Mechanical Keyboards -- My Thoughts So Far

Weikav Lucky65 v3 with Akko Rosewood switches and GMK Red Samurai keycaps

I've always found typing to be something that felt therapeutic. It's one of those things that helps me calm my nerves. Typing is the reason that I'm in the mechanical keyboard hobby. It's been a long time coming.

Picture this: sitting inside a room, with the light shining through the window, your laptop on top of a nice wooden table, just you, your thoughts, and your fingers typing away. Bringing forth your thoughts into digital form. That's something that I love doing.

Just like with many other things, when you partake in an activity and you use a tool that you enjoy using, it changes how you approach things. You start to look forward to doing the activity.

This is the same reason that I love writing with a good pen on a good notebook.

The same thing happens when I'm with my camera and a particular lens that I'm enjoying using – the combo at the time of this writing being a Nikon Z6 and an old Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4 lens, but I digress.

These past few weeks, I've discovered a new hobby in the form of mechanical keyboards. It's a new hobby, and I've spent many hours reading about them, watching YouTube videos, understanding the vernacular, and familiarising myself with the various sounds: click, clack, pop, marbly, creamy, and the most eponymous "thock".

The hobby itself isn't new, and I think it's fair to say that it's as old as computers becoming mainstream products back in the 80s. But this hobby gained momentum during COVID. One of the silver linings of the epidemic was that a lot of people had a lot of time on their hands, and this resulted in advancements in mechanical keyboard design and usability. This is a topic for another time.

In this journey of mine on this new hobby, there are some usual suspects in the keyboard enthusiast space that I blame for "influencing" me on this journey. The main ones that I found:

HipyoTech – This dude is the main instigator. He's got a great formula in his videos, but I think the real reason why he resonated with me was that he laid out what I've always thought of in the back of my mind. I do love keyboards, I do love typing, and I do love the sound of keyboards. Thanks to him, I ended up purchasing my first ever mechanical keyboard – a "pre-built" – an EpoMaker RT85. Check out his video on it:

Glarses – I love this guy's videos. They're usually funny and entertaining, and I have to give it to the editing. He's one of the OG keyboardtubers, and he's still producing content, thankfully. He also has his own keyboard switch! In collaboration with the legendary German company, Cherry, Glarses has the MX Purple switches to his name. I am quite tempted to buy some and probably use them in a purple keyboard build, but only after I make a keyboard using the Poison Fog switches. Check out his video below:

Switch and Click – Originally a keyboard enthusiast channel, Betty and the group have been expanding to become more tech-focused in recent years. Betty's deadpan sense of humour is hilarious, and they thoroughly test the technology they review. She discusses her selection for the best keyboard in 2025 in the video that follows:

Alexotos – Alexotos serves the enthusiast side of the hobby more than HipyoTech, which concentrates on the more "budget" side of things. Many of the keyboards he builds and reviews are over $200. I recently came upon his videos, and I appreciate the way he streams his keyboard builds. He works on the Evo75 keyboard in the video that follows. I've had my eye on this keyboard for a while and hope to buy it eventually.

There are other keyboard channels that I recommend, especially for listening sessions:

• Milktooth – The videos produced by Milktooth, a company that serves the keyboard enthusiast community, are excellent ASMR reels. I appreciate the voice of the narrator, the amazing macro shots, and the sounds of the numerous switches typing. Milktooth is a great place to start learning about the many different switches available if you're not sure what kind of sound you like.
• Click and Thock – "All about the sounds". This channel is another goldmine for the various switch sounds, and they go into detail with each switch that they review. It really shows in the videos that this is more than just a passion project. 
• Wabi-Sabi - Another ASMR/typing/review channel. Great production quality with the videos, and there's a great emphasis on the cinematography of the videos. If you're familiar with the term 'wabi-sabi', the channel certainly lives up to the name. 

I recently learned that the patent for the Cherry switch expired in 2013, allowing people all over the world to express their creativity. By 2016, competitors were able to produce MX-style switches with ease. That's a subject for another time, I suppose.