I am super picky about keyboards. I think it’s because I have been an accomplished touch typist since my 10th birthday. We had a borrowed electric typewriter in the house back then and my mother said, “if you’re going to play with the typewriter, you’re going to use the proper fingering”. So I learned how to type when I was in elementary school and to this day I can still type well over 120 words per minute.
So I’m picky about my keyboard. Blame my mother.
Apple does a decent job with their keyboards these days. The keyboard on my iPad Pro Magic Keyboard is one of the best I’ve ever used and the keyboard on my M2 MacBook Air (one year old today!) is quite enjoyable. I even liked the butterfly style keys on Earl’s MacBook Pro back in the day.
But when it comes to PCs I struggle. Being an old guy I like the clicky, mechanical keyboards the resemble something out a 1985 room housing a mainframe. When I worked for Digital (DEC), I found their LK201 and later LK401 keyboards to be absolutely awesome. But the clicky, mechanical keyboards don’t make for good background citizens when it comes to the Zoom work calls.
Enter the Stream TKL (tenkeyless) Keyboard from Cherry (link to Amazon).
As a tenkeyless keyboard it doesn’t have a number pad on the right end of the keyboard, so I don’t have to reach far for the mouse or touchpad. The feel is firm, like a mechanical keyboard, but without the click. The key travel is decent. I can comfortable reach my peak typing velocity on these keyboards. And right now they’re priced right at $25 or so on Amazon (see link above).
Earl doesn’t understand why I have a stack of keyboards in the closet as a result of my quest for the Goldilocks of keyboards.
I just know that I can rapidly type silently about the subject. And it’s an enjoyable experience for me.
