Let's Talk About Clickiez

Introduction

So, there has been a lot of buzz about these switches in the keyboard community. So much buzz that I found myself pre-ordering them months before they were released. Now that I actually have them, and have had them in my daily driver keyboard for over a week it’s time to talk about them. Are they good? Are they bad? Do they live up to the hype?

Before we start talking about these switches, I’d like to make a few things clear about what I can’t cover in this article. Especially because a couple of these are substantial topics which are relevant to these switches.

Comparing Clickiez to ALPS switches.

I have been racking my brain trying to recall any keyboards I have used that had ALPS switches. And, as far as I can recall, there aren’t any that left a lasting impression. And, as far as I can recall, there aren’t any. That isn’t to say that I haven’t encountered them. I’ve certainly used a lot of different PC’s and Minicomputer and Main frame terminals over the years.

However, I think there are likely a couple of reasons why none of them had a lasting impression on me: either I didn’t use them long enough (a few months is likely not long enough to have an impression), or I didn’t use it enough to have an impression. In fact, one of the likelier places for me to have encountered an ALPS switch would have been in college when I was taking computer science classes.

However, here’s the thing: I had a computer in my dorm room in college. (First an IBM PC Jr, which was replaced by an IBM PS/2 Model 30.) So, my typical workflow was to write my code in my dorm room using my PC, upload the code to the college mainframe and make certain it was working. Then, and only then, did I go to the college computer lab to do the final run of code and printout the results. So, that definitely didn’t constitute heavy usage.

Converting to Tactile or Linear Switches

One of the selling points of the Clickiez is that you are getting a 3-in-1 type of switch. By opening them and making a small adjustment to the click mechanism you can make them tactile, without the clicking noise, or you can remove the click piece to make them linear. That’s a really cool feature that I am certain will appeal to a lot of perspective customers for these switches. I am not one of them, for a couple of reasons.

First reason: I am not a fan of linear switches. I get why a lot of people like linear switches. And, I have used linear switches in the past that I thought were okay. It’s just that, for me personally, the times when I actually want to use a linear switch are pretty narrow. The big use case for me would be playing a game where the finer control of the switch would be very useful.

But, I only game on the weekends for fun. I typically play single player, mostly casual games. And, in those cases, I haven’t found that I really need a linear switch. And, in fact, I have the feeling that using the same key switch that I use the rest of the time is probably an advantage for me. I feel more comfortable with a switch that has a well-defined tactile event.

So, then, why not try them as tactile switches? Well, the reason for this is quite simple: the tactile event force. I tried using Cherry linear clone switches in the past that had an actuation force around 70-80g. I found that they were fatiguing to type on after a few minutes of usage. That’s definitely not something that I can work with as a writer. So, I set those aside and started experimenting with other switches. I found that I am typically mist comfortable with switches that have an actuation force around 50g, give, or take 5g.

Converting Clickiez to a tactile setup changes the force curve pretty dramatically. They go up around 20g in force, which is getting pretty close to the actuation force that I found to be fatiguing.

Given that I purchased these switches on the premise that they would be an interesting switch to compare to Kaihl Box Jade switches, converting them into tactile switches doesn’t really fit with my usage. Putting the increased force together with the comparison to Box Jades, and it just doesn’t seem appropriate to convert them to tactile switches. (Plus, I have a whole opinion on tactile switches that is likely to be somewhat controversial.)

An Informal Review

This isn't really a formal review, it's more of an extended first impressions article. I have spent over two weeks with these switches, first forming an impression of the switches themselves, and then using them in a daily driver build for two weeks. However, I haven't had the time to do a full independent set of tests on them. For example, I haven't done my own force curve for the switches, and I haven't put them through any rigorous testing, or done a tear-down on them. Those are things that I feel are necessary for what I would deem to be a “formal” review.

Having spent over two weeks with these switches, I think I have a pretty good impression of what they are like, and what most users will find as notable in the experience of using them. I think on this basis I can provide a pretty succinct review, and recommendation for these switches.

Now, with these caveats in place, let’s talk about these switches.

First Impression

Out of the box, the switches were impressive and surprising. First, I knew some had talked about how loud they were, and i agree: these are probably the loudest switches I’ve encountered thus far (although I only have a few dozen samples to compare them to). In fact, they are so loud then when I held one up to my ear and pressed it, my ear started ringing.

The thing that I did find interesting about the sound is how low the pitch is. It’s actually almost more of a thud compared to any other clicky switch on the market that I’ve used, including the Box series of switches. There was, notably, a bit of an after-ring to the click, but it was subtle enough that I think it just adds character to the sound profile, and doesn’t really seem like a distraction.

The feel of the tactile event is definitely the sharpest and most defined I’ve encountered so far. It surpasses the tactility of any jacket style click switch (like Cherry MX Blue) switch, and is even more defined than Kaihl Box Jade’s tactile event. This I can only believe is due to the plate style of mechanism, when compared to click bars and click jackets.

In my initial test, I held one up to my era (as I mentioned), and pressed it several times. I listened closely for any scratching or gritty sounds. There weren’t any that I could hear. And I didn’t notice any scratchy feeling to them either.

Finally, I tested for stem wobble. One of the things that I hadn’t encountered before is the CAP design from Gateron, which reverses the concept of the stem going through a hole in the bottom of the housing. Instead, using a cap over a shaft, which is purported to be more lube friendly, and provide better stability. From what I have seen, the Clickiez have almost no north-south wobble, and only a small amount of east-west wobble. Definitely higher tolerances than normal, almost to the level of Kaihl Box switches in terms of stability.

