I'll start off by saying I'm not even close to an authority on keyboards, nor have I even experienced more than the average person might have. But then again, you probably figured that out just by reading the terrible pun in the title. That being said, if you're at all interested in hearing about my opinions on some that I do have experience with, then you're in the right place. I'll separate this into sections that I hope make sense. For the reader: I will be using MK to mean mechanical keyboard.
I got into the world of MKs just about one year ago. I was, like many others, first drawn to clickiness and RGB backlighting. I thought MKs were simply meant to be loud and cool. So, I went to Amazon and found the cheapest, best reviewed keyboard. For this first year, I have used a Redragon Kumara with Outemu Blue Switches. Throughout this time, I have learned a lot more and hope to share that here.
The most famous are Cherry MX switches, I've also used Outemu through my own keyboard, and have heard of Gateron. I won't describe and explain all the parts of switches and terminology such as actuation points, actuation force, key travel, etc. but I recommend you look here if you do want that in-depth guide. I'll summarize the color switches that I believe are most prevalent throughout brands. The reds, a linear, quiet switch. The blues, a clicky, loud switch. The browns, a tactile, quiet switch. If you want to feel when the key has been pressed without bottoming-out, tactile is for you. If you want to hear and feel when the key has been pressed, clicky is, rather obviously, for you. And if you want a silent key without feedback on actuation points, linears are for you.
At first, I wasn't even aware of this world. I thought MKs all came in a box, assembled and ready to go. I joined the MK subreddit and was introduced to a whole new way of thinking. Not only is ordering kits and assembling them yourself a right of passage, and arguably the more common method of purchasing a new keyboard, but there is an entire market of artisanal keycaps, particularly for escape keys.
As an avid watcher of both MKBHD and Unbox Therapy, I found myself interested in both keyboards created by Keychron. The K1, a very low-profile keyboard with almost apple-esque chiclet style keycaps piqued my interest as a Mac user. I haven't typed on any keyboards of this style, with mechanical switches but smaller key travel, but wonder if they could be the perfect joining of laptop-style keyboards and mechanical switches.
Apple has had some struggles in the keyboard department recently. I only include this because of my particular preference for Macbooks as my laptop of choice. They were doing perfectly fine until their decision to innovate the famed "butterfly" switches which replaced the normal "scissor" switches. I was fortunate enough to switch directly from a 2015 13-inch to a 2019 16-inch, but I did type on the butterfly switches on occasion. Considering I never owned them, I never ran into issues long-term with them, but even the typing experience was just not as responsive, and it was a lot clicker than most. Here's to Apple getting rid of those keyboard forever.