Rubber Domes aren't (all) bad: a rubber dome discussion thread

[Casey]

"Mushy". "Cheap." "Garbage."
These are adjectives I've heard thrown about non-mechanical keyboards online for years. Now, I generally like mechanical boards, but just like membrane/domes, there's plenty of outright bad/cheap boards out there, at least to me. These things, are subjective, after all.

Anyway, rubber dome boards have all been kind of written off by most Computer Touchers™, but I'm of the firm opinion that there are GOOD dome boards out there, just like there are bad mechanical switches out there...it's subjective. I'm someone who likes tactility without being deafeningly loud, and there's a lot of good domes out there that achieve this. Most of the folks reading this are probably aware of topre...I've never had the luxury of using one, but those are indeed rubber dome boards and they are beloved by pretty much anyone who has ever used them. I'm using a board that, from what I can tell, seems to be seen as something of a budget equivalent. I'm using a Packard Bell 5131C, and it uses BTC Dome with Slider switches. As the name implies, it's a rubber dome with individual tactile sliders. The board is nice and poppy and has a sound that's pleasing to my ears. It's audible but it's no buckling spring or cherry MX blue when it comes to noise level. I got this thing for like 5 dollars at the local thrift store and it's been my daily driver ever since. here's a demo of a board that uses the same mechanism on youtube:

Even non-slider rubber domes can be fantastic...I'm especially fond of the Lenovo Preferred Pro. That thing is quiet and snappy. Also, it's not my favorite, but I always go out of my way to point folks to the Mother Membrane if they're looking for a tactile board that's nice and quiet and backlit...cheers to @ward for selling these. https://epicpants.com/products/mother-m ... g-keyboard

Anyway, I want to know what y'all think: any good experiences with membrane and/or rubber dome boards? bad experiences? Thoughts? Opinions?

[chiefterror]

Sometimes I miss my clicky MX Blues or swift Browns, but anyone shitting that hard on rubber domes is just trying to sell you something. What's more, some people have conditions or even outright disabilities in their hands, wrists and fingers, and still have a reason to use computers; rubber domes can be much more comfortable in that case.

I'm using an old Logitech K120 rubberdome that actually works very well. The keys are half-raised though, which I'm not a fan of. That said, I got this from a friend who pulled this from the IT closet at the local university; he worked as maintenance staff for them at the time, and I had just built my new machine after like, not having a machine for several years. I could have easily bought a mechanical by now, but idk, it just doesn't matter that much. May just snag @ward 's Mother Membrane and a couple of those controllers one day

[Virtua Wug]

I don't have a lot of hands-on experience with keyboards; I've felt cherry reds, cherry blues, and a variety of very unimpressive cheap membrane keyboards, but most recently I received a Topre Realforce R3S (45g, silent). Topre switches are handily my favorite switches! They feel "natural" somehow. Despite being soft and fairly light they're not mushy, and the tactility surprised me when I was first acclimating to the keyboard.

I shudder to imagine what I might willingly pay for an ergonomic Topre keyboard...

[bumbervevo]

Macbooks have pretty good membrane keyboards. I really enjoy typing on my mid-2012 Macbook Air, so I primarily use it for working on my site and writing out notes and docs.

Since retiring my main PC rig to a cozy couch gaming PC and I use a wireless Mac keyboard for work, I've effectively given up mechanical keyboards and don't have much of a desire to go back to them. I might invest in a nice wireless mech keeb, but I'm pretty content for now.

[WhiteSnake9191]

I mostly scroll and don't converse a ton online anymore these days, so keyboard type isn't the end of the world for me... I dooooo like how fast these cherry mx red clones type with little force needed to actuate them, but, typing on my cheapo wireless logitech k400 or k120 back in the day weren't the end of the world by any stretch. I did find it odd that many years ago, iirc, many companies started using their own version of cherry clone switches since apparently the licensing for real legit cherry switches were too much. I think if this razer one were to outright die I'd grab some cheapo red key mechanical that isn't a ton of cash online, can't justify much on the pc, as I'm getting older I'm getting more frugal LOL

[ward]

Macbooks have pretty good membrane keyboards. I really enjoy typing on my mid-2012 Macbook Air, so I primarily use it for working on my site and writing out notes and docs.

Since retiring my main PC rig to a cozy couch gaming PC and I use a wireless Mac keyboard for work, I've effectively given up mechanical keyboards and don't have much of a desire to go back to them. I might invest in a nice wireless mech keeb, but I'm pretty content for now.

It's funny... I never think of scissor-switch as being membrane, but they all are. I was hired around that time to write a movie for some guys in NYC... and they had an imac with the little aluminum keyboard with the same scissor-switch keys... and it felt really good. They'd walk around the room talking, so I'd just turn my chair away from the PC with the kb on my lap and type while they were ranting and giving me the dialog. I think back about how good that kb felt often... well, for what it was. I guess I never stopped being shocked at how much I was enjoying a tiny scissor-switch keyboard. It's no topre, but it was cool.

[Casey]

A lot of y'all are lucky! Topres have always been more than I'm willing to pay for a board, same with the iconic Model M.... Maybe I'll get the chance to have one some time. For now I'm content with Dome with Slider. They're a good enough balance of price to performance, imo.

@bumbervevo i'm not super into low profile switches, by my exceptions have always been thinkpads...never owned a Mac, though I've been tempted to get one to tinker with.

[bumbervevo]

@ward I guess I'll have to try some Topre keyboards at some point, if they're as good as people make them sound. Maybe I'll buy some after I get more RAM for my server, and a few extra hard drives, and a network switch for my router and NAS, and...

@Casey I had a T480 that crapped out on me a while back. I cannot say that I was particularly fond of the keys on that model; took just a bit too much force to actuate and had just a bit too much bounceback on release that made it feel pretty laborious to type.
If you just want a really solid websurfing/word processing machine, an old Macbook Air wouldn't be a bad investment. You can find models from the past 5 years for under $200, and older 2012-2016 models for around $100 on eBay.
If I hadn't spilled water on my mid-2012 Macbook Air and killed the built-in Wifi, I'd honestly be set for a good while. I might look into replacing the logic board to get just a bit more mileage out of it, but that'd be $30-$40 that could go towards an HP Elitebook or a humble Thinkpad as well...