The Best Mechanical Keyboards of 2024

Group of mechanical keyboards. — Photo:
Lifewire / Jason Schneider

A mechanical keyboard can help you dial in the right feel for your specific typing style. Many top manufacturers let you swap switches and keycaps to customize your board.

The keyboards below embody what’s excellent about mechanical keyboards for many users. I used these mechanical keyboards for several weeks, including typing up this review.

Our Top Picks

Just Buy This (All Around Best):

Keydous NJ98 at Amazon $145

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Also Great:

SALE

Keychron K13 Pro at Amazon ~~$100~~ $70

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Easiest on the Budget:

Epomaker Shadow-X at Amazon $86

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Just Buy This (All Around Best)

Keydous NJ98

PHOTO: Lifewire / Jason Schneider

$145 at Amazon

TL;DR: The Keydous NJ98 is an impressively full-featured, full-sized board with plenty of customization and connectivity options.

Why We Recommend This

Keydous may be an unfamiliar brand for the average tech user, but they’re known for making impressive, custom-tailored boards in the mechanical keyboard space. Their NJ80 is one of the most popular keyboards for the mid-tier price point.

I’ve chosen the NJ98 here because it provides a nearly full-sized, 96% layout and many of the bells and whistles of the NJ80. First, what does full-sized mean? One of the first considerations with a mechanical keyboard is its size and layout.

Pros

Excellent typing feel, with customizable switch slots
Great full package with nice keycaps
Full, three-mode connectivity
Rotary knob and macro screen

Cons

A little expensive
Typing sound is a tad thin
Battery drains quickly with LED lighting on

A full-sized board (sometimes denoted 98% or 100%) has all the keys you’d want from a keyboard, including a separate function row and number pad. Smaller boards do away with these peripheral keys in the interest of compactness.

The NJ98 provides all that functionality and then some. This board also offers hot-swappable switch sockets, which means you can buy new switches and change the feel without soldering them onto a circuit board (called a PCB in the keyboard space).

The NJ98 also has excellent connectivity, allowing for a wired USB-C connection, Bluetooth compatibility, or wireless transmission using the included USB dongle. It’s got a rotary knob on the top right and a little macro screen that can be used to display various info or fun pictures. My board came loaded with BOX Taro Ice Cream Pro switches, which are light and quick.

The typing is responsive, and the high-quality keycaps on this keyboard also feel great for long sessions. However, I do find that the RGB lighting causes the battery to drain faster than I’d hoped in wireless mode.

Also, while the keyboard has some foam and dampening inside, it feels a bit more hollow and slightly thinner than I’d want—particularly with how the keys sound. It’s also the most expensive board on this list, so it’s meant for those who want performance, customization, and a nice middle-ground of features.

Who else recommends it? Niche publications like Geekhack and The Gadgeteer found the features and customization available on the NJ98 top-tier.
What do buyers say? Buyers across various sites have rated the NJ98 highly, though it’s important to note that the NJ80 has more reviews.

Also Great

Keychron K13 Pro

PHOTO: Lifewire / Jason Schneider

$100 $70 at Amazon

TL;DR: The Keychron K13 Pro is a low-profile keyboard that still delivers mechanical action and customization.

Why We Recommend This

While mechanical keyboards provide a deep, satisfying action when typing, they can be bulky and heavy—unlike the high-end accessories from brands like Apple and Logitech.

The Keychron K13 Pro is one of the brand’s "low-profile" boards, which means they’ve put mechanical switches into a surprisingly thin and sleek keyboard. The K13 Pro employs Gateron Low-Profile switches (I got the heavier-feeling Brown switches with my model), so the key travel isn’t quite as robust as a full-depth board.

Pros

Sleek low profile
Customizable switches with a decent feel
Three-mode connectivity

Cons

Design feels less premium than larger models
Clunky Bluetooth switching functionality
Low-profile switches do mean less-satisfying travel

But you get a sleek footprint. One of the unique factors about the K13 Pro is that, while it sits in a footprint similar to a 75% keyboard, instead of the auxiliary keys to the right, Keychron has squeezed in a compact number pad.

This gives you some functionality of a full-sized board without the massive size.

While I really like how the low-profile switches feel, you will get a less satisfying clack with this board.

