poisonous! Why can't mechanical keyboards go back when you use them!

For PC users, the keyboard is the only device that we have direct physical contact with, which can give us an intuitive interactive feeling.

Whether it's working codewords or gaming entertainment, it's worth getting a keyboard in hand.

Common keyboards have two types of membrane keyboards and mechanical keyboards, membrane keyboards are mainly composed of three parts: panel layer, elastic film and keys.

The button rebound relies on the elasticity of the film layer, which is often unsatisfactory in the hand, and the compression life is usually about 5 million times.

However, the membrane keyboard is generally low in price, the cost of replacement is small, and it is widely used, and the membrane keyboard still occupies a major position in the keyboard.

The mechanical keyboard is mainly composed of several parts: PCB circuit board, shaft body, keycap, and shell.

Each shaft body is a cleverly designed independent micro switch, when you press a button, you are actually pressing a certain shaft body switch, as shown in the following figure:

According to the key range, according to the pressure, paragraph and linearity into different shaft types, manufacturers also use different colors to distinguish the shaft type, for example, the above figure is the red axis.

Different types of shafts have a unique mechanical feel and experience.

The compression life of each shaft body can usually reach tens of millions of times, which is much higher than that of membrane keyboards.

In addition, the mechanical keyboard also has high personalized customization attributes, including shaft body, keycaps, lights, etc., which can be replaced according to their own preferences, which is difficult to provide for traditional membrane keyboards.

Left (mechanical keyboard) Right (membrane keyboard)

However, there are many types of mechanical keyboards, different forms, how should we choose?

Little A takes you to understand the following aspects:

01. Shaft body

The most influential mechanical keyboard feel is the shaft body used, here it has to be said that the very classic German CHERRY (cherry) axis, and the cherry axis is represented by the green axis, red axis, tea axis, black axis.

Qing axis has the most significant mechanical feel, and the traditional membrane keyboard forms a huge difference, very suitable for the pit mechanical keyboard players to choose and experience, and a wide range of applicability, code word work, games and other aspects can cope with it freely.

The blue axis belongs to the typical paragraph axis, with a clear sense of paragraph, the trigger pressure is about 50cN, and the trigger key stroke is about 2.4mm.

In the middle of the compression, there will be a significant sense of paragraph resistance, forcing you to increase the pressure level slightly, and after successfully breaking through the paragraph resistance, it will make a crisp sound.

The whole percussion process is full of rhythm, accompanied by a crisp feedback sound, which can give people a very comfortable and smooth code word or game experience after familiarization.

The red axis belongs to the typical linear axis, straight up and down, a touch to the end, compared to the green axis, the red axis has no sense of passage at all, the trigger pressure is lighter about 45cN, the trigger key range is about 2mm, the trigger is faster and more sensitive, and it is more quiet, which is very suitable for long-term work code word party, and it is not tired for a long time.

The tea axis is suitable for players who want to experience a certain paragraph, but also need lighter trigger pressure and higher trigger speed, and the paragraph axis and the linear axis feel the same axis.

The tea shaft is a relatively unique shaft body, known as the golden oil, and the feel is between the green axis paragraph and the red axis linear.

The tea axis has the same lighter trigger pressure and shorter trigger key range as the red axis, and has a certain paragraph, the sense of paragraph and feedback is slightly weaker than the green axis, and the green axis and the red axis feel are dipped, typical golden oil properties.

The black shaft, which small A calls the hercultural shaft, is also a linear shaft, straight up and down, no sense of passage, but the use of a more rigid spring, the trigger pressure is significantly higher than the above several shafts, in exchange for a faster rebound speed.

Because of its fast rebound speed, the black axis is more suitable for competitive gamers who must compete for milliseconds. With the black axis code words, it is inevitable that the fingers will be sore and soft for a long time, and if the finger strength and endurance are amazing, they can be ignored!

To sum up the above: The green axis is suitable for codewords or gamers who do not pick the environment, and its crisp button sound is also jokingly called the roommate sacrifice sky axis.

The red axis is more suitable for writers who pursue a quiet environment.

The black axis is suitable for game parties.

The tea shaft is a golden oil shaft, and anything can be typed.

In addition to the above four classic shaft bodies, CHERRY Company has also launched a silver shaft with extreme trigger speed, a white shaft for the tea shaft according to the pressure degree upgrade, a green axis for the green axis according to the pressure degree upgrade, and so on.

