The Best Mechanical Keyboards for Typing and Gaming

Mechanical keyboards offer a superior typing experience compared to the rubber dome kind, known as membrane keyboards, that many people are used to. Mechanical models provide just the right level of feedback for accurate keying and a satisfying sound when you tap down. These qualities make mechanical keyboards the best choice for gamers and anyone who does a lot of typing.

What are the Benefits of Mechanical Keyboards?

Most desktop keyboards are membrane-style that come with rubber domes inside. When you type on the key, it hits the dome and triggers a press. The rubber leads to a mushy feel. Laptop keyboards often use scissor switches that don’t offer much travel. On the other hand, a mechanical keyboard uses switches that actuate before the point of bottoming out.

A mechanical keyboard can make you a better typist thanks to the precise and consistent feel of the keys. Gaming-oriented models have switches that are smoother and faster to actuate than the keys on membrane boards. But keep in mind that mechanical keyboards tend to be noisy. So, you might want to choose a membrane keyboard if you are working in a public space or shared office.

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Keyboard Size

Mechanical keyboards come in different forms. A full-size board is the best for most people, but it’s too large for some desks. There’s also tenkeyless (TKL), sometimes known as an 80 percent keyboard, that lacks a number pad to free up desk space. Even smaller is the 60 percent board keyboard that just has the alpha keys, a number row, and modifiers, such as the enter, shift, and caps lock keys.

How We Evaluated

I’m a tech journalist and keyboard fanatic. I’ve spent way too much time over the last two decades fiddling with keyboards in an attempt to find the perfect one. My work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Reuters, and many other publications. I also regularly review personal technology products.

For this review, I relied on my own experience as a longtime tester of keyboards. I also spent more than a dozen hours scouring reviews and product specifications in a bid to find the best keyboards for most users. I looked for high-quality keyboards that would work for both gaming and long bouts of word processing as well as other computing tasks.