More than a tool, a tactile design object.
What a mechanical keyboard is, and why people care.
A mechanical keyboard uses an individual spring loaded switch beneath every key, rather than a single flexible membrane or rubber dome shared across the whole board.
Each press closes its own electrical contact, which is why mechanical keyboards feel consistent across every key, last for tens of millions of keystrokes, and can report many simultaneous presses, properties that matter to typists, programmers, and gamers who depend on accuracy.
The Das Keyboard blog describes the result simply: a keyboard you can feel. The tactile feedback, the audible response, and the ability to swap keycaps and switches turn a commodity input device into something personal.