My first encounter with mechanical keyboards was in January last year while I was Dublin. At that time, my desk setup was nothing fancy as my Macbook was my daily driver. I was thinking of getting a monitor to enhance my desk setup and increase my productivity. I was browsing through pictures of beautiful desk setups on Reddit when a unique-looking keyboard caught my eye. After browsing through the comments section for more information, I subsequently discovered the world of mechanical keyboards.
I spent that particular afternoon trawling through the r/MechanicalKeyboards subreddit and I was blown away by the aesthetics of mechanical keyboards. Somehow, I ended up on Youtube, immersing myself in the sound tests of mechanical keyboards. The delightful acoustics were simply music to my ears.
Have you ever had the experience of discovering something brand new and you never knew this thing existed at all? Have you ever gotten so intrigued by it that you spend the next few hours or days reading up on it and you just cannot stop thinking about it? Well, if you can relate, then this was me when I discovered mechanical keyboards!
I could not wait to get my hands on a mechanical keyboard and start typing on it. I did some research over the next few days according to my needs. I wanted an affordable mechanical keyboard with function and arrow keys that was compatible with MacOS. In the end, I decided on the Keychron K2. There were good reviews on it and it was a beginner-friendly pre-built board. This meant that I did not have to purchase any additional parts or build any components of the keyboard. I settled on the white backlight and brown switch option because I did not fancy the RGB backlight function and I felt that a plastic case would suffice.
While I was waiting for the product to arrive at Dublin, I had already bought a monitor and a wireless mouse. The Keychron K2 was the missing piece to my ultimate desk setup. When it finally arrived, I recall giving it a thorough wipedown as it shipped from China, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus was already starting to make headlines at that time in February and it did not hurt to be extra cautious.
The Keychron K2 was a thing of beauty. It was rather sleek and easy to use. It was wireless and connected to my Macbook via bluetooth, hence there was no need for cables during daily usage (except to charge the battery). I was absolutely fascinated by the feel and sound of the K2. The brown switches provided a tactile feedback in the form of a small bump with every downstroke of each key. The deep ‘thocky’ sound produced with each keypress was amazing! I started to enjoy typing more as I used the K2 at every opportunity. At 4000mAh, the battery life was larger than its equivalent competitors. I could enjoy its wireless capabilities for more than a week before having to charge the battery.
As I got the Keychron K2 without hot-swap capabilities, there was not much room for customisation. This meant that I could only replace the keycaps and not the switches (which were soldered onto the PCB). For many enthusiasts, they believe that the art of lubing and filming switches brings another dimension to the typing experience. By modifying the switches, each keypress can feel smoother, less “scratchy” and sound more muted. Hence, I purchased a set of keycaps on Ezbuy to spice up the appearance of my K2.
Little did I know that I was already falling right into the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole. The Keychron K2 was my first but not my last mechanical keyboard, and this was just the beginning of a long journey to search for my “endgame” board.
If you are interested in mechanical keyboards and would like to have a chat, feel free to contact me! 😁
Stay tuned for Part 2 as I lead you further down the depths of this rabbit hole…
Kaiser 