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Okay so my keyboard has arrived, I've had it a few days, typed a few tens of thousands of words on it and figure I've got a good enough impression of it to give a brief review.
In the box it's pretty simple.
- 1 keyboard
- 1 mini usb cable
- 1 plastic key cap puller
- 1 user manual
I opted for the gold and white with outemu blue keyswitches. There is no RGB lighting, there is a single green led under the caps lock key that indicates caps lock status (on is on, yes, you'd be surprised some keyboards have the led on to indicate caps lock off). There are no DIP switches on the base visible at least without taking the entire keyboard apart and this keyboard is not reprogrammable and does not have onboard remappable buttons.
It is a "standard" ANSI layout but at 60% size so expect confusion when initially trying to find some of the more obscure symbols which have been moved around.
ANSI is the North American standard and we use ISO over here in Western Europe as such symbols such as ~ or \ will not work (or at the very least not match their keys and I was unable to find the backslash key regardless of modifier key combinations pressed) if you attempt to use this keyboard under UK English mappings.
I have tried several but not all UK English mappings that roll as part of Ubuntu 16.10 but essentially found that once I'd switched to US English the key cap labels matched up 100% with their actual functions (including the FN based media controls) and I regained the use of my \ key which is pretty essential in my daily use.
The keys, are actually the same size as standard (ANSI) keyboard keys so no feeling crammed in when using it for a long period of time. Comfort is brilliant, I've had no issues typing for hours on it before taking a rest and my typing speed is unchanged as far as I can tell (avg 83 wpm, so I'm a competent typist) once I adjusted to the US English mappings.
It works with Windows and Linux without trouble, the super and meta keys working just as you'd expect.
Mac requires a bit of a faff, the same keys fail to function as command and option keys which means you're going to have to do some jiggery-pokery remapping some keys if you want to retain their functionality (copy and paste for example was the first thing that I noticed being borked).
Now the sound bit. I opted for the outemu blue switches as I was hoping to get as close to the "buckling spring" feel as possible and I think they come close, not perfect but close. The loud tactile click and the activation weight feels just right for me. I am a heavy typist and have broken old keyboards with my keyboard bashing before now. That said they are a lot louder than I expected then to be... I originally bought it thinking I could take it into the office but I think if I did that the police would find my body hours later having been bludgeoned to death with the keyboard by my colleagues.
The spacebar when depressed at speed does have a less than pleasing "ting" noise at the end of its travel which is probably just an artifact of the stabiliser used on it.
Look & feel: the gold metallic finish is more a soft rose gold look but I actually quite like it! Very smart looking with a small logo on the left hand side that's embossed/engraved into the metal plate. The white plastic undercasing is alright, nothing to write home about but is textured and doesn't feel "cheap". Completing the look underneath is the removable usb cable and the two rubber tipped flip out feet used to raise the keyboard to a typing angle.
The weight of the keyboard is higher than I thought, it is solidly planted on a surface and the metal plate must be in the region of 4mm thick, it's certainly substantial which helps prevent flex (it's a good stiff chassis) all comes together to give your a product that feels more premium than it actually is. Only thing that lets it down look and feel wise is the font used for labelling the keycaps, which is quite "futuristic looking" I actually like it, but many may not.
My product was purchased by me. I was not approached by anyone to review this product, I bought it as a replacement from an old portable membrane switch based keyboard.
| Brand | Qisan |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 33.48 x 9.98 x 3.68 cm; 540 Grams |
| Item model number | FBA_eQuteCOO31H22 |
| Manufacturer | Qisan |
| Series | FBA_eQuteCOO31H22 |
| Color | 68 keys Outemu blue switch |
| Hardware Platform | Laptop |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 540 g |
