Gaming keyboard: here’s how to choose it

The gaming keyboard is an accessory that can maximize the fun of the gaming sessions: discover the best models suitable for every need.

The world of gaming, in recent years, has made huge strides forward, thanks to the introduction on the market of games increasingly realistic in terms of graphics and playability, which give users the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a world that has more and more fans, year after year. And with the exponential growth of the community of gamers, the demand for products designed specifically to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding audience in terms of customization and usability of the gaming peripherals grows proportionally.

For this reason, even choosing the "right" gaming keyboard, sometimes, can be no small feat; a gaming keyboard is, in fact, very different from a simple office keyboard, used primarily for writing text. Compared to the latter, gaming keyboards must respond with precision to every keystroke on a single key or group of keys, possibly with minimum response latency times (expressed in ms in the data sheets).

Mechanical gaming keyboards: the favorites of enthusiasts

The most widely used technology lately is the mechanical one, particularly suitable for gaming thanks to the mechanism of individually designed keys, able to meet the needs of users. For responsiveness and precision, in fact, what makes the perfect mechanical keyboard for PC gamers is the implementation of a switch system that lowers the latency time of typing and improves reliability.

Another considerable aspect of mechanical gaming keyboards is the possibility, in case of failure or "ordinary" maintenance, to replace all components of the peripheral individually and be able to disassemble and clean them easily. In addition, this type of keyboard offers the possibility to add and configure function keys or "shortcut" keys, which, in the world of gaming, are also called macro keys or combo keys.

For all these features the mechanical gaming keyboard is therefore ideal for fans of shooters and those games where the keys are stressed very frequently and very quickly, and where you often use combinations of more than two or three keys together. At the same time, however, the mechanical gaming keyboards are the most expensive on the market, however, dealing with peripherals to high (often very high) performance and technical solutions of high level. However, not everyone finds mechanical keyboards ideal for gaming; in fact, for certain types of games many users prefer gaming keyboards with hybrid technology, called semi-mechanical keyboards.

Semi-Mechanical Keyboards: the "cheap alternative"

Semi-Mechanical gaming keyboards take advantage of the addition of an individual actuator to the simple membrane key mechanism (those of a classic office keyboard), which makes each individual button independent from the others and improves the keyboard's performance in responsiveness. The accuracy is also decent, but not at the levels of mechanical gaming keyboards; however, these hybrid keyboards have as advantages a much lower noise level (while that of mechanical keyboards is high) and more affordable prices, which is why newbies often tend to prefer this type of product.

Semi-mechanical keyboards are therefore ideal for gamers who are not too demanding or who play titles in which a particular stress on the keys used is not required. In addition, semi-mechanical keyboards are often the choice of those users who make a hybrid use, in fact, and then direct their choice towards products that combine high performance than the classic membrane keyboard, but more affordable than the mechanical keyboard.

Membrane Keyboard

The membrane keyboard is the classic office keyboard: mainly used to write text, does not have excellent accuracy and the key must be pressed down to be recognized. With these keyboards it is not possible to type several keys close together at the same time and they have a poor possibility of customization; in fact, in case of failure of a single component, the membrane keyboard will have to be replaced in its entirety. On the other hand, these keyboards are very quiet and inexpensive.

Other Features

In order to be able to choose the best gaming keyboard you need to take into account other key features as well. When it comes to the way you connect to your PC, wired keyboards are preferred, as they provide faster response times and zero latency times. Wireless keyboards, on the other hand, allow you to play comfortably, thanks to the absence of wires and cables that, however, as already mentioned, generate an input lag, that is the delay with which the monitor or television receive signal from the typing of the button.

While it is true that aesthetics tends to be very well cared for especially in high-priced gaming keyboards, it is also true that often high performance has the upper hand. In fact, if the quality of the materials, as well as the presence of the wrist rest or the waterproofing of the keyboard, may seem secondary characteristics, they are in fact fundamental aspects that determine the quality of the game for all those gamers who face sessions of several consecutive hours.

A last consideration concerns the layout: in fact, many gaming keyboards are marketed with the "original" layout used by developers in the creation phase, the English one. This is a feature that should be taken into consideration if you decide to use the keyboard both for gaming and for normal text writing.