Nuphy also makes the Halo75 and Halo65, which offer the same excellent design in a smaller form factor and at a slightly lower price. We also recommend their low-profile Air75 keyboard. It depends! Mechanical keyboards feel better to type or game on for many people, and are sometimes described as faster or more responsive. While membrane keyboards harden over time, mechanical keyboards provide a consistent experience for decades. Mechanical keyboards are also available in many different switches, each of which has their own characteristics - loud versus quiet, tactile versus linear, long travel versus short travel and so on.

All in all, the Keychron K3's compact size, excellent switches and overall aesthetic makes it one of our favourite keyboards for gaming or typing. This keyboard is also uniquely in-demand here at Digital Foundry's Bristol office, and disappearing on many occasions because someone fancied using it for work. If that's not a tacit recommendation, I don't know what is! Mechanical keyboards are defined by their switches. The most common options are MX switches, originally made by Cherry and now made by a range of manufacturers. Each switch is described by its colour; the three most popular are as follows: Choosing the right PC gaming peripherals can make a world of difference, by making it easier to survive in competitive games or simply become immersed in your favourite virtual world for hours on end. We've already covered the best gaming mice and gaming headsets, and now it's time to take a closer look at another critical area: the best gaming keyboards.However, the keyboard does have one major disadvantage. Despite claiming "gaming-grade anti-ghosting technology", the keyboard doesn't offer as high a key rollover count as we'd expect. For example, with Q and W held down, you can't press down 0, H, J, comma or period. This means the keyboard only has a rollover count of two (2KRO), and six is the standard for a good gaming keyboard. Sadly, this is often a downside to choosing membrane over mechanical, and is worth bearing in mind if you are a fast typer or play games that require a lot of simultaneous key presses (like rhythm games or co-op games with two players on a single keyboard).

However, mechanical switches are expensive to produce and often sound louder than their non-mechanical counterparts. By comparison, non-mechanical keyboards tend to feel softer, cost less to produce and don't sound as loud. While both options have their objective strengths and weaknesses, it often comes down to personal preference.

Of course, it goes without saying that while there are certainly better and worse keyboards on the market, choosing the right keyboard is also a very personal experience. We've tried to consider a range of viewpoints and value judgements, but my number one choice might be one you wouldn't even consider. The optical sensor built into each switch ensures key presses can be registered in an instant, equalling the responsiveness of much more expensive gaming keyboards like the Razer Huntsman TE we featured in a previous version of this article. Keychron's optical switches are also hot-swappable, making it easy to replace a broken switch or change to an entirely different feel later on. (If you're not sold on optical switches, then you can get regular Gateron low profile switches instead for a slightly lower cost, but note that these aren't hot-swappable.) Otherwise, you get a solid but not exceptional feature list, with a detachable USB-C cable, bright per-key RGB lighting, n-key rollover, three-level feet and a comprehensive Function layer. You could certainly find cheaper keyboards with more features - like analogue switches, additional macro keys, volume rollers, wrist rests - but for actual gaming and typing, I'd probably go for the keyboard that truly nails the essentials. Note that the One 3 is also available in 60 percent and full-size sizes.