What is a Mechanical Keyboard?
Mechanical keyboards are different from the ones that you traditionally use (well, otherwise, there’d be no point).
The keyboards that you might have used might have looked like this:
The keyboards that you might have used might have looked like this:
Traditional keyboards have a thin rubber membrane with domes beneath the keys
to determine your key presses.
Rubber dome keyboards face the following problems and more:
to determine your key presses.
Rubber dome keyboards face the following problems and more:
- Weak durability (the membrane wears with use)
- “Ghosting” (when keys don’t work when pressed simultaneously)
- Typing on them feels like touching old, stale Jell-O
A mechanical keyboard has actual, physical switches underneath the keys
to determine when a user presses a button.
to determine when a user presses a button.
Each switch is composed of a base, a spring, and a stem. Depending on the shape of the stem, such keyboards have varying actuation and travel distance. Depending on the resistance of the spring, the key requires different amounts of pressure to actuate. This also allows for the removal and replacement of keycaps. Although this may not seem so remarkable, it manages to solve all of the problems listed above, and more.