Deth

As I said yesterday, I ordered a new keyboard. I bought a Keychron Q6, really hoping that it’s a buy once, cry once type of thing. After testing it out for just a few minutes, I strongly believe that will be the case with this keyboard. Amazon once again delivered it to the wrong house. This time in broad daylight! Is it really that difficult to read an address and not make assumptions?

The one I got was black aluminum. I wouldn’t have minded having the silver version instead, but Amazon had the black one. I ordered it from Amazon since their returns are so easy in case the keyboard wasn’t what I was expecting. The biggest factor in choosing Amazon, though, is the fact that I wasn’t familiar at all with the Keychron brand.

The thing is solid and heavy. It feels well-built, and the metal makes it feel even more heavy. If someone were to break in, I could knock them out or kill them with it. My old Corsair keyboard felt decently solid, but in some ways, it also felt cheap. The keys on that board felt rattly and flimsy. The ones that came with this Keychron, on the other hand, feel solid and don’t rattle. They also feel like they’re placed better. With the heavy metal base, the thing just feels like a joy to type on. The fact that the keycaps are standard means that I have the option of changing them more readily available to me, too. I’ll likely do that someday, but I’m in no big hurry to do it. To be honest, I could see how that becomes a hobby for some people and may just become one for me. I will wait until I see something that just grabs my attention. The keys all just feel so solid. Even the space bar does. On my old keyboard, it felt flimsy and sounded hollow.

The version I purchased came with brown switches. I like them a lot so far. They feel great for typing, like my old Deck keyboard did. They’re quiet, too. The noise doesn’t bother me at all. But I wanted quiet keys, so I don’t have to worry about waking Molly up if I wake up in the middle of the night and come into the computer room because I’m unable to sleep.

I bought the full-sized version since I do use the number pad for entering numbers. The number pad is something that I don’t use it all that often, but I don’t know how I’d go without it when I do need it. Those stupid one-time codes that sites seem to think are a security thing are a prime example of the number pad’s use case for me. I don’t need to look at the keyboard to enter it. I feel like the keyboards without the number pad are a step backwards. The same goes for the page up and down keys, along with the home and end keys. I use those pretty frequently. I wouldn’t want to do it without the delete key, either. Using the scroll lock is nice when on the console.

I guess I could see how someone might want a more compact keyboard, but I don’t. Options are a good thing, but it used to be frustrating to me when stores only had smaller options when I was looking for a new keyboard. Most keyboards in the stores have the cheaper route with keys that are smaller and more like laptop keys, which I can’t stand the feel of. They feel so mushy. Like anything in physical stores, they have limited display space, so they have only ten versions of basically the same thing that sells well. I always had to see how they felt before I bought one, so I had to go to the store. Thankfully, since then, I have discovered that mechanical keyboards are still made.

Typing on this keyboard so far is a joy. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t like typing on my K95. This new one just feels so good, and the keys take a little more to register a press, so I am not hitting the wrong keys accidentally. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help with my typos when I hit the wrong key accidentally, unfortunately. I wish my desk had more space between the top and the keyboard drawer, though. I have to leave it pushed under to be able to see my monitor. The alt keys and other function keys are in the proper place and size on this one. I didn’t realize until very recently that the space bar was too big, and those keys were too small on my older keyboard. That does explain why I had so much trouble hitting the wrong ones. I’m a touch typist and haven’t had to look at the keyboard since I was in elementary school, unless I’m just having a brain-fart moment.

The knob is nice to have. I thought it was going to be a useless gimmick, but out of the box, it controls the sound volume. That is so much more convenient than reaching back to the speaker. Pressing the knob mutes the sound. I can’t count how many times I had to mute the sound while listening to something to talk to Molly.

I didn’t get the pro version of the keyboard since I didn’t need Bluetooth connectivity. It wouldn’t have added much to the price to get that, but I just didn’t want it. As an added bonus, I don’t have to be concerned about yet another (I assume) lithium-ion battery in the house. When not required, those batteries are more of a disadvantage than an advantage, given how they can catch fire.

Included in the box were a key cap puller and a switch puller. Those are nice to have. They feel a bit cheap, but they work well enough for what I may need. Obviously, not having had hot swap switches in the past, I never had one of them or required it. I also didn’t have a keycap puller and wasn’t even aware that they even existed. I gave them both a try and realized that they would be handy if and when I decided to swap out those components.

My final thoughts on this splurge are that it is about fucking time that I got a better-feeling keyboard. I feel that this feeling will only increase with time as I get more used to using it.