In search of the perfect keyboard

Once in my distant childhood, there were no requirements for keyboards, I used whatever was available. But one day I got myself a Logitech Wave (K350). I liked it at first from the pictures, and after seeing it in person, I fell in love completely. And since then it has been my favorite and only keyboard for more than 12 years.

Years went by, I got myself a compact Gigabyte S11M tablet and needed a compact keyboard. The tablet came with a decent magnetic keyboard case, but there were issues with a couple of keys, for some reason they were not recognized in either the Russian or English layout, and I couldn't get them to work. So I was looking for a simple cheap keyboard and Logitech came to the rescue again. I bought a Logitech MK240 nano keyboard + mouse combo.

And I liked everything about it except for one thing - there was no mechanical keyboard switch. Because of this, I had to put a piece of paper under the battery contact or remove the batteries. So I continued to look for other compact keyboards, and since I often sat at night, I also wanted backlighting. And then Logitech released the MX Keys mini keyboard. The price was high and I hesitated to buy it. But in the end, after six months, I finally bought it.

And here I found zen, experienced a tactile orgasm and generally considered it the perfect keyboard, even despite the lack of wired connectivity. Pleasant and quiet keystrokes, indescribable tactile sensations, wireless, with a built-in battery, amazing autonomy, cool backlighting, form factor, materials.

In euphoria, I stayed for several months until I encountered the first problem. I don't remember what caused it, but the Insert key stopped working. Instead, it triggered volume increase, and to call Insert, it was necessary to press it together with the Fn key. Switching the F-key mode did not help. I googled and found that many people had this problem from the beginning, and on the official Logitech forum, there were many similar topics, but tech support ignored or deleted posts. The only solution was to install Logitech software and reassign the key action. But accordingly, if you connect to a new device, you need to perform the same operations. Unpleasant, but overall solvable and tolerable.

So I used it for a couple more years and still considered it the perfect keyboard until the left Shift broke. At first, I thought I pressed it unsuccessfully and broke it, but as it turned out, this is a disease of the MX series, or rather, I would call it a design flaw. The fact is that the keycap itself is wide, and the mechanism is like for a regular key and without stabilizers. Moreover, it is not located in the center, but slightly to the side, thus if you press on the opposite edge, there is an increased load on the mechanism. I never really understood whether the scissor mechanism or the keycap mount broke, so I decided to replace everything together. I searched for spare parts and realized that the prices for the left Shift were two or even three times higher than any others, precisely because of the massiveness of the problem. I didn't want to give a quarter of the keyboard's cost for one key and left everything as it was, fortunately, overall, it was possible to use the key with reservations.

It lasted for almost another six months until it finally became inconvenient. I looked at what was on the market, and was only looking for a compact low-profile keyboard. There was essentially no choice. Then I decided to turn my attention to mechanical keyboards. Many acquaintances switched to them, and everyone had rave reviews. I had no desire to assemble a custom one. Among the manufacturers that I liked more or less were Varmilio, Aula, Lofree, and Nuphy. There were many questions about mechanical keyboards and it was still unclear how different switches would feel. Varmilio and Aula were ruled out for various reasons, leaving Lofree and Nuphy. The most suitable models I chose for myself were the Lofree Edge84 and Nuphy Air75. I spent a long time choosing between them and leaned towards Lofree. The claimed long battery life and design won me over, and I didn't pay attention to the weak customization.

In terms of size, it is slightly larger than the MX Keys, but it looks very decent externally and the quality of the materials is top-notch. The carbon looks very similar to the real thing, at least the one used in the keyboard stand is definitely real. The keyboard itself is really very light, I realized that I still like heavier ones. The first thing that was unusual was the linear switches, they triggered at any touch, it was very unusual for the first few days. The problem is also that there is no way to change them on this keyboard. The backlight was disappointing, it turned out to be just useless. I couldn't find any translucent keycaps. After a couple of months of use, the initial negative feelings about the linear switches didn't go away, although it got better. The Caps lock key without a stabilizer needs to be pressed exactly in the center, otherwise it gets stuck. In addition, another nuance emerged. Apparently, to ensure the claimed battery life, the keyboard would go into sleep mode after a few minutes of inactivity. When I started typing, the first press would wake up the keyboard, and while it was waking up and restoring the connection to the PC, I would already have typed a few characters that, of course, were not printed.

After two months of use, I realized that I am uncomfortable with this keyboard and we won't get along. Back to searching... And this time I found the Nuphy Air75 V2. It's unclear why I didn't see it the first time. This is the second version, in which the errors of the first version were corrected and additionally transferred to the open-source VIA platform, where the keyboard can be very flexibly configured. There was also hope that the battery issue of the first version was fixed. A large selection of switches and keycaps, compactness, and low profile made it the only worthy contender. And one more important point, it can be ordered on the official website, and delivery to Russia is available. In the end, the expectations were met.

In terms of appearance, Lofree is still more interesting, but in all other aspects, it is much better. I have no complaints about autonomy, it lasts for several weeks, even about a month in total, although it is still far from Logitech, in this regard, they are great. I ordered it with branded tactile switches, plus they give samples of all possible switch options in the kit. I was completely satisfied with the tactile ones. There are no problems with sleep mode, as in Lofree, because it can be controlled. The backlight also turned out to be not very useful, but here, at least, you can order translucent keycaps, which I did, although they have not yet arrived. There were questions about setting up in VIA, but technical support promptly helped. After a month and a half, I can say that at the moment, among compact low-profile keyboards, I have found a keyboard close to ideal for myself, but still not reaching the perfect one. I miss the tactility of the keycaps like in the Logitech MX Keys Mini and, probably, although not critical, I would like quieter keypress sounds. I think the issue with tactility can be solved if you make special keycaps, but most likely for this you need a custom solution with your own 3D printing, which I definitely won't do myself. Therefore, I will use it until I find something more interesting.