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A good keyboard can make all the difference for your work setup. If you primarily work on a laptop, switching from the built-in keyboard to a wired or wireless keyboard can be more comfortable and ergonomic while adding functionality like extra keys and shortcuts into the mix. If your daily driver is a desktop, a keyboard will be an essential accessory that can elevate your rig whether you're using it to work a 9-to-5 with it or play AAA games in your free time.But the world of keyboards is vast, and we at Engadget have tried out dozens over the years including gaming keyboards, ergonomic keyboards, mechanical keyboards and more. If you're just starting to think about the best keyboard for you, or you're ready to upgrade from an aging peripheral, we gathered all of our top picks for the best keyboards you can get right here. Best keyboards for 2025 What to look for in a keyboard Design Size The first thing youll want to consider when it comes to your next keyboards design is size. There are a number of different keyboard layouts to choose from, but the most common are full-sized, tenkeyless and those smaller than tenkeyless. Full-sized keyboards, or 100 percent, include a function row at the top and a complete number pad with arrow keys on the right side, along with all of the rest of the alphanumeric keys youd expect. Tenkeyless, or 80 percent, removes the number pad but keeps the arrow keys and the function row, reducing the overall width measurement of the board by a decent amount. Compact designs keep things ultra simple by including only the alphanumeric keys and modifiers like Alt, Shift, Ctrl and others and they come in different sizes like 60 percent, 65 percent and more. These are the most popular sizes out there, but you can find plenty of other designs that include different mixes of keys along with the standard letters and numbers all should have. Aside from size, there are two other big categories that you could use to define a keyboard: ergonomic and mechanical. Ergonomic keyboards are designed with, you guessed it, better ergonomics in mind, taking into account where you should position your fingers, hands and forearms to maintain proper posture. Separately, mechanical keyboards use mechanical switches (of which there are many types) that differ greatly from the membrane or scissor-switch keyboards youll find dominating most wired and wireless options widely available today. We have guides to the best ergonomic keyboards and best mechanical keyboards, but well summarize what you need to know about both here. Ergonomic keyboards If you deal with discomfort from working at a computer all day, ergonomic keyboards can help. These specially designed boards re-orient the keys, allowing you to hold your elbows farther apart and maintain a straighter line from your forearms to hands. Some people find this subtle change more comfortable. Ergonomic keyboards typically fall into two categories: Alice and split. The former is a single unit with an A-shaped gap in the center of the keys. Split models come in two separate pieces which you can arrange as you like on your desk. Additional ergonomic features like tenting and negative tilt can make typing feel even more comfortable, and are often available on both Alice and split boards. Tenting raises the middle of the keys up so your hands take on more of a handshake position. Negative tilting lowers the top of the keyboard to keep your wrists angled downward instead of back towards your forearms. The way the keys are arranged on the keyboard may make typing easier as well. Traditionally, keyboards are staggered, with one row of letters slightly offset from the row beneath it. Columnar keyboards arrange the keys in a grid of rows and columns. This style takes a little getting used to, but some people find it allows them to type faster. You can also make the keys of some keyboards do more than just produce letters. Programmable boards let you map shortcuts and other functions, which may keep you from reaching for the mouse quite so often, saving you time and possibly strain as well. Mechanical keyboards Mechanical keyboards have blown up in popularity as more people have been thrust into creating their own workspaces at home. Its easy to see why: Compared to a traditional membrane keyboard, a good mechanical board is more durable, more satisfying to press and, most importantly, infinitely more customizable. The best of them usually come with a price premium, but even some cheaper models let you hot-swap between keycaps, switches and other materials, letting you tinker with different typing sensations and sound profiles until you find a combination that best expresses your preferences. Do you want each press to feel deep and full or fast and light? Do you need them to sound loud and clacky or almost totally muffled? Do you prefer your keycaps to look subdued and professional, stuffed with RGB lights or written in an Elvish language from The Lord of the Rings for some reason? With the right mechanical keyboard, its all up to you the only things really holding you back are your imagination and your wallet. We have a dedicated buying guide that digs deeper into the key aspects to consider when buying a mechanical keyboard, so we encourage you to look at that for a full rundown. To keep things high-level, the most influential part of your purchase is your keyboards switch type. These little mechanisms slot underneath the keycaps and generally have the biggest effect on how your keyboard feels and sounds as you