668 - Neighbor of the Beast

I admit, I like to have a good keyboard. In October 2009, I shelled out damn near $200 for my Logitech G19. It's a fine keyboard, except for one problem:

It uses rubber domes.

That are prone to tearing.

Needless to say, all was fine and happy in Logitech land, until, about a year later (Of course, right after the warranty ran out), the spacebar got mushy, and really didn't provide any sort of tactile feedback. Upon taking it apart (all 16 screws holding it together), I found that the little rubber dome had collapsed on one side, because it had, simply put, torn. Superglue fixed it, more or less, but not quite to a factory restored functionality.

At this point, I sent in a support ticket with Logitech. I had heard good things about their technical support, and the fact they go out of their way to help their customers. I explained, very nicely, that I felt the rubber membrane sheet inside of my G19 had a tear at the spacebar, and that I would be more than willing to pay for a replacement sheet to be mailed out to me.

Their response, in a nutshell: "We don't sell those parts as replacements. We can, however, give you a 50% discount off of a replacement G19." They DO, however, sell replacement feet that will tilt the keyboard up, if you ever lose those.

I didn't need a replacement G19, you fucking idiot. I needed a new rubber membrane sheet that probably costs you a few bucks to make and I was perfectly happy to pay even $20-25 for. The mechanics were fine. The keys were fine. There's one LED that keeps coming slightly loose and as a result it destroys the backlighting homogeny, but I can live with that.

But you expect me to pay $100 for something that a $5 sheet of rubber will fix? Get the fuck outta here.

So I waited for a little while, knowing my hack would hold up, and it sure did for awhile. Then, a few days ago, the right shift key failed in a similar way. I fixed that, but now I knew the keyboard's sheet was on the way out, so I began to search for a new keyboard.

Then, later that night, the S key failed, for the same reason. That is now three keys that failed, all because this keyboard's membrane design can't hold up to keypresses worth a fuck.

I really do like the G19 otherwise. I really do. I like its LCD screen, and I liked the fact I could run monitoring software on it while I was checking my game. But why, dear god WHY, did they not make the friggin' thing with mechanical keyswitches?!

Needless to say, the "S" key busting, along with me needing to re-fix my right shift key, was the last straw. That night before I went to bed, I purchased a Das Keyboard Professional S, a fully mechanical, no-frills keyboard (other than two USB slots) that has mechanical switches from Cherry, guaranteed to last for at least 50 million keypresses. Each. $150 down the hole, but so far, it's not too bad, and the clickyness (it's not silent, definitely) is hardly something that would throw off any PC enthusiast worth their salt. This post was typed on it, and it definitely felt "satisfying" to type, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

But simply put, I felt kind of let down by Logitech. Their mice are excellent, and the G19, while it worked flawlessly, was excellent too. Truth be told, if they ever make the G19 in a mechanical key flavor, that'd be all I would need to plunge down the $225 or whatever they would charge for it, but I know then that the keyboard would likely last more than a year or two.

So goodbye, G19, hello Das Keyboard. Time to have something that should last 3-5 years, at least. Hopefully, you make yourself last longer.