Recommendation for Mechanical Keyboard with ABS Black Keycaps

Introduction

In 2015, the rise of domestic mechanical keyboard switches have injected new strength to the ancient keyboard industry. With the emergence of TTC, Kaihua, Guantai, Gaot, Gateron and other brands, the keyboard switch market has blossomed. More and more manufacturers and brands began to enter the field of keyboard manufacturing, mechanical keyboard market competition become more and more fierce. In order to compete for users, but also in order to survive the cutthroat competition, some brands have started a price war. The price of mechanical keyboard has been reduced from 399 yuan to 299 yuan.

Recently, some brands even began to launch mechanical keyboards with a retail price of only 99 yuan. Although the most cost-saving 87 keys without backlight design is generally adopted, the manufacturer’s profit margin is almost negligible if the purchase cost of the switch body switch, circuit board, housing and wire screw and other accessories, transportation and after-sales costs are taken into account, With such a low price, manufacturers have little profit to speak of.

As the ancient saying goes, you can’t sell what you buy. Profit is the nature of doing business, and the cost of making a product is determined by its final retail price. 99 yuan mechanical keyboard, feel and quality, and other price mechanical keyboard is there a significant difference? Brought by such a low price, whether it is “let benefit the people” or “disposable FMCG”, today let us through the design, workmanship, materials and feel of four aspects, lead you to quickly understand the 100 yuan mechanical keyboard.

Comparison for ABS Black Keyboard

Since what we compare are budget mechanical keyboard, and ABS is the mot cost effective material for keycaps. So the keyboards we compared all use black ABS plastic to make the keycaps.

The products of coverd in this review are “Nimoso K005 87-key mechanical keyboard”, “Lingyi Black Widow 87-key keyboard”, “Ruyi Bird 104-key keyboard” and “Ling Bao Mechanic Division (note that Ling Bao mechanic division rather than Ling Bao Mechanic) 87-key mechanical keyboard” and other four products, which will be 100 yuan level mechanical keyboard on the market. Let’s quickly move on to design comparison. Considering the complexity of mold design and assembly, the mechanical keyboards in this review all use the suspension key without a frame design. But in terms of details, there are some differences between different products.

Among the four 100-line mechanical keyboards reviewed in this review, Nimoso K005 87-key mechanical keyboard and Lingyi Black Widow 87-key mechanical keyboard are both made with the American layout of 87-key layout. Simplifying the design of the small keyboard can not only reduce the production cost, but also leave more space for the mouse operation of the players’ right hand. The only downside is that players have to endure the inconvenience of not having a small keyboard.

The Ruyi Bird 104 key mechanical keyboard and Ling Bao Organ Division 87 key keyboard are made of similar European layout, although there is no standard European layout brought by Y/Z interchange, short shift and other problems. However, the “\” key position change and the 7-shape carriage return design are still influenced by the mainstream American layout users, and it takes time for players to change their usage habits to adapt.

Ruyi Bird 104 key keyboard is also the only product using 104 key design in this review. Compared with other products using 87 key design, it will not make users feel the inconvenience caused by the lack of small keyboard.

However, it should be noted that Nimoso K005 87-key mechanical keyboard and Ling Bao Machine Division 87-key keyboard products have the problem of too close spacing between the keys in the functional area (that is, the F-zone is often said). The spacing between the functional area and the primary key area of the common keyboard is generally about 7mm, while the spacing between the functional area and the primary key area of the Nimoso K005 87-key mechanical keyboard and the Lingbao organ Division 87-key mechanical keyboard is only 4mm. This change in distance does not have as much impact on the player’s actions as far F, but it does have an impact on the player’s usage and familiarity.

Summary of Design comparison:

Out of the consideration of production cost, 75% of the four 100-yuan mechanical keyboards reviewed in this review are designed with 87 key layout. In addition to saving the cost of 18 switch switches, PCB boards and other raw materials will also have corresponding savings. Therefore, many low-price mechanical keyboards are designed with 87 key to save costs. Of course, for non-professional gamers, the lack of a small keyboard will make players feel a certain amount of inconvenience in daily use.

Keycaps of the Four Keyboard

The Ruyi Bird 104 key mechanical keyboard is the only one in this review with 104 key full-size design products, but its use of the imitation European layout, it will still cause some inconvenience for players to use (of course, if you got used to use the class layout of the keyboard this won’t be a problem). As for the personality design, it is all zero. Except for the combined multimedia shortcut keys and the backlight function of the 104-key keyboard of the Ruyi Bird, the four products in this review have no complex functions. The ultra-low price of the 100-yuan keyboard only provides the most basic functions for players.

Due to the cost constraints caused by the retail price, the design of the 100-dollar mechanical keyboard is very ordinary. In terms of the workmanship details, will it bring the feeling of value for the player? Which parts will make we feel that it is worthy for 100 yuan. Don’t worry, let’s start with the key caps which are quiet important for players.

The Nimoso K005 87-key mechanical keyboard cap is of standard OEM height and is made of black ABS material. The surface characters are processed by laser etching process. However, for some reason, the manufacturer has also bolded the letters and key characters in the primary key area, resulting in two different fonts on one set of key caps, which looks very inconsistent.

