Gadgetory

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boards will certainly piqued the interest of budget gamers let's unlock the mysteries behind these peculiar specimens and find out whether they can satisfy your mechanical keyboard cravings on the cheap well without putting too fine a point on it a half mechanical keyboard is at its core a membrane keyboard that uses a combination of rubber domes and faux mechanical switches which give keys a tactile and audible feedback to allegedly induce the feeling of genuine mechanical switches this discovery is kind of like that moment when you realize you're 120 Hertz TV is actually a 60 Hertz panel using black frame insertion even if you don't know what that is doesn't sound very pleasant doesn't like traditional membrane boards each key rests above a rubber dome which when pressed all the way down creates contact between two conductive layers of a large plastic membrane in order to register the keystroke this design is nothing new in fact rubber domes and membrane keyboards have a long-running reputation for feeling mushy lacking tactility and causing finger fatigue however the keys on half mechanical keyboards do feature a tactile bone there are a couple differences though because of the rubber dome shape and movement the tactile bump on the half mech board is significantly larger and feels more prominent than the bump on say a Cherry MX brown switch I got used to the change within a few minutes of typing but still prefer the subtler bump of Cherry MX browns additionally the rubber match Uriel of the dome keeps the bump from feeling quite as tighter snappy as its mechanical counterpart not to mention rubber is subject to changes in its elasticity over time which can weaken the snappy feeling even further adding up all these factors makes the half met keys feel altogether very different from leading mechanical switches but there's still light years ahead of membrane keys that are less tactile than mashed potatoes another component that sets half mechanical keyboards apart is the plastic post and housing the addition of these two elements create a straighter linear motion on keystrokes and provide a dash of audible tactility like the tactile bump an audible response helps keep typhus aware of their keystrokes but few membrane keyboards make much noise at all if not for the sound of your fingers tapping on the plastic keys unfortunately we can't hear the rubber domes when bottoming out on a half mechanical keyboard but we do hear the satisfying click of the post making contact with the housing on our way back up this sounds pretty close to the key release of mechanical switches but the lack of any downward noise on the half mech give these two bored types a very different sound profile two other important attributes to consider here are actuation force and travel distance I couldn't find exact numbers on the interwebs but these Keys pack a pretty hefty resistance the closest thing I can compare them to are actually Nova touch switches a type of mechanical switch used in the popular 10 Heelys board from coolermaster public opinion on this level of actuation force is pretty polarizing so you'll have to decide for yourself whether this suits your typing style travel distance here is notably shorter than standard mechanical keys by a good few millimeters this can go one of two ways as a greater travel distance gives your fingers a longer range of motion when typing which is generally more comfortable at the same time the membrane design means having to bottom out the keys in order to activate every keystroke so a shorter travel might help alleviate finger fatigue over long typing sessions without having a second half keyboard with a long travel distance it's hard for me to say which I prefer but that extra bit of plunging I get on my case evan dr gb is definitely a more comfortable experience than the Mazin Mazal must own the last thing you might want to consider here is durability and longevity again the rubber domes are the weakest link here is they can lose their elasticity or become overly elastic over time meaning your actuation force is subject to change with prolonged use and can potentially slow down your typing speed the performance of membrane boards can also be affected by issues which mechanical keyboards are simply not prone to such as dust buildup within the membrane layers or rubber dome degradation ultimately this significantly cuts down a lifespan of Happy's compared to full mechanicals which are commonly rated at 10 million and 50 million keystrokes respectively moving away from the actual keys for a moment the Mazal also sports a handful of features typical of what you'd find on a mechanical keyboard including a braided USB cable windows lock key and backlit LEDs with seven adjustable colors and brightness it also has two elevated folded feet and perhaps the most important of these features a full metal baseplate the grounded weight of this metal backing really makes the product feel like a mechanical keyboard when typing while also upping its perceived value to the 60 or $70 price range the overall build quality of the housing and key caps feels pretty solid all around with a sharp minimalistic design that's sure to make the keyboard mole game what routing out on a cosmetic trait that I'm sure you guys already picked up on the male's own keyboard does feature a cherry cross shaped stem so you're free to change out the key caps to a custom set that'll probably cost you more than this entire keyboard on that note guys and gals what lesson is to be taken away from today's investigation well I think it's safe to say that the only way you're going to get that genuine Cherry MX feel is by forking out the dough on a cherry MX keyboard plain and simple at least for the Mazzone model we tested today there are a lot of key differences to the point where anyone remotely familiar with mechanical keyboards could distinguish the two pretty easily however if you drop this on my table and told me it was using nova touch switches with a tactile bump included I probably wouldn't bat an eye the high actuation force and quiet key press surprisingly make this an excellent budget alternative to what are typically very expensive mechanical switches this also might be a good stepping stone for those of you with classic membrane boards who aren't ready for or simply refuse to dish out your life savings on a flagship mech with so many factors to consider the half mechanical keyboard is truly hard to define and thus falls into this strange category of its own but from what I've gathered today the Missoula or whatever the hell it's name is does what it promises by delivering a far superior typing experience and feature set to traditional membrane offerings for a fraction of what you pay for a premium mechanical keyboard but let me know what you guys think about these things in the comments and don't forget to toast Boyd if you enjoy but what did I do that more often I'm gonna spend on my chair in every video freaking sweet before you go check the description for awesome shirts this is a pulse hardware shirt you should buy one of these too and feel free to bookmark my Amazon affiliate link down there and use it when you busted okay okay yeah yeah as always I'm causal move over watches I promise I'm not drunk I'm not drunk I'm just weird I'm just weird hey thank y'all for subscribing that's nice how it goes subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see y'all y'all in the next page you