4d ago

Are there any better mechanical keyboards that don't break the bank?

I'm looking to buy a decent keyboard - nothing ridiculous as I'm not a keyboard enthusiast, but decent enough for regular use. In particular, I'm looking for something...

tkl or full size, nothing with a non-standard arrow key layout
Pink or pink and white (or white but cheap enough I can buy keycaps with it)
Quieter switches and shorter travel are perfered, but not a deal breaker
Available in Canada

Currently I'm mostly looking at the Razer BlackWidow V3 for $122 CAD. I'm not exactly a Razor fan, but the only competitve option I found was the Ducky One 3 TKL for $171 CAD. I'm sure the quality is better, and the hotswappable switches are very nice, but it lacks the backlight and the media controls while being $50 more expensive.

Is there a better option I'm missing, or a good reason to pick one or the other?

38 comments

Keychron keyboards are solid and maintainable, and available in Canada. Pick a model that supports swapping switches, and start with brown switches perhaps - they're on the more quiet end of the spectrum, but common so you won't break the bank. Then over time you can customize it as your budget allows - different switches if browns are not the right fit for you, keycaps of your preferred colour, etc.
- I have a full-size Keychron, and I love it, I think it was fantastic bang for buck
- Yeah, OP should just find a hot-swap Keychron they like and call it a day. If the keeb bug bites, it’s plenty good enough not to find embarrassing. If it doesn’t, it’s a solid and repairable board to use for a long time.
- It is great that the firmware is open source. However their customer support is utter shite. I have given up several times hoping for help on a keyboard bug.

Keychron makes some good ones imo

I have a drop cstm80 it's a good board no complaints from me and it has covers so you can get all kinds colors or designs and easily change it

I've got a pair of vortex pok3r 60%'s that I've used daily for around a decade with no issues, each were under 100 USD, they might have inexpensive keyboards with the features you're looking for. Before that I used a keytronic that was built like a tank but not a mech.

General advice - don't be picky about dedicated media controls; sure they're nice to have, but they severely limit your choices (I was in that boat too). At the same time it's very easy to make key combinations; e.g. the Caps Lock key very often gets neglected, and if this is the case for you, you can repurpose it to Fn, and from there you can do Fn+W to play/pause, Fn+Q/Fn+E for prev/next track respectively and so on (of course the specific keys are up to you). Look for QMK/VIA support over manufacturer-specific software.
Sorry I can't give a more specific recommendation. I second the idea that Keychron generally have good value for the money, so do Vortex and Ducky (although Ducky have gone up in price while not staying very competitive).

If you're not after fancy features like hot swap or per-lignt control sht like Red dragon and Hex gear works great for less than $50
I have a fancy hot swappable board with expensive limited edition switches for my main PC and then a hex gear with Kali white and a red dragon with cherry MX and those both feel almost as great as my normal, 3x as expensive board

https://endorfy.com/en/product/thock-tkl-pudding-onyx-white-blue/
Got one of these for 40€ a while ago, and outside of sales they're not expensive either. Solid mechanical RGB keyboard, nothing more, nothing less. The website shows only one reseller in the USA for North America, maybe check Amazon.
https://klimtechs.com/products/klim-shift-wireless-bluetooth-mechanical-keyboard
This 65% is another one I've been happy with, you might want to look at their larger offerings. They ship to Canada.

Royal Kludge makes some good keyboards for less. Their wired one is super affordable but does have longer, louder travel.
- I got an RK recently and have been very happy with it. Multiple connection options (wired, usb, or 2.4ghz), nice white and green colors, switches and caps all feel very good for such a budget model. Only thing I dislike is they made it full size but inexplicably decided no one needs an "End" key anymore. Its an Fn-layer button (on Page Down?!), along with Pause, PrtSc, and ScrLk. Admittedly I never need those other keys but I use End failry often and it's an odd choice, especially since they kept the numpad.
- Thirded on RK. I've night two of their boards, RK71& RK84, both black BT/RF. The 71 I derped on as it didn't have a dedicated F key row and it impacted gameplay at times. Took that one to the office and daily drive both. I think both are brown switches.

Keychron k10 100 wire/wireless

Feel free to disregard this answer if you want. I freely admit it doesn't really fit what you're asking, but I don't have much experience with mechanical keyboards. I've only used one, and MY GOD I LOVE IT!!!
It's not quiet. It's not backlit. It's not pink. But here it is anyways.
https://www.8bitdo.com/retro-108-mechanical-keyboard/
And here's a video review with unboxing
The video review is from a year ago, with the 87 button version. HOWEVER, in December 2024 they released the 108 button version which adds the number pad on the side. This is the version I recommend. It just has such a perfect lap feel to it. One small addition to the 108 version are magnetic flipout feet to help prop up the keyboard if you have it on a flat surface. Something the 87 key version lacked.
Outside of that the 87 key version, and thus everything in the review for that version, also apply to the 108 key version. So you can watch the review, and ignore any complaints about a lack of number keypad, or feet. The 108 version have those. But still get a good idea of what you can expect performance wise from this keyboard.
He also goes into the keyboard sound test. As in, tapping the keys, and giving you an idea of how well they sound with their clickyness.
- I have this one and of is surprisingly good for the money. I also have a keychron recommended by many others, and can also vouch for that.

