{"id":483,"date":"2015-03-05T14:17:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T04:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikesgear.com\/?p=483"},"modified":"2022-08-03T01:56:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T01:56:35","slug":"nkeyboard-mechanic-led-mech-keyboard-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mikesgear.com\/?p=483","title":{"rendered":"nKeyboard Mechanic LED mech KeyBoard review"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve seen plenty of mechanical keyboards in the last few years – it seems as if every manufacturer has one, even the likes of Corsair (memory manufacturer) and Coolermaster (Case\/power supply manufacturer). So, when someone tells me about a “new” mechanical keyboard being released, I’m a bit jaded these days.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_131254\"<\/a>
\nHowever, when I saw the nKeyboard Mechanic LED<\/a><\/strong> Keyboard sample on show at Computex Taiwan last year, I was struck by it’s amazing sound-sensitive lighting and hugely-configurable on-board macro capabilities, and now that they have finally come to production and arrived in Oz, I just had to write about it – read on to find out why it’s different from the rest of the herd.<\/p>\n

Origin and Unboxing\"IMG_20150305_125336\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

From what I can tell, the nKeyboard Mechanic LED<\/a><\/strong> is made in China by a contract factory to specs developed by a Korean engineer, Dongsik<\/strong><\/a>. I’d first dealt him over 10 years ago, when he was at Kanam\/Arisetec, one of the first pioneers of Media-Centre PC cases featuring VFD displays and IR remote controls, creating a market  that was eventually dominated by Silverstone<\/strong><\/a>. Known for being inventive, he’s moved on to keyboards now, and despite the chronic shortages of Cherry switches in the channel, he’s game enough to take on the established players.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_125346\"<\/a>The ‘board comes in a premium-feel cardboard box which appears modelled on the successful Filco-style packaging – it’ll fit into a 3Kg courier satchel, but not an Express Post one. Included in the box are a 170cm detachable sheathed USB A-Male->MiniUSB cable, and a folded instruction sheet with slightly-mangled English \/ random Korean characters.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_125444\"<\/a>This particular board features Cherry MX Red mechanical linear (no bump) light-weight switches – if you need to know what the Cherry colour coding means, head over here for an introduction<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Appearance<\/h2>\n

It’s fairly unassuming in overall appearance, with no excessive bling or weirdness to give away it’s hidden nature. A 106-key full-size US layout is provided for us here in Australia. It’s 443x170x39(mm) and 1.29kg.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_125613\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_125621\"<\/a>Here’s a shot with the two feet extended. The foldout plastic feet are capped with soft rubber, so that they are non-slip even on smooth surfaces – a nice touch. There’s one height for the feet only.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_125806\"<\/a>Underneath there’s a label with some simple instructions, and a socket for the MiniUSB plug, with routing for the cable so you can sit the board flat. The socket is a little fiddly to get first time, but you won’t be removing it that often.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_125739\"<\/a>\"IMG_20150305_125746\"<\/a>I pulled off one of the keycaps to reveal the Cherry switch hiding underneath – you can see the LED that’s been added to the standard switch housing just above the red stalk.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_130813\"<\/a>Here it is with all LEDs on in backlight-mode – the only colour differences are the CAPS, ScrollLock and NumLock keys, which are a dim red colour and only light up when they are locked on.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150305_131141\"<\/a>Up to this point, it’s pretty much a bog-standard mechanical keyboard with n-Key roll-over<\/strong><\/a> and some lighting – what makes it depart from the rest of the herd is next – Macro recording that can give you deja-vu from Inception<\/strong><\/a>, and LED lighting that will entertain you for hours.<\/p>\n

Macros and more for the mmo-grinding cognoscenti<\/h2>\n

Adding macros to keyboards is nothing new, I hear you say – been there for a while too. Yes, they have, often via software that’s required to be installed on a host PC, but this board takes macros to the next level.\"IMG_20150305_141051\"<\/a>See that bunch of keys above the F-keys? They are grouped according to their functionality from left to right:<\/p>\n

Fn<\/strong>: press this with the Macro keys or lighting F-keys to record a macro or activate a lighting function<\/p>\n

Q1<\/strong> ->Q3<\/strong>: used for a macro that plays back a string of single keypresses at maximum speed and loops them<\/p>\n

Loop<\/strong>: used when you want a macro that keeps your original typing speed \/ pause cadence and loops it<\/p>\n

T1<\/strong>->T3<\/strong>: A non-looping macro type that keeps your original typing speed \/ cadence of your input<\/p>\n

Auto<\/strong>: a press-and-hold macro type, that does not release the keys you recorded.<\/p>\n

All these macros are recorded by pressing Fn and the selected Macro key, then typing the keys you want recorded, and when done, press Fn to save. It’ll blink whilst recording. There’s a G-key lurking at the far-right of the board that’s used to clear macros, although they can also be cleared by recording without pressing any inputs. The G also gets used as a lock-out key for the Windows keys next to the space bar, so you don’t accidentally pop up the Start menu in the heat of battle.<\/p>\n

And, to make just about anything possible, you can record a macro key press itself inside another macro<\/em><\/strong>, so you can string multiple key-press macros into a programmed sequence, compete with pauses. Might be useful for grinding inside MMO games with repeatable actions to get gold or hack wood<\/p>\n

You might also find macros useful to log into bank accounts and websites that request passwords, if you want to avoid saving such details in your browser or password manager (this assumes you care more about being vulnerable to software hacks, than whether people might have physical access to your keyboard). The timing macros would be ideal for this, as they can include pauses for page-loads. None of the keyboard’s functionality is dependant on software outside the ‘board itself, so you could carry it about and use it on just about any random PC, whilst keeping all your customised macros intact.<\/p>\n

Since this keyboard was released in Korea before the rest of the world, there’s some Youtube videos available to showcase this feature.<\/p>\n