In Daily Usage

The next step for me was to put these switches into a build that I could give them a decent evaluation. Recently, I’ve been using a CiY Tester68 for my test builds. However, the Clickiez were impressive enough that I wanted to do something more. So, as you can see from the cover photo, I decided to put these into a Mengmoda 71-key keyboard. This is a variation of the Feker Dopokey keyboard that I have been using as a daily-driver with Kaihl Box Jade switches for over 3 months at this point. I couldn’t imagine a better scenario for putting the Clickiez on equal footing.

Two weeks of using the Clickiez has given me some insights into them that aren’t apparent from the first impression that when I unbox them.

First is the sound. As I thought before, the slight ringing sound that I noted is not notice-able when installed in a keyboard. There is a lot of other sound coming from the switches, key caps and keyboard case that pretty well covers the metallic sound. And the deep, almost “thud” that these switches make are slightly accentuated in use. It’s not louder, or any deeper, just a bit different — however that is likely due to the choice of keyboard that they are mounted in, along with the keycaps, so your findings may vary.

Clickiez Force Graph (via Switches.mx – CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

There was one thing that, for me at least, was a bit difficult to adjust to at first. That is the sheer drop-off in force after the tactile event occurs (see Force Curve graph, courtesy of Switches.mx). It’s a fairly odd feeling when it comes to typing. At first, I was thinking this was more like a typewriter, but as I thought about it more, it really isn’t. Most typewriters have a consistent force all the way through the stroke until the hammer hits the platen. That isn’t the case with these switches, instead you feel like you are in free-fall until the switch actuates.

As I said, I found it difficult to adjust to this feeling at first. However, as I got myself back up to speed with my typing it seems to be less of a problem. However, I don’t know that it is the kind of feeling that I want to my typing all the time. I feel like the more controlled feeling from Box Jade or other styles of switches is more to my preference.

Now this may be more anecdotal than anything, but I feel like my accuracy has suffered with the Clickiez. I find myself having to make more corrections that I have with other switches. I don’t know if that is the result of the different feel these switches bring to the table, or if it is a psychological impression that I am getting. Furthermore, I also can’t tell if it is something that would go away if I used these switches for longer. I was able to find myself adjusting these to the Clickiez speed-wise. But accuracy is something completely different. I am struggling to remember if my accuracy suffered at all when I switched to Box Jade switches, I have a feeling that it did, but that it wasn’t something that took me all that long to recover from.

Conclusion

So, what is my overall feeling about these switches? Well, it’s a little ambiguous. I wanted to say that I like them so much that I am going to switch to them permanently. Or, I wanted to say that they were so bad that I wouldn’t use them again. But the truth is somewhere in between. I like the switches, I like the way they sound, and I like the feel they have aside from the sudden drop. As I suggested, I was mostly able to get used to the drop part of the feeling after a while, but I am not convinced that it isn’t playing a role in my perceived decrease in accuracy.

So, I think the answer is that they will live alongside my Kaihl Box Jades. I will probably have to switch between the two of them for quite some time before I decide which I like better, or I can decide if there is a specific application that I like one or the other for better.

But, all of that being said, I think these are switches that can be recommended for people that like a really tactile clicky style switch. They are definitely unique, and offer something that none of the Box or Jacket style switches have to offer.

The one item that I didn't talk about above is the pricing. Initially they were $1.50USD per switch, but with the second round of orders, that price has been reduced to $1.30USD per switch. That might seem expensive, especially when there are many switches under $1.00 per switch. However, there is nothing else that comes even close to these switches on the market, so that makes the pricing a bit more difficult to judge. I would say that one of the key points in favor of this pricing is that you aren't getting just one type of switch: the convertible nature of these switches make them more versatile (even if I haven't tested them in other configurations yet). So this is something that you will have to judge for yourself, personally I am okay with the pricing (but of course I'd like to seem them a little lower – as would anyone), given that they bring a unique value to the market.

Categories: #Features, #Review Tags: #clickiez, #clicky, #switch, #zeal

Havit KB512L “Gamenote” keyboard displaying rainbow LED lighting.

Introduction

This is the keyboard that made me fall down the 71-key layout rabbit hole. It's the one that I found interesting enough to see if there were any better keyboards with this kind of layout available. And it's the keyboard that first made me wonder if these would be a good modding platform. And yet, I didn't want to review this one first. I wanted to write some reviews about a couple of others as I might be a bit biased when it comes to this keyboard. Not in the sense that I can't write objectively about it, but that I have a soft spot for it since it was the one that was at the heart of my discovery.

But, I've come to realize it has to be the first one I write about. Why? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, it is the least expensive of all of these keyboards, which means it sets the baseline for price, value, and performance. Second, of the issues with other keyboards will best be framed by comparing to this keyboard.

So the Havit Gamenote is the keyboard to start this journey with. Let's take a look at what is in the box, and then move on to discussing the features of this keyboard before getting into the good, the bad, and the technical geekery. And we'll close out with a summary of my overall impressions, and how it rates in several categories.

In The Box

The KB512L comes packaged in a fairly typical cardboard box, with the words “HELLO! Thanks for choosing Havit” printed n the top, and a sticker on the side that says “GAMENOTE”. On the opposite side is a sticker with the technical information about the keyboard.

