$15 Mechanical keyboard?

[sxuce]

So I was recently in the market for a mechanical keyboard for my secondary setup and was looking on ebay and stumbled across a keyboard that supposedly had blue switches and only costed $15. i was skeptical but after looking at a few youtubereviews it seemed like a genuine cherry mx (replica I'm guessing) blue switch mechanical keyboard. Once it came in the mail I was amazed by it, the build quality was great with a metal black plate and little deck flex, decent back lights with only breathing and static modes, (there was an RGB version for about 10 more dollars) and I was wondering how they could accomplish this for only 15 bucks?

[kelvinhall05]

They don't. Try a good mech and you'll see how (relatively) awful it is.

 

 

Although considering that modern gaming boards also probably cost $15 to make, it will be pretty similar.

[minibois]

3 minutes ago, sxuce said:

So I was recently in the market for a mechanical keyboard for my secondary setup and was looking on ebay and stumbled across a keyboard that supposedly had blue switches and only costed $15. i was skeptical but after looking at a few youtubereviews it seemed like a genuine cherry mx (replica I'm guessing) blue switch mechanical keyboard. Once it came in the mail I was amazed by it, the build quality was great with a metal black plate and little deck flex, decent back lights with only breathing and static modes, (there was an RGB version for about 10 more dollars) and I was wondering how they could accomplish this for only 15 bucks?

It's using knock-off switches for sure and probably using a combination of cheapest components available + economy of scale (buying a lot of something will reduce individual prices) to make a cheap board.

Or they bought the leftovers from another dying company for a low price.

 

Or they are ulterior motives, but we don't know that of course

[sxuce]

Well for my primary setup a do have a genuine cherry mx blue keyboard and they feel and sound very similar.

[sxuce]

Although from what I can tell they most likely outemu blues.

[gloop]

Try pulling off the key caps and see what switches they are.

 

As others have said, buying in bulk will reduce prices massively.

[jaslion]

It's 15$ so worst case you just get the usuall ok to bad keyboard you can buy with that money.

[sxuce]

1 minute ago, gloop said:

Try pulling off the key caps and see what switches they are.

 

As others have said, buying in bulk will reduce prices massively.

Well they aren't very descriptive on what they are, although they are blues the printing on the switches say something along the lines of "Jwl"

[MartinKweh]

i had one of those $15 keyboards with blue switches before(what i got was the gigaware K28)

 

instead of clicking, they sound like hundreds lego blocks that are being smashed against each other or a bucket of lego being thrown down a plinko machine when typing fast. 

 

though i didnt have that much of a bad time with them(other than the pain in the ass repair process)

 

Right now i have a cheap mechanical keyboard(i think this is about $40) locally made with a hot swappable switch that allows outemu, gateron, khail and cherry. right now its gateron browns. 

[sxuce]

1 minute ago, MartinKweh said:

i had one of those $15 keyboards with blue switches before

 

instead of clicking, they sound like hundreds lego blocks that are being smashed against each other or a bucket of lego being thrown down a plinko machine when typing fast. 

 

though i didnt have that much of a bad time with them(other than the pain in the ass repair process)

 

Right now i have a cheap mechanical keyboard(i think this is about $40) locally made with a hot swappable switch that allows outemu, gateron, khail and cherry. right now its gateron browns. 

What brand was it?

[MartinKweh]

Just now, sxuce said:

What brand was it?

I forgot to type it. it was gigaware K28

[sxuce]

Just now, MartinKweh said:

I forgot to type it. it was gigaware K28

yeah its different to mine, although the brand my keyboard is from (LESHP) doesn't even have a website or a model name for it. It's just "LESHP Mechanical Keyboard"

[MartinKweh]

Its on sale here as well. i looked up on the online shops here .

I dont know anything about that brand though

[sxuce]

Just now, MartinKweh said:

Its on sale here as well. i looked up on the online shops here .

I dont know anything about that brand though

 

Yeah, although none of those are the same keyboard as mine.

[aisle9]

1 hour ago, sxuce said:

So I was recently in the market for a mechanical keyboard for my secondary setup and was looking on ebay and stumbled across a keyboard that supposedly had blue switches and only costed $15. i was skeptical but after looking at a few youtubereviews it seemed like a genuine cherry mx (replica I'm guessing) blue switch mechanical keyboard. Once it came in the mail I was amazed by it, the build quality was great with a metal black plate and little deck flex, decent back lights with only breathing and static modes, (there was an RGB version for about 10 more dollars) and I was wondering how they could accomplish this for only 15 bucks?

Cheap mech boards on Amazon used to use knockoff blues almost universally. Now, some browns and blacks have gotten in there with a handful that randomly use greens. My theory has been that blue switches are most commonly favored in all environments, even if they're not ideal for most gaming, so the knockoff switch manufacturers produce more of them than anything else. The cheapo board companies buy those cheap switches up at even lower prices with a bulk discount, install them in their cheap boards and off we go.

 

A couple of those knockoff manufacturers have really stepped up their switch game. Oeutemu brown switches, imo, feel better than Cherries. I have a board that uses (IIRC) Switch Master blues, and I prefer it to the Cherry blues I've used. And Gateron, of course, is the God mode of mechanical keyboard switches.

 

1 hour ago, minibois said:

Or they are ulterior motives, but we don't know that of course

You have to install their "keyboard management software" for that to happen, and you'd have to be an idiot to install a third-party utility from China.

[kelvinhall05]

1 hour ago, MartinKweh said:

instead of clicking, they sound like hundreds lego blocks that are being smashed against each other or a bucket of lego being thrown down a plinko machine when typing fast. 

And this is why click jacket-based clicky switches are fucking horrible, especially the knock-offs.