Das Keyboard Prime 13 Backlit Wired Mechanical Keyboard with Cherry MX Brown Switches - White LED Backlit Keys, USB Pass-Through & Aluminum Top Panel (104 Keys, Black) - Perfect for Gaming, Programming & Office Work

My first mechanical keyboard with modern switches (instead of the older buckling-spring assemblies) was a Velocifire VM01. It served me well, but I decided recently to splurge and go for a more premium deck – in this case the Das Keyboard Prime 13 with Cherry MX Brown keyswitches. It does, I must admit, have a very different feel to my significantly cheaper VM01 Keyboard. It’s not unpleasant. The switches feel very similar to the way my old Unicomp Model M buckling spring keyboard felt. There’s a very satisfying buoyancy to the keys (for lack of a better word). It’s a genuine joy to type on. I look forward to using this keyboard for National Novel Writing Month.The backlighting is even and strong – much more so than the VM01. The steel faceplate is cool to the touch and very solid. There’s no noticeable flex, even when I press very hard down on the center of the keyboard or pick it up and twist the corners away from each other.The keycaps feel nice, have a clear and professional-looking font to them, and have very little wiggle which is a nice change from my VM01. That’s a difference that $75 will get you. I may still need to put O-ring dampeners on the keys. We’ll see how loud the keyboard actually sounds once I get it set up in my office.I don’t notice the audible “PING!” when releasing larger keys such as the space bar and backspace buttons that annoyed me with the VM01. That’s a level of quality I expected – but it’s nice to see that my trust in the Das company wasn’t unfounded. This is definitely one of the nicest premium keyboards I’ve ever used – if not the best period.One very minor criticism – on keys that have two legends on them (like the number/symbol keys along the top and the bracket/curly brace keys on the side) the backlight only illuminates the top symbol and not the bottom. This is probably due to the fact that Cherry switches have their LED on the top of the switch…but it would have been nice to have both light up still.I don’t know if it’s just my unfamiliarity with the Cherry MX Brown switches, but I notice myself adding a lot of extra spaces in my writing. I’ll have to see if that goes away with more regular use. It could be that the space bar on my old Velocifire VM01 was just less sensitive and I’m used to really banging it to get it to actuate. Haha. The large buttons on this keyboard do require what seems like a lot less pressure to register than I’m used to on the VM01. I’m not sure if that’s real or imagined.Although I was assured when I bought the VM01 that the OUTEMU off-brand brown switches were comparable to Cherry MX Browns – I’m going to have to disagree. There’s a decidedly different feel to these branded Cherries on the Das. Again, this may just be confirmation bias since I paid almost twice as much for this keyboard as the VM01 – but I feel like the Cherry switches are just smoother, and require less actuation force.This is the closest feel I’ve found in a post-Model-M keyboard to the buckling spring monster I used back in the day. The keys pop back up in a satisfying and strong way. The sound is nice and clacky without being *completely* over the top. The overall look and feel of the keyboard itself is very high-end and professional looking. I see some of my coworkers bringing in high-end VGA keyboards and realize that the “gamer” aesthetic isn’t really for me. I would feel juvenile using a board with multi-colored lights on it like some twenty-something’s sports car.The cord is braided, which you’ll either love or hate. I personally like the look and feel of it myself. It terminates in 2 USB 2.0 plugs – one for the keyboard and one for the USB pass-through port on the top right of the keyboard. I like to use this for my wireless mouse receiver. It’s discreet and keeps it out of my way.This was my first purchase from Das, and I don’t believe it will be the last. It took me a long time to be able to justify the price to myself but now that I’ve used it first hand I don’t know that I’ll be willing to go back to squishy ten dollar membrane keyboards again. Das may well have ruined me for them.