Opening it up, you'll find the keyboard itself, wrapped in a foam sleeve. A little compartment in the back holds the cloth wrapped USB-C to USB-B cable, along with a standard plastic keycap puller.

Under the keyboard is the KB512L User's Manual, with “CREATE FOR GAME” printed in large letters on the cover. The manual is about 24 pages long, with translations in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. Each language takes about 4 pages of the manual. The documentation does a decent job of covering all the major features of the keyboard. The English version does have a fair amount of bad translation, but it's not so bad as to be confusing. I don't read the other languages, so I can't assess the quality of the translations for them. But the fact that they did translate the documentation into six languages should count for something, many bargain level keyboards don't have more than one or two languages.

The USB cable is nothing special, but it is quite effective and usable. I've used it with several keyboards during testing as it doesn't have a shroud that would interfere with fitting it to most other keyboards.

The key cap puller is the worst item in the box. It's just one of those cheap plastic key cap pullers that many companies ship with their keyboards. There are many reports of people scratching their key caps with them, so I wouldn't use it. Instead, getting a wire key cap puller is recommended.

Features

The aesthetic of this keyboard is interesting. It's clear it is designed to fit somewhere between the “gamer” aesthetic, and the needs of typists / daily use. The Amazon listing even states “Though this gaming keyboard is in small layout and tenkeyless [sic], but it maintains the most functions of full-key keyboard: [...]. Great for gaming and daily use.” and “Keeping the derection [sic] keys and deleted keys, great for typing and playing games.”

While Havit makes a point that the layout is good for both gaming and daily use, there are other design attributes that walk the lines between gamer and daily use. The overall design is simple: ABS plastic case, with an aluminum top plate with a chromed / polished edge. There's no bezel, keeping the look clean and simple for people interesting in a daily use keyboard.

The key switches are mounted to the top plate, which leaves plenty of space between the plate and key cap to allow the LED backlight to shine all over the plate, as well as through the shine-through double shot PBT key caps. This was likely done to make the keyboard more appealing to people that want the gaming aesthetic. The shine-through keycaps also appeal to gamers, however the legends on the keys are not that Sci-Fi inspired font, instead opting for a cleaner, simple font to appeal to the average user.

And that's what makes this keyboard both great and weird at the same time. It's obvious that there were really careful design considerations put into this keyboard. it has a design language that tries to carefully navigate between both worlds. And yet, there are some things that fail both design aesthetics.

RGB Failure?

Image: key caps showing uneven shine-through lighting.

One of the obvious things about this keyboard is that there were concessions made to hit the $30 (sometimes as low as $20) price point. However, there was still a lot of thought put into some areas. One of them is the backlight. They couldn't use full RGB, so instead they went with north-facing LED's North-facing LEDs are not a failure despite what some would have you believe. These LED's support the shine through keycaps. There are seventeen patterns to the LEDs. The animation speed and direction can be adjusted. The brightness can be adjusted to 6 levels (including off).

All of this sounds pretty much like it was designed with the gamer aesthetic in mind, right? Yeah, it does. But...LEDs are single color, and are not addressable, which leaves the KB512L with zone based colors, or as they describe it a “rainbow” backlight. From left to right you have Red, Yellow, Green, Light Blue, Blue, Purple (as seen in the main photo for this review). These colors can't be changed, all the patterns are just animations that turn the LED's on or off in a sequence. So, not really what most gamers want, but given the price level you can't expect too much, right?

What about daily users? Wouldn't they rather have a simple single color backlight, or no lights at all? Well, you can select a pattern where all the LEDs are on with no animation, but it's still the rainbow colors. And you can turn them off, but you have to dim them all the way, you can't just toggle them on / off. And every time you start your system the setting isn't remembered so you have to redo it.

It's also notable that the lighting doesn't shine through the key caps evenly. Some keys (like the “Pause” key picture above) have edges that are darker than the middle sections of the letters.

So, while it's obvious there were shortcuts taken to hit a price point, these concessions make it neither really what gamers want, nor really what a general user would want. (Although, I have to say, this wasn't really all that big a deal when I used this keyboard for an extended period.)

Operating System Support

This one is still confusing to me. Officially the documentation lists most of the Windows variants as supporting this keyboard. (See the table at the top of this article for the full list.) But, it doesn't list Linux or macOS as being supported.

However, I can say unequivocally, this keyboard works perfectly with Linux. Possibly because they kept the design as simple as possible, and the firmware from SINO Wealth doesn't try to do anything strange (as we will see some other keyboards do in the future).

But doesn't it work with Mac? Well, if you look at the Amazon listing it does state it has Mac (and Linux) support. And if you look at the Havit website it lists both Linux and Mac support.

So, I'm not certain why the official manual doesn't list support for Mac and Linux. Maybe they didn't have the opportunity to test this support before printing the documentation?

Either way it's nice to see that it does work. And, in fact, I would be surprised if it didn't work with them. The overall implementation is simple, and seems like something that would transcend most operating systems.

Physical Attributes

As listed in the information table at the beginning of this article, this is a fairly light (624g) and compact (331x102x36.3mm) keyboard. However, while being light and compact, it still has a very solid construction. The body of the keyboard doesn't twist, and there isn't any deck flex as might be expected with a low-end keyboard.

Image: Havit KB521L mechanical keyboard side profile with kick-stand feet flipped out to increase typing angle.

