Different Types of Keyboards and their switches.

3 min readApr 24, 2022

Hello everyone my name is Arshia and in this article I’m gonna talk about different types of keyboard switches so that next time you want to buy a keyboard you know more about it.

1. Membrane keyboards:

Membrane or biodome keyboards you can say are the simplest keyboards and also the cheapest you can buy.
The way they work is just a conductive layer making an electricity flow as you can see in the picture below.

And they look like this. (for sure you have seen them)

Yeah the only thing you can see is plastic

2. Mechanical keyboards:

Mechanical keyboards register every keystroke with switches. each switch has four different parts. upper housing, stem, spring and lower housing.

BUT there is more…

We also have different switches.

Linear (mostly known as the red ones):

linear switches are better for gamers because they are lighter to press and have no actuation bump that you feel when pressing down the switch which makes it faster to actuate but is more sensitive to your touch so you have to be careful with accidental strokes.

Tactile (mostly known as the brown ones):

Tactile switches have a tactile bump which you feel when pressing down the switch and are heavier than linear switches and better to type with.

Clicky (mostly known as the blue ones):

Clicky switches are like brown switches but with sound so they are good for making sure everyone knows you’re working with your mechanical keyboard.

3. Optical mechanical keyboards:

Optical mechanical keyboard are like normal mechanical keyboards but the way their switches actuate is different… ITS WITH THE LIGHT!!! (infra red)
so they are faster to actuate and have a longer lifespan to normal mechanical switches which makes them also more expensive (they are also in the same types as the normal switches).