You can get a quality mechanical keyboard in a layout of your choice and take your pick from hundreds of keycap sets in whatever color, profile, material etc. you can think of.
Keychron.com is a good starting point that won’t break the bank (but order them from a reseller or Amazon if you can, Keychron themselves aren’t great with returns and support).
I typed out an entire reply with pictures and everything and it just went into the void when I hit send. I’m not putting in another 15 minutes of effort, because I have to get on to some other things, but I’ll do my best.
So I live in Canada, so pricing may be different for you than me. A cheap Keychron here is around $100, and I can get a good, hotswappable with removable cable for $40-$50 CAD ($30-$40USD).
I owned a Keychron because I wanted to have a keyboard that could be plugged in and use bluetooth, but the bluetooth side of things was a mess, so I sent it back. So I am not speaking out my ass about the keyboard. Aside from that, it was an okay keyboard, but didn’t offer anything a cheaper keyboard couldn’t do (bluetooth aside).
Here is a 60% on Amazon.ca with hotswappable, and removeable keyboard, with red switches for $35.99 CAD right now ($27.02 USD).
Here is a 65%, with wireless and wired, hot swappable and backlit for $19.99 here
Just take a look for what you want, and you will find something in your price range that has the features you want. The market is flooded with them, and they will last just as long as the expensive ones. Mine is a 75% going on 10+ years now and my daughters is about 9 years old. I splurged on my partner and got her a GMMK fullsized $100
The switches and keycaps on mine are more expensive than the board itself. I’ve went through 5 or 6 different switches to find what I liked best and used three different keycap styles. Very customizable. The only thing I don’t like about mine is the cable is not removable.
I find it difficult to believe you can go much cheaper than the $50 where Keychron starts for their C series and still get quality.
A couple of years ago when I was looking for a cheap 80% to use as backup and occasional server work I shopped around and you can find stuff at $30-40 but it’s not exactly impressive.
Royal Kludge are a decent alternative but they are not “a fraction of the price”, in fact they’re pretty much the same.
You can get a quality mechanical keyboard in a layout of your choice and take your pick from hundreds of keycap sets in whatever color, profile, material etc. you can think of.
Keychron.com is a good starting point that won’t break the bank (but order them from a reseller or Amazon if you can, Keychron themselves aren’t great with returns and support).
You can get far better than keychron for a fraction of the price. Keychron is over hyped.
Where can I buy these not over hyped but far better keyboards? I’m being serious, I need a new keyboard. Two actually, but one is like DIRE
I typed out an entire reply with pictures and everything and it just went into the void when I hit send. I’m not putting in another 15 minutes of effort, because I have to get on to some other things, but I’ll do my best.
So I live in Canada, so pricing may be different for you than me. A cheap Keychron here is around $100, and I can get a good, hotswappable with removable cable for $40-$50 CAD ($30-$40USD).
I owned a Keychron because I wanted to have a keyboard that could be plugged in and use bluetooth, but the bluetooth side of things was a mess, so I sent it back. So I am not speaking out my ass about the keyboard. Aside from that, it was an okay keyboard, but didn’t offer anything a cheaper keyboard couldn’t do (bluetooth aside).
Here is a 60% on Amazon.ca with hotswappable, and removeable keyboard, with red switches for $35.99 CAD right now ($27.02 USD).
Another for $43.04 CAD here
A nearly fullsize for $49.99 CAD with a $5 off coupon here
An 89 key for 39.99 here
All of them have back lighting as well. And I just looked at the first page without refining my results.
And here’s a few off amazon.com in case you are American:
This is a 98 key mechanical (no detachable cable though) on sale, with a $3 coupon for $29.99 USD (26.99 USD) here
75% for $28.99 with a $6 coupon (USD) here
I love American prices lol.
Here is a 65%, with wireless and wired, hot swappable and backlit for $19.99 here
Just take a look for what you want, and you will find something in your price range that has the features you want. The market is flooded with them, and they will last just as long as the expensive ones. Mine is a 75% going on 10+ years now and my daughters is about 9 years old. I splurged on my partner and got her a GMMK fullsized $100
Here’s mine and I love it: https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ab5a48a3-3e7f-48c9-ba81-835d85d2aa1f.jpeg
The switches and keycaps on mine are more expensive than the board itself. I’ve went through 5 or 6 different switches to find what I liked best and used three different keycap styles. Very customizable. The only thing I don’t like about mine is the cable is not removable.
I hope something in here useful. Take care!
Such as what? I’ve always found Keychron to be cheaper
I find it difficult to believe you can go much cheaper than the $50 where Keychron starts for their C series and still get quality.
A couple of years ago when I was looking for a cheap 80% to use as backup and occasional server work I shopped around and you can find stuff at $30-40 but it’s not exactly impressive.
Royal Kludge are a decent alternative but they are not “a fraction of the price”, in fact they’re pretty much the same.