The issue of length will not be described in detail in small A.

Note: If you pursue a quiet use environment, you can choose a silent axis, such as a silent red axis, a silent black axis, and the silent axis is equipped with elastic material at the bottom, which can reduce the impact sound of the shaft body bottoming out and significantly reduce the effect of key noise.

The cherry red axis is on the left and the cherry muted red axis on the right

The CHERRY shaft is the most classic and widely used shaft body in the mechanical shaft, but it is usually more expensive, and it is almost difficult to find a mechanical keyboard equipped with the Cherry axis within 300 yuan.

For users who are looking for an authentic feel, choose the CHERRY Axis mechanical keyboard.

Users with insufficient budget can consider the corresponding domestic axis, which is cheaper but has a feel and experience close to the CHERRY axis.

At present, you can find some good quality domestic shaft body mechanical keyboards at a price of 100 yuan, which is also worth buying.

02 Matching

The most common keyboard configuration is 104 keys or 108 keys, that is, the standard configuration column, which has a complete function key and numeric keypad area, and the difference between 104 keys and 108 keys is whether there are four media keys on the numeric keypad.

For the general users who have surplus desktop space, there is no brain to choose the standard matching line, and there is no worries about the complete function.

87 key matching column is based on the standard configuration of the removal of the numeric keypad area, the advantage is smaller, more exquisite, save desktop space, suitable for users who do not need frequent digital input and limited desktop space.

Of course, there is also the ultra-streamlined 61-key keyboard with a column of keys, which further saves desktop space and is easy to carry, which is designed for simplicity.

In addition, there are not very common 92 or 96 keys, 82 keys or 76 keys, according to your preferences and needs to choose.

03 , Keycap material

There are generally two common keycap materials on the market: ABS and PBT materials.

ABS is acrylonitrile - butadiene - styrene copolymer, the advantages are high strength, good toughness, long service life, easy to process and form, the cost is relatively cheap, widely used in high, medium and low-end keyboards, especially in the low-end keyboard is mainly BASED ON ABS material keycaps.

The disadvantage is that the surface becomes smooth and sticky after a long time of use, that is, we call "oiling", and the keycaps after oiling are full of greasy feeling, which greatly affects the feel and appearance.

ABS keycap oiling phenomenon

Compared with ABS material, the keycap of PBT material is harder, the feel is more delicate, the wear resistance is better, and it is not easy to hit the oil for a long time, and the disadvantage is that the cost is higher.

A keyboard often accompanies itself for a long time, and Xiao A still recommends choosing a PBT material keycap with better durability.

There are generally two kinds of PBT material keycaps, one is two-color injection molding, the other is radium carving, two-color injection molding words are clearer, and light transmittance is better.

The picture shows the two-color injection molded PBT keycap

For users who do not consider light pollution, choose radium carving and two-color injection molding, choose to buy a keyboard with lights or consider the user of adding lights later, it is more recommended to choose a two-color injection keycap.

04, keycap height

Our common mechanical keyboard keycap height has original height and OEM height, and the original height refers to the uniform height used by german CHERRY keyboards.

OEM height refers to the height of the keycaps produced outside the factory, and the OEM height is usually used for non-CHERRY original keyboards.

The OEM height is about 1-2mm higher than the original factory, and when dictating the keycaps yourself, pay attention to distinguish whether it is the original height or the OEM height.

In addition, there are DSA short ball caps, SA high ball caps, VSA high short ball caps, and so on, which are not very common, and they are not too much to introduce here.

05, keyboard light

The choice of lighting purely depends on the budget and personal preferences, the current lighting mainly has monochrome, zone color and RGB full color lighting, and most of the lights factory with a variety of dynamic light effect combinations.

Budget enough to go directly to RGB full color, after all, the rich lighting effect comes with a 50% performance bonus!

Other aspects, such as support for wireless connectivity, key-wire separation, support for hot swap (can replace the shaft body independently), etc. are additional plus points, and everyone can choose according to their budget and preferences.

06. Conclusion

Mechanical keyboard has far more than the traditional keyboard feel and life, has gradually become popular, a variety of products, with a high degree of personalized customization options, it is worth everyone to try.

So what keyboard do the little friends use?