One of the nice features that is included here are flip-out feet at the back of the keyboard. This allows you to adjust the angle of the keyboard from 7 degrees to 9 degrees, which may be a better angle for some users. Also, the flip-out feet are coated in a hard rubber which has better grip than the plastic the rest of the case is made out of.

Many companies will offer two or more color choices for their keyboards. That is not the case with this keyboard. It comes in black, and only black. However, there are different key layouts available: ISO, ANSI, and German QWERTZ. (Ironically, however, all the pictures on their website show the same layout.)

However, that isn't to say that they keyboard is the highest quality you might expect even in a low-end keyboard. Out of the box, the keyboard has a very hollow sound to it. And the stabilizers on the space bar, enter key, etc. make quite a bit of noise. And then there are the switches…let's talk about the switches.

Blues for the Click

Image: Jixian Blue switch in Havit KB512L Keyboard

The potentially worst point about this keyboard for most people will be the lack of a choice of switch type. I believe this was another deliberate choice made by Havit in order to reduce the cost of this keyboard. By only offering one switch it's easier to mass produce this keyboard, which keeps the costs down. The choices of switches in this case are Jixian Blues, here's the main stats:

On paper these are nice, medium weight switches. The tactile and actuation events are well-placed relative to each other, as is desirable in a clicky switch. Bottom out force isn't so high as to cause fatigue. Basically, these are switches that many people would likely be able to type on all day.

However, there are issues with these switches. They have issues with spring ping. This is an issue with inexpensive switches, and basically there is no way to fix it without removing the switches and taking them apart and lubricating the springs. Second, these aren't smooth switches. They have a fairly scratchy / abrasive quality to them that might annoy some people.

However, I will give them credit for having a reasonable tactile event which can be felt, but isn't as jarring as some switches. And, while I know I am in the minority on this, I actually like the sound of the tactile event. It's quite noticeable, but to me, it isn't distracting or too loud. (But, if you don't like clicky switches in the first place they will likely be too loud for you.)

The last remaining issue with these switches is that they are 3 pin switches, which means the PCB of this keyboard is designed for three pin switches. Which brings me to the topic of modding this keyboard.

Modders Platform?

One of the things that I was interested in when I purchased this keyboard the first time was to assess it as a learning platform for making modifications. There are definitely a number of modifications that can be made to this keyboard:

• Adding sound dampening
• Taping the back of the PCB
• Installing plate foam
• Replacing the switches
• Replacing the keycaps
• Lubing and modding the stabilizers
• Adding weights to the case
• Painting the case & plate
• Change the mounting system for the plate

I have actually experimented with some of these modifications, and I can say that it is definitely worth doing.

Image: Bottom of key cap showing jagged bumps.

The modifications I made were: adding silicon dampening to the bottom of the case, taping the back of the PCB, attempted to lubricate the stabilizers (without removing them), and replacing the keycaps. I wouldn't have replaced the keycaps, however I had noticed these rough edges / bumps on the bottom of the keycaps (see photo) that bothered me, even though they weren't really an issue. The results of these modifications were pretty good. This keyboard went from something that was unimpressive, to something that was reasonably usable (in fact, it became my daily driver until I found similar keyboards that I could work with).

But, the thing is, the amount of modifications you can make before having to remove the switches is fairly limited. Even lubricating the stabilizers without removing the switches is tricky at best, as is shimming the stabilizers to tighten their tolerances.

Removing the switches means using a soldering iron to remove them from the PCB. Replacing the switches with something better than the Jixian Blue switches might pose a bit of a challenge. Most of the better switches on the market use a “5 pin” design, that is a standard 3 pin with two additional “fixing” pins to hold the switch in place better. If you want to use a 5 pin style switch, you will need to modify it by cutting off the two extra pins to make them compatible with this PCB. However, there are some switches that are quite affordable that have the three pin design, like the Akko CS and Jelly switches.

Out of the box this keyboard is only mediocre at best. However, the modding possibilities are quite extensive. At this price using it as a platform to learn about modding is an excellent option. The other thing about it being this price is that it's a good keyboard to just test this 71-key style layout and see if it's good for you.

71-Key Layout

Now, as I've before that one of the big selling points for the Gamenote / KB512L keyboard is that it is good for both typing and game play. Ironically, I saw some people stating that they felt the additional column of keys on the right side of the keyboard took up too much extra space. Personally, I don't know what they are thinking. Personally, I can't see the 3-4mm needed for a single column of keys to be too much, especially when compared to a typical TKL layout. And many of the 75% layout keyboards are not as functional as the 71-key layout as they lose some of the navigation cluster keys.

The fact is that GMK and now Havit have the right idea here. This is a layout that balances the best of both needs: it's a compact layout that works very well for gaming, while still being an excellent layout for use as a daily driver. So far I have had no issues creating and editing large documents, working with images, and other activities. Most of the numeric input I do these days can be easily handled on the number row, etc.

And, something that Havit got right that some of the others (as we'll see) fail at: the media keys. All the media functions are laid out as secondary functions of the QWERTY row of the keyboard. Traditionally these have been secondary functions of the function row (or the primary function on Mac systems). For the 71-key layout it was necessary to move the media keys somewhere else, and the QWERTY row makes sense. The ~ and * keys are now secondary functions of the escape key. I worried about adjusting to this layout at first, but in practice it's been easy to adjust to it. In fact, within a few hours I was completely comfortable with it (it only took a little time to adjust to the layout of the navigation cluster).

