[morningsam]

>I grumpily ordered a replacement key for 15 euros.

A single key for 15€?! I remember ordering one from an online shop specialized in replacement laptop keys at some point in the 2010s and it was like 2€ total. Browsing through similar shops now, it seems like the minimum is 5€ per key nowadays, but still a far cry from 15€.

>After spending more than 100 euros on plastic keys, which would soon break again, I calculated that my keyboard had 90 keys and that replacing them all just once would cost me 1,350 euros.

Someone who breaks keys this often could just buy the whole keyboard assembly FRU for ~30-50€ and take spare keys out of that, assuming it's not always the same ones that break.

[mikepurvis]

Even if it is, most of the keys are interchangeable. Your fingers don’t care that the M key has an N on it.

[mbreese]

With my mechanical keyboard, I have had a tendency to break a few (specific) keys. I got around it by 3D printing a few blank keys.

So long as I know where the N and M keys are, that's all that matters :)

[idiotsecant]

How are you people breaking so many keys?!

[jessekv]

Maybe they learned to type on a mechanical typewriter...

[mbreese]

For me, you’re not far off… it was an electric typewriter. So, the force I applied wasn’t directly linked to the force of hitting the paper, but it was … ahem … robust. Between that, the IBM Model M clone we had on the PC, or the membrane keyboard in our Atari 400, my early muscle memory might be skewed.

Now though, we’re talking mainly laptop keyboards. My desk keyboard is a low profile keyboard with pretty thin keys (Keytron K2). If you hit them at the right angle, there’s not much plastic there to absorb the shock.

[marssaxman]

As a lifelong Dvorak user, for whom the keys I press have never produced the letters printed on them, it amuses me that the "M" key is one of only two exceptions (the other is "A").

[linsomniac]

I used to be a Thinkpad die-hard (including both IBM and Lenovo), and as you say the full replacement keyboard was like $30US. And after replacing the keyboard, which I seemed to need to do every 3-ish years, it felt like a new laptop! Plus, the replacement would only take ~5-15 minutes.

Unlike my daughter's friend's Dell, where basically everything had to come out of the laptop to get at the keyboard (battery, speakers, motherboard, etc), AND it was plastic-riveted down. I must have spent 2-4 hours replacing it, because I had to do it twice (for reasons I don't remember).

[drillsteps5]

I love Thinkpads and have a few, but this depends on a model.

Some Thinkpads, more specifically x2xx series (ie x250 - x290) require removing all internals to get to the keyboard to replace it (batteries, storage, wifi, motherboard, speakers, CMOS battery, and a few others). Dell Latitude E5470 on the other hand allows replacing its keyboard by pulling out a small plastic panel and removing one screw.