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hodgeac
22
Mar 15, 2017
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So, I got my keyboard yesterday but didn't had a chance to play with it until this morning. Here are my initial thoughts. I ordered the 61 key 70g with Bamboo case. Immediately out of the box 3 of my keycaps had fallen off. A good 5 or 6 additional keycaps were loose. No big deal, easy enough to press down solid on each key to make sure they were seated. I could tell instantly that there is no way these are 70g. Feels like 35g. Plugged it in and compared to my Ducky Shine Mini w/ Cherry MX Blues (50g actuation force). No comparison. I figured maybe my Corsair Strafe would be a closer comparison (45g actuation force)... First thing I noticed is how loose and wobbly the keys feel on this keyboard. If you pick up the keyboard and give it a little side to side and front and back shake the key caps wobble loudly. In fact the sound that these keys make when typing is more the loose keycap sound than anything else. The second thing I noticed was the bamboo end grain is slightly rough, the individual bamboo layers are mostly well glued together with a couple of small areas near the USB cut out that appear to be separating. There is also a dime sized red smudge near the top left corner of the case (on the edge). This smudge doesn't easily wipe off, I'd likely need to use sandpaper to remove it. Lastly on the cosmetic front is the XMIT logo on the back of the keyboard is not consistently engraved. The top of the logo is much darker than the bottom. This is clearly a laser alignment issue. As far as actual use goes, when typing, the keys feel loose toward the top and tight toward the bottom of travel. Also, the keys bottom out on every keystroke in an unpleasant way. I'm typing this right now on a Corsair Strafe with Cherry MX Reds and switching back and forth between the XMIT and this. The Red switches on the Corsair Strafe have a 45g actuation force and feel significantly heavier than the "70g" supposedly installed in my XMIT. The last issue I have is the font used on the key caps is pretty terrible in person. I'm just not a fan. I am a big fan of the way the lighting looks with the white keys though. When set to constant solid white backlight, it looks great. So, fit and finish isn't great. No technical issues with they keyboard at this point and no severe mechanical issues either. Hopefully I won't have sticking keys, but I don't imagine I'll probably use this keyboard much anyway. It just doesn't feel like a quality product and while I was hoping to replace the Strafe with it, I'll probably just end up with a Poker II instead.
Mar 15, 2017
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