Varmilo

Story of Varmilo

Shenzhen Zhihaihe Technology Co., Ltd. has its own brand “Varmilo”. Their mechanical keyboard belongs to the middle and high-end keyboard in the domestic market, among which there are many of our unique technology, as well as international brands. Varmilo Amillo can be found in the mechanical keyboard market at both domestic and inernational market. The purpose of their independent products is to create exclusive equipment with craftsman spirit. The second business Division is the agent of processing equipment and quality control equipment related to automobile and home appliance wiring harness processing plants. Recently independent research and development of a “harness pressure networking management system” has gain the industry’s unanimous praise. This system is consistent with the “Made in China 2025” and “Internet +” ideas proposed by “Industry 4.0” advocated in the industrial field, which has a very broad prospect.

Varmilo Limited Version Mechanical Keyboard ( Year of Dog)

Design and Details

Varmilo’s mechanical keyboard shell itself is made of metal, but it adds some realistic wood textures under the metal material to create a unique appearance design. In addition, the “Year of Dog Valentine” themed keycap also fits the theme very well. For example, the most eye-catching is the space bar printed with Korean “I love you” and four cute dogs, and the ESC key, the carriage return key are printed with love elements, such as Cupid and hearts.

Above the numeric keyboard, there are shortcut keys for music player, mail, calculator and this computer respectively. Considering that these functions are frequently used by most users, physical keys make it more convenient to open these related applications. In terms of features, Varmilo’s Year of the Dog Valentine’s Day limited the mechanical keyboard to support multiple keypads/locks for Windows keys, which can effectively prevent miscontact, which is good for gamers.

Lighting

Not every key on the Varmilo mechanical keyboard has a separate backlight. Only special keys such as Num Lock and CapsLock on the numeric keypad are backlit. And since the Varmilo mechanical keyboard’s keycaps are opaque, Therefore, the brightness of the light source of these independent luminous keys is relatively general. Especially in the environment with sufficient light. Careful observation is needed to see the status indicator.

The mechanical keyboard for Valentine’s Day limited by Varmilo this time is equipped with the “Silver Switch” newly launched by Cherry. When I first touch the mechanical keyboard of Silver Switch, the press experience brought to me by Silver Switch is like a feeling of flying water. Silver Switch, as a Cherry MX mechanical Switch with only 1.2mm trigger path, is the lightest one at present. You might even think it doesn’t feel like a click at all, but that also means that the silver Switch is working at a lower noise level than the other switches.

Use Experience

Considering that everyone’s preference for mechanical keyboard will be different, if you like to click with more relaxation, and take into account the use of games and typing needs, and the pursuit of low noise in office, then silver switch is a good choice. But if you’re looking for the crisp, clicky tapping feel of a traditional mechanical keyboard, choosing the red, Green and Tea versions.

The Varmilo keyboard features a button-free design at the bottom of the keyboard, and seven non-slip pads are specially designed at the bottom to improve the anti-slip performance. The Varmilo Year of the Dog Valentine’s Day Limited mechanical keyboard also has an adjustable tripod design on the bottom, but only supports one Angle adjustment.

Keycap

In terms of key caps, Varmilo Year of Dog Valentine’s Day limited mechanical keyboard selected frosted texture PBT key caps, which feels good, and it can avoid key cap oil situation after using a period of time.

This product can only win on features. Varmilo is a brand that walks between mass-produced keyboard and customized keyboard. The main highlight of this Varmilo Valentine’s Day limited mechanical keyboard is its personalized shell and key cap design. The standard Cherry axis can also fundamentally ensure its reliability and quality.

Summary

Finally, I’ll put together some of the things that the Varmilo keyboard needs to improve. First, it uses an old mini USB port. Second: special buttons under the backlight light can be better. Third, It is not fully compatible with the Mac OS. In addition, the Varmilo Year of Dog Valentine’s Day limited mechanical keyboard overall gives a good overall experience. If you can live with these shortcomings and love the design, then the Varmilo Year of the Dog Valentine’s Day limited mechanical keyboard is a good choice.

Varmilo 60% Mechanical Keyboard (VA68M)

For people who have to type a lot of words and numbers, I don’t have much love for the 60% keyboard in daily use. The lack of a digital area, arrow keys and function keys is a problem for work efficiency, and the portability and playability of the combination of functions brought by the small size is not of much practical significance to me personally. But the truth is that some people’s desire for these keyboards is particularly obvious, for no other reason than that the variety is numerous and fascinating.

Because of its small size and the acceptability of its target audience, the 60% keyboard is often surprising in terms of design thinking and breakthrough, especially compared to the traditional 87 and 104 size keyboard “unruly”. For example, GH60 and various derivative versions are powerful in combining functions and lighting effects, as well as the practical significance and sentimental value brought by TEX Yoda’s little red dot. Don’t forget the QWERKYWRITER who has attracted a lot of attention with his retro styling design and detailed design for mobile devices.

