The Best Keyboard You Can Buy in 2019

Why you should buy it: Great for typing and gaming, the Das Keyboard Prime 13 ditches gamer aesthetic for a sold, all-round experience.

Who’s it for: Anyone who enjoys the benefits of a mechanical keyboard.

What we thought of the Das Keyboard Prime 13:

Das Keyboard might not be a name you’re too familiar with, but it should be on any prospective keyboard buyer’s radar as it produces some fantastic keyboards that ditch a lot of the unnecessary and “gamer” features which have become all too commonplace on modern-day mechanical keyboards. It comes equipped with Cherry MX Brown switches — one of our personal favorites — fantastic keycaps, simple but functional backlighting, and a USB passthru port. It doesn’t have RGB, or macro switches, or complicated software. It’s a pure, clean keyboard with a great feature set at a decent price.

Designed with a minimalist look and feel, you may feel like the Prime 13 is a little too uniform. A little too understated. But that could be just what you’re looking for if you don’t feel the need to pay through the nose for RGB lighting or extraneous plastic.

That doesn’t mean it lacks in features though. We love the Prime 13’s simple, white backlighting — especially the sidemounted media key indicators and its crisp, clean lines help it fit in well in a home or work office environment. There’s nothing to stop you gaming on it in the off hours either, as you’ll find few switches are as beloved as the tactile MX Brown switches it sports. They’re fast and quiet, so you won’t annoy your house or workmates either.

Why you should buy it: The Razer first-party switches are some of the fastest in the world, helping take your game to a new level.

Who’s it for: Gamers who want comfort, accurate commands, and macro switches.

What we thought of the Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2:

Razer makes some of the best gaming keyboards in the world, so the best of those keyboards is worth taking note of. The Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 uses Razer’s own mechanical switches which many consider to be better than the classic Cherry MX alternatives. There’s a choice of Green, Orange, and Yellow, for tactile and clicky feedback, and RGB lighting that lets you customize the look and feel of the board to your taste.

Each BlackWidow Chroma V2 comes with its own spongy wrist rest and a USB Passthru port so you can connect headsets or other peripherals to your PC without taking up a front-panel connector. It also has its own selection of macro keys, letting you remap important abilities of shortcuts to extra keys without stepping on existing mappings for traditional keys.

Designed for extreme durability, this board is rated for as many as 80 million key presses — that’s more than 50 percent more than a standard Cherry MX mechanical switch. This board will help you game faster and last for years with the full backing of Razer’s Synapse software.

Why you should buy it: Its swappable switches mean it could last forever and it’s a great gaming keyboard besides.

Who’s it for: Anyone who has a small space to work and play in. Frequent LAN gamers.

What we thought of the Logitech G Pro X:

Logitech’s G Pro X is a fantastic, compact keyboard that ditches the numberpad for a more dense, portable design. Not only does it sport that more restrained form, but it also has a unique feature in the way you can swap out the mechcanical switches if they die, or you just don’t like them. Compatible with both Logitech’s own GX switches and Cherry’s MX range, you can effectively equip this board with whatever you want. Just swap in the switches as and when you want them using the handy picker tool.

Elsewhere this keyboard is a great, high-end gaming keyboard, with fully customizable RGB lighting, solid media controls, and a swappable cable that removes one more potential point of failure and makes it more portable. We loved how durable this keyboard was and could be, and think it’s one of the best we’ve used in some time. If you don’t care about swapping switches though, the new, standard G Pro, is much the same, but without that one feature — and it’s $30 cheaper.

Why you should buy it: It works well with desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones and lasts for years on a pair of batteries.

Who’s it for: Multi-device users who don’t want to be tied down by a cable.

What we thought of the Logitech K780:

One of the biggest advantages of a wireless keyboard is its portability. Take it on the train, on a plane, or from the office to home. But that’s no good if your keyboard is tied down to a single device. Not so with the K780, which is compatible with phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop PCs. Just connect it over Bluetooth and you’re off and running. It even has a dongle it ships with so you can use it on systems without Bluetooth built in.

It has a decidedly retro, understated look which some may like and others won’t, but everyone loves the included stand/rest for tablets and mobile devices, turning any touchscreen system into a de facto laptop without the need for any complicated connectors or wires.

You may feel the lack of a NUM lock and Caps Lock key when you first start using it, but we got used to that relatively quickly in our time with the K780 and found it to be comfortable to use and type on over long periods. The rounded keys might not be to everyone’s tastes, but we found they didn’t affect typing accuracy at all.

The lack of backlighting is a shame for those who like to work in the dark, but for everyone else, you’ll struggle to find a better keyboard for mobile devices than the Logitech K780.

Why you should buy it: It’s as close to a mechanical keyboard as you can get without actually being one, for the same price as bargain-basement alternatives.

Who’s it for: Anyone who wants the look and feel of a mechanical keyboard without paying the premium.

What we thought of the DBPower Three Colors:

The DBPower Three Colors keyboard is an anomaly. It looks every bit the part of a mechanical gaming keyboard, but it costs less than $30. That shouldn’t be possible, and yet somehow its manufacturers have managed to imbue it with much of what we love about truly high-end keyboards in an amazingly affordable package.

It isn’t actually a mechanical board, but a type of hybrid model, leveraging a clear-plastic plunger that drives into a membrane switch. You’ll need to bottom it out to make it actuate, but if that’s not too much of a concern for you, there is a lot to love about this board.

It comes with three lighting options and breathing effects while you work or play. You can press a function key to switch control between WASD and the arrow keys and there’s even a braided cable to add a quality look the overall design.

It’s not going to beat any of our favorite overall or gaming keyboards, but when it comes to bang for the buck, there’s none that can match the DBPower Three Colors.