mechanical keyboard

All posts tagged mechanical keyboard

Drop X The Lord of the Rings – Black Speech Edition

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/06/2025
Posted in: Hardware, Linux, Mac, PC Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s time to move on. I have used “gamer” or gaming keyboards since I started PC gaming back in 2009. Once I had adult money, I could buy the keyboards I wanted. I have had quite a few over time, and there was always something off about them. They either feature a gimmick that causes their price to be a “premium” price or they lack something somewhere. My last gaming keyboard was a Logitech G915, which I’m thrilled with; however, I don’t quite like the keys too much despite how clicky they are. My last-ditch effort was trying the latest offerings from Razer and SteelSeries, but I’m at a point in which RGB just isn’t a priority for keyboards anymore. I’m a touch typist; I always have been. I learned to type in the 3rd grade in computer class. I rarely look down at my keyboard unless I’m using a key I seldom use. My first custom keyboard was the 8bitdo NES keyboard, and I added my own switches and did a tape mod. That was my gateway keyboard for custom keyboards. The pre-manufactured gaming keyboards just lack any kind of personality or customization, even the newest keyboards that allow switch swapping.

I love The Lord of the Rings. I loved the books as a teenager and was enamored by the movies growing up as a kid. When I saw this collaboration, I felt it was time to switch over to custom keyboards. While the ENTR housing is Drop’s entry-level non-hot swappable switch entry, you can still tell there was effort and quality put into the keyboard. If this is your first keyboard, the loud ping won’t bother you, as there is no pre-installed foam. I had to personally open the keyboard up myself and do a tape mod at the bottom of the bottom plate to reduce the loud ping. Although the switch stabilizers come pre-lubed, the quality of the lube is not optimal. I had to purchase my own and squeeze some down, but overall the stabilizers weren’t squeaky and felt good. Disassembling the keyboard presents a significant challenge. After removing all the caps, I had to undo 16 Torx screws, and the plastic faceplate required further removal. You need a guitar pick to loosen the edges and have to wiggle the center clips loose. Regrettably, the soldered nature of all the switches makes swapping them a laborious task. You’re better off just taking these caps and putting them on another keyboard, but this is an entry-level keyboard. It’s for beginners.

The keyboard’s backlighting surprised me. It does not advertise this anywhere on the box. These LEDs face north and have an off-white color. You can adjust the light or turn it off, making it visually pleasing. I found the Holy Panda X switches pretty satisfying. The keyboard profile is Cherry MX, and I found the keycaps to have quite a pleasing “bowl” shape, feeling them as my fingers were able to be pretty recessed in each key. Sadly, I do have to knock the keyboard down a bit for the loud pinging and no sound dampening. For $200, it should have had this pre-installed. I also found the standard USB-C cable to be pretty lame. The matching YC8 cable would have been nice, as it was available on the website. There is also a matching wooden wrist rest, which I picked up. I sincerely wish they had included this, considering the rest costs only $40. An entire full set would have been great. They also have the artisan keycaps matching each version of the LOTR set.

As for the way the keyboard looks, it’s gorgeous. The Black Speech symbols and typeface on the keys with the English version in small print on the bottom right side of the cap just look outstanding. The keyboard comes with optional accent caps that are red, ; unless you want an all-grey keyboard, these are a must. The addition of Sauron’s Eye to the faceplate near the arrow keys is a delightful touch. I matched this with a desk mat that complemented it, and the result is a sleek and elegant appearance. Drop did an amazing job with this keyboard in both the color scheme and the design of the caps themselves.

For the price, I would have at least expected sound dampening and a better USB cable. The keyboard is also not wireless, so don’t expect that. I did love the weight and feel of this keyboard. It’s not large and oversized like many “gaming” keyboards that are TKL. The bottom of the keyboard features a flip-out stand that allows it to be raised slightly at the back. I would have liked a two-step stand, as it may be too high for some. However, the gorgeous design of the keycaps and faceplate are just phenomenal and if you are a big LOTR fan than you can’t go wrong with this keyboard.

