Pretty stoked for this board. Own a few QK65s and a Cub65 i was hesitant with the price until they announced the mounting styles and configs. Esp after all of the reviews coming out i might have to pick (erm, at least) one up.
this looks like yet another really nice option in the budget custom space... with the Shark67, Choice65 and this. There's a lot of great options for those wanting value or just starting on the hobby.
my personal take is dont even bother to get cheap stuff that u dont like. so far the only budget ones i think really worth getting is zoom75 and the envoy really, otherwise just save ur money and get a premium u want most as long as u can afford one
Damn, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I got bored of my QK65 because of it's one-dimensional sound, but I'm glad to see QK make something different. I've moved onto other boards and already have an o-ring 65 but this one is quite an improvement over the QK65. Not a fan of the weight and bottom design but side profile looks decent.
Insane that they got the design shell of a board like the Envoy and made it work this well at such a low price point. Really makes me want to pick this one up.
I mean, it’s not a better QK65, its a cheaper/alternative one. The problem with these buys is that you have to be on point. They do reruns, but if you miss them you can’t get it. Right now you wouldn’t be able to buy a QK65 anyways. Same company, different designer, so can recommend if you’re looking for a board and the buy is still available. 😊
If I didn't already have the Envoy, I'd definitely have bought one. Or if it wasn't so similar to the Envoy, then I'd probably get one to experience the gummy o-ring mount. I love the support of split spacebar on hotswap, and that ribbon cable channel, though. That just looks so tidy. But the resulting disassembly hassle does make it less suitable for experimentation than the Envoy...
Seems like this will be in-stock and not a group buy. THANK THE LORD. I haven't been keeping up with the custom keyboard hobby for a while now and at the time the only good in-stock budget keyboard I could find was the CK Bakeneko65, which is the keyboard I'm typing this comment on. It's nice to see that there are now way more budget in-stock options to choose from. Still really hate how GBs are still a thing - I am currently pursuing the headphones/IEMs hobby, and group buys don't exist there, or in almost every other hobby, for that matter. I still don't get how people put up with them. Rant aside, I remember that when I got into the hobby, the best thing you could get for $100 was a KBD67 Lite or similar. Looks like this keyboard absolutely puts it to shame. Maybe I'll consider getting back into the keyboard hobby since the options are getting so good now, but I'm already pretty happy with my Bakeneko so...
Audio is a far larger, less niche market than custom keyboards. Many headphone/IEM sellers make millions of dollars in revenues per year. Most keyboard designers are people who design keyboards as a side hobby. No person who designs keyboards as a hobby is willing to fork out 5 to 6 figures worth of money to front an in-stock sale and risk losing money because their product doesn't sell. Notice how only the big players in the hobby with significant amounts of capital (e.g. Cannonkeys, Qwertykeys, Mode - hell, even Mode does pre-orders) do in-stock sales.
it‘s just not possible to offer keyboards in stock while everyone is able to get what he wants or not sitting on hundreds of units that haven‘t been sold
@@AD-nq2nz You bring up good points from a seller/manufacturer's perspective - but from a consumer's perspective, I still don't like group buys. If I enter a GB, I have to wait a long time to receive the product, and I might not even receive it at all. And if I miss the group buy, there's a decent chance I will never be able to get the product in the future. Compare that to buying almost anything else online, where you just press a button, pay up, wait at most ~2-ish weeks, and get the product in your mailbox. No risk involved. I know you can't really compare buying from a niche market and a mainstream one, but it still rubs me the wrong way. I guess it depends on if you care about the sellers, or if you care as the consumer. Let's agree to disagree. Edit: I'd also like to state that for more expensive, special, or unique kits, that only a few people would buy anyways, a group buy would be fine, but for a budget keyboard (like this one), which is meant to be accessible to more people, in my opinion it is unacceptable if it is sold under a group buy (or at the very least, I probably wouldn't buy it).
I’m totally broke atm but will probably have earned enough money from my part time job by December to pick one up, here’s hoping that there’s stock until nov/dec, an R2, or another partnership board with neostudio
I don't have a gummy o ring board yet so this looks like a good option to try one. Especially since it sounds good foamless. And awesome video, going into all the details really helped me make a decision for this one!