It must be said that the mold accuracy of Nimoso K005 87 key mechanical keyboard is disappointing. When the keyboard was received, the right side of the left Shift key collapsed, resulting in the key stuck and unable to be used normally. After pressing the left position of the space bar, the right satellite switch of the space bar will be removed, resulting in the key warped. These problems caused by the precision of the keycap mold will have a huge impact on the player’s daily use.

The Lingyi Black Widow 87 key mechanical keyboard is made of black ABS material, silver panel and black key cap, looking very Chinese (panda color). The keycap characters are made by laser etching process. The handwriting is thick, but it looks very rough. The key of the keyboard uses the satellite switch structure design, the key feel is obviously partial meat.

Due to the backlight design, Ruyi Bird 104 key mechanical keyboard key cap using ABS material two-color injection process, although the same will oil, but does not drop the word. However, the characters on the keyboard are noticeably grayish in color, making the keyboard look dirty. The use of the satellite switch makes the Ruyi bird 104 key mechanical keyboard large keys feel the same soft.

Next is the 87-key mechanical keyboard of Ling Bao Machine Division. The four corners of the key cap are designed with four small bumps. Although it can remind players to put their fingers in the most comfortable position in the center of the keycap, it may also bring discomfort to players. The key character font character is processed by laser etching technology, but the color of the character surface is different, showing irregular cracking. Although it doesn’t seriously affect the overall appearance of the keyboard, it still feels a little rough on closer inspection.

In addition, it has to be said that the 87 key mechanical keyboard of Ling Bao is the only one that uses the shrunk version of the balance bar structure design of the large keys in the four hundred yuan level mechanical keyboards. Due to the cancellation of the traditional “dragon boat/dragon bean” structure, coupled with the low processing precision of the key cap, you can hear the “splash” sound when the balance pole is shaking by tapping the key, accompanied by obvious frame dynamics.

Of course, in addition to the rough work on the key cap, the four hundred yuan mechanical keyboard also showed some other problems, such as the Ruyi bird 104 key mechanical keyboard indicator LED light, is directly from an opaque black cover on the hollow part of the LED light, the normal use of the user is easy to directly see the hollow out of the harsh light.

There are Ruyi bird 104 key mechanical keyboard and Ling Bao organ division 87 key mechanical keyboard two products, although the foot support is reserved for non-slip rubber paste, but there is no paste non-slip rubber. When the foot is open, you can feel a significant decrease in grip, and the keyboard will slide when the fingers are slightly pressed during gaming.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The hundred-yuan mechanical keyboard is not only rough in the work performance of the details such as the indicator light and foot support, but also difficult to be satisfactory in the processing of the shell mold. Even if the key cap is such an important position that will affect the player’s visual and tactile feelings, the hundred-yuan mechanical keyboard is still difficult to give satisfactory performance. Nimoso K005 87 key mechanical keyboard collapse loose key cap, Ling Yi Black widow 87 key mechanical keyboard panda color, Ruyi bird 104 key mechanical keyboard gray font, and Ling Bao machine division 87 key mechanical keyboard clang balance bar. Players buy keyboards to use, not to cultivate their minds.

After reading the design and workmanship, I believe you must be interested in the internal materials of the four 100-yuan mechanical keyboard. The keyboard can achieve such a cheap price, and those things are used. Below, let’s carefully understand these four products by dismantling them.

Nimoso K005 87 key mechanical keyboard panel made of plastic material, due to the uneven paint edge left obvious imprint. Confirm that the Nimoso K005 87 key mechanical keyboard panel is made of plastic by grinding the surface

Let’s start with the keyboard panel. Although the metal panel has become the standard feature in the hover keyboard bezel-less keyboard, there are always those who do not follow the pattern. The matte material panel used in the Nimoso K005 87 key mechanical keyboard panel is a plastic material that has been spray-painted. Due to the rough painting process, the edge of the keyboard panel has left a ring of extremely obvious impression.

Lingyi Black Widow 87 key mechanical keyboard panel is steel after a long time of use will inevitably appear paint corrosion problem. Although Lingyi Black Widow 87 key mechanical keyboard uses metal panel, but its panel is steel, surface paint layer wear will inevitably appear rust phenomenon. The 104-key mechanical keyboard panel is fine, but the keyboard switch body is made of two different colors of plastic, blue and green. Although the suspension key mechanical keyboard usually uses the panel directly as the switch body fixed plate, but such a design requires higher metal processing precision of the panel, the use of plastic to make the switch body fixed plate is much simpler.

Summary

The most attractive part of mechanical keyboard, is no different from a variety of black tea red white green grey milk switch body brought by rich feel and long service life. For 100 yuan level mechanical keyboard we naturally can’t expect it to have as long as tens of millions of times of life. Consider testing the 100 yuan mechanical keyboard players, most of them are to buy to try the feel, if the feeling is good and then consider the mainstream keyboard.

The four hundred yuan keyboards reviewed this time all use ABS black plastic and green switch, but for the reason of cost, all give up the Cherry MX green switch that highly respected by veteran players. The mechanical keyboard used by the Nimoso K005 87 keys has a crisp feel and a distinct sense of paragraph, although it is typical of the green switch. However, the feel of the whole keyboard is completely random. The trigger pressure varies from light to heavy. Some keys feel slightly lighter and sound slightly less, while some keys feel slightly heavier and sound slightly louder.