Razer BlackWidow V4 PRO 75%

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/05/2025
Posted in: Hardware, Linux, Mac, PC Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I took a long break from Razer products for a while. Razer’s quality has gone downhill over the years, and not to mention, their Synapse software has become bloated, buggy, and just plain awful. I only ever owned three Razer mice, and one was my first ever gaming mouse back in 2009. That mouse in question was the original Naga MMO. I also had the Razer Mamba 2012 and Ouroboros. They all had issues with the laser causing drift, the material wore down fast, and the Teflon feet became uneven in less than a year. I never went with a Razer mouse again. I then tried a headset, Man O’ War (awful after a few weeks), a keyboard, Blackwidow Chroma V2 (not too bad), and I was just never pleased with them. There’s something always off about Razer that just feels icky. If the product works fine out of the box, then the software has issues. If you don’t have software issues, you might have issues with the hardware somewhere down the road. Razer simply manufactures subpar products under the “Gamer” label and then moves on. For the insane premium price they charge, I would expect better.

To wit, I thought I’d give them another shot. At this point, I have mostly moved on from gaming keyboards, as I’m beginning to value key switch feel over aesthetics and RGB. Razer’s RGB is rather decent, and all of their products work with SignalRGB, which is a third-party RGB software I use to control everything. If SRGB doesn’t support it, I won’t use it. The OLED panel on the keyboard was very intriguing; however, I hesitate whenever gaming-branded keyboards have a gimmick. The last keybord I had with a massive gimmick was the Mad Catz Strike 5 keyboard. They are usually mostly useless or are never really supported by anyone or the community. I was also interested in the modularity of this keyboard. More mainstream gaming keyboard companies are trying to embrace the modding community, but it’s a hard community to win over. A lot of these keyboards just don’t have any personality or soul. They don’t feel unique or are too gaudy for the custom keyboard community.

As always, Razer has premium packaging; I can’t fault them there. The keyboard itself has an aluminum body and feels solid and sturdy. It feels great to type on. The switches have a nice tactility, and the foam mod inside the keyboard reduces pinging and enhances the tactile feel of the keys. The Razer Orange Tactile Mechanical Switch Gen 3s aren’t bad. You can swap the switches out for any 3 or 5 pin switches, which is really nice, but with the RGB lighting, you are limited to the type of keycaps you can use. “Backlit” or “Shine-Through” caps are not very popular. You can disassemble and mod the keyboard, but the only benefit is the Razer branding and OLED screen. If you want to take a keyboard apart and mod it, you might as well get a better moddable keyboard for a third or half the price.

The palm rest is comfortable and plush, and it is magnetic so it won’t slide around on your desk; however, I know this material will wear over time. I’d rather have a harder rubber material instead of the plush. Over time it will fade, discolor from the acid in the oil from your skin, and eventually start tearing and becoming thin. Overall, the design of the keyboard is rather standard and unordinary. It has an all-black finish with black keycaps that looks rather standard. The entire keyboard is nothing special to look at. The OLED screen will catch most people’s eyes. I couldn’t find any specs or resolution on the OLED display, but it is black and white, not color, and has minimal customization and features. What probably accounts for at least $100 of the price tag is, at best, a simple gimmick.

The OLED screen is controlled with a wheel on the side of the keyboard next to the screen that also clicks in. There is also another button below this. You can change the “screensaver” animation and swap between “apps” such as volume control, media control, system info (such as CPU and GPU temperature), keyboard info, and an audio visualizer. This isn’t very impressive given the technology we have today, and it’s an OLED screen. You’re stuck with everything Razer branded. The animation and text banners are generic and all Razer logos. GIF animations can be uploaded to the keyboard, but resolution and size limit them. The keyboard saves only 150 frames. This was the coolest part of the screen, as switching between apps like media controls and the volume got annoying. It’s faster just to use dedicated keys for that. I also could not get the keyboard to read my system info. Overall, the OLED screen is a disappointing gimmick with no support from Razer and no way to customize anything outside of a scrolling text banner and GIF animations. There’s also the battery-eating part. With the OLED screen just on 50% brightness, the keyboard’s battery didn’t last a day. I also had issues with the OLED screen syncing and working on any wireless mode. Synapse would stop syncing things and it would crash. The transfer rate is also really slow for uploading GIFs and most of the time it would time out before an upload would finish.