The one thing that GMK got right that Havit could have followed was having QMK support for this keyboard. But it appears that they didn't choose to go this route (which most Chinese manufacturers do). Personally, I think this is likely to be another concession to the price point. Let's take a peek under the covers to see how this keyboard communicates with your choice of operating system.

Digging Under The Covers

One of the things that I've started doing with these keyboards is digging under the covers a bit to see what I can discover about them. (This all came about due to several keyboards that did odd things. Some of them we'll see in future reviews.) Using an operating system like Linux makes it relatively easy to get this information.

The main thing worth discovering at this point is how the keyboard presents itself to your system, who manufactured the firmware, and what revision it is. The KB512L definitely hides some interesting things. First let's take a look at what we can discover about the firmware:

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 11 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #‌Cfgs= 1
P: <strong>Vendor=258a ProdID=002a Rev=21.33</strong>
S: <strong>Manufacturer=SINO WEALTH</strong>
S: <strong>Product=Usb Gaming Keyboard</strong>
C: #‌Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 <strong>MxPwr=500mA</strong>
I: <em>If#= 0 Alt= 0 #‌EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=usbhid</em>
E: <em>Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=1ms</em>
I: <em>If#= 1 Alt= 0 #‌EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid</em>
E: <em>Ad=82(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 16 Ivl=1ms</em>

Now, don't worry about all the technical stuff in the above listing. Just focus on the information that is in bold and italics lettering.

The first three bold lines tell us some interesting things. First, the firmware is manufactured by a company called SINO WEALTH, and this is revision 21.33 of the firmware. The manufacturer describes this as a “Usb Gaming Keyboard”. The thing that is interesting about this is Havit doesn't produce their own firmware, instead they have either purchased or outsourced their firmware production with Sino Wealth. Second, this firmware is either (a) heavily updated, (b) was recently produced, or © both. I believe that revision 21.33 likely means that this was the 33rd update to the firmware, and that it was produced in 2021. Or 21 might not be the year, instead it is the version, while the 33 is an update number. Either way it seems pretty nice that this is firmware that is getting frequent updates.

The other item in bold is interesting because it highlights a property that we might not have known otherwise. The documentation for this keyboard states that it's Operating Current is 200mA (milliamps), whereas the system information indicates that the device's Maximum Power draw is 500mA. I would speculate that the reason for this difference is quite simple: when running with the LED's turned off, the keyboard is only drawing 200mA over the USB connection, whereas when the LEDs are on full blast it requires 500mA. This can be significant, especially if you are connecting the keyboard to a USB hub which will share its power with other devices on that same hub.

The last thing to talk about here are the four lines that are italicized. They are input addresses for the device, meaning that they take information from your computer system. They have a maximum packet size (MxPS) of 8 and 16 bytes, and are polled at 1ms intervals (Ivl). The significance of these will become known below.

Now, again, there is also some more information that we can glean from looking at information in Linux, this time from the logs that are created when the keyboard is connected to the computer:

[84888.450941] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=258a, idProduct=002a, bcdDevice=21.33
[84888.450951] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[84888.450955] usb 1-1: <strong>Product: Usb Gaming Keyboard</strong>
[84888.450957] usb 1-1: <strong>Manufacturer: SINO WEALTH</strong>
[84888.463107] input: <em>SINO WEALTH Usb Gaming Keyboard</em> as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/0003:258A:002A.000B/input/<em>input37</em>
[84888.517184] hid-generic 0003:258A:002A.000B: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [SINO WEALTH Usb Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:04:00.3-1/input0
[84888.522568] input: <strong><span class="has-inline-background" style="background-color:#9d9d9d">SINO WEALTH Usb Gaming Keyboard System Control</span></strong> as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.1/0003:258A:002A.000C/input/<strong><span class="has-inline-background" style="background-color:#9d9d9d">input38</span></strong>
[84888.577203] input: <strong><span class="has-inline-background" style="background-color:#9d9d9d">SINO WEALTH Usb Gaming Keyboard Consumer Control</span></strong> as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.1/0003:258A:002A.000C/input/<strong><span class="has-inline-background" style="background-color:#9d9d9d">input39</span></strong>
[84888.577381] input: <em>SINO WEALTH Usb Gaming Keyboard</em> as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.1/0003:258A:002A.000C/input/<em>input40</em>
[84888.577945] hid-generic 0003:258A:002A.000C: input,hiddev96,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [SINO WEALTH Usb Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:04:00.3-1/input1

Now the first couple of entries in bold reiterate the things that we knew from looking at the USB device entry above: this is an “Usb Gaming Keyboard” manufactured by “SINO WEALTH”.

Next we have a bunch of inputs. The two that are expected (italicized) are the normal keyboard interface. The two that are bold & highlighted (inputs 38 & 39) correspond to the \I and \E entries from the USB device information we looked at above. These are for hardware control (aka “System Control”) of the keyboard, and for the operating system (aka “Consumer Control”) of the keyboard.

These are some particularly nerdy things to understand about how these devices work: the “System Control” is for communication on the hardware, like determining how much power the keyboard needs to be allocated to it, or if the keyboard goes into a sleep / standby setting. The “Consumer Control” is how the operating system determines what USB support is needed (i.e. how does the keyboard communicate with the operating system), as well as providing information, like the identifying product and manufacturer information.

