When it comes to picking your new keyboard there can be an almost overwhelming set of options before you. Not the aesthetic options such as “Should my new keyboard be black or white?”, but technical options.
Do you want a mechanical keyboard or a membrane one? Should it be USB wired or wireless Bluetooth? Do I want a keyboard that has a Numpad or doesn’t? Do I want a full keyboard, or would a 75 percent keyboard better suit your needs? That’s where this handy article comes in.
This article will cover what a 75 percent keyboard is and why someone might want to use one. It will also cover what features this sort of keyboard should have and why. By the end, you should know whether or not this type of keyboard is something you would be interested in.
If it is, then hopefully one of the five great recommendations at the end will help make your choice of which 75 percent keyboard to buy that much easier. If none of those choices suit you, at least you will have a clearer idea of what it is you do want and will be able to find such a keyboard.
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Table of Contents
What is a 75 percent keyboard?
When you are discussing keyboards, it is normally a given that you are discussing what is best known as a full keyboard. This a keyboard that has all of its keys, function keys, and a Numpad. They are referred to as just a keyboard or a full keyboard as that is the standard with which most keyboards come.
When you start bringing percentages into the name, people start to get confused. That’s fine, but there is no need for confusion. The percentage generally refers to what percentage of the keys any given keyboard has. A 60% keyboard (generally the smallest you will find, has just the alphanumeric keys.
A 75 percent keyboard has, you guessed it, 75 percent of the keys that a standard keyboard would have. This is one of the bigger keyboards that aren’t quite the full size. It has all of your alphabet keys, top row numerics, and function keys. Most keyboards that arent quite full opts to drop the function key row as for most people it doesn’t serve much of a purpose.
How much do you truly use the function row? Probably not all that much, I know I don’t. Most function keys are used for computer shortcuts that are either not all that common to use or not used at all. If you were to drop that row off your keyboard altogether, how long would it take for you to even notice?
Why would you want one?
There are numerous great reasons for wanting a 75 percent keyboard. First of all, let’s look at the average Joe who purely uses their keyboard for typing, could be emails, could be a short novel, just general typing. You are probably only interested in the alphanumeric keys. Even then the numerics are probably not used that often, if at all.
Why would you want the rest of the keyboard? That remaining 25 percent is just dead space that takes up room on your desk, in your bag, and gives you more keys to accidentally hit when you are speed typing. Remove them altogether and your chance for error drops. By about 25 percent, more or less.
Circling back to the idea of taking up less room. A keyboard takes up the majority of the room on your desk. Or at least the room that’s right in front of you. By having a smaller keyboard you open up more of your desk as now usable room.
If you are someone who travels for work, bringing your keyboard with you is always a hassle. Even if you have a decent-sized laptop bag chances are your keyboard doesn’t fit. They are just too wide! With a 75 percent keyboard you are going to find it fits inside your bag much more comfortably.
This can save you from having to lug the keyboard around in your arms when moving from place to place. This is bad enough if you are staying in the same building, if you have to take your keyboard walking with you outside the office you risk damaging it or losing it. Plus, you look kind of goofy.
What should you be looking for in such a keyboard?
The best keyboards are always the ones that do the most for you. Normally, this is a trade-off between being the most functional, being nice/cool looking, and costing the least. Finding somewhere in the middle is your best bet. The problem is it is rare to find all three.
A highly functional keyboard that looks great isn’t likely to be particularly cheap, for example. 75 percent keyboards should always look sleek and have as tight a fitting layout as possible. The idea is to be smaller, not just to have fewer keys.
A keyboard that is the same size, dimension wise, but just has fewer keys isn’t a particularly helpful product. It is just an objectively worse standard keyboard. A good 75 percent keyboard will also likely have programmable dual-function keys so you don’t lose out on too much functionality.
The 5 best 75 percent keyboards:
Price comparison chart for all 5 keyboards:
| Keyboard | Price Comparison |
|---|---|
| Drevo Excallibar | $ |
| Leopold FC660C | $$$$$ |
| Vortexgear Race 3 | $$$$ |
| Key Cool 84 | $$$ |
| Noppoo Choco Mini | $$ |
Per Amazon rules, I can’t disclose exact prices. This is a visual representation of the price compared to each other. The more “$” means a higher price comparatively.
