Key switch -> WPM: What's your fastest switch?

[LambdaCore]

As you read in the topic, what switch is your fastest? Note that this isn't necessarily your FAVORITE, just the one you're the FASTEST with!

Mine for the record:

SKCM White Alps: 100 WPM

SKCM Salmon Alps: 110 WPM

Capacitive Buckling Springs: 105 WPM

SMK 2nd Gen: 90 WPM

Topre 55g domes: 120 WPM (personal best)

Membrane Buckling Springs: 95 WPM

Does not include every switch I've used, but it's comprehensive enough to get us started!

[digital_matthew]

Gateron Blues. Never timed myself but I know that's my fastest switch.

[LambdaCore]

I think that actually brings up a decent point due to how notorious Gateron Blues are: at what point is comfort worth losing out on your WPM?

[Muirium]

I type pretty damn fast on next to no travel chiclet keyboards like my MacBook Air, but I also make more mistakes. Do I like it? No. Am I faster? Maybe? The bit I dislike the most is correcting them! That alone makes my HHKB feel so much quicker.

There are a lot of variables at play.

[LambdaCore]

I type pretty damn fast on next to no travel chiclet keyboards like my MacBook Air, but I also make more mistakes. Do I like it? No. Am I faster? Maybe? The bit I dislike the most is correcting them! That alone makes my HHKB feel so much quicker.

There are a lot of variables at play.

A fair assessment! I forgot to mention that all of my tests I went for 100% accuracy! :P

Also, comfort vs WPM is partially the point! I'm curious at what point, in your opinion, is the limit between fast typing and comfortable typing.

[Muirium]

That is indeed the question. Short throw switches feel faster but also feel more error prone, in my personal but plentiful experience on both. Are they effectively faster? Hard to tell. (I loathe WPM tests typing nonsense.) But they sure don't feel as good at keeping flow for me.

There's nothing quite like fixing glaring typos to throw you off your flow. I can even feel them happening as I type on chiclets.

The result: I feel no slower on Model F or Topre, and can stay in my stride much better without all those egregious mistakes. But whenever I do type on the laptop directly, it feels like it has the edge in pure characters per second; so long as no one's paying attention which ones precisely.

[Yasu0]

My fastest boards are the microsoft ergonomics.

I caught a beat down from my eleven year old nephew on chiclets this past thanksgiving. He did 130 on a chrome book! The test app he uses is lenient on typos. But yea real world 50wpm no errors is what is really gettin things done. Racing is fun, 100+ with a bunch of typos is pretty useless other than racing.

[mmm]

For me I think it comes more down to keycap profile than the switch itself, though the difference is marginal. Linear SI and model F is definitely among some of the faster ones though.

[paperWasp]

WPM tests are more like about your overall typing skills and only partially about the keyboard used.

There are words you "know by your fingers"* - words you use extremely frequently and simply type them with "one hit" without thinking. That's where switches can be really limiting. (I can see that when switching from MX Browns to rubber dome ergonomic Perrix - which is really nice to type on but not so fast.)

* For a programmer this could be the word public. (Well you should know private, protected, internal etc. as well.)
Now you type a complain about the mess in your hotel room bathroom and only after sending it you realise you've found public hair in the shower.

[hellothere]

I'm currently typing on an old-logo Dell with salmon Alps. I've not used this keyboard for very long. I'm basically just making sure that the keyboard works properly before I sell it. That being said, my WPM is 32, with 99% accuracy. I took a test twice and averaged.

I don't touch type. I need to look at the keys. So, if I'm supposed to be copying the words on a screen, I have to remember them. My memory buffer is not as large as it used to be. I also automagically put a double space at the end of a sentence. That makes my accuracy go down a lot.

Of course, this also means that if I have a lengthy post, you should read it because I put so much time into it .

[digital_matthew]

I think that actually brings up a decent point due to how notorious Gateron Blues are: at what point is comfort worth losing out on your WPM?

I'm not a typist, nor do I code for a living. Feel, sound, and overall looks of a keyboard are more important than typing speed for me. Therefore I have the luxury of using beam springs, buckling springs, white Alps (which are fast for me too), and Topre (which are terribly slow for me, but I love them nonetheless.)

[Bjerrk]

For me I think it comes more down to keycap profile than the switch itself, though the difference is marginal. Linear SI and model F is definitely among some of the faster ones though.

Good point re: key profile.

I also find that there is a big difference between ... Let's call it transient WPM and sustainable WPM

E.g. with the relatively stiff switches of the Model M, I find that I can type reasonably fast for a little while, but it soon becomes a bit tiring and the speed drops. So, big difference between transient and sustainable WPM for the Model M.
With the lighter Model F (and especially the super-light Ellipse repro) I find that I can sustain my typing speed pretty well (so sustainable WPM close to transient WPM)

[Muirium]

Topre (which are terribly slow for me, but I love them nonetheless.)

YMMV. If Topre was slow to type on, I'd be in big, big trouble! I type for hours on end, and most of it on HHKB, at tippy-top speed. (At least for me. I find I can type as fast as I can think; maybe sometimes a little faster… ) There's an enormous amount of personal preference in all this.

Re: key profile, I have a theory, which could also extend to layouts. You're fastest at what you know best. Change things, and you may well slow down to accommodate to the difference. Switching from my regular HHKB 60% to the Kishsaver 60% slows me just a little, with the different Fn key placement to occasionally forget! Something more profound, like ISO and irregular layouts like my Monterey K110 throw more spanners in my flow. You're good at what you're already good at. Change comes at a price, albeit slight.

The best possible way to slow typing—better even than being blind drunk!—is learning a new layout like Colemak or Dvorak when all you've really mastered is old Qwerty. That learning experience is slow and hard! I've never made it out the other side, despite a couple times trying. Just hurts too much; utterly regardless of subtleties like keyswitch.

[Tribal]

There should also be an “adjusted WPM” consideration. I used typeracer and was horrified to realize that my software (Office, Firefox, etc) had been correcting most of my little typos for me automatically and that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was.

I think Capacative Buckling Springs are my fastest, but it would share the title with my Logitech K800 with PerfectStroke scissor switches. Cherry Ergo Clears and Matias Click score well, as do Membrane Buckling Springs.

I kind of swat the keys when I type (like a miniature version of flipping a light switch) when I type so cylindrical or flat keycaps, decent travel distance and tactility, and a high keyboard angle help me a lot.

I can’t seem to be any good at white Alps, and I’ve become a switch snob and recoil enough that it slows me down on regular rubber dome or recent Apple keyboards.

[jsheradin]

There's a lot of dependence on the typing test.

TyperA, English words, 1 Minute: "arbitrariness alerter linden ambulatory solicit conciliate aristocrat"
Monkeytype, Words, 100 count: "about life house back thing each will move order there consider"

Monkeytype is easier/faster since it seems to string together common word pairs that you can type from muscle memory. TyperA just has a random list of words, some I'm not sure are even English.

Here's some data:

Spoiler:

TyperA doesn't give accuracy unfortunately.

Capture.JPG (45.12 KiB) Viewed 2291 times

Picture1.png (34.42 KiB) Viewed 2291 times

Picture2.png (44.89 KiB) Viewed 2291 times

Picture3.png (48.35 KiB) Viewed 2291 times

There is a slight positive correlation between monkeytype WPM and accuracy which would suggest that I'm not typing faster at the expense of making more mistakes. It could be caused by a better board but it's probably just luck with the word generation. A proper study would need a much larger sample set, multiple typists, randomized board order, etc. There's a million variables that aren't accounted for here.