80HE

If you go with a Hall Effect board (and it’s a solid choice) just make sure to research what magnetic switches the board you are interested in uses. Keychron/Lemokey, HE boards for example, can only use a specific Gateron dual rail switch along with Glorious switches. For me personally, the stock Gateron dual rails are not very pleasing. A spring swap though brings them to life. I enjoy doing that work but you may not. Wooting and any board that uses the same polarity will have the most switch options available. This includes popular switches like Geon Raw and Gateron Jades. I have owned ad Keychron Q1 HE, Wooting 80, Wooting 60, Keychron K2 HE, Maggard 68 Pro and Nuphy 75 Air. The Wooting is the most premium option. As others have said, the software blows all others out of the water. I was really impressed with the Nuphy. It’s a low profile keyboard so different switches / keycaps than the others but it’s a fun board. The software on all the boards I’ve used lets you set actuation per key, rapid trigger, SOCD, dynamic keystroke and macros (plus more). The Wooting is the most intuitive and best for RGB if you care about that. I could not get dynamic keystroke working on the Nuphy but didn’t try after the first day as I replaced it with a macro for what I wanted. The Nuphy and Keychrons you are limited to 3 profiles. Maggard is 4 and the Wooting is unlimited, but only 4 active profiles (all your other profiles are archived within the online software). There’s a database of other Wooting profiles that you can easily copy/paste a code for yourself to utilize that users profile. Finally, I’m pretty sure Keychron boards have gamepad support and I know Wooting definitely does. This would allow you to set keys as controller functions for things like racing games / GTA driving / etc.

I’m not sure if you are asking about mechanical switches or HE switches so I will talk about both. For the most part, if you get a Hall Effect board you must use HE switches. There are some boards (GMMK 3 Pro HE comes to mind) that allow both MX (i.e. mechanical) and HE switches. But I have no experience with any of those. An Mx switch has metal pins that descend into the PCB. Where a HE switch has a magnet that moves and activates the switch and does not have metal pins that descend into the PCB. Since I mentioned the company, I will say in no shape or form should you ever consider a Glorious keyboard. I’m still disgusted by the glowing reviews the GMMK 3 Pro HE received from some popular YouTubers for a $400+ board that was complete garbage. Glorious hardware is ok (sometimes) but their software is totally worthless. For Hall Effect keyboards, I like Gateron Jade Pro and Geon Raw. Those switches work in Wooting and my Maggard 68 Pro but wouldn’t work in Keychron because the polarity is different. I personally think the higher cost of Jade Pro is worth it over the lower cost “normal” Jade. Divinikey, Milktooth and sometimes Amazon are good places in the US for switches. In the Nuphy Air 75 HE, I also have Gateron Jade Pro’s but the low profile version and I like them. HE switches are a bit of a Wild West right now. Companies are scrambling to pump out products and capitalize on the craze but you really have to pay attention, if you buy an HE board, to what switches will work. Generally speaking, the safest HE board that will support the largest range of switches is the Wooting. For regular mechanical keyboards, I’m a tactile fan. A really good, inexpensive, light tactile switch that is great for both typing and gaming is the Akko V3 Cream Blue Pro. My favorite linear switch is probably the Gateron North Pole. Start with going to Rtings.com and look at their mechanical switch reviews. Google best gaming keyboard switch and the Rtings link should be near the top. It’s a little outdated currently but just check it out to start and acquire a knowledge base. You can also buy switch testers from various places. A switch tester will have 20-30 different switches so you can see what you like and what you don’t. One word of caution. Price is not always commiserate with quality and enjoyment. A lot of switches are totally subjective to the user. Just because Akko is inexpensive doesn’t make it garbage. Similarly, just because a Gateron Ink V2 is super expensive (relatively speaking) doesn’t mean you will like it. The WS Morandi when released was praised everywhere. I hated them and ripped them out after a week. Lastly in your post you did mention form factor and wanted some comparisons Wooting vs Keychron as an example. Form factor is obv total preference. Before I got into keyboards, I was always a full size fan. I started by going to TKL then 75% then smaller to 65% and 60%. I could write a novel about the differences. I found remapping solutions that work for me on a 65% and a 60%. In my opinion, if you go 60% you either fully commit to that size (because you really have to relearn muscle memory with the remapping required) or you just use 60% for gaming only and have another board for work. Now my favorite size is a tie between a 65% and a 75%. I’m not a huge fan of compact 75% like Keychron K2 HE as I will make more mistakes reaching for that number row sometimes (especially between the ~ key which I always use for gaming and the Escape key). The advantage of using a 75% or lower is the desk space you reacquire and for gaming the additional room you have for mouse movements. It’s very freeing. I’m in finance and use my boards for both gaming and work. I bought a Keychron K0 number pad thinking I would need it. I probably used it 2 times in the years I’ve owned it. You just get accustomed to remapping that you create with the smaller form factors. It can be really hard to make a decision here because it’s new to you and there are a million options. Set your budget, decide if you want 100%, 75%, 65%, etc. Does warranty matter? Because if so, you really want to consider a Wooting. How about easy returns? Because a Keychron / Lemokey off Amazon for returns is as easy as it gets. As I said before, the Wooting 80HE, IMO, is the most premium HE option. The software is the best I have ever seen. But it’s gonna cost you. An option is to start with the base plastic case and lekker switches. Then upgrade over time to the zinc case and maybe different switches. If you go with Keychron, also look at Lemokey which is their “gaming” division. The Lemokey P1 HE I would get over the K2 variant for not much more money. Just be aware, as I said earlier, if you go Keychron / Lemokey you are restricted to Gateron Dual Rail HE switches and that’s it. The switches are ok and not great. Much better if you do a spring swap. But, I’m not saying this to be mean, if you have no other frame of reference then you may just love the switches out of the box. The Keychrons and Lemokey are plug and play. There’s no further upgrading to be done. I think the K2 HE is literally the only board I haven’t modded at all. At minimum I’ll always do a tape mod but the K2 HE was perfectly fine out of the box and there’s something to be said about that.