “Ultranav”. I don’t see new ones on Amazon (other than someone trying to sell one at an exorbitant $400), but there are used ones:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ultranav
EDIT: Well, some of those say that they’re new. shrugs






