dont be fooled folks - it is all plastic no matter what this page says. I have this one and others. It's not at all worth $220, or $180. I would feel fine paying about $60 or $ 80. But at $180, there should be metal, more reliable parts, and better sounding keys. The keys are cool but not ideal. For the premium price, there is much to be desired.
eagle0047Where did you buy your Azio keyboard from and which one is it that you have? For a typewriter style keyboard we can not find a better product than this one.
Important note here: The keys on these keyboards are custom to the keyboard, so not easily replaced, and rather than being double-injection molded, they're just clear plastic painted over with black. I've had the larger Azio Retro for under a year now, and already had to have several keys replaced. They've offered to replace the ones that have worn out since, but I've gone through 2 C-keys in less than a year, so I've pretty much given up.
These keys are absolutely atrocious, and not meant to last. If you really want a typewriter keyboard, this is the best one I've found, but overall, not worth the $220, or even the $190, in my opinion.
RSF_DeusThe lack of gaps/directly inline with the number keys F keys are one of the reasons why I love this layout so much and finding other good keyboards like that have been a real issue after getting a choc mini years ago.
Very heavy, feels solid. Keys are definitely heavy.
layout takes some time getting used to. It’s basically a laptop layout. I have a tendency to hit the eject/Bluetooth pairing key when hitting backspace.
The switches feel pretty consistent across the board. There is some keycap wobble but it’s nothing serious.
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Included wrist rest is nice. Slightly concerned that the carved out logo is going to collect random gunk and be a pain to clean.
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Also wish the metal trim was one piece or was better colour matched
The lighting is ok. They do a little dance when you turn on the keyboard. A couple keys aren’t fully lit up (the “0” and right “ALT/OPT” key).
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The escape/battery key is dimmer than the rest. Probably because it’s sharing the light hole (I think that’s the technical term) with a red led that lights up during charging.
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The fit and finish is inconsistent. Some of the screws aren’t flush with the metal trim and most of the keycaps aren’t centred but I can deal with it. The V key is very off-centre and annoys me a lot.
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Also some of the printing/engraving is brighter on some keys and darker on others (you can tell from Massdrop’s photos too). The “S” key is clearly darker than the “W”, “D”, and etc.
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The included USB cable is braided and not too stiff, which is nice, but the main type C connector is embedded so not all 3rd party cables will fit.
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There is a bottom hatch that gives access to the battery and an additional type C connector (I don’t know what it’s for but you can’t seem to charge from it yet you can turn on the keyboard through that port even if the connectivity slider is set to “OFF”). I opened the bottom because I thought it would be a place where you could store some of the extra parts when you didn’t need them. The spare window keycaps (the keyboard came out of the box with Mac keycaps) are located in a tray at the very bottom of the box.
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The way to connect the keyboard isn’t very intuitive. You have to first select the module with fn+1 (to 3), then hold fn+eject until it blinks slower then connect. I think hardware buttons like the PC/Mac switch would make it easier to use.
I’m overall a bit disappointed. The overall look and feel isn’t bad but it doesn’t stand up to closer inspection. Or it’s just poor QC.
First off, this switch here is nothing like any Thorpie switch that was ever made. The clicks are too real whilst any Thorpie is still much like any other membrane switch (sorry to insult Thorpie die-hards).
Buckling Spring (both Model-Ms and Fs) is too harsh to make a direct comparison with this model of switch.
If you ever tried a BOX switch I would guess these are between Kailh Navy and Whites. Not as firm as the Navy's but neither is it the same as the BOX Whites. More like a happy medium between the two.