type away. You can broadly separate mechanical switches into three buckets: linear, tactile and clicky. Linear switches feel smooth all the way down; theyre often popular with gamers since they tend to be light and fast to actuate. Tactile switches create a tangible bump sensation partway through a press; many people who spend all day typing prefer them because they clearly confirm each press without (always) being all that loud. Clicky switches are functionally similar to tactiles but make an audible click sound to match the bump; your coworkers may hate them, but others love the full-throated sense of feedback they provide. To be clear, just because two switches fall within the same bucket doesnt mean they feel or sound exactly the same. The only way to figure out which switch works best for you is to do your research and, preferably, try some out for yourself. Other keyboards have a mechanical-style feel but are built on different mechanisms entirely. The hot new trend in gaming-focused keyboards, for example, is Hall effect switches, which use tiny magnets to register keystrokes and let you customize the sensitivity of each press. Optical switches, meanwhile, offer similar functionality by replacing the physical contact point of a typical mechanical switch with a beam of infrared light. More recently, weve seen a couple keyboards launch with inductive switches, which can work like magnetic switches but use inductive coils in the keyboards printed circuit board (PCB) to cater to all switches collectively and dont require a sensor for each individual switch. We touch on a couple of magnetic-switch keyboards in our picks below, but for a fuller breakdown of this sort of tech, we recommend you check out our dedicated buying guide to the best gaming keyboards. Connectivity Youve got two options here: wired or wireless. Wired keyboards typically have an attached cable that plugs into a USB-A or USB-C port on your computer (or docking station), although some come with cables that can be removed. Wireless keyboards connect to your machine either via Bluetooth or a wireless receiver dongle. Theres always the chance of some latency with wireless keyboards, so keep that in mind if youre picking one up to use primarily with a gaming PC. Of course, youll only have to worry about battery life with wireless keyboards.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-keyboard-120000018.html?src=rss
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Spoilers follow for The Last of Us season two, episodes one and two HBOs The Last of Us showed viewers in season one that it would lean heavily on the source video games for major plot points and general direction of the season while expanding on the universe, and season two has followed that to the most extreme end possible. Episode two sees Tommy and Maria lead the town of Jackson Hole against a massive wave of Infected, the likes of which we havent seen in the show (or video games) yet. This was a complete invention for the show, one that gives the episode Game of Thrones vibes, or calls to mind a battle like the siege of Helms Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Its epic in scale, with the overmatched defenders showing their skill and bravery against overwhelming odds; there is loss and pain but the good guys eventually triumph. That mass-scale battle is paired with the most intimate and brutal violence weve seen in the entire series so far, as Joels actions finally catch up with him. His death at the hands of Abby and her crew of ex-Fireflies from Seattle is truly upsetting, even if you know it is coming and that in the twisted world that Joel and Abby inhabit, it was a form of justice. Of course, it was pretty obvious after the first five minutes of episode one that this is where Abbys journey would take her, but it sure happened fast. You could say the same thing about when Joel dies in the video game, but ever since the HBO series was announced Ive been wondering about just how Craig Mazin would choose to tackle the events of the second game and Joels death. Part of me wondered if we wouldnt know for sure Joel was dead until near the end of the season, or if we might not find out Abbys motivations until much later. But after two episodes, we know that Abbys dad was the doctor Joel killed at the end of season one to save Ellie, a fact that makes her disturbing lust for vengeance more understandable to the television audience. In the game, on the other hand, players didnt find that out until much later a move that cast Abby in the role of "villain" that made Ellies own desire for revenge more relatable for the player Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO But what works in a game doesn't necessarily work in a more passive adaptation. I do think there was a way for the writers to save the full reveal for Abbys motivations for later, but I didnt really bump on how things played out here. Similarly, I wasnt really bothered by the introduction to Abbys crew and her desire to find Joel that happened at the beginning of the season premiere. But I do know a number of people who played the game feel like this has robbed the show of some mystery and changed the momentum in a way that didnt work for them, and I can appreciate that argument. For anyone who hasnt played the games, though, Im sure that seeing the co-lead character killed off in the second episode of the season was a bit of a shock, no matter how much it was hinted at particularly after Joel went out of his way to save Abby from certain death. In another world, you could imagine that blunting her need for revenge, or at least having her forgo the extended torture of a helpless Joel. But shes clearly captivated by the opportunity in a way that even her friends are a bit horrified by. Ellie being there to find Dina unconscious and then forced to watch Abby deliver the final blow is the cherry on the disaster sundae that is this episode. Its even harder to swallow when you consider their last interaction was Ellies extreme rebuff of Joel at the dance the night before. