Cherry Stream

Modern mechanical keyboards are overpriced rgb widgets for the most part. And god forbid you’re any literate in switches, lubing, etc, it becomes impossible to just get a keyboard. I’ve returned two m. keyboards and am absolutely fine with kv-300h (cheap island scissors with no bells or whistles). I have two, one from 2017, another from 2024. No difference.

Been through all that. I just use a shitty Cherry Stream TKL in the end. Costs virtually nothing, doesn't screw up the hands like the mechanical ones all do and doesn't make my partner want to kill me.

Went through a few mechanical keyboards, both cheap and expensive along with many non-mechanical ones over the years. Finally settled on Cherry Stream. I never miss a key on this one.

I'm a simple man. At work I have a Cherry Stream. At home I have a Cherry Stream. I also have a backup on hand (Cherry Stream). Two are black and one is white. The keyboard I had before my first Cherry Stream was mechanical. It was fine, but way too noisy. I still don't get the fuss about mechanical keyboards.

That's hardly any. I think I get 9 months out of a keyboard. Currently using a Cherry Stream TKL. Probably the best keyboard I've had for years and it was dirt cheap.

I travel a fair bit for work. A while ago I bought a thin tenkeyless external keyboard (Cherry Stream - it has laptop-style scissor switches). Being tenkeyless it's small enough to fit comfortably into the bag with my laptop yet has full sized keys and layout. Makes a huge difference (along with a laptop stand) to using a laptop to work in a hotel room.

Not a fan of the idea: 1. I don't look at a keyboard so there's not much point in making it look fancy. 2. I destroy keyboards in 12 months. Even good quality mechanical ones. I probably can't afford to own this. 3. It looks like bits are going to fall off it when I inevitably catch the edge of it moving from my mouse to my keyboard. 4. It doesn't have enough keys on it and the default positioned layout sucks. 5. It's got transparent bits. My backlit laptop keyboard already looks like a cat litter tray after a couple of weeks. This is going to require a lot of upkeep. I think the only keyboard I actually like at the moment is the Cherry Stream SX TKL. Costs $26, feels like an old ThinkPad, has all the right keys in the right place, if you break you won't cry, no bits fall off it when you shake the crap out, it doesn't look like a Christmas tree on acid or ever like a cat litter tray. I had 11 keyboards to get to that and it was the cheapest one. Ugh.

I'd recommend: - Chiclet Keyboard - Inexpensive - Wired - Full QUERTY layout (inc. number pad). - Maybe a dedicated calculator button. - No LEDs/special features/special software. Advantage including: - Lower compression depth/lower pressure per key press. - Lower noise. - Lower cost. - Increased reliability. - Plug and play. Amazon Basics and Dell both make good keyboards in this category but Amazon Basics' keyboard no longer has the dedicated Calculator button. I buy these keyboards on purpose and legitimately don't understand people who WANT a Model-M clone, I typed on those for years, terrible keyboards. Just loud, attract grime, and cause hand fatigue. PS - Although the trendy tide could be turning with MX LOW PROFILE gaining some interest. edit: Maybe check out the CHERRY Stream Keyboard for $30 on Amazon (US).