Ben 03/10/2018
A brief summary: I liked this so much I bought two, one for home and one for work
Having spent far too much money over the years on a good spread of different keyboards, I've found what does and doesn't suit me.
I always preferred Cherry MX Green switches and have 2 or 3 keyboards with them, a 40%, 60% and full-sized. I've also got boards with blues and a couple of older ALPS-based ones too.
As soon as I unboxed this, I fell in love with it, the keycaps are good quality and the RGB option isn't over the top, it adds a nice glow to the keyboard and the white backlit keys make it look quite presentable even in an office.
Of course, the Cherry MX Clear option is the most expensive but I'd argue they're also the best switches I've used out of all the keyboards I've had access to. I much prefer them to Greens which were previously my favorite.
The build quality of the Polestar is better than it would look at first glance, the acrylic doesn't cheapen it like you might fear. It feels solid and stays put on the desk thanks to grippy feet without being too heavy.
Now, of course, a lot of keyboards have a choice of switches and you may be looking at this board for more than just the switches, the programmability is a big aspect too. It ships with TMK firmware, but it is also now supported by the QMK firmware project which is an evolution with a lot more features. Flashing the new firmware is far easier than you might fear, and you can have up to 32 custom layouts with various settings. For example, I can move keys around based on whether I'm on WindowsLinux or Mac, whilst not affecting any of my other layer settings. The added media keys and mouse keys (using keys to move the mouse cursor) are incredibly useful too.
Whilst this isn't the cheapest keyboard around, it's very much worth the cost and The Keyboard Company shipped it quickly and I had no problems with it whatsoever. I've actually ordered a second as I liked it that much.