And this time the main character is also quite special. As an upgrade product, the Varmilo VA68M has been comprehensively improved in materials, functions and keys, bringing better user experience and improved practicality.

Packing accessories

There’s not much to say about the packaging design, the Varmilo features as usual. I liked the simplicity of the thick brown paper with the label information on the side. It is clearly industrial and engineer. It doesn’t look like much, but the actual hard cost is pretty high. Because the Varmilo VA68M is made of metal, the interior is made of a thick sponge, which is essential for protection.

In the random accessories is quite interesting, rich to say conscience. Varmilo VA68M comes with a warranty card, a data cable and a key extractor. The key extractor is a steel wire extractor, which is undoubtedly much more useful than the current types of diaos extractor or no equipment at all. The attached thermal sublimation caps and side penetration directional keys naturally bring better playability, but not necessarily suitable for personal liking from the style design. All in all, the Varmilo VA68M accessory can even be a feature selling point when compared with other brands.

Design Features

The Varmilo VA68M retains the independent D-pad setting and makes the key position more mainstream through position shifting. The length of the right Shift key is 2.75X, which is for ease of changing the key cap. In addition, the function key in the upper right corner added with page up/down function, which is more practical. If Varmilo takes a step further to add custom features, it would be much more useful.

The biggest change to the Varmilo VA68M, apart from key and functional changes, is the metal body. Although the other advantage of 60% keyboard is portability, there is no wireless Bluetooth support for me, so the metal body is more because of the trend and texture needs. After all, no one will refuse better material and texture performance. The metal Varmilo VA68M lives up to the price, with its angular lines, delicate sandblasting and mini USB handling.

There are not many products that use metal body design or selling point, but the Varmilo VA68M is more special, or the polish in the details is more obvious. From the broad meaning and user-friendly bare switch design mechanical keyboard, to the thousand yuan  of custom suite, its tripod is basically made of plastic material or no tripod this setting. Although the practical significance of this detail is almost nothing to mention, but it can feel the strict requirements of the product, and the time and cost of this detail is relatively high.

Internal dismantling

If you decide to use metal body, what can be done to minimize the difficulty and cost of manufacturing? There is no doubt that streamlining design details and reducing the need for processing. Compared with the combination of the upper and lower cover of the traditional mechanical keyboard, the setting of the streamlining design not only reduces the design details and processing part, but also avoids the precision problem of the combination of the upper and lower cover. In short, it is to save money and time, and is also very suitable for the setting of 60% keyboard.

The Varmilo VA68M was originally designed in this way. Keep the D-keys in Leopold FC660M position with the right PShift, and then move the upper right function keys to the left. This completely minimizes the time and need of the top cover processing, which saves money. Of course, compared with the current retail version of the design, the visual effect is much less, and the non-mainstream key is still difficult to change the key cap, so the final solution is the current retail version.

Of course, as a mass-produced product, the Varmilo VA68M has to be somewhat detailed, or “shrunk-down,” compared to custom products that can easily cost more than a thousand dollars per case. In the invisible part that is the inside of the shell, naturally there is not much careful design and treatment. After all, most people can not see here after buying home, saving money is quite reasonable.

Varmilo VA68M uses metal tripod. Although the text on that surface seems exaggerated, requires high time cost, and is difficult to develop and design. The actual cost naturally feels quite good. To put it bluntly, the metal material is used, and the corresponding buckle and fastener remain stable.

It is also interesting to look at the setting of the positioning board. The whole board adopts slightly mirrored brushed lines, which makes the exquisite feeling improved a little. It also makes the beautiful PCB parts and structure divergence after the lighting effect is turned on, which still maintains the excellent performance of Varmiolo.

User Experience

In terms of keycaps, the Varmilo VA68M continues its traditional strength of offering a wealth of custom services, which can be seen in the random accessories. Varmilo VA68M does not follow the current trend of using ABS two-color forming keycaps, but still uses its own mold. In terms of process and mold accuracy performance, Varmilo VA68M obviously has more advantages. In the character process, it currently provides the choice of radium carving and thermal sublimation character process. But for the PBT material key cap, the thickened design makes the feel less crisp, and the personal preference would be higher.

When I first saw the engineering prototypes of the two design schemes of Varmilo VA68M, I had no feelings or even favorable feelings. On the one hand, the key layout, detail design and texture of the Leopold FC660M is something that I really like and even consider classic. The changes to the Varmilo VA68M is great for user experience. On the other hand, the engineering prototypes of the time and the workmanship is quite worthy.

Summary

By chance and history, Varmilo’s early products were distinctly Leopold, which kept them under an invisible ceiling. From the determination to feature custom services, Varmilo use metal and Cherry MX rare switch and to enhance the brand value, including the highlight of the ultra-thin design of the Varmilo VA87M. These improvements are reflected in the Varmilo VA68M.The whole design thinking, the use of materials, and the control of details all show the progress of Varmilo brand. It’s true that the Varmilo VA68M’s lighting effects can be further improved, but I was still surprised by its comprehensive capabilities.