- You've gotta admit it,
The keyboard market has been on fire lately.
There are more options at cheaper prices than ever before.
There has never been a better time
to buy a keyboard than right now.
With all these options out on the market,
it does make finding the best of the best a little harder.
Well, that's what I'm here for.
If you're looking for a keyboard right now,
in-stock customs are where all the action is at.
And by in-stock customs,
I mean keyboards you can buy online,
they ship to your door,
and you gotta build it yourself,
which may sound scary, but trust me,
it's where the fun is at.
You get to mod it in the exact way you like,
pick the parts that you want, switches and keycaps.
But you also need to buy these things,
so make sure you budget accordingly
'cause the price does go up.
Switches and keycaps are expensive.
We'll be looking at prebuilt options
later on in the video, but for now,
let's go over a few great options at different sizes.
For the infamous 65% keyboard size,
you've got quite a few banger options.
The KBD67 Lite is a personal favorite I would recommend.
It's super affordable. The kit is only $110.
It's been out for a while now.
It just entered group buy round four,
so all the kinks have been worked out in production.
The case is made of plastic.
It's like super lightweight, but for this price,
it is a solid, solid typing experience.
It's super easy to build.
Just don't expect anything too fancy.
It doesn't have like a weight or a knob or anything.
It's got a gasket mount design, screw-in stabs.
It's hot swap.
You can put in that silicone dampener
and it makes it sound really awesome.
(keys clacking)
Love it. Love it.
It sounds really good.
There is also the Zoom65 by Meletrix.
It's a new option lately.
It's really beautiful.
This is the Olivia Edition.
It comes in different case colors.
It's got different backplate options.
It has all the features, but it's made from aluminum.
And guess what? It's got a knob.
So you'll be paying more,
but if you want something a little bit fancier,
the extra cost is worth it.
You can explore different build paths.
It comes with different foams.
You can choose what you wanna put in here,
so it could be poppy or thocky
or marbley or creamy or stiff or flexible.
It's really up to you.
I really enjoyed building this.
There's such a grade build guide online,
and the Olivia Edition
comes with everything you see here,
keycaps and switches and stabilizers included.
The Essential Edition is more of a kit.
It's bare bones, but it's got more color options
and it can be wireless too.
Just a lot of cool stuff happening here.
And this there's only $180 for everything,
everything you see.
It's nice. (keys clacking)
There's also the QK65 by QwertyKeys.
This thing is all the hype lately,
because it sounds a lot like a Mr. Suit.
It's really awesome. It's really fancy.
It's more expensive.
I think it's 180 for the kit itself,
so you do have to budget money for switches,
keycaps, and stabilizers.
But it's got a lot of plate options.
It's gasket mount, and different types of gasket mounts.
It's really worth spending a little extra.
The biggest difference between this
and the other one is this one's a little bit louder.
It's got a louder sound stage,
which personally I don't like
because I don't like loud noises,
but if you do like that,
(keys clacking)
that really marbley, poppy sound,
this can achieve it.
But I did build this with all the foam.
So if I took some of those out,
maybe it wouldn't sound so freaking loud.
And it's got a mirror.
It's got a really fancy mirror.
It's smudged up right now, so excuse it.
But it looks really nice, and it's chunky.
It's like a really heavy boy of a keyboard.
You can build it however you want.
And it's just, it's a really aesthetic keyboard.
It looks great.
It's a little bit more expensive.
They're gonna try and make it,
you know, more available,
but it's affordable-ish
and it's gonna be on sale pretty soon.
Also, it doesn't have a knob.
There's no knob, ah!
For 75%, let's go over the most common options.
First up, we've got the Keychron Q1.
This is it right out of the box, no mods or anything.
It's an absolute powerhouse of a keyboard.
It's like the most purchased keyboard
on the entire list, basically.
And it checks all the boxes, gasket mount,
screw-in stabs, aluminum case, hot swap sockets.
Potentially, if you want a knob,
it's got a knob version.
The only downside here
is the sound of it is quite limited.
And when you get it out of the box,
it could be a little, a little pingy.
I believe the new version they fix that.
But if they haven't,
then there are a bunch of mods online
on how to build it in a way
where it doesn't do that.
That's the best thing about something like this
is that everyone's modded it
and got their keyboard to sound good.
You can just copy them,
apply it to your board, and get similar results.
It is really awesome.
Jake is using this full time on his desk
'cause he just loves the 75% of it.
You can use on Windows and Mac too.
It comes with keycaps.
It comes with switches, everything, pre-lubed.
but you have the option to get it bare bones as well
for a little bit cheaper.
Again, everything I talk about
will be linked down below the description
so you can check up all the prices of them.
I'm pretty sure everything here is under $300.
There's only one thing that's like expensive.
So the only downside to that board
is it's a little bit muted.
It has a clacky sound,
but I'm sure you can make it thocky
if you do the right mods.
The GMMK Pro is a similar option to the Q1
and is often compared to it.
Although it is slightly more expensive,
it does come with a lot of features, like a knob,
more robust software, and some extra RGB along the sides
for you gamers out there.
This RGB is pretty intense.
It has the same issue, though,
it has a muted sound, even more so than the Q1.
(keys clacking)
Any switches I put into that sound pretty similar.
The GMMK Pro comes in a prebuilt version,
which is right here.
It also comes with the wrist rest,
pre-lubed switches, screw-in stabs,
everything, the whole shebang.
I've been using this for a while.