The thing that we don't know is if there are any other capabilities available through the Consumer Control part of the keyboard as Havit markets this keyboard as a “plug-n-play” keyboard with no driver required. And, in fact, we see these as only input ports. There's no output, which means there isn't two-way communication.

So, I believe this information is rather interesting: we now know who manufactures the firmware, and that it is updated quite a bit. We know that it is using a fairly standard configuration as a USB device, it has a specific hardware level control port enabled, and a “consumer” level port available, but we don't have any information that we can use to take advantage of any additional features.

Conclusion

How to best summarize this keyboard? I think it's best to look at is an inexpensive keyboard that fits a couple of use cases. First, if you are interested in taking a 71-key layout keyboard for a test drive with the absolute minimal investment, this is the place to start. It has a lot of rough edges, but it's decent enough to allow you to get an impression of what using this layout is like on a daily basis. And the price is difficult to beat.

The second use case is if you want to take a deep dive into modding keyboards. This board is inexpensive enough that if you screw it up, buying another one isn't likely to break the bank. the overall quality of this keyboard isn't great, but if you make the right mods, you might find it usable as a daily driver. And that's where the value is in this keyboard.

The functionality of this keyboard is quite good overall. It's just let down by some of the weird choices made to keep the price so low, like the rainbow color LED backlight and not removing the bumps on the keycaps. If you can look past (or work around) these items, the keyboard functions quite well.

But all of that said, if you are just looking for a keyboard that you will like using out-of-the-box, then this isn't likely the keyboard for you. While it is designed to work well for both gaming and daily use, it falls short of accomplishing those goals in many ways... Especially in terms of the switches, stabilizers, and sound of the keyboard.

Note: the above link is an affiliate link. No Thoccs Aloud will make a small commission from the use of this link to purchase this product. There is no other sponsorship of this review. Product was purchased with reviewers funds. (Link has been removed.)

Categories: #Review Tags: #71-key, #tkl, #compact-tkl, #mechanicalkeyboard, #keyboard

Introduction

We're about to embark on a journey to explore some keyboards that are, at best, outliers in the mechanical keyboard world. I've gathered nearly a dozen of them (which, itself, is a feat) that I will be reviewing over the next several weeks.

Why am I going to review them? Well, there are several reasons:

1. These keyboards are underrepresented in the keyboard community.
2. I believe they really fit a certain type of user that is under-served in the community.
3. They come in a range of price offerings from extremely cheap to reasonably expensive. This range offers the potential for exploring some different possibilities.
4. I have an attraction to “misfits” in many areas.

So, what are these keyboards and how did I fall in love with them? Well, I think I should tell the story of how I fell down the rabbit hole:

Down The Rabbit Hole

I fell down a rabbit hole. While many people think that mechanical keyboards itself is a rabbit hole, I managed to find a rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. And this rabbit hole has lead me on an adventure chasing elusive keyboards around the world. But, maybe I should start from the beginning and explain what the rabbit hole is, and why I ended up here.

It started with YouTube, as many things in my life start with YouTube lately. Somehow YouTube made the decision to recommend that I watch a review of a mechanical keyboard (I don't remember who or which one). This of course opened the floodgates, and I was subsumed with recommendations for more videos to watch. This included watching a series of videos where several mechanical keyboard hobbyists challenged themselves to build a keyboard for $100. That series of videos was my first step into the rabbit hole, but not in the way you might expect.

I didn't have some immediate vision of going out there and building custom keyboards and getting into all of this stuff the way these hobbyists had. Instead, several thoughts crossed my mind:

• Why am I not using a mechanical keyboard now? I'd spent many years using IBM Model F and Model M keyboards, and had used a DasKeyboard when the IBM ones weren't available.
• Do I really need to have a full size keyboard anymore?
• Why are some of these keyboards so expensive? Who wants to spent $500 on a keyboard, when you can build something for $100?
• Would I start enjoying using a computer more if I had a mechanical keyboard? (One of the things that I had noticed was that I didn't seem to enjoy using my computer as much in the last several years, and I couldn't explain why.)

So, I started doing some digging, aka watching a lot more videos, reading some stuff on Reddit and some websites, and just generally browsing on Amazon. That's when I decided that I should challenge myself to:

• Try different layouts,
• Try smaller gaming-style keyboards,
• Try a wide range of key switches.

To be honest, that last item was something that I knew I wasn't going to complete while just trying out a few keyboards. But, I knew that I had a preference for “clicky” switches, so I figured it would be good to try some linear and tactile switches. (Hint: the search for switches doesn't stop with this article, in fact it hasn't concluded yet...)

So, I decided that I would start with a TKL layout keyboard. It's not much of a challenge, but it seemed like a good place to set a standard. Then I also found the 1800 style layout, so I added that to my list. As I searched out other keyboards, I did get a 60% and 65% keyboard... Then it happened. I saw a keyboard that was at once gaudy and intriguing, so I clicked on the listing. It was odd, it had the word “GAMENOTE” printed on the space bar in large letters, and nothing else to identify who the manufacturer was. But, on closer look I saw that the key layout was different, it had two columns for the navigation keys, and it was cheap: only $30 USD. This was supposed to be a 70% layout. I figured it was a cheap piece of garbage, but I was intrigued (I mean, I was spending three, four, and five times that amount on some of the keyboards I ordered so...) so I added it to my order.

When the order came in I tried all of them out. The TKL, as I expected, was a good fit for me. The 1800 was nice, but I had problems getting used to it. The 60% and 65% keyboards were a complete failure. But then there was the 70% keyboard.