My biggest issue with this keyboard isn’t the overall lack of impressive features that are already present in custom keyboards. Razer claims to have invented revolutionary features. The damn thing just doesn’t work. It works best in wired mode, but Synapse 4 is an awful piece of software. This keyboard is not compatible with the more stable Synapse 3 software. The keyboard also worked fine in Bluetooth mode, but SignalRGB does not work over Bluetooth due to the bandwidth limitations, and many Synapse features are not available in Bluetooth mode. I wanted to use the keyboard in wireless mode with the 4K Hyperpolling dongle. It never worked. It would continuously disconnect every 2–3 minutes. I spent 4 hours troubleshooting this. I tried reinstalling the Synapse software, deleting all devices in device manager, different USB ports, a USB hub, USB 2.0 and 3.0, front and rear USB ports, a different computer, and updating the dongle and keyboard firmware. If you think of it, I tried it. I also don’t understand how Razer can’t just give us a normal USB dongle. You need to attach a USB cable to this device, which then dangles and flops around on the desk or behind your PC. 8000 Hz polling is also a placebo effect. No one can type that fast or needs that kind of responsiveness. Most people are fine with 1000 Hz polling. 4K is even unnecessary.

This absolute garbage driver issue caused me to return the keyboard, and the fact that this expensive OLED screen is a mere gimmick with no third-party support or seemingly any support from Razer, for that matter. Synapse 4 is also an unwieldy, bloated piece of software trying to advertise so many other Razer software apps that it has acquired. I just cannot believe that the most expensive keyboard I have ever purchased is this bad. Razer really needs to overhaul their product line, fix their software issues, and stop offering gimmicks that most people won’t care about. Sure, you can set macros on the OLED screen and keyboard, but they are unwieldy, and using keyboard commands is much faster than flicking through a screen. Additionally, the keyboard lacks color and rapidly drains the battery. Overall, just stick with whatever keyboard you currently have, as I’m sure it works much better than this overpriced monstrosity.

Pictek I-800 Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/19/2017
Posted in: Hardware, Mac, PC Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Manufacturer: Pictek Direct

Release Date: 3/24/2016

MSRP: $109.99

Well, this is a strange thing. I usually choose high-end, well-known brands over generic or start-up brands, but I needed something more simple as I’m not a macro type of person. Sure, I have a few fancy keyboards like the Roccat ISKU FX, Cyborg Strike 5, and even an Alienware keyboard, but I realized that the price hike is just for more keys than I don’t use. With Cyborg going out of business and their entire keyboard and mouse catalog havingn’t been updated in years, I decided to downsize and just go for something simple. I picked my favorite features for keyboards, and those were backlighting and great key feedback. After sorting through various keyboards on Amazon, I came across Pictek. They are a small German gaming company that is just starting up, but everyone is raving about their products, and I can see why.

When I got the box, I was a little worried. It’s just a generic blank cardboard box with two pieces of poorly fitted foam and a small fold-out piece of paper. I had to tell myself this isn’t Razer or Mad Catz, who can spend big budgets even on packaging. After picking up the keyboard, my worries went away, as it was very heavy and made of solid aluminum. The only plastic on this thing is the keys, which are awesome. The design itself is super sleek and doesn’t look low-budget. The palm rest is textured and raised off the keyboard, while there are various LEDs around the keyboard. The most important part is the keys, and they feel amazing. You would expect this type of quality from a $150 Razer or Corsair keyboard, but it isn’t any of those.

The lighting effects are awesome and better than any other keyboard I have owned. Yes, they are pre-set, but you get nine of them, and they all do awesome things. One preset will light up the whole keyboard every time you press a key, and another will make the keyboard dark, and each key you press stays lit up for just a few seconds and goes dark again. There are presets that light up keys for Call of Duty, League of Legends, and various game genres, which are just amazing. These are awesome ideas that the bigger companies haven’t thought of yet, and it’s a real shame. There is no proprietary software that can be good or bad, depending on how you see it. There is a way to set some macros, but you need the fold-out paper to figure it out. The keyboard settings are not intuitive at all, which is the only downside to this amazing product. But all of the things you would normally think have been done. Brightness settings for the backlight as well as speed, multimedia keys, and everything else are spaced nicely.

With that said, I have to give serious kudos to Pictek for being more than just another gimmicky generic keyboard company. The thing is even water-resistant, which is something you would expect from a $150 keyboard. They actually pushed out a quality keyboard with amazing lighting effects and functionality. Just don’t expect fancy packaging, software, or anything else out-of-the-ordinary that other bigger companies might do.