The thin profile makes it feel less premium than some other boards on this list. I like the three-mode connectivity and the Mac/Windows switch, but I would have liked to see an easier way to switch between multiple Bluetooth devices.

My model's battery life lasted quite long, and I like that I can swap the switches thanks to the hot-swappable sockets. This does increase the price, but the versatility is excellent.

Who else recommends it? RTINGS.com, The Verge, and other tech publications find Keychron’s low-profile keyboards to offer compact, sleek versatility without sacrificing too much feel.
What do buyers say? Keychron’s keyboards are well-loved on Amazon, and various low-profile models have garnered ratings between 4 and 4.5 stars.

Easiest on the Budget

Epomaker Shadow-X

PHOTO: Lifewire / Jason Schneider

$86 $78 at Amazon

TL;DR: The Shadow-X delivers premium performance and an excellent feel with very few trade-offs for the price.

Why We Recommend This

When searching for full-fat mechanical keyboards, you’ll see that prices often rise well above the $100 mark, but Epomaker is one of those brands that prides itself on offering budget-friendly boards without sacrificing too much functionality.

The Shadow-X was a surprising entry into this roundup because I’d never heard of it before—having been more familiar with Epomaker’s other budget entries.

One thing that makes the Shadow-X so nifty is that its plate is "gasket-mounted," which means that the infrastructure is mounted in small, bouncy rubber gaskets. This makes the typing experience that much more fluid and satisfying.

It’s also hot-swappable—so you can change out your key switches to a different feel—features an encoder knob for changing settings on the fly, and even has a little macro screen. I also love the silver-and-black colorway, and I swapped my accent keys out for the fun mustard-yellow keycaps Epomaker included in the kit.

Pros

Affordable price point
Excellent typing experience with customizable switch slots
Gasket mounting for solid action
Three modes of connectivity
High-quality, premium build

Cons

Very clicky sound with stock switches
No function row or number pad
Bulky size for the number of keys

The footprint is a little large, and its 70% layout means you won’t have the added benefit of a number pad or a dedicated function row. While the dampening inside and the gasket mounting make for a nice typing experience, the clackiness sometimes felt a little plastic-y.

This is potentially fixed with new switches or keycaps, but it is an out-of-the-box sacrifice you’ll make. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the typing experience and found my typing speed improved.

It all comes for well under $100, and I've seen it on sale for up to half the price. If you’re looking for a full-featured entry into the space, then the Shadow-X is an excellent platform for experimentation.

Who else recommends it? Well-known mech keys Youtubers and gaming publications like IGN took the Shadow-X for a spin and gave it high marks.
What do buyers say? More than 100 satisfied Amazon reviewers rated the Epomaker Shadow-X an impressive 4.5 stars out of 5—specifically noting the sound and feel.

How We Tested

When looking at mechanical keyboards, I considered various factors. But what’s most important to me is how well they let me type. I didn’t use these keyboards exclusively for gaming but did some light play sessions.

In general, I left the keyboards I tested in their "stock" states, exactly how they came out of the box—but I did try to note when I thought a keyboard could benefit from swapping the switches or adjusting something.

I also considered how stable the wireless connectivity was and how it affected battery life. If I couldn’t get the Bluetooth to connect quickly, I noted it as a “con” for that keyboard. And in general, I made sure every keyboard fit into my day-to-day workflow, which is crucial as a writer.

What to Look For

A good keyboard can make or break your productivity, but most modern keyboards from big brands (and those that come built-in on laptops) use low-profile membrane or scissor-switch mechanisms. While these can feel great and look sleek and modern, a mechanical keyboard can help you dial in the right feel for your specific typing style.

Typing on a mechanical keyboard involves a physical key switch for each key that activates contact points and uses a spring and housing at different styles and stiffnesses.

Many gaming keyboards employ extra clicky switches for precise inputs. Still, many of the top manufacturers in the hobbyist space let you swap switches and keycaps to customize your board.

A mechanical keyboard has a ton of factors to consider, but for entry-level types, here are the key points:

The feel of the typing out of the box (and whether you can swap the switches if you want)
The design and build quality of the board
Is there wireless connectivity available
What extra features there are (macro screen, rotary knob, etc.)

You can learn more in our guide to choosing mechanical keyboard switches.