I wish they hadn't expanded the case with the top section and wrist rest. Being a tenkeyless space-saving design they should have just stuck with a simpler look. The plastic faux screw heads are all at weird angles and don't add anything but noise to the design. The odd raised and cut-away sections of the wrist rest are also an oddity. I don't mind the inclusion of a wrist rest but it's extremely small and the bottom edge looks like it would dig into the heels of a user's palms more than anything. The extra 1/2" of plastic above the F-key row is unnecessary and the large bump with the USB cord and NIXEUS logo reminds me of the horrible old design of Gigabyte's Windforce GPU cooler.
Basically if you're considering this keyboard just get a CM Storm QuickFire Rapid for $10-15 more and get actual Cherry MX switches.
It looks like something a budget-oriented peripherals company would try to market as a wrist rest. I agree with you though and I don't think it's doing anything other than getting in the way of using a real wrist rest.
You can get the CoolerMaster QuickFire TK with Cherry MX Brown for about $89. It is also not ten keyless, but has a combined arrow/ten-key area which is a great design, and is still space saving. Also, no extra bezel issues to be found. There is also a 'Stealth' version without lettering if you're into pissing off other people. :)
Exactly, although my Coolermaster keyboards (I have both the quickfire and quickfire TK) started squeaking a few months ago, mostly the backspace key which you use a LOT on a mechanical keyboard (there is numerous statistical proof that mechanical keyboards increase typo's, at the expensive of increased speed, so this key gets more than usual use.) I'm going to install a set of O-rings in my TK and while I'm in there, grease up the bars like Moda did with this keyboard to see if that helps!
I don't think I'd cheap out over $20 and get this over a clean-layout Cherry MX keyboard like the Coolermaster, though.
Ive have my steelseries 7g keyboard for like 5 years or something and this thing is still flawless. Extremely solid heavy well built keyboard. You could use it as a weapon and smash some 1 over the head knock em out and the keyboard would still be going. It's worth it to spend the extra money cause you basically never have to buy another keyboard again.
This nixeus keyboard has 3 design flaws... 1. Non-routable USB cable, which is surprisingly common on mechanical keyboards and disallows you to place something, like a tablet, behind the keyboard, but in front of your monitor. 2. Excessively large front protrusion that disallows use of an actual palm rest and excessively large top protrusion. 3. F keys do not have spacing and does not allow touch typing, as rare as it may be for F keys.
As an aside, I would love to see a TKL keyboard, but one that also packs in a column of macro keys to the left side, or 3~4 keys below the space bar. I like my coolermaster storm quick fire rapid, but I'd really love to have some dedicated macro keys on it, without having to buy a keyboard that consumes an excessive amount of right side desk space.
You may be interested in the Poker II. Incredibly compact (only 61 keys!), has room for DIY backlighting, top quality constructions, replaceable miniUSB connection cable, plus a customizable Pn layers (you can program macros to any key you want, and then you use PN+$KEY to access that macro).
I do believe that a lot of gamers DO like to switch out the WASD keys. The author's comment that "but more importantly as we've mentioned in numerous of articles before, it is very rare for a gamer to actually swap keycaps prior to gaming" is detrimental to the consumer as "several companies started to skip including extra keycaps in their keyboard bundles".
As a consumer that likes these key replacements, this active lobbying against them by the staff at AnandTech is somewhat disturbing. I am a fan of the site, but you should refrain from influencing the decisions of manufacturers to the detriment of your readers. Perhaps you should run a new pole as to how many people like the option of replacement key caps?
I will probably buy this keyboard and Kudos to Nixeus for including the gaming key caps!
On top of that I think must people either install them and leave them or just don't use them. to think gamers would actually switch them every time they want to play a game is silly.
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22 Comments
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NotLupus - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Damn, that's ugly.WithoutWeakness - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
I wish they hadn't expanded the case with the top section and wrist rest. Being a tenkeyless space-saving design they should have just stuck with a simpler look. The plastic faux screw heads are all at weird angles and don't add anything but noise to the design. The odd raised and cut-away sections of the wrist rest are also an oddity. I don't mind the inclusion of a wrist rest but it's extremely small and the bottom edge looks like it would dig into the heels of a user's palms more than anything. The extra 1/2" of plastic above the F-key row is unnecessary and the large bump with the USB cord and NIXEUS logo reminds me of the horrible old design of Gigabyte's Windforce GPU cooler.Basically if you're considering this keyboard just get a CM Storm QuickFire Rapid for $10-15 more and get actual Cherry MX switches.
