Keyboards matter. To many they’re something of an afterthought, to be considered long after you’ve decided upon the screen, processor or quantity of memory on a prospective purchase’s spec sheet. Yet keyboards have a huge impact on the way you work. A bad one can slow you down, wreck the feel of your laptop or even do you harm over years of prolonged use. That’s why, although you’ll find perfectly decent keyboards for less than $40, some people will pay $300 or more for a great one.
How do the different keyboard technologies differ? Which are the ones worth paying the premium prices for?
We delve under the keycaps to find out.
The keyboard fundamentals
Generally speaking, desktop keyboards follow the same basic design. There’s a deck or backplate at the bottom holding an array of switches connected to a small PCB. This includes a controller chip that translates the electrical signals from the switches into a digital output, and a USB controller or wireless transceiver to transmit that data to the PC. The keycaps sit on the switches, and a punched plate holds them in place. All of this is contained inside a rigid enclosure, normally fashioned from acrylonitrile butadiene
