It’s my first mechanical keyboard and it’s about a year that I’m interesting to try it. I like my apple keyboard, but there are so many reviews for the mechanical ones, so finally I gave up and bought this IQUNIX A80.

At the end 100-200 dollars for a device which I use every day for at least 8 hours and for the years is not a big price.

   

My criteria are:

• it should be ten key less and have a layout similar to my apple keyboard
• it should be silent, i don’t want to wake up my kids in the morning, i chose cherry mx red silent switches
• and usb-c, bluetooth connections

Among other candidates, I looked at:

• Vortex Race 3 - but it looks outdated, there is no bluetooth and it uses usb mini
• Varmillo Miya Pro - i did not find a delivery to France
• Drop ALT - there are no silent switches and there are many complains about stabilizers
• Keychron K2 - no silent switches

So when I saw A80, I didn’t wait long. It matches all the criteria and I really like the design.

The first day it felt awkward because the layout is slightly different and my fingers are tired, but the next days it felt good. Then I switched back for a half a day to the apple keyboard, maybe i can type on it a little faster, but there is definitely a difference in the how it feels, the mechanichal feels better :) The speed is not so important for me as a programmer, it’s more important to do things right and spend less time for the fixes later.

So I’ll stick to this keyaboard for a while. I think in a long term the pleasant feeling of typing can have a good impact on my productivity.