A decent affordable mechanical keyboard is a huge ergonomics upgrade. My partner needed a new more compact keyboard for her setup and it needed to not have an unpleasant sound (she's never previously used a keyboard that is both comfortable to type on and listen to) so we got her a well reviewed £50 one (which for us was a big investment) with hotswappable MXred clone switches. It's already great for her day to day use. Nice comfortable feel, quiet and pleasing sound, cool lights etc but it's also a really affordable platform to modify into something more special and specialized if she feels she needs it (or just fancies doing so with Christmas money etc). I've been trying to ignore how much nicer it is than the alright membrane one that came with a Dell PC about 15 years ago but I've had to use both one after another today and it's really striking just how much more pleasant one is than the other. I spent a long time trying to resist the urge to replace my "functional" keyboard with something actively pleasant to use but I think I may be asking for something that doesn't feel actively unpleasant and fatiguing to use next-time someone wants to know what I might like for a birthday/Christmas.

[–] lagomorphlecture 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it's actively unpleasant and fatiguing then I think that's a good enough excuse to replace it, especially if it's 15 years old. You got your money's worth and used the product for a long time. There's no shame in upgrading!

[–] Piers 3 points 1 year ago

It's not not something I intend to do. It's just how far down the list of priorities it is on a limited budget. I am increasingly sure there's a significant difference in utility between what I have and something better though so that does push it up the list a little.