You Might Not Need a Mechanical Keyboard

A truth that took me years to realize: the shorter the key travel and the lighter the keystroke, the faster you type and the less fatigue you feel.

I’m not sure if it’s the hype, an inherent interest that software engineers naturally develop, or simply the need for prolonged typing at work, but people just love the tactile feel of mechanical keyboards.

Whether looking at my own setup or my past work experience, quite a few colleagues used mechanical keyboards. After moving to Japan, I noticed even more colleagues owning two or more HHKBs, and some even bought parts and PCBs to solder their own split keyboards.

I used to love mechanical keyboards too. I once bought a FILCO MINILA with brown switches back before hot-swapping became mainstream, meaning whatever you bought was what you were stuck with. That was one of my favorite keyboards I’ve ever used. Later on, I bought the renowned HHKB electrostatic capacitive keyboard, widely celebrated in the developer community.

I really enjoyed the keystrokes and layout of the HHKB. In Japanese, the sound is often described as “コトコト” (kotokoto). It’s completely different from the feel that mechanical keyboards strive for, but it felt incredibly comfortable to me. While the HHKB is fantastic, it has a couple of drawbacks:

• The lack of dedicated arrow keys is still quite inconvenient (you have to hold down the Fn key on the HHKB).
• The keycaps are non-standard, making customization very difficult.

Later, I returned to the embrace of mechanical keyboards. This time I fell even deeper down the rabbit hole, getting into custom mechanical keyboards. Over time, I bought:

• Nuphy Air65
• Nuphy Halo65
• Zoom65 v2
• Neo65

Since HHKB layouts are relatively rare on the market, PCBs that support split spacebars, ISO enters, and split backspaces were a massive plus for me—because the PCB layout dictates your key layout.

On top of that, I experimented with all kinds of switches just to chase the ideal feel and sound. In the custom keyboard world, achieving a “mahjong tile” sound is something many enthusiasts obsess over.

Then I realized something: during long coding sessions, the fatigue caused by mechanical keyboards is actually quite noticeable, especially with heavier switch actuation. Furthermore, custom keyboards often suffer from varying degrees of connection instability.

In the end, I went back to capacitive and membrane keyboards:

• Niz Atom 68
• Keychron B1 Pro

I chose these two because both support key remapping, allowing me to maintain an HHKB (or near-HHKB) layout.

It took me years to finally accept this truth: the shorter the key travel and the lighter the keystroke, the faster you type and the less fatigue you feel. Plus, using a capacitive or membrane keyboard has another major perk: it’s quiet, so your coworkers won’t hate you.

The Niz Atom 68 is an electro-capacitive keyboard with 35g switches, while the B1 Pro is an ultra-portable membrane keyboard. Both support keymap customization.

I finally came to terms with the fact that a keyboard is ultimately an instrument—a Human Interface Device (HID). Its primary job is to maximize input speed and minimize fatigue. Additionally, if you need to work on the go, it should be lightweight and easy to carry. Everything else is just fleeting vanity.

Custom keyboards are a lot like luxury watches: once you start obsessing over them, they stop being mere tools and turn into collector’s items.