There is no single best keyboard as best is so subjective. What you do have here is a list of 5 of the most well rounded and functional keyboards. Not all of them are, what you might call cheap, but all are affordable. Anyone with their heart set on a 75 percent keyboard would do well with any of the 5 listed here in this article.
They are in no particular order, they all excel in a certain way. If you arent particularly feeling any of these keyboards, hopefully you at least now know what you are looking for. By singling out what these, or all 75 percent keyboards, might be missing. Without further ado, the 5 best 75 percent keyboards:
Drevo Excallibar
The Drevo Excallibar is a pretty neat keyboard. It has a sleek, professional, looking design that is sure to make it fit in wherever and whenever you choose to use it. It can be purchased in either black or white, with a secondary color selection that changes from time to time. Blue and red are common choices. If I had to pick, I would choose the blue.
The Drevo is a pretty reliable keyboard, it offers good feedback and allows for a decent amount of accuracy. It can be a little loud, depending on what switches you choose, but that’s on you. There are silent switches available so purchase them if noise is something that bothers you.
This keyboard is slightly raised and comes with floating keycaps, so you are getting a decent amount of depth. It is USB powered so it will fit any of your USB devices.
Features
The Drevo Excallibar has quite a few features that are worth noting, it offers everything you could want from a standard keyboard just in a scaled-down version. Here is a breakdown of those key features:
- Looks good – professional looking.
- Customizable color schemes.
- Floating keys.
- USB cable.
- Cherry MX switches come included – can be silent too.
- Deep keyboard – with a low point of actuation.
- Easily changeable keycaps – Problematic graphics.
Final thoughts
The Drevo Excallibar does a lot of things well. It offers a nice variety of colors and shades, so you can make the keyboard feel like your own. The most prominent downsides to this keyboard are the depth of the keys and the graphical keys.
The keys are floating, yes, but their actuation point is still very low. This can be uncomfortable for someone to use, or even downright painful if they already have wrist and finger problems.
The graphical patterns on the keys, such as the escape key, are off-putting quite honestly. They look too large and too in your face. Especially with a lighter colored set of caps.
If you’d like to learn more or read more reviews, check it out on Amazon.
Leopold FC660C
This keyboard is a very solid, reliable, choice of keyboard. It looks pretty plain, coming in a dark matte black/grey, but this keyboard isn’t all about looks. It can be customized with your different keycaps if you want but looks perfectly fine as standard.
This keyboard is very comfortable to use, and pretty silent too. It comes with Topre switches, which if you don’t know are a sort of rubber switch that is more tactile and easier to type with. This alone is enough to give this keyboard your consideration.
Features
The Leopold comes with some pretty great features, it is certainly one of the best 75 percent keyboards available to you. It is a little on the steeper end price-wise, but you are undoubtedly getting what you paid for. Here is a breakdown of all the Leopold’s best features:
- Topre switches.
- Relatively quiet typing.
- Ergonomic key shapes and switches.
- Very small keyboard.
- Strong, durable, yet still subtle looking.
- Plate mounted switches.
- Non-standard sized keys.
- Squeaky when not maintained.
Final thoughts
The Leopold is a pretty great keyboard. It does everything reasonably well, it is especially good if you travel a lot for work and need a keyboard that you can bring with you.
However, this petite keyboard has one glaring drawback. Its keys are not the standard size. They are ever so slightly smaller, which is not a big problem for some people. But for others, it can be a nightmare. Learning to type on smaller keys can take a while, but if you can overcome that you are getting a spectacular keyboard.
If you’d like to learn more or read more reviews, check it out on Amazon.
Vortexgear race 3
The Vortexgear race 3 is not a professional keyboard. The name alone should indicate that to you. It looks a little childish, to tell you the truth. As standard it comes with a grey set of keys and a grey frame, but a few multi-colored keys spread around the borders.
I like it, but it isn’t for everyone. This keyboard is very small and light, with a sleek aluminum frame. It’s pretty resilient too, it won’t shatter when you drop it that’s for sure.
