Whether you're a gamer, a typist, or both, the switches you choose for your keyboard can make the experience better.

A mechanical keyboard uses an actual physical switch underneath each key to determine when a key has been pressed. Press the key, and you press the switch down.

Curious about optical keyboard switches? Learn how they work, what makes them different from mechanical switches, and why ...

When mechanical switches first became a popularized option for keyboards, one brand sat behind every switch option: CHERRY. While other brands have emerged to compete with CHERRY, the company ...

Mechanical switches are different — there aren't plastic membranes to flex through here, ... approximately 1 gram — a measure of how much pressure is required to hit the actuation point): ...

Razer's latest keyboard is a small clacker with pressure-sensitive mechanical keys. Proprietary analog optical switches can detect how hard you're pressing a key and adjust input accordingly.

The first part is pretty obvious: the price. Adjustable actuation switches are far more complex than regular mechanical switches, requiring some pretty sensitive sensors underneath each and every key.

Cherry MX mechanical switches are famous in PC gaming land, but they've never made their way to a gaming laptop. That changes today with the Alienware m15 and m17 R4, the first laptops to feature ...