Varmilo VB87M Bluetooth Keyboard Reviews | Drop

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Varmilo VB87M Bluetooth Keyboard

Mech Keys

FULL DISCUSSION

andreucci

Feb 18, 2021

Verified Buyer

This is the best keyboard I owned so far

I am going against the grain here, but I feel like sharing my experience with the almighty Varmilo VB87M. It's been a story filled with drama, that is for sure, but after so much fighting I can say it was pretty worth it. To everybody complaining about Bluetooth: I feel you. I have been struggling with the connection for most of the time, I had a dual boot Windows/Hackintosh and you can imagine how pleasant was re-pairing the keyboard every time. I found out that WiFi/BT interaction was the problem: the keyboard is very sensitive to other 2.4 GHz signals, sometimes they fuck it up. So I decided to take action. After sticking to Windows (macOS is going to shit anyway) and buying a proper WiFi/BT card (an Asus AX58BT), I can tell you that this keyboard never felt smoother. Repeated keys, sudden disconnection, signal degradation, all gone. The culprit in this mess is surely the poor support of the keyboard, but another big responsibility is for the BT driver: get a full fledged, well supported BT adapter, whether it's a USB stick or a PCI-e adapter, just get a BT adapter with good drivers. I got the white frame Varmilo with light grey keys, white backlight and select wooden after market keycaps. Switches are Cherry MX Red, my favorite (although I would love to replace them with the Cherry MX Silent Red). I can tell you that every time I am typing on this beast, I feel happy. It's heavy, solid, minimal and beautiful at the same time. Keycaps are amazing, we'll never get something closer to this for a long time (try searching for aftermarket Step Sculpture 2 (SS2) low profile PBT keycap sets). I also sourced other 3 batteries identical to the one used by the VB87M, just in case of sudden battery death. This keyboard is a legend already: produced in limited quantity, production possibly ended (?) and still has a unique combination of features still not seen on other keyboards. There are no many solid, well built TKL Bluetooth keyboard, and yet the VB87M has it all:

Step-sculpture 2 low profile PBT keycaps
Cherry MX Red switches
Sturdy and heavy aluminum chassis
White backlight with static and glowing settings, with different glowing frequencies.

I recently got the Mojo60 Ember, a bloodbath to say the least: I spent almost the same amount used for the VB87M only to get a cheap, plastic, sad little keyboard. Keycaps are horrible, although it has dual mode (wired and USB), hot swap switches and connections up to three devices, all lacking in the VB87M. At this point there are two things that I regret the most:

Device selection: this is the biggest flaw of this otherwise perfect keyboard. I would have loved to switch between devices without having to go through the pairing process.
Varmilo stopped making BT keyboards: their website is full of amazing keyboards, but not a single one of them comes with BT. Big shame.

Basically I am calling on Varmilo to up the ante and start developing the next VB87M. We can start from the solid foundation of the VB87M and add:

Bluetooth 5.0 (yes, it's time)
Hot-swappable switches
Programmable RGB LED
QMK or something similar to remap keys via hardware
More choice for chassis (wood, aluminum, steel etc..)
Dual mode (wired and wireless)
Multiple devices support (3 would suffice, 5 would be awesome)
More choice for switches (definitely Silent need to be an option)
Sound dampener with different thickness (nice little touch if done right)

I would definitely give Varmilo my money if they would ever come up with a new TKL or 100%/110% full fledged Bluetooth keyboard. If you have any question hit me up, but I can tell you it's been smooth sailing since I got a proper BT driver for Windows 10.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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Etheles

Apr 14, 2021

andreucciThe VBS108 is a full-fledged, full-size Varmilo keyboard with Bluetooth 5.0. https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=7880

Apr 14, 2021

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