All right, now I'm moving on to TKL,
which is tenkeyless,
which has been making a resurgence lately.
It's super trendy nowadays.
It's nice having bigger keyboards
that are more readily available.
I love it.
Not everyone's ready to ditch those F-keys
or the nav cluster or the arrow or any of those things.
And you know, it's aesthetic.
So this is the FreeBird TKL by KeebsForAll.
It's a great build at a decent price.
I believe the kit is 170,
and the plan is for them to eventually sell this
in stock, which is awesome.
The keyboard has a nice thocky sound profile
and can be tweaked based on the mods you do.
(keys clacking)
It's also an o-ring mount or a top mount.
Overall, I'm a big fan of the keyboard.
The prototype they sent me was a little bit scuffed.
It didn't have the o-ring or the screws,
but they sent it to me eventually.
And it sounds great and feels great after that.
the NK87 by NovelKeys is a different option.
It comes in the Entry Edition or the Aluminum Edition.
So one is like a lot more expensive than the other,
but it has a lot of the great features as well.
And it looks awesome. It sounds great.
I don't like it as much as the FreeBird,
but the NK87 is more readily available.
And when it comes to TKLs,
the real killer here is the Keychron K8 Pro.
You can get the bare bones kit for only $79,
which is an absolute steal.
It also has a lot of the features,
like gasket, like pre-lubed switches,
like screw-in stabilizers, hot swap, foam.
It's got everything fancy,
and I believe is also wireless.
So it's got Bluetooth too, which is insane.
So you can buy this on their website at like any time
'cause Keychron has crazy amounts of stock.
(keys clacking)
It's not available on Amazon yet,
if you primarily shop on Amazon,
but, eventually, it seems like they would do that.
I'm impressed.
It's even got PBT keycaps.
For a little bit more,
you can get the fully built option,
but the kit, the bare bones is only $79.
That's crazy.
And if you need a full-size,
in-stock custom, well, good luck.
These are my favorite in-stock customs.
And I'll link a few other alternatives
in the description below in case they are sold out,
which would be really awkward.
Now onto prebuilt keyboards.
These are like totally classic.
They used to be the thing.
They come with normal mounting systems,
ahem, tray mount, plate mounted stabs,
and are, in general, nothing to write home about.
However, nowadays there are some really good options
and they're really affordable too.
It's a great way to enter the hobby,
pick up something cheap,
take it out of the box, use it right away,
mod it, upgrade it, if you want to.
For most people, prebuilt is good enough to be endgame,
unless you are a special kind of person,
then you never have any endgames.
I personally love tinkering with prebuilt keyboards
and I usually recommend them to people
because they're so easy.
They're always available.
You don't need to shop for things here and there.
So for the ultra budget,
I recommend the K552 from Redragon.
It's around 20 to $35.
It does have a wire.
This one is just very modded
and very upgraded by me.
And it sounds very awesome.
The best thing about this, okay,
$35 and you get hot swap switches.
Although they don't fit most switches,
but they'll fit in most things
from Acho, also from Gazzew.
So you have to be careful on the switches.
The hot swap sockets are smaller
than like cherry switches,
but you can mod this thing out of this world
and it'll sound amazing.
(keys clacking)
Add a lot of foam into it, you know,
spray paint it a nice color.
No, you don't have to do any of that,
but yeah, I'm extra.
All right, going up in price,
we have the three special boys,
the Keychron C1 $50,
the Vissles 80, I think about 55,
and the LTC Nimbleback, also 55.
A lot of cool options here.
I think these two are wireless.
They're all hot swap.
They're all plate mounted stabilizers,
and they all have feet.
Yeah, this one's got wireless.
I have modded them all,
so they look a little bit crazy,
but they're all great options at different sizes.
And they're solid.
I highly recommend it if you wanna upgrade something
and just play around with it.
(keys clacking)
I've been talking about these three keyboards
for a long time.
They all have like their own videos
that they're featured in,
the quiet keyboard, the thocky keyboard,
the something something.
I don't remember, but they're all great.
They're not gonna break the bank.
They sound great out of the box,
but they sound even better when they're modded.
They're super sweet,
the best bang for buck in features and quality.
They're great, but for a slightly nicer keyboard,
the GMMK V2s are what I would recommend.
They're fully assembled.
They have five pin pre-lubed hot swap switches,
a case with foam.
Nice. And they're just very solid.
They're very nice.
They come with clip-on stabilizers,
but you could add on screw-ins.
The PCB is super compatible with that.
Perfect for modding, they're pre lubed,
(keys clacking)
and they come in pink or white or black,
you know, different colors.
But these are more fun. Fun is great.
There's a compact 65%.
It's got feet on the back, USBC,
and there's the big boy chunky, chunky 96%
for those of you that need the number pad
but don't have the desk space for it.
For another really high-quality prebuilt,
I would recommend the Iqunix Keyboards,
the LAD A80, OG80.
They're all wireless,
and they got PBT keycaps,
even got their own special pretty ones,
hot swap sockets, they're wireless.
They have a dongle or a Bluetooth.
It's just really awesome.
They're great out of the box,
probably some of the best keyboards
that I've ever used out of the box.
That's really saying something.
(keys clacking)
But with many prebuilt keyboards,
there are so many options,
so many brands it's just impossible to cover them all.
And I wish I could, but I can't.
So I'll make sure to link everything down below
if you're interested in checking anything out.
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And good luck shopping for your next keyboard,
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You love shopping. We all do.