The scissor mechanism, in plain terms
Under each key of an MX Keys sits a small X-shaped plastic part — the scissor hinge. It translates your press (vertical, a few millimeters) into a guided, stable motion. Without it, the key would sink crookedly, drift out of alignment, and the keyboard would become unusable within weeks.
The scissor mechanism is not a recent invention. Apple popularized it on MacBooks from 2003 onwards, and the industry adopted it broadly in the 2010s because it allows thin keyboards (1-2 mm key travel) while keeping a relatively stable feel. It is the opposite of rubber-dome-only (cheap, mushy) and mechanical switches (thick, loud).
The MX Keys scissor is made from a technical plastic — probably POM (polyoxymethylene) or reinforced PBT. It is hard, abrasion-resistant, low-creep. On paper it should last the keyboard's lifetime. In practice, it breaks.
The precise failure mode
When an MX Keys scissor hinge breaks, it is almost always at the same spot: the junction between one of the four X arms and the central axis. This is a stress concentration point — every keypress flexes this exact location, and after several million cycles, the plastic splits.
A keyboard key sees on average 2 to 5 million strokes over its lifetime for a heavy user. Modifiers (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) see less: 1 to 2 million. The spacebar takes the most: 8 to 12 million cycles. Manufacturers typically claim 20 million cycles — but they measure it in a lab, on a robot pressing the center of the key, at constant force, with no dust.
Reality: you press with greasy fingers, at varying angles, sometimes laterally (when you mis-hit a neighboring key). The plastic fatigues, micro-cracks appear at the junction, and one day it gives. Statistically, this happens between year 3 and year 5 for a professional user who types 4-6 hours a day.
Why Logitech doesn't sell the part
Here is the troubling part: the scissor hinge costs cents to produce. Logitech molds tens of millions per year. And yet, you cannot order a single one from their official site. Logitech will redirect you to their RMA — which, in 90% of cases, will offer to replace the whole keyboard, either out of warranty (€130) or under warranty if you are still within two years.
The economic calculation is clear for Logitech: maintaining a spare parts catalog costs more than selling new keyboards. A support infrastructure, stocks per reference and color, a consumer-facing order system — that runs into millions of dollars per year. At Logitech's scale, with multi-billion revenues, it is a rational decision.
But for you, owner of a €130 MX Keys broken because of a €0.50 part, it is absurd. This is exactly the scenario the EU Right to Repair directive, adopted in March 2024, aims to fix. Keyboards are not (yet) in the mandatory scope, but the market is moving: independent European resellers like us fill the gap.
What it tells us about the industry
The MX Keys scissor hinge is a textbook case of obsolescence that is not quite planned, but clearly not corrected either. Logitech knows the part breaks at year 4. They did not design it to fail — but they did nothing to make it truly durable, and most importantly they did nothing to allow individual replacement.
It is the same pattern we see on smartphone batteries, printer cartridges, and the 2016 MacBook Butterfly keyboards. A critical fragile part, non-replaceable officially, that turns an expensive product into electronic waste the moment it gives. The difference with MX Keys: the part is actually accessible and replaceable — it just needed someone willing to sell it.
That's what we do. Not out of activism, out of pragmatism: there is demand, the technical solution is simple, and the direct ecological benefit (one keyboard saved = around 3 kg CO₂ avoided) is measurable. At European scale, if only 10% of broken MX Keys were repaired instead of trashed, that would mean dozens of tonnes less e-waste per year.