My Keyboard Craze
For many people, a keyboard can only be a tool, something they don’t have to have a second thought about. For better or worse, I’ve been thinking about keyboards way more than I probably should ever since the keyboard craze.
The keyboard craze period started in 2022. I fell into the rabbit hole just by pressing my colleague’s keyboard a few times. I haven’t been able to put an end to the craze ever since.
Fascinated by different typing feels
When I pressed the keys on my colleague’s keyboard, I was shocked (yes, “shocked”) by how bouncy the keys felt. My colleague justified his purchase by “We use keyboards typing all day! A good tool makes all the difference.” “It makes total sense!” I thought. I totally bought it. I immediately decided I needed to get a mechanical keyboard.
That same week, I rushed to the shopping mall—a place you probably shouldn’t go if you want some better options for mechanical keyboards.
There, I got the very first mechanical keyboard in my life. I don’t remember its full name, but it’s made by ROG and has blue switches. When I pressed the keys, I was attracted by the clicky sound (or noise) and the typing feel. For a few weeks, I genuinely enjoyed typing with it.
You might want to ask, “Why only a few weeks?” Because I soon realized how much more force I needed to use when typing on those blue switches. Plus, the more I typed, the more distinct the ping sound was. Once noticing it, I couldn’t stop paying attention to it, and the ping sound was really annoying.
Soon after that, I started hunting for a hot-swappable keyboard (meaning, you can pull off the switches by switch pullers) with different key switches. I found that I like linear switches more. I like that I can press the keys all the way to the bottom, and the preference stays true even now.
However, even with different linear switches, they can give substantially different typing feels. Some are more stable (the ones that have “walls” are usually more stable, but there are exceptions), some are more bouncy (ROG’s RX red, Neon), and some are lighter (silver, golden pink).
If your keyboard is hot-swappable and you want to change the switches, it’s recommended to test them out in a keyboard shop first. I bought golden pink without trying first. The name of it sounded cool, and it’s theoretically good for my fingers, but I didn’t like its sound profile.
Speaking of sound profile, that’s the second dimension that pulled me deeper into the keyboard world.
Digging for better sounds
If you have seen one of those keyboard reviews, you might notice that reviews often talk about the “sound profile”.
Sound profile is such an elusive thing. It’s not as tangible as typing feel, which directly decide whether your fingers are happy about it. There are so many different factors that can affect the sound profile, such as types of switches, the amount of foams, the thickness of the keycaps, and the materials of the plate, etc.
Many keyboard enthusiasts do “tape mods” to their keyboards to make them sound better. (But that might look baffling to outsiders: Why would anyone take a brand-new keyboard apart and start modding it right away? That will void the warranty!)
There are also many different adjectives to describe sound profiles. Poppy, marbly, thocky, clacky, clicky, creamy, etc.
As for me, I initially tried to get different sound profiles by changing switches, and then I started doing tape mods. After a while I noticed Mode Envoy, which uses a carbon fiber—a material I don’t often see used in keyboard plates.
The peak of my keyboard craze (so far)—Mode Envoy
One day, I just couldn’t get rid of the desire for touching new keyboards (this might sound like withdrawal symptoms), so I went to the keyboard shop I often visited.
Soon, I noticed Mode Envoy. It just sat there, on the counter, all black, very unassuming. The moment I typed on it, I was dumbfounded. Thanks for the carbon fiber plate, the clacky sound was heaven! The switches were bouncy and linear, too. My favorite type. It had a foamless design but didn’t have any ping sound? That’s the culmination of human wisdom!
“I want it!” I literally said this to the clerk. The strange thing was that for such an expensive keyboard, it didn’t come with stabilizers… or was that normal? Oh well, okay.
It’s a shame that they didn’t have Obscura switches (the bouncy, linear switches) when I bought Mode Envoy, but the clerk helped me pick one I liked. I tested many different ones, and finally, I bought Neon switches.
Remember I said that sound profile is an elusive thing? The truth is, I wasn’t sure if Neon would sound as great as Obscura. I bet on it. Fortunately, it worked! It felt and sounded good, and it still feels and sounds good today.
The one I tried in the shop had a black case, but the one I ordered was navy blue. It has that beautifully machined, anodized aluminum case, and I matched it with white and golden yellow keycaps with civilization themed subjects. As sexy as heck, baby!
Until these day, Mode Envoy is still my daily driver, and I feel touched from time to time when I type on it. I would suddenly realize, “Oh! This feels so good!”
Hyped for assembling it too
Mode Envoy comes as a barebones kit, meaning my excitement didn’t stop when I made the purchase. Mode Envoy was the second keyboard I assembled, so I was already familiar with the process.
One thing I realized about myself is that I like the feeling of assembling keyboards very much. I like screwing in stabilizers, mounting the switches onto the plate, and putting on the keycaps. Every step makes the keyboard even more endearing to me.
(And those companies know exactly how much DIY is enough. If it’s too DIY and users have to solder the sockets themselves, then it becomes a hassle.)
When I assembled my Mode Envoy, I could simply immerse myself in the process, without worrying about ruining the keyboard. With a few hours of work, my sexy baby was born!
Ergonomic split keyboards—the potential next craze
For now, I am still happy with my Mode Envoy, but I have started eyeing out split keyboards. Not because I have serious pain issues, but simply because I am curious about it.
I want to know what it’s like to type a columnar staggered keyboard, not having to stretch fingers diagonally when reaching for the upper and bottom rows. I want to know the feeling of using home row mods and switching between layers, freeing up my pinkies for the heavy tasks of using modifiers and pressing symbol keys.
I am beaming with passion, then why haven’t I gotten one? Simple answer: Price.
Pre-built split keyboards are not cheap, and DIY ones require me to invest quite some amount of money in the equipment.
For now, I am happily in the rabbit hole (again), researching the pros and cons of Dygma Defy, Glove80, Voyager, Charybdis, Lily58, Corne-36, Sofle, etc. Wired or wireless? Concave keywell or not? Tenting or not tenting? How many keys do I need? So many questions!
Still, I haven’t given up on the idea. I plan to get one when I have my first income from coding. For which route will I go? A Pre-built one or a DIY one? That’s for the future me to decide.
But based on my track record, I’ll probably end up getting both!