Ducky One 3 RGB in white for $130 @ mechanicalkeyboards.com but it's on backorder until mid-month. Is that the $170 CAD?
I'd get the Ducky because I am familiar with their quality and have heard the service is good. In addition, you can get Cherry MX keycaps everywhere, and PBT keycaps are the luxury version compared to ABS. Feels more solid somehow.
Cherry Reds feel like mush to me, Browns are silent but have a slight tactile bump and are my preferred switch.
ETA: Oh, the Duckys last years, decades even. The Razer might too, I don't know but Ducky is basically the workhorse of the MK world.
- Ducky One 3 TKL RGB in white is $179 CAD, so even more expensive. That said, I guess its probably worth the extra money compared to the backlight-less version at least.
  
  like $8 to have RGB? Yeah, totally worth it.

IDK about the options available, but I've found that choosing a wired keyboard can bring the price down significantly. This is no trade-off because I wouldn't use a wireless keyboard anyway.

I have a Redragon keyboard using their off-brand CherryMX knock offs and it feels the same as the Corsair I had with actual CherryMX switches.
The Corsair is almost $200. The Redragon was $40, and came with a mouse, a headset, and a big ass mouse pad. But I don't think they come in something that isn't lighted in some way, if you don't want RGB bs.
- I was in the market for a new keyboard recently, and came down to either a Redragon or a HyperX, and I ended up going with the latter just because it was on sale. I'm happy with the HyperX, but I think either would have been just as good for me.
  Very similar details to what you wrote here -- they have their own switches, feels nice, inexpensive, RGB... I got black "pudding" key caps to replace the stock ones, but there are plenty of pink options too.
  Only thing I don't think works for OP is that I don't see any HyperX keyboards with a white base, only black. Redragon has at least a few white base keyboards, though.

If you're gonna use it for games I can't recommend a Wooting 60HE or another hall effect switch keyboard enough. Having full control over the actuation and reset point makes it feel more responsive than any mechanical keyboard I had before.
Not having a set point makes it so much more intuitive, moving downwards activates a key and moving upwards deactivates it. Instead of having to go past the hardware defined trigger point.
- Oh god I didn't want to see this post. Been considering replacing my Ducky one ii and this sounds real sexy...
  How does it feel and respond outside twitch FPS? I've had many years on CS source/overwatch/TF2, but I play plenty of chill games of late so I'm not always desperate for reducing latency. Still sounds amazing
  
  If it involves any vehicles being able to emulate a controller and actually being able to control your turning speed or engine power by how deep your pressing the keys is a godsend. Not having to rapidly tap A/D to do a shallow turn makes driving actually fun on MnK.
  Also being able to set certain keys u might fatfinger to a lower action point is really nice. Or desyncing activation and deactivation distance so you don't accidentally release keys you need to hold for actions is great.
  It's really how a keyboard for gaming should have always been imo in terms of options and tuning, especially with a fast you can change the settings through the website or app.

Ducky has programmable keys FYI, while you don't have dedicated media keys it's really easy to bind media key macros, fn+pg up/down are volume, fn+end is pause etc on mine.
Razer keyboards I'd shy away from personally, found their build quality isn't great, mice specifically, the ducky is more comfortable for me to use anyhow. My partner has a one 3 tkl in white with clears, I have a black one with browns (used blacks for years, prefer tactile+clicky after having used them).

I would not buy a Razer if they paid me $120. Do yourself a favor and don't. I've owned a fair few Razer products in my life and they've all been overpriced flimsy pieces of shit, and when they break Razer will do anything and everything to weasel out of doing anything about it. As a matter of fact, the last Razer product I had break on me was a Blackwidow Chroma, and not coincidentally it was the last Razer product I will ever buy. I think it made it a whole nine months.
Anyway, I was in this very boat not too long ago and settled on the Glorious GMMK 3 100% for my wife, which is indeed available in white. It's $140 USD list price, so I don't know how that fits your budget. She got some nice cat themed keycaps for it and she's having a ball. You can get it with various keyswitch options prepopulated, or even swap the switches around as you see fit. She got the "Fox" linear keyswitches which are not short throw but are definitely quiet.
I use a Logitech G512 Carbon at the moment, myself. It's not white but it has otherwise been bomber for over a year.
This is a sterling endorsement for me. I don't know if anyone's noticed but I type a lot. Not just bickering in the comments, but for work as well. I am not rough on keyboards and mine never moves from this spot, but I will tickle the keyswitches on any 'board a couple of million times in short order and I probably find the service limit on all the keys that are not W, A, S, or D more quickly than the average penguin.

Cheap
Your specific requests
Pick one.

if you want long battery. MX Mechanical is good

My current daily driver is a 13€ blue switches thing for AliExpress with 20€ DSA keycaps also from AliExpress. Both are fine.

Well they don't have it in pink but a unicomp is the best keyboard made.
I have two model m keyboards. Both are older than my wife. They are my work and personal PC daily drivers.
You can buy new USB versions on the net or Amazon.

Aula has some solid keyboards for a good price, and they're nice and hefty. You could beat a man to death with mine and keep on typing afterwards. I think I paid like $80?

Check out offerings from Yunzii, specifically their aluminium keyboards. Should be far better quality than Razer, also at a better price point for what it is.
A few other options include ajazz, Epomaker, aula, or royal kludge like a couple comments mentioned. They are all similar and offer great bang for your buck.
All are hotswappable and depending on which model you pick, there should be some leftovers for a set of keycaps if the Razer keyboard is your budget.

I've been able to get Razer ones when sales are going on.

Model M
- I'm currently using a model M clone (thats like 40 years old) but the lack of N-key rollover is killer for even simple games.
  
  You want a newer Unicomp Model M.
- currently typing this out with a blue badge model m

38 comments