I wouldn't say it was the best keyboard I got from my order (that honor still goes to the TKL). However, a funny thing happened, at first I hated the keyboard. The keycaps hurt my fingers, the sound of the keyboard was cheap, the stabilizers rattled, and the RGB was gaudy and annoying. But once I turned off the crap RGB, and swapped the keycaps for something that didn't hurt my fingers, I was able to give it a good evaluation. And that was when, much to my surprise, I found that I actually enjoyed using this $30 as much as I enjoyed the TKL. In fact, for some strange reason, I seemed to be having more fun with this keyboard than I did with the others.

There were still things I didn't like about it: the clone MX Blue key switches that didn't sound all that great, and the sound wasn't great. I was able to do something about the sound: I opened the keyboard and installed silicon in the bottom and taped the back of the PCB. The switches would need to be desoldered, but I didn't have the tools for that.

So, why did I like this keyboard so much? Well it came down to the fact that operations that were critical in my usage were still easily accessible (writing all the time I make heavy use of the navigation cluster). Even some of the things that I thought might take some getting used to really didn't, the first time I needed to use the tilde (~) character, hitting Fn+Shift+Esc was natural. The other keys that were on secondary layers weren't used as much so it wasn't a big deal.

That's when I realized: I fell into the “70%” keyboard rabbit hole. This led me to collecting as many of these “70% layout” keyboards as I can, which lead to my discover of “70% layout” confusion. So, I decided that I should write about the keyboards I feel should be considered “70% layout”, including reviews of the ones that I have been able to acquire.

About 70 Percent Confusion

“70% layout” keyboards are one of the most confusing of all the size groups out there. Why? First, they aren't very common. Having done some research, I believe this is partially due to what is perceived as the “original” (although I have found evidence that calls into question the originality of the design) failing (only a hundred or two were made, I believe). The second reason is: there doesn't seem to be a consensus in regard to the layout of a 70% keyboard. (I honestly have issues with the concept of using percentages to classify keyboards, but that's a topic for a different time.)

Currently, there is a wide range of keyboards that are considered 70%. For example, this item (the Firstblood AK33) is listed as a 70% keyboard on several sites:

Firstblood AK33

So, that's one layout. But the Skyloong SK71 is about as completely different as the come:

Skyloong SK71

Just looking at these keyboards the differences should become obvious. The Firstblood AK33 has a dedicated Function Key row, with a column of navigation keys (basically it's closer to a 65% keyboard, but with the function row restored), while the Skyloong SK71 has a Number Pad and a fairly odd layout in a number of other ways (like the ALT, CTRL and WIN keys only being on the left side, with a 1U Fn key on the right...).

Neither of these resemble the layout that I think of when I consider a 70% keyboard. In fact, I have decided that it's really necessary to use a different name to denote the style of keyboard I am referring to.

71-Key Layout

Instead, I am going to focus on what I have been calling the “71-Key Layout” keyboards. (Admittedly, even this moniker is slightly misleading, as the Skyloong SK71 does, indeed, have 71 keys... But that seems to be more of an exception in this category of keyboards.) These keyboards I refer to as “71-Key Layout” typically look like the Feker Dopokey:

My Feker Dopokey

The characteristics that define a 71-Key layout to me are:

• It is an FRL (Function Row-less) layout.
• The navigation cluster has been collapsed into two columns to the right of the main Alpha area.
• Standard sized modifiers (ie, 1.5U Ctrl, Alt, etc. keys).
• Standard sized bottom row, and the exclusion of the “Menu” key.
• Outside of these differences the layout is close to a TKL layout.

By this definition the other “70%” keyboards really aren't 70%. They are oddballs that have a similar size, but don't offer the same functionality. They have a tendency to move a lot keys around, like moving the Fn or Del keys into the upper right on the Ak33, or in the case of the SK71 apparently omitting the F11 and F12 keys altogether (along with lots of other egregious changes to modifier sizes and the layout on both boards).

In talking about what the characteristics that I consider for a “71-Key” keyboard, I avoided mentioning a gray area: the Pause / Break, Scroll Lock / System Request, and Print Screen keys which are part of the TKL navigation cluster. While most of these keyboards do something with these keys there is no consistency. Some keyboards omit them, some move them to secondary functions, etc. While this may seem to be a picky point with these keys, their usefulness to some users (including myself) remains, so I will be considering them as I go through and review a number of these “71-Key” keyboards.

The Origin of “71-Key” Keyboards?

In 2016 GMK brought together a group of enthusiasts to design a new keyboard. What they came up with was known as the GMK Uniqey C70.

GMK Uniqey C70

While the C70 bears the major distinction of the characteristics that I use to discern a 71-Key Layout:

• The right shift has been reduced to 1.75U from it's customary 2.75U
• To the right of the right shift key is the Fn key.
• The Menu key is still on the right side between the Alt and Ctrl keys.
• The Windows key has been reduced to 1U.
• The Uniqey C70 is QMK compatible (which the Dopokey is not).

So, basically, it would appear that the Feker Dopokey and other 71-Key Layout keyboards are a clone of the C70 with enough differences to avoid possible infringement issues. Or is it? Maybe the C70 was actually inspired by something else?

