Personally, I’d say I noticed a large difference between ducky and brands like logi, Corsair, and razer. Build quality, most notably
Software is fair but in general I’ve never found generic plastic case, steel olate boards to feel any different “build quality” wise. Again, this is looking back to the 2013-2015 era, but it was mostly just different plastic finishes. In terms of actual solidity I’ve had Razer, CM, Leopold, Ducky, and a couple other brands and none of them were significantly different from the others.
Comparing it to a membrane board kind of says enough about where we both stand on this, though.
That’s purely a longevity argument. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a keyboard straight up croak, even generic OEM ones that get beat to hell in an office environment. Especially in an era where everyone was using the same Cherry switches I wouldn’t expect any of them to last any longer or shorter then any others.
Albeit you pay for what you want usually, the quality makes it feel much more like a lasting and well-built product
I’ve found “quality” to be a very nebulous word around here, often having a direct correlation to price. A keyboard is a plastic or metal case, a PCB, a plate, and some switches. Building a robust, solid, “high-quality” isn’t really a pricey endeavor in tyotl 2023. A lot of money will go towards design or features but long-lasting is pretty much a given and “well-built” has been inexpensive for at least a decade now.
I’m generally just rambling, but I’ve been browsing here since 2013 and it’s pretty wild how things have changed. Much more implication that you need to soend hundreds on some custom to get something “good” when in reality it’s broadly a solved piece of technology, you can just spend more if you want a more tailored experience
I’m pretty satisfied with my M1. Looks nice, feels nice, sounds good with the Boba U4Ts. Definitely not worth the asking price compared to just getting another Ducky, though, especially considering the poor ergonomics. It’s a good thing I really like the layout or I’d be disappointed with the purchase.
Optimum Tech has been reviewing a few on YouTube (with an eye towards objective measurements, which is really good). It’ll be interesting to see where the market goes over the next year or so. It seems like no one has hit the same performance bar as Wooting so far but some has been about the same from the user’s point of view and I’m sure there’s plenty of room for competitors, and likely some room for cheaper boards as well.