****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I ordered the grey and black key caps. The color scheme is very nice. The keycaps are a little shiny and I wished they had a more matte look to them. The lettering is crisp but they are a little hard to read on the black keys. The keycaps are uniform and are un-sculpted GSA keycaps, which gives the keyboard as a whole a very nice low profile. It's a different look from the run of the mill keycaps that come with other keyboards. It also came with some keycap variants for the abbreviated keycaps like a "Control" keycap that can be used to replace "CTRL". The keycaps also don't have any of the function options printed on them which makes it look cleaner and minimalistic, but you may need to rely on the manual to figure out what key combinations do what.There are LEDs on this keyboard, but honestly the grey and black keycaps probably look amazing with the LEDs off. But it's great to have that option in case you switch keycaps.Typing on the keyboard is nice. The brown Gaterons feel good with their little tackle bump. The keyboard sound is okay. It sounds a little hollow which causes a little echo when you type. The spacebar has a slight ting sound to it. All this can probably be modded if it bothers you.It's definitely a solid keyboard that I would recommend especially looking for a wired compact keyboard.NOTE: product received for free through the Vine programI'm a keyboard nut, and this is the 7th mechanical keyboard that I've ordered from Amazon. It's quickly become one of my favorites. For the price I think it's a decent option, though there are also some other great options available on Amazon at this price point (check out the ANNE PRO 2 as one example). That said, I've enjoyed using it so much that it's become my go-to "throw-in-the-bag" keyboard for work - a position it took from some more expensive boards! If you're looking for a decent starting point into the mechanical keyboard space, check this board out!THE GOOD:- The build quality of this board is solid. It's lighter than some of my other boards but doesn't feel cheap. The included keycaps are actually quite nice - the walls are quite thick and the caps feel solid, which can sometimes be an issue with keyboards from random manufacturers. I'm not a huge fan of the keycap theme, but that's more personal taste than an issue with the keycaps themselves. The printing on the spacebar of the "panda" theme looks nice and is well-done, though.- The RGB lighting works as expected, and there are a few different built-in lighting options as well as the ability to create custom profiles if you download the manufacturer's software. I'm not going to download the software so I didn't test the ability to create custom profiles.- This has more to do with the switches than the board itself, but the Gateron Optical switches are AWESOME! This is the first board I've tired with optical switches, and I love Gateron's implementation of the brown version of the switch. The switch makes for an awesome typing experience, especially with the nice keycaps.THE MEH:- Not a big deal for me as I don't care much about the RGB lighting, but the included keycaps aren't meat to be used with a RGB-lit board - at least not if you're wanting to see the RGB lighting through the keycap. The RGB effect is still visible, but the legends on the keycaps aren't lit, and the effect is relatively "mild" compared to some other boards. If you're wanting to get the most out of the RGB effect, you're probably going to want to get some different keycaps specifically meant for RGB-lit boards.- I didn't have any issues connecting this board to my PC, though interestingly I did have a weird issue on my MacBook. For whatever reason I had to use a USB C-to-USB A cable and then use a USB A-to-USB C adapter to actually get macOS to detect the keyboard. I've never had this issue before, and switching my USB C cable didn't make a difference. Something to be aware of as a potential issue if you're planning to use this board on a Mac.- I knew what I was getting into with a 60% board, but this board layout is missing a few important keys - notably, arrow keys! - that can make it a bit of a hassle to use. Yes, you can use the function key to replicate some of these functions, but holding the function key down to use the arrows is a bit annoying and an unnatural motion. Just make sure that you can do without some of the keys before you go with a smaller format board.THE BAD:Nothing!There are so many options on Amazon for small form-factor mechanical keyboards and quite a bit of variability in pricing. In general, I'm skeptical of boards that are <$50, and once you cross the $100-150 mark, you're starting to get into more premium territory. At this price point, I think this is an awesome entry point to the portable mechanical keyboard space: it's not the cheapest board that you can buy, but you won't be disappointed in the quality, either. The board is perfectly usable out-of-the-box - something that isn't always the case. Swap out the keycaps for the design aesthetic of your choice for another $20-30 and you're ready to go. As long as you can get past the small form-factor, this is an awesome board! Definitely recommended - especially if it's your first foray into mechanical keyboards.
