Please bear with me, I’m not super tech savvy or anything.
I’ve narrowed things down to a few keyboards that I’m very split on, have been looking stuff up but is a little overwhelming as this is unfamiliar territory for me. People seem super focused on just the sound and feel of these keyboards above all else, not as much on the functionality or latency or quality or what else front, I’m more concerned about those so I’m struggling to figure out what exactly to avoid and what exactly to get as a result.
Here’s the keyboards i’m looking to choose between:
- RedDragon K673 PRO
- RK Royal Kludge R75 Wired / Wireless
- YUNZII B75 PRO Wireless
- Razer Blackwidow V4 75%
Cheapest is the RK R75 Wired, most expensive is the Razer Blackwidow V4 75%
Originally I was just gonna go with the Razer as it perfectly fits all of my needs and is extremely well rounded but I’m very worried about the quality control of that one specifically, heard they’re guaranteed to start double clicking due to a hardware flaw or something with their switches, not entirely sure, and their warranty system is super troublesome for me because they apparently don’t directly serve in my country so there’s a billion weird little conditions and bullcrap they want me to go through before they’ll do anything, not worth the hassle…
No idea how the other keyboards fair in build quality, especially since their all cheaper then the Razer, so I’m hoping to get some recommendations before I pull the trigger on one today.
Am gonna dabble in some light modding since I need backlit/shine through keycaps and need tactile switches, need quality and reliability, if possible a decent warranty without weird hassles incase something goes wrong, and also don’t want any weird firmware/software funkery or other weird hidden catches, wanna tweak it freely to fit my needs without trouble (gonna use Linux if that helps? No idea what a “QMK” or a “Via” is other then that their good and essential? Idk). Just need a good safe long term option that’s as close as possible to the Blackwidows feature set, that thing literally has everything I need in a keyboard, even comes with a wrest pad out of the box, wish it wasn’t riddled with poor quality control 🥲
Heard about Keychron but availablity and pricing is weird for me on them specifically. Also heard about the AULA F75, very popular and heard it’s got the best wireless mode out of all of them, also the best and brightest RGB. It’s a bit pricer then the others though, it and the RedDragon are the second most expensive besides the Razer.
What would you recommend and why? Would you recommend something else entirely?
I don’t have experience with any of the models you’re considering. I used a Corsair for years (don’t!) and am currently quite happy with an old Filco Majestouch 2 TKL that I added some white and pink keycaps to.
The Filco was bought used, is built like a tank and only cost about €80.
The one thing I miss in it is QMK/VIA support.
As I understand it, a keyboard with QMK or another firmware with VIA support essentially allows you to program your keyboard however you want. And then bring that programming (“layout”) with you to another board.
My Filco has 4 dip switches on the back that allow very limited programming: for example, switching
Escand `, or switching Caps Lock and Ctrl.But I can’t make it such that Caps Lock works as Caps Lock when long-pressed alone, but as Ctrl when struck in a chord with another key. QMK/VIA would make this possible.
Even if you don’t want to do this now, having the option to play with combination keys and smart layouts like that is very interesting when you want to downsize from TKL to a smaller board.
Also, consider the used market.
I can only recommend builds using QMK. Proprietary firmware is an absolute nonstarter. Check out kbdfans.com, NovelKeys, bastardkb, splitkb, or even drop.com for something like that. Can’t recommend anything redragon or razer as their software insists on running constantly and needing accounts.