This keyboard is especially interesting because it comes with layout options. You can stick with QWERTY, or you can swap to COLEMAK or DVORAK.
Features
The Vortexgear race 3 is a pretty cool keyboard. If you had to put a name on its look I would have to say it has a late 90’s early 2000’s Windows aesthetic. Here are the Vortexgears features:
- Swappable key layouts.
- Cool design.
- Lightweight frame.
- Sturdy.
- PBT keys that don’t pick up grease from your fingers.
- Low price.
- Cherry MX brown switches (very loud).
Final thoughts
The Vortex is a pretty good keyboard. Its style is a bit hit or miss with many people, I think it looks great though. Especially the contrast in colors as it comes as standard.
The different plastic keys are slightly weird to the touch, but the benefit of not holding your sweat on the key is amazing. You don’t realize how much you need this feature until you make the change.
The biggest gripe I have with this keyboard is the Cherry-MX Browns, they are easily one of the loudest Cherry switches. It’s easy enough to change them, of course, but it is still going to cost you for the new switches.
If you’d like to learn more or read more reviews, check it out on Amazon.
Key cool 84
The key cool 84 is let down by its name. If you have to call yourself cool, you generally aren’t that cool. This keyboard is the exception that proves the rule. The key cool 84 is not a cheap keyboard by any means, but again you get what you pay for.
The keys come with a huge variety of designs, both color and extra details on the key. The white keys can be detailed with extra functions on the side of the slope, the forward-facing one of course. This gives clear customizability that is easy for anyone to see.
This keyboard comes with Cherry switches, which are always welcomed, and are again made of PBT plastic which is grease/sweat resistant.
Features
The key cool 84 does indeed come with some pretty cool features. It isn’t a cheap keyboard by any means, but out of all of these it is probably the most overpriced in my opinion. Not by much, but it is. Here are the features it has, so you can decide for yourself if it is worth the cost.
- Cool design.
- PBT keys.
- Cherry MX red or blue keys.
- Tactile feel.
- Good feedback.
- Comfortable point of actuation. Quite high.
- Extra details on keycaps.
- Expensive.
Final thoughts
This keyboard is cool, it might not be modest but they are pretty bang on with the name. This keyboard, like some of the others on this list, uses Cherry MX browns. Which are loud. This is quite disappointing for the price, but you can always swap the switches out. The other issue is the price itself. If you don’t mind paying a decent price, more power to you.
If you’d like to learn more or read more reviews, check it out on Amazon.
Noppoo Choco Mini
This keyboard is a little different. It’s a little, well, little. The choco mini is a cool keyboard, it is perfect for traveling with work and even for gaming. Its got a nice feel to it, its got Cherry MX switches so you are getting good feedback.
The keycaps are slightly raised but aren’t quite floating. They can come in either a chocolate color scheme, grey and blue, or black. There is also a nice backlight, which is part of the reason this keyboard is so good for gaming.
As a 75 percent keyboard, it isn’t that much smaller than others of the same dimensions. Compared to a standard keyboard though, it is downright tiny.
Features
The Noppoo Choco Mini is not quite as feature dense as the other keyboards on this list. That’s the trade-off for having such a small and compact keyboard. Here are the features that the Noppoo Choco Mini does have.
- Cherry MX switches.
- Cool color schemes.
- Very, very, small.
- Good backlight.
- Compact and ideal for travel.
- Good for gaming or programming.
- Quite affordable.
Final thoughts
This keyboard is pretty nice. It is an all-around good keyboard, as a 75 percent keyboard it is about exactly what you want. It doesn’t particularly excel anywhere rather it does everything quite well.
It doesn’t have a very good USB cable, many reviews complain that it gets frayed when it gets knocked around a lot. Which is common when you travel. But that’s no reason to not get this keyboard, just something you should be aware of.
If you’d like to learn more or read more reviews, check it out on Amazon.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article helped you decide whether or not 75 percent keyboards are right for you. If they are, any of these choices would make a great addition to your keyboard arsenal. My suggestion would be either the Choco, or the Leopold. Which one you do buy is up to you, of course. Good luck finding the right keyboard for you and happy typing!
If you want to see more of my product reviews, check out my Guides and Reviews category!
