AZIO Retro Compact Keyboard (R.C.K.) Discussions | Drop

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AZIO Retro Compact Keyboard (R.C.K.)

Feb 6, 2019

Just got this. Here are my thoughts.

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.

Included wrist rest is nice. Slightly concerned that the carved out logo is going to collect random gunk and be a pain to clean.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

(Edited)

Feb 6, 2019