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Retro click-clacks: The mechanical keyboards sweeping Indonesia

Deemed to be superior among common keyboards, help productivity and good for body postures, mechanical keyboards are the current collectible item.

Radhiyya Indra (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Fri, March 11, 2022

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Retro click-clacks: The mechanical keyboards sweeping Indonesia Fine details: The switches underneath a mechanical keyboard are one of the features that make this rising vintage-inspired tech trend so appealing to users. (Courtesy of Lazuardi) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Lazuardi)

D

em>Deemed to be better than common keyboards, help productivity and be good for body postures, mechanical keyboards are the current collectible item.

Whether you've heard their clickety-clack sounds in a working space or stumbled upon the trending “typing test” videos on social media, mechanical keyboards are getting the attention of many Indonesians.

“I was brainwashed by this friend of mine into liking it,” joked fresh graduate Hilman Rafid, who was introduced to mechanical keyboards last year in university. “I tried my friend’s mech [mechanical keyboard] and it felt nice, so I bought a cheap one first […] but now I’m addicted,” he said to The Jakarta Post on Feb. 10.

A mechanical keyboard is not something one usually finds when buying a personal computer or laptop. The one consumers get is almost always a “membrane” or rubber-dome keyboard with its slim and flat keycaps, given the hardware industry’s trajectory toward simpler and sleeker designs.

Mechanical keyboards, on the other hand, have switches deep under their keys that make them thicker, sound deeper, last longer and for many, feel better.

“Typing on a laptop keyboard is like sleeping on a mat,” Rafid compared, “while typing on a mechanical keyboard is like sleeping on a bed.”

Latest pandemic craze: A look at Hilman Rafid's personal collection of mechanical keyboards. (Courtesy of Hilman Rafid)
Latest pandemic craze: A look at Hilman Rafid's personal collection of mechanical keyboards. (Courtesy of Hilman Rafid) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Hilman Rafid)

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