She’s growing up, and she’s got a framework 13 laptop with fedora 40, which is great, but she’s been using hand me down peripherals.
She’d love a decent mechanical KB as she likes the clicky clicky of the keys, but the last one I got her, a Lofree, basically bit the dust in no time.
She’s SUPER into the aesthetics but doesn’t want RGB led’s, but DOES like a nice backlit keyboard.
When searching for it, amazon, best buy and the rest just pollute the results, so it’s actually difficult to decide what to get her. Her birthday is coming up so this will be her main gift.
What have you all had good luck with that might be aesthetically pleasing, that the quality wasn’t trash like Lofree.
EDIT: thank you for all your suggestions, I’ve sent her a bunch of links to look at and she’s going through them now. I’ll try to remember to post back what she picks.
I just got a Keychron Q3 HE and it’s amazing. Bit pricy, but it’ll last forever because it’s fully repairable. Even comes with all the req’d tools to disassemble. QMK/VIA, too!
Neat, these look great
I’m never going to be a MK expert or anything, but I like them and wanted a reasonably decent one. After a lot of research I ended up trying my luck with a Glorious GMMK 2, kailh box white switches, and doubleshot pudding key caps all in white. I later modded it with a sheet of PE foam between the PCB and the switches, and now it sounds delightful. I’m happy enough with it that, unless I decide to change the switches or try a denser foam, I might already be at my “endgame” keyboard. It does have LEDs, but if you get normal key caps it’ll just look backlit, you can control how they shine anyway though. Dunno your budget, but that’s what got me in and out of a potentially very expensive hobby for under £150.
Great suggestion, thanks
Budget is the first consideration. Once we have that, I would be happy to discuss options with you.
I mean… Hopefully not crazy money, like $75 for both seems like a lot … But if it’s worth it, I’ll spend more
Those Ducky recommendations are pretty good. Ducky is a solid brand, I can’t say I’ve tried them out myself, however, I have been curious. I also haven’t priced those out, so I don’t know if they’re within that range and I actually kind of doubt it; they’re probably over $100 just for the keyboard. That said take a look at that list the other person provided. I will say also I did recently try an RKgaming full sized board (I would guess she is used to full sized?) which I love. That was about $100. Keychron is a solid choice as well, with options at many price points. I would avoid the lowest tier. I would also make sure the board is “hot swappable.” This means that she can try out different switches, if she decides she wants to get into that aspect. All RGB can be set to just one color. Mice are mice in my experience. There’s very little to go wrong with them anymore. Only consideration would be wired vs wireless, and what options she needs in terms of using a dongle to connect wirelessly vs Bluetooth. I use a Razer Basilisk v3, which is quite nice, and was very well reviewed, but is about $65. I also use an Apple Magic trackpad, but that is usurously expensive and please forget that I even mentioned it. Any kind of keeb for “gaming” or what have you, or that is made by Logitech or one of these other you know “normal” companies should be avoided. They almost always are not hot-swappable and they are overcharging for what is essentially the lowest tier of mechanical keyboards. Sorry if that reply was kind of all over the place. I just woke up.
Seems like you’re right. Might have to spend a bit more. I really appreciate the advice.
😆
Ask her what she wants, of course. Or maybe get her an Adafruit gift certificate.
Solid advice, and yeah she gets to pick but obviously I like to do some homework on the options.
The 8bitduo NES/Famicom keyboard is pretty nice if you’re into that sort of thing, it doesn’t come with backlights or a mouse though
I didn’t realize they did keyboards, I’ve got 4 of their controllers and they are great.
They have one and I think it’s incredible, but if your kid isn’t into retro gaming it might not be the best stylistic choice.
Just wanted to finish this out, she picked the Xtrfy M50 and the Keychron K7 Max
I use a Logitech K730. It’s got chiclet style keys so nothing too clacky, but I like it and it works with the logi receiver and a Logitech MX mouse. Both are nice, and work on my Bazzite (fedora) computer.
For all the normal people, the really good keyboards come from Logitech
(with the one exception of the legendary IBM PS2 keyboard, where you can hear the typing in the next 3 rooms and it swallows years and years of coffee stains and cigarette ash without ever failing and if you hit your burglar’s head with it, he won’t get up anymore so you can just continue typing…)
Only if you want your keyboard’s firstname to be “Gaming”, you have to look elsewhere.
I’m sorry, (and I don’t know what this individual means by “normal people”) but this is bad advice. Please do not buy Logitech anything, especially not a MX keeb.
Yeah, I’m kinda out on Logitech after their recent money grab.
