this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
14 points (100.0% liked)
Mechanical Keyboards
8599 readers
3 users here now
Are you addicted to the clicking sounds of your beautiful and impressive mechanical keyboard?
If so, this community is for you!
Here you can discuss everything about mechanical keyboards (and only mechanical keyboards).
Banner by Jay Zhang on Unsplash
founded 4 years ago
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Both of those keyboards have barebones versions (ie everything included except keycaps and switches), so you could buy switches and keycaps separately and install them yourself.
The only issue being both of these keyboards utilize south facing LEDs, which are known to not work well with conventional shine through keycaps (legends appear dim compared to north facing). The reason south facing is popular with enthusiasts is due to keycap compatibility (south facing LEDs mean that the switch is "right side up" and cherry profile keycaps fit properly). Thankfully, there are one or two keycap sets that are shine through and work with south facing LEDs. On this set, it is done by placing the legends on the side of the keycaps instead of the top: https://drop.com/buy/npkc-gradient-pbt-doubleshot-side-lit-keycap-set?defaultSelectionIds=971604. If you don't like these keycaps and/or can't find any like this that you do like, read on.
The main issue with finding keyboards with north facing LEDs is that there are very few that are up to "enthusiast" standards. Most boards that ship with north facing LEDs do not have nice features that keychron (and other enthusiast) boards have like QMK/VIA support, screw in stabilizers, properly prelubed switches/stabilizers, etc. In short, they might be okish, but you will be compromising other things like sound, feel, and functionality for conventional shine through keycaps that look right.
If you are ok with lots of compromises you can try:
*royal kludge rk87
+Cheap ($55)
+TKL+Wireless+north facing+shine thru keycaps
-no hot swap or qmk/via support
-plastic housing
-Needs mods to sound and feel good (see https://youtu.be/Yrnjf_QbA3M for a similar keyboard with mods)
-bad stabilizers most likely
-weird software/firmware of unknown quality
*Redragon K596 Vishnu
+TKL+wireless+north facing+shine thru keycaps
-higher price ($75)
-no qmk/via support
-macro/media keys are non standard (no keycap set will have them)
-""""hot-swap"""" with only outemu switches (pins/sockets are thinner and regular switches don't fit)
-will also need mods probably
-bad stabilizers most likely
-weird software/firmware of unknown quality
Thank you so much for the thorough answer! I'll check all this stuff out!