I’ve been looking to move on from membrane keyboards and go mechanical, but no matter where I look literally every mech has some form of obnoxious RGB lighting on it. Are there any that just… don’t have it?
I love the WASD Code it’s just built like a workhorse. Their newer models have backlighting but it’s all white, the only thing you can RGB is the 3 indicator LEDs (caps lock etc…) which are very discrete and personalizing them is entirely optional. No software, everything is done & stored on-board. They’re pricy but usually they’ll have some banger black friday or holiday sales.
You can just disable the lights?
The 8-bitdo keyboards are pretty solid choices without RGB, off the top of my head.
Check out https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/ They have a ton of non led-lit keyboards. I’ve ordered a few from them and their pricing and service is excellent.
Gotten two boards from them, great experience both times. Highly recommended
From what I have experienced the obnoxious RGB lighting is just a settings option. They usually come with a few different types of settings. On my system, I just turn it so it blinks white after I push the button. Makes it nice to glance down and see if I hit the right key sometimes. Otherwise I never use the flashy colors or stuff except to show off to someone who hasnt seen it.
Unfortunately, many if not most RGB keyboards default to some sort of rainbow theme and require Windows or Mac software to adjust them. This is pretty crap for Linux users.
Unfortunately the hardware support is limited. For example my K100 Air isn’t supported.
In addition, most keyboards have the option to just turn it off completely.
I’m using Logitech MX Mechanical Mini. It has nice subtle lavender white backlight. Other notable thing about it is, it’s wireless and comes back after inactivity in fractions of second. Something many wireless mechanical keyboards struggle with.
Kinesis makes outstanding keyboards with no RGB. Keychron makes good keyboards that you can disable the RGB on.
I’ve never really understood why people specifically avoid buying products with RGB lighting. You can usually just set it to a color you like, or simply turn them off. Instead people don’t buy the thing they want because of the “obnoxious RGB”. Imo it’s like not wanting to buy a nice speaker because when you tried it at the store the volume was too high or you didn’t like the sample track it played.
Because avoiding more ewaste is a GOOD thing.
If the only feature a product has that you don’t like is the RGB, then what makes it e-waste?
Its not complex. More electronics=more ewaste. I understand that lots of people on the internet feel compelled to attack anyone who disagrees but seriously, just accept that we don’t want the stupid LEDs. Or don’t. I’m blocking you either way.
Good, now I don’t have to see your bitching. Sorry for
disagreeingattacking you.
I can get not wanting to pay for a feature you actively dislike
Yeah they are really helpful at night when it’s dark. Mine is just set to a solid amber color.
Because you’re paying for a gimmick instead of quality, and you don’t wanna support products that dont do that, and in capitalism that’s the only way to vote for what products get created.
Is that software available for every platform? Whenever I hear Gamer™ features, I assume that the crap customization software for Windows only. I like my mouse, but I can only customize the layout in Windows.
OpenRGB has support for a ton of devices; just make sure the keyboard is supported before buying it.
Many higher-end keyboards run QMK, which is a custom firmware you can modify to make all kinds of customizations to your keyboard. And the best part is that it requires no client software, it’s all on-keyboard
I know about the diy stuff, but I’m talking about the Razor shit. Apparently there in software, but I’ll just as well make a keyboard that I actually own.
Some might have an unofficial Linux utility, many keyboards also allow you to customise the RGB on The keyboard itself without software
The RGB inevitably resets itself and turns back on. Some of them are easy to turn off. Others require software (malware) you have to explicitly install to turn off the RGB.
My desktop has a lovely feature where if I turn it off the RGB turns BACK ON. And it turns out my case is just the right angle for the RGB to shine into my face when I’m in bed.
So yes I will pay more money to not get RGB.
Any decent keyboard saves the rgb profile on the keyboard itself. My ducky, nuphy and any keychrons I’ve used never reset their rgb or macro settings.
My Keychrons do. They really don’t like being connected to my dock or something and everyone once in a while they’ll randomly reset themselves. The keychron just lets me hit the backlight down key, but if I’ve replaced their shitty ass factory keycaps with other ones then I don’t know what that key combo is.
My keyboard at home has dip switches so I can just turn off the lights from there, and they will never turn back on. That is how it should be done, not software garbage.
That’s unfortunate. A few of my co workers have keychrons and they disabled/set their back lights to a static colour and they’ve never had issues with it resetting.
My ducky keyboard has DIP switches and it’s nice to be able to swap what I want from there.
What sold me on RGB was when I learned that you can do more with it than just solid colors and rainbow vomit. You can actually use the lights as pixels, and display crude images that are actually visible if you use use enough lights and squint your eyes a bit.
When I first found out about that, I went from anti-RGB to RGB all the things in my latest build. RGB motherboard, RGB RAM, RGB AIO, RGB fans, RGB keyboard and mouse, RGB cables… Anything to increase the “pixel” count for a clearer image. I wanted to buy even more but then I ran out of RGB ports on the motherboard.
If you really want the retro experience, you can get a modern USB version of the original IBM Model M keyboard from Unicomp (https://pckeyboard.com). I believe these are made on the same equipment that made the Model M back in the day. Buckling spring keys, metal frame, huge, heavy, and loud. Lots of configuration options and the only lights on them are the (admittedly annoyingly bright blue) lock status LEDs. I’ve used an original Model M and own one of these. They’re amazing.
You need to leave away the firstname “Gaming” from your search terms.
Keychron makes some. I’ve had two of their keyboards and love both of them.
Also have white led Keychrons. Both are K2s.
Loved them at first, overtime I’ve grown to strongly dislike the wasted key for the white backlight but they’re still great keyboards - especially for the price.
You can easily change what all the keys do. https://www.keychron.com/blogs/archived/how-to-use-via-to-program-your-keyboard
I believe only on QMK models?
I’m reasonably sure, but not 100% sure, that the light button in non-qmk keyboards isn’t passed on.
I use a Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro M white LED board with MX Blue switches. It’s nominally a gaming board but it’s very subtle, the “It’s a gaming product so it has to look like Gigatron’s left knee cap” is held to a minimum. I mainly use the backlights in the “all keys lit” mode at its dimmest brightness or turned off.
Das keyboard - excellent for years and years.
I was about to post this.
I’m on my 2nd blank one from them now.
No RGB, not even any print on the keys. So nice
I love the blank one. It’s great for everyday use apart from passwords! Maybe I need to come up with longer word-based passwords with spaces so they’re easier to type. https://xkcd.com/936/
I saw the link and thought to myself “this is gonna be correct horse battery staple isn’t it?”
Lmaooooo
There’s a user called @horse_battery_staple. I enjoyed telling them they were correct recently.
Lol Internet
Simple solution: turn off rgb. Usually can be done throigh software or theres a dedictaed fn key combination for it
Or you can go down the mech keeb rabbithole and start collecting nice boards
You could just turn it off? Mine can make an animated rainbow, sure, but I can also just set it to mono-color for some backlight or altogether off.
Given that it cost me about 300RMB, the savings for no RGB were negligible.
