Have you noticed the flaw in the Shift V2 case?
I recently decided to try adding screw-in stabs to my Shift V2. As this was my first time adding screw-ins, it took me about 45 minutes to get them on the PCB. The next hour was then spent unsuccessfully trying to get the PCB to sit nicely in the top of the case. I started unscrewing some of the stabs, trying to figure out which one was the problem. I did also manage to figure out that it's best practice to have the screws a little loose when you go to pop the PCB in the case. But that only worked for four of the five stabs. The fifth stab, the Num Enter stab, would sit properly. Once I got it narrowed down to that stab, I started looking at the case itself. That's when I found the problem. There is a little post that interferes with the screw-in stab's screw (pictures included; you can see the damage from the screw being mashed into the post). I assume this is a carryover from the V1 case, for which the included PCB did not have holes for board mounted stabs. So now the questions:...
May 26, 2024
Life cycles mean nothing...mechanical keyboards are actually very unreliable because of all the individual parts. Those Dell rubberdomes are super reliable because it only relies on one rubber sheet, and this keyboard (as well as Topre) follows the same principles, versus the possibility of having one of the 60-100+ switches failing on a Cherry keyboard. As you can imagine, there's a much higher risk for failure of a Cherry keyboard.
Some day, I'll write a more elaborate version of this answer to share with everyone, but these keyboards definitely aren't a downgrade.
I do acknowledge that Cherry MX switches and clones have greater repairability. Switch die out, solder in a new one. Board completely fries, harvest the switches for new board, etc. However, I think for a majority of people that do not want to solder or open up their keyboards, a topre or clone has wonderful build quality and typing feel.
Torpre are like luxury cars, you cannot and do not want to mess with the machinery while Cherry are like suped up race cars that people have tinkered and fine tuned to their own taste and perfection.