Angelos 29/10/2020
I have had this keyboard for three weeks now, coming from a membrane keyboard I felt I needed to get a bit more comfortable with it before reviewing. This is my first mechanical keyboard and first keyboard with so many features.
Overall, I will give it 45, details below.
Pros:
- The build quality is quite good for this price. I certainly feel that the materials and overall quality of the product is worth the money.
- The Gateron brown switches are OK - not too noisy, linear response, not too hard. The package provides a tool for removing the keycaps and switches.
- There are many configuration options and in general you can modify everything. I find I am having much more fun than my normal keyboards with the whole physicality of typing, and I am having trouble going to my old keyboard home because it now feels a bit boring. Keep in mind that this one is designed to work with proper touch-typing technique. Like many people, I was cheating a lot with certain key combinations, and in this keyboard this is not really possible. The placement of the BackSpace and Enter keys needs some getting used to, and I still find my self pressing the middle enter by accident more often that I would have liked.
Cons:
- The keyboard driver works only on Windows and this includes some features I wouldn't mind having. In theory you can get it to work in Linux, but no GUI for the moment. It also feels like a work-in-progress; the GUI is quirky and there is little documentation to help. You will probably figure it out, but it may take some tome.
- The design approach seems a bit naive with some choices they have made. The bottom left corner is way to crowded, making some combinations like Control-z for undo rather awkward. The same goes for Delete - I would have liked it to be closer to the rest of the keys.
- Overall, I'd like the keys to be spaced closer together to reduce the stretch for some combinations.
- The keycaps don't allow the light to go through, so the RGB light show is not particularly useful for typing in the dark.
- On the unit I received, one of the keys wasn't working (the right shift key near the arrows). Fortunately, not the most important key to warrant a replacement. I will try to replace the switch when I get some time, just for the fun of it.
Others: Once I started working with this keyboard, I fully realised the extent to which the QWERTY layout is really poor for proper typing. I am going to switch to Colemak, I am guessing it will make much more sense with a keyboard like this one.
