The best 60 percent keyboards you can buy

engadget.com:

Gaming keyboards are plentiful and diverse right now. You can buy them in black or white, wired or wireless, and with at least a dozen key switch options. And every year they’ve gotten bigger and more complex, with media buttons and macro keys and bright rainbow LED lighting. However, this past year has seen some manufacturers go in the opposite direction, introducing 60 percent keyboards that are cute and compact. But are they worth buying?

The best for most gamers: Razer Huntsman Mini

Runner up: HyperX Alloy Origins 60

The best with arrow keys: Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini HyperSpeed

A cheaper but underwhelming option: Corsair K65 RGB Mini

First off, it’s worth noting that gaming keyboards tend to follow one of three different configurations. The most common one is the full-size deck, which will usually have somewhere between 100 and 110 keys, depending on whether the manufacturer includes media buttons or macro keys. There’s always a function row located along the top of the keyboard, and a number pad on the far right. Most gamers will prefer a full-size model rather than a compact keyboard because it lets them perform many different functions with just one press, and set up macros for activities that aren’t already built-in to the keyboard.

Tenkeyless decks have been pretty common for a while now; those are keyboards that omit the number pad on the right. That’s it. They still have function keys and media controls, but they’re narrower since they omit 17 keys. Yeah, it’s actually more than 10 keys but “seventeenkeyless” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Gamers might opt for one of these when they need a little more space on their desk, and they don’t need a quick way to enter numbers or do calculations (which is my number one