I was reading an article on Admiral shark's Keyboards about the IBM Model M4 family of keyboards (Revealed: The Story of the IBM Model M4 Family), and I was struck by the similarity of the layout:

Lexmark M4 keyboard based on the IBM M4 (photo: arkanoid)

What is interesting about this keyboard is that it was introduced by IBM in 1992. That's twenty four years before the GMK Uniqey C70 came into existence. Now, it is easy to see the differences between the IBM keyboard and the Uniqey C70, and other 71-Key Layout keyboards, but there is a key similarity. And that is the idea of reducing the navigation cluster to two columns to the right of the main keyboard. the differences between the IBM Model M4 and the C70 come down, largely, to modernizing the layout: lose the function row, rearrange the bottom row, add a few keys, and you pretty much have the same layout.

Now, I am not saying that GMK, Feker or any of the modern 71-Key keyboards copied the IBM design. However, it seems quite possible that it was the inspiration for what would become the modern 71-Key layout. If nothing else, it becomes pretty clear that the concept of reducing the navigation cluster to two columns on the right side of the keyboard is not really a new idea. It's therefore more surprising to me that there is so much variance when it comes to 70% keyboards.

Under The Microscope

I mentioned a few things in the introduction to this article about these 71-key keyboards: 1. they are underrepresented, 2. they fit a specific type of user, 3. they have a range of price offerings.

Let's start with that last item. Here's a list of keyboards I will be considering in these reviews:

As you can see, the prices for these keyboards vary from $30 up to around $180. When I initially started looking at these keyboards, I was interested in finding pre-built keyboards that I thought would make good platforms for modding. With that in mind, my initial target price was $50 (USD). With that in mind we have five keyboards that are in that price range (including the Redragon, even though it's a little over the target price). That makes them fit the initial concept that I had in mind.

However, as I kept searching, I found three priced between $50 and $100. Those seem to me to be keyboards that most people will want to know how usable they are out of the box. IE, are they worth it to use as a daily driver without heavy modding?

Finally, there are three in the over $100 price range. The thing about these keyboards is that they are all kits. They don't come with switches or key caps. So, if you are going to consider them you really need to know if it's worth it to put another $100 dollars into them.

So, why do I think these are underrepresented in the market? Well, looking at a website like Keybumps they list over 370 mechanical keyboards (which I'd say is less than ten percent of the overall market, but it's still a decent number of keyboards), and of those only six are “%70 layout” keyboards, and those six include models like the Skyloong SK71, which isn't a keyboard that I would consider in this round up. Another way to look at this is based on Keybumps database, the 71-key style keyboards have only about 1.5% representation in the market.

Amazon has roughly the same number of entries as Keybumps, but only three of these keyboards were acquired through Amazon. Now, we could go through Banggood and AliExpress (where I did find many of these keyboards), but it's fairly difficult to get good statistics from them. And, of course, this doesn't take into account any of the keyboard specialty retailers like KDBFans, Keyboards.com, Drop, etc. If you take them into consideration, I suspect the percentage that 71-key layout keyboards represents would be lower.

I've also stated that I believe these are a good fit for specific type of user. Those users fall into a couple of different profiles. First are the users that do a lot of text editing who need to have the navigation and editing cluster on their keyboard, and don't want it to be on a secondary layer. Most of them would be likely to use a TKL type of keyboard. However, in some cases they might find it more useful to have more compact layout without sacrificing the major functionality they need (I know this one extremely well as I am writing for several different websites, this is my main focus).

The other would be people might have to do a mixture of things. IE they do a fair amount of writing, but they also do things where they need to have other input devices available, so a more compact keyboard helps them by making more space available. Think of musicians that need to have a MIDI keyboard or a mixer as part of their setup, or CAD developers that might have track balls and touch pads, or video editors with their controllers. All of these are cases where having extra space is useful, but having that space without sacrificing some of the keyboard functionality might be more useful.

How Do I Review Them?

So, you might ask: if there are so many different cases for these keyboards (ie, modders, typists, content / media work, etc.) how do I review them?

This is a question I've struggled to answer. It seems easy to say that the first thing to look at is the features offered by each keyboard. Some of them might be more useful just based on having, say, blue tooth connectivity, while another might be better based on it having hot-swap switches. But these are going to be the questions that you have to answer for yourself. Is a wired keyboard that you install your own switches in better than a wireless keyboard? I can't make that decision.

However, there are things that I can look at: overall construction, included features, back lighting / RGB, etc. I can also make a judgement based on the pricing: is an $80 keyboard more than twice as good as a $30 keyboard? I can also look at some of the technical details: what types of switches are included, what firmware is in use? Does it function well in an alternative system (ie, I use linux, and some keyboards are really strange when trying to work with linux...)

So, I think the answer lies in taking each keyboard for the value that represents, and judging that value based on the included features, construction, and use ability of the keyboard.

Conclusion

If you scrolled down here looking for the TL;DR, here it is:

I fell down a rabbit hole into keyboards with a specific 71-key layout, the seems to represent less than 2% of the mechanical keyboards on the market. This layout seems to have originated with the GMK Uniqey C70, although historically the IBM M4 might be considered the grandfather of this layout.

After quite a bit of digging I managed to find a total of eleven of them. They have a wide range of prices from $30 to $200. I think they are really excellent choices for people that are in certain roles: typists, modders or content / media creation.

I plan to review all of these keyboards in a series of reviews that follows. Those reviews will focus on the keyboard itself, looking at what type of value they present at their given price point, and given their specific features.

Categories: #Review Tags: #71-key, #compact-tkl, #history, #tkl