A must have for a Tolkien fan, the board is even more beautiful than expected from the website photos. Switches felt great, I just hope the caps last forever.
All I Have Ever Wanted to Be Was a LOTR Hobbit and This Brings Me One Step Closer
So I was always hesitant about dropping 100+ on a keyboard, as I always try to get the most practical of items whenever I shop. My brother is a keyboard hobbyist, so asking his advice and understanding what and why I am buying made me take the leap,
And I never want to look back,
The craftsmanship of this keyboard is absolutely divine and as I type away on this keyboard for this review, every click brings me such joy,
Its so wonderful seeing the elvish keycaps, even though I understand none of the characters, it delivers such a beautiful aesthetic, and is pleasing to look at. While the keycaps are dominated by the elvish letters, there are still small English letters. An experienced typist will have no issue working around this, and even an amateur will be able to reorient. This key set will definitely make you a better typist, as it will make you rely heavier on your instinct, but thats not why you get a keyboard like this,
You get a keyboard like this because you love Lord of The Rings and marathon the movies once a year in cozy blankets, and yell with glory when the Riders of Rohan answer Gondor's call,
Its a purchase I doubt you will regret, and even though the switches are soldered in and not hot swappable, the Pandas are fantastic, although might be louder for those folks who like it quiet. They arent Cherry Reds, but you can definitely hear them.
Also these could definitely benefit from a bit of lube, but being an amateur I dont feel confident enough to do this yet,
Overall, if you are a LOTR fan, I would 100% recommend this ,
A side note, alot of the SHIFT Functions arent listed on the Keycaps, so it will require you to pull some of them from memory (Like exclamation marks and parenthesis) but honestly I wouldn't have this any other way, as I feel it would take away from how pretty this keyboard is.
I have some issues, but let me start by saying this keyboard is very pretty, reasonable enough in price, and feels good. That said, nitpicks:
An option for english legends with elvish sublegends would be very welcome for those who aren't touch typists - not knowing for sure that he was increased the risk of the gift not working out. Conversely I think an option with either no english legends or entirely side printed legends would be great for a cleaner look.
I think the orange accent keys look significantly more saturated and a little mismatched relative to the green keys than in the photos.
The sound is... Decent. Pretty pingy, but not intolerably so. Fairly loud, louder than is my preference - maybe a 7/10 on the loudness scale for non-clicky boards. Stabilizers were really quite good on my unit, though.
Hotswappable switches or switch options would be good.
Lastly, just a matter of personal taste, the keycap profile didn't really do it for me. I found the edge of these to be uncomfortably harsh/sharp, particular the edge closest to the typist, and far preferred my cherry keycaps.
You could do better for the price for a keyboard, but not a LotR themed one - if you want that theming, this is a solid choice (fortunately, since it's the only choice I know of!)
It’s a challenge typing on it for the first little while. Keycaps hug your fingers nicely. Kinda loud which isn’t amazing but I got the keyboard for aesthetic reasons mainly.
Beware of shipping to Canada, had to pay an extra fee at the post office. I paid almost as much in shipping and fees as I did for the keyboard.
The switches on this keyboard are not hot swappable. Nowhere in the description does it tell you this. I bought great switches to do a keyboard build and can’t use them now. I’m so disappointed, I wish I never bought this keyboard. For this price, I can’t believe it is not hot swappable and they don’t even tell you.
To those shipping to the UK: beware, because they use a really annoying distributor, meaning the customs tax for this is ridiculously high (additional £35 you will have to pay when it enters UK). Best keyboard I ever saw, but shame I had to pay my life savings for it.
I really like the keyboard, but beware: It does not come with the white coil cable that the images show, but rather come with a standard USB-C to USB-A cable. The coil cable is an item you have to buy separately...