The short cable that we need to open up the back weight to get it done safely, does sounds annoying to me. I hope they change it for longer one on final product. Also not sure if O-ring mounted PCB needs that much force to take out for other board since I don't know much about it. It kind of time consuming too like the cable to just take out for configuration. Might have to skip this board if it's not a prototype that we see now.
"the first step of the build/rebuild is always take off the weight and then unplug the FPC cable on the db"-said by syrah. Those two huge holes are designed to push out the PCB when rebuilding. According to the buildguide, the FPC cable needs to be connected to the pcb first, and then connected to the daughter board. This process is similar to unikorn. And only two screws which is not that complicated as you think.
Can you please do a sound test plateless? I know soldered would be better but ive never had an issue with olateless or half plate hotswap. Very curious for this board and would build it plateless
Just started getting into keyboards. What do you think is the best sub-200ish 65% or 75% custom keyboard to get right now? I’ve heard some people say the zoom65 v2. Would you agree?
If you have $200ish budget then do yourself a favor and just get the envoy. Packaging to assembly to product quality is really good. Plus their customer support after sales is insane. They also got a good discord community that’s very helpful in my experience as a newbie.
@thestreamreader the company making the choice 65 has had many previous qc issues and was ranked the lowest out of the 4 budget boards in keyboard’s video
Have you review the Cycle 7, or planning to in the future? I'm considering the Cycle 7 over this and the Choice65, your videos are on point, and professional as always. Thank you for bringing me in to this hobby
I wish same makers would try another design languange for 65% tho, I started to get very boring with how 65% custom board looks, I had zoom65, qk65 and jris65, after having these 3, I realized that 65% are mostly lookig very similar. Now that I already sold qk65 and see that Neo65 is one of the better deal for value 65%, but in my mind I find these newer 65% still looks kinda same with all my boards last year, and in a way I don't find these new boards appealing to me. I also still have space65 and capsule65 with me and I prefer that wild design but then ppl say that design is weird...idk, just trying another design folks
basic designs is how they keep the price down, you don't have to buy every 65% that launches, just wait for the higher end ones that look more distinct, just know you'll be paying a premium
it is real brass and copper brass should be cheaper that stainless steel btw but bc of the huge moq and how small the weights are it‘s not really a that big cost factor
I had already decided I'm buying at least 1 of these, but might end up buying more. I think aesthetically the case reminds me of the Envoy. Probably because it's a 1 piece design with similar lines. But I appreciate that this uses a simple gasket mount or an o-ring mount. Has wireless (hopefully VIA supported) and is just going to be so much cheaper. If the wireless PCB has VIA support (guessing sideloaded via the daughter board like some others have done) then it's a no brainer for me. One of my biggest issues with so many of the other "budget" boards with their odd proprietary software. EDIT: didn't realize screw-in stabs couldn't work with o-ring mount. But nice to include clip-ins. Also, personally, it's by far the best value out right now. Especially that they are including some form of stabilizers as well. I will actually be able to get this delivered to me in the US for around the $150 price unlike the cycle7 everyone is raving about which was going to cost me over $200.
It refers to the way the PCB is secured to the keyboard case. In a normal keyboard, the PCB is screwed into the case and is rigid. A gasket mounted keyboard uses small rubber pieces called gaskets which allows the PCB to "bounce" inside the case like you can see at 5:59.
@@JustSomeGuy009 here's the thing, the only reason it has gasket mount is to allow plateless, but we know 9/10 (if not more) neo65 will be shipped with hotswap PCB so very few ppl will run plateless. adding a seam and making it 2 piece to allow top mount would cost virtually nothing. plus gasket mount is very rarely implemented well, QK certainly has never done gasket mount well. it is very hard to fuck up a top mount and very difficult to do gasket well
@@z4k1_zaki65 that's simply not true, look at cycle7, it's 2 piece, *much* heavier, more complex engravings, more complex chamfers + fillets, more complex inner design, complex assembly mechanism, and the biggest part, lower projected sales volume than any QK board while barely more expensive.
WHAT EVEN IS THE POINT of having a mechanical keyboard that flexes like that when you type on it? Isn’t that sort of board flex exactly what reminds one of $0 keyboards that come with your branded PC?
