Entry level – our keyboard, thou art on our desk – below 50 EUR

Placing keyboards into price categories can be unfair. There are keyboards that punch way above their weight, however if the price is outside the money available even amazing opportunities will be missed.

In this category we will also include entry level customs so we can compact the information somehow – as already we are reaching ridiculous amounts of know-how that can overall become quite confusing. And by customs we mean anything that is not OEM (i.e. produced by manufacturers like Corsair, Glorious, Razer, Varmilo, and so on).

In 2022 we can unequivocally include all membrane keyboards in the entry level category. Unfortunately we can not place these in any higher categories because their issues are inherent to their build process and make them mildly unsuitable for precise, consistent, fast typing (and by fast I mean in excess of 100 WPM). Any keyboard using the contact between a rubber dome metal/carbon contact and the plastic sheet containing traces underneath – regardless of aesthetics, price, availability, and functionality – will be an entry level keyboard. And any products above 50 EUR built on this technology are a rip off of the customer and should not ever be considered as a purchase.

One thing I have to also state here is that most laptop keyboards are also included here as these are usually scissor over membrane. And that is fine. This is because it is all right to have preferences – however in the particular case of laptops the preferences are imposed on us – as the laptop keyboard is included in the chassis of the machine. We are aware that there are rare laptops with mechanical keyboards but their limited availability and their rarity means that we will not look further into them.

All these keyboards do work and they work quite well – as there have not been any membrane keyboard driven riots that I know of. People are happily using them and that is all right.

The disadvantages we already know and are common to the membrane/rubber dome technology:

• dependent on the membrane quality;
• difficult maintenance; poor quality chassis; in the case of laptops this is almost impossible to perform and their repairability is almost nil;
• no NKRO;
• questionable durability;
• poor key actuation speed;
• need bottoming out to actuate;
• poor actuation precision and consistency;
• questionable feedback whilst typing;
• customising options are mostly severely limited.

The advantages:

• low shelf price;
• silence (at least initially, until the stabilizers lose their lubricant and start role-playing canteens in a prison setting);
• permanent and ubiquitous availability;
• no need for extra software, plug-and-play straight out of the box.