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO Its truly a wild choice for such a high-profile show, even though there was nowhere else for it to go. Pedro Pascal has been everywhere the last few years, and The Last of Us could have been his signature role. Joels death doesnt fully diminish that, but obviously even if we see him in flashbacks in this season and the next, it wont be the same as him leading an episode. To let such a marketable and popular star go must have been a tough pill for HBO to swallow, though chances are that the network knew from the beginning of negotiations that would have to happen. Regardless, its a move up there with the death of Sean Beans Ned Stark in terms of subverting audience expectations about who is going to lead the show going forward. Thatll fall to Bella Ramsey for the rest of the season. I will say that Mazin and director Mark Mylod did a great job of balancing the many stories and cast members in this episode. Kaitlyn Dever gets her first extended amount of screen time and captures Abbys barely-contained ferocity in a way that feels like a great tribute to the game source material, despite the fact that she is not nearly as physically ripped as Abby is in the game. Her scenes with Joel and Dina are absolutely chilling, even before she has Joel on the ropes; big credit to Pascal and Isabela Merced, again, for showing a major range of emotions as they help Abby escape from the Infected only to be betrayed. Kaitlyn Dever in HBO's The Last of UsPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO Ramsey, meanwhile, shares a lot of time with Young Mazinos Jesse as they go on patrol and frantically search for Joel; back in Jackson, Gabriella Luna and Rutina Wesley as Tommy and Maria keep Jackson from falling to the Infected. Its a lot of threads to tie together, and the fact that this episode includes the biggest battle weve ever seen as well as Joels capture and death without feeling overstuffed is a testament to the writers, directors and cast. Speaking of that Infected battle, I wasnt fully sold on it when I saw teases in the trailers for this season, but it was a thrilling delight. I loved seeing the preparations Jackson put into place, like the oil barrels coming down from the walls and the flamethrower brigade surrounded by snipers up on the buildings. Of course, all the best-planned defenses fail once the Infected get through the wall and all hell breaks loose, and the show successfully had me questioning whether the town would make it even though the idea of it fully falling seemed like a deviation too far from the game. It definitely fel like a response to the criticisms of a relative lack of Infected action in season one, but it worked, and the juxtaposition of the disaster befalling Jackson at large as well as the smaller-scale loss of one of its most important citizens added another layer to the grief. Infected Score: 11/10 The showrunners say season two will have more Infected than season one lets see if theyre sticking to their word. Tommy taking down a Bloater with a flamethrower in front of a Mailboxes Etc. store? Barrels of oil lighting a field of Infected on fire? The extremely creepy reveal of the live Infected buried and laying in wait under a field of frozen ones that emerged and chased Abby right into the path of Joel? Jacksons guard dogs coming to the rescue to keep the horde from overtaking the town? This was the most epic action weve seen out of the show yet, on a scale that we didnt get in the games. Itll be hard to top this battle.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-through-the-valley-recap-well-that-happened-020017596.html?src=rss
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Star Wars Celebration is heading back to Los Angeles for the first time since 2006 to mark the franchises 50th anniversary in 2027. Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, then simply called Star Wars, first hit theaters in 1977 and the rest is history. The location was announced during the closing ceremony of this years event, which took place in Japan. Star Wars Celebration 2027 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from April 1 to April 4, 2027. This years Star Wars Celebration brought a ton of announcements and previews into upcoming developments for the franchise. We finally got a real look at Star Wars Zero Company, a single-player turn-based tactics game expected to be released in 2026. ILM also revealed a bit more about its Meta Quest mixed-reality experience (which its calling a playset), Star Wars: Beyond Victory, and it was confirmed that Ryan Gosling will star in a film called Star Wars: Starfighter, per The Hollywood Reporter. And of course, there will be a Fortnite collaboration. With the Galactic Battle season beginning May 2, Darth Jar Jar is coming to Fortnite. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-next-star-wars-celebration-will-be-held-in-la-in-2027-for-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-first-film-194628408.html?src=rss
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