Are you still hunting for that perfect gift for the hardware and technology fan in your life? Or maybe you are looking for recommendations to give to your friends and family about what to buy for YOU? Or maybe you just want something new and cool to play with over the break? Welcome to PC Perspective's 10 Days of Christmas where we will suggest a new item each day for you to consider. Enjoy!

Mechanical keyboards are popular these days, and complex enough to be confusing (just me?). Thankfully, our own Scott Michaud recently broke down the different keyswitches involved with the various keyboards, which should help with the difficult buying decision. Another thing that helps with difficult buying decisions? Letting us tell you what to buy! So for today's "10 days" pick, we're going with one of these mechanical keyboards.

The SteelSeries 6Gv2 is a classic-looking keyboard (minus the beige color scheme of the 80's) that offers fast response and true mechanical switches, and is built to last with gold-plated switches and some of the heaviest construction I've seen. Best of all, it's consistently available for less than $100, which puts it on the more affordable side of these often pricey keyboards. So what kind of switches are in use here, exactly?

Cherry MX Black

The MX Black switch in action – notice how it actuates almost immediately (left)

The 6Gv2 uses a linear-mechanical switch (again, see Scott's article to know what the heck this all means) so it responds very quickly and allows for rapid presses of the same button. It does not offer the same feel of some of the other switches and isn't really designed for typing, though preferences differ widely here. Regardless, this keyboard is built like a tank, and even if you don't end up liking it as a keyboard it would make a serviceable (and compact) replacement to the classic baseball bat home-defense system.

If you are having trouble picking out a gift for a loved one, consider buying an Amazon.com gift card! Amazon has basically every product on the planet for your gift recipient to order and purchasing gift cards through these links directly sponsors and supports PC Perspective! And hey, if you were to buy gift cards for yourself to do your own Amazon-based Christmas shopping…that wouldn't exactly be a bad thing for us either! 😉

 

Did you miss any of our other PCPer 10 Days of Christmas posts?