Absolute load of wank, designed to suck dollars out of nerds. The Apple keypads were nice though - the IIgs was the penultimate, soft keys, good layout. $200+ keypads - nonsense. You're trying to hard to be a nerd; this is landfill in the making.
More so than a membrane keyboard after 10 years? I would say the opposite, mechanical keyboards are easier to fix, and have resale value. I just bought a second-hand Ergodox as my first mechanical keyboard, it cost a bit more than my previous membrane one, but looks sturdier, and easier to fix with removable switches and keycaps.
> Absolute load of w**, designed to suck dollars out of nerds.
As a nerd, a scientist and an Engineer, I appreciate having options. Not a single device will fit everyone, and I would likely disagree with you on what is the best keyboard. And I spend a lot of time typing, so I find it important enough.
As someone quite new to all of this, I appreciate comprehensive guides being written on the topic.
For the build quality of mechanical keyboards it really depends on what you buy. I've experienced cheap mechanical keyboards (around 50$ ~ 100$) break within about two years, these really aren't more reliable than membrane ones.
Ah, of course, it depends on what you buy. But in most cases, you can desolder a switch and order a replacement one.
I've had to repair a €70 Cyborg v7 keyboard. The PCB is printed on a flexible substrate, so I went with a conductive ink instead of my soldering iron. Now, a few years later, it seems to be defective again, but it's transient, so hard to diagnose. If the membrane gets torn, you have to replace it entirely, and they are not really standardized, so you'd have to get a specific one.
Moreover, keycaps do not seem to be standardized either on most membrane keyboards, so you have the same issue.
I guess that's an area where having low volumes is a good thing: you can't do anything too specific, it wouldn't be worth it. So the individual parts are themselves really standardized.