NotLupus - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
I don't think that's a wrist rest, just a unusual, large bezel. My wrists don't rest that close to the keyboard.WithoutWeakness - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
It looks like something a budget-oriented peripherals company would try to market as a wrist rest. I agree with you though and I don't think it's doing anything other than getting in the way of using a real wrist rest.Gunbuster - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Super ugly, like someones second day in CAD class. I would not pay $30, let alone $70 for this hunk of junk.tyger11 - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
You can get the CoolerMaster QuickFire TK with Cherry MX Brown for about $89. It is also not ten keyless, but has a combined arrow/ten-key area which is a great design, and is still space saving. Also, no extra bezel issues to be found. There is also a 'Stealth' version without lettering if you're into pissing off other people. :)Samus - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Exactly, although my Coolermaster keyboards (I have both the quickfire and quickfire TK) started squeaking a few months ago, mostly the backspace key which you use a LOT on a mechanical keyboard (there is numerous statistical proof that mechanical keyboards increase typo's, at the expensive of increased speed, so this key gets more than usual use.) I'm going to install a set of O-rings in my TK and while I'm in there, grease up the bars like Moda did with this keyboard to see if that helps!I don't think I'd cheap out over $20 and get this over a clean-layout Cherry MX keyboard like the Coolermaster, though.
ctodd - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Corsair K65, Aluminum Chassis for the same amount.Laststop311 - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Ive have my steelseries 7g keyboard for like 5 years or something and this thing is still flawless. Extremely solid heavy well built keyboard. You could use it as a weapon and smash some 1 over the head knock em out and the keyboard would still be going. It's worth it to spend the extra money cause you basically never have to buy another keyboard again.meacupla - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
This nixeus keyboard has 3 design flaws...1. Non-routable USB cable, which is surprisingly common on mechanical keyboards and disallows you to place something, like a tablet, behind the keyboard, but in front of your monitor.
2. Excessively large front protrusion that disallows use of an actual palm rest and excessively large top protrusion.
3. F keys do not have spacing and does not allow touch typing, as rare as it may be for F keys.
As an aside, I would love to see a TKL keyboard, but one that also packs in a column of macro keys to the left side, or 3~4 keys below the space bar.
I like my coolermaster storm quick fire rapid, but I'd really love to have some dedicated macro keys on it, without having to buy a keyboard that consumes an excessive amount of right side desk space.
Sleepingforest - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
You may be interested in the Poker II. Incredibly compact (only 61 keys!), has room for DIY backlighting, top quality constructions, replaceable miniUSB connection cable, plus a customizable Pn layers (you can program macros to any key you want, and then you use PN+$KEY to access that macro).Here's an overview: https://rhinofeed.com/poker-ii-review/
Mickatroid - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Looks like it might fit in my Amiga 1000's keyboard garage. I wonder if it can be busted back to PS2 for use with a converter.Laststop311 - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
no official cherry mx switches no purchasefawazh - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
This looks very similar to my Zalman ZM-K500.faster - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
I do believe that a lot of gamers DO like to switch out the WASD keys. The author's comment that "but more importantly as we've mentioned in numerous of articles before, it is very rare for a gamer to actually swap keycaps prior to gaming" is detrimental to the consumer as "several companies started to skip including extra keycaps in their keyboard bundles".As a consumer that likes these key replacements, this active lobbying against them by the staff at AnandTech is somewhat disturbing. I am a fan of the site, but you should refrain from influencing the decisions of manufacturers to the detriment of your readers. Perhaps you should run a new pole as to how many people like the option of replacement key caps?
I will probably buy this keyboard and Kudos to Nixeus for including the gaming key caps!
piiman - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
On top of that I think must people either install them and leave them or just don't use them.to think gamers would actually switch them every time they want to play a game is silly.
HardwareDufus - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
It's a solution looking for a problem.gurok - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Is tenkey just a term for the numeric keypad? I've always called it a numeric keypad. When and why is each term preferred?meacupla - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
tenkey, numpad, lots of names for it, but I guess the official term for a tenkey-less would be an 87key keyboard, where as a full keyboard is 104keys.And then one smaller is a 67key keyboard.
schadenfreude000 - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
If anything you can get a basic Cherry MX Blue keyboard for ~ $59 through monoprice: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=114&cp_i...jimpreis - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
Delete right next to enter. GENIUS!!!oranos - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
$80 isnt budget for a mechanical keyboard