What kind of switches do non-mechanical keyboards have?

Question

We see a lot of advertising for mechanical keyboards which have mechanical switches and recently some rumors for future optical switches. However, I did not find what kind of switches do regular 20$ keyboard have. Aren't they also mechanical switches ?

Answer 1

Mechanical keyboards are generally called mechanical, due to the switch having some sort of plastic or metal part in it which changes the feel, and contact method. This, for example is a Cherry MX Red switch; it has a plastic red part, which compresses on a spring, and a metal part forms a contact which registers the keypress

On the other hand, the average $20 keyboard has a membrane switch; instead of having a metal part which makes a contact, there is a silicon dome inside, which is compressed onto a circuit board to make the contact. There are high quality ones for up to $20 or more, while cheaper ones, less than $10 tend to be spongy, mainly if they've been worn, or badly manufactured.

Answer 2

Not all non mechanical keyboards are made the same. There's actually two 'common' construction methods in use on non mechanical keyboard, membrane keys and scissor lift keys.

Membrane keys in theory are 3 layers - a silicon sheet with contacts, which closes a connection, a insulating layer, and a contact layer. The contact layer can be printed on a flexible substrate (which is the case on most modern keyboards). In theory you can have rubber dome keyboards with a rigid contact plate, but it wouldn't quite be a membrane keyboard any more.

A desktop keyboard likely relies on a hole and peg to keep the keys in place. A laptop or small form factor keyboard would possibly use a scissor lift arrangement

While this is a rubber dome keyboard too, the feel of it is very different.