Review of the mechanical mechanical keyboard Neo Zelia KB-87
Mechanical keyboards are quite rare in their own right, and there are so few wireless ones on the market that not even everyone knows about their existence. One of these models, the Neo Zelia KB-87, I recently ordered from China. Finally, having received the package, I decided to write a review of this rather unusual device. By the way, the description of this keyboard is currently neither in Russian nor in English, even though it went on sale about a year ago.Selection, order and delivery
The most important step when buying a mechanical keyboard is the choice of switches. The most attractive seemed to me to be MX Brown, suitable for both games and typing, but in Russian retail, for unknown reasons, there were only keyboards with Blue, Red and Black switches. After a while, I came across the announcement of a new Logitech G710 + keyboard, which used MX Brown, so I decided to wait for it to appear on sale. Unfortunately, after the purchase I was completely disappointed in her. Yes, Brown I liked the switches and tactile response, and low noise, but this was the only thing that suited me. Therefore, the keyboard was handed over to the store and I decided to search for something on MX Brown on the Internet.
There are several specialized online stores selling mechanical keyboards, but most of them do not ship to Russia. I really didn’t want to overpay the intermediary, so after searching and asking questions on the overclocker forum, two stores were found with the option of worldwide delivery: tankguys.com and qtan (man and
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I looked at all the qtan's keyboards, and immediately fell in love with the Neo KB-87 for an unusual design: this keyboard does not have a top cover, and bare textolite is visible (painted black). It was also a nice bonus to be able to work in wireless mode, although for me it was not an important criterion. In general, the fate of my money was decided. Naturally, I decided to read the reviews and reviews for this keyboard, but I did not find them either on Google or on geekhack.org (the main keyboard forum). The only thing that the corporation of good could help me was that it found and even translated reviews in German and Chinese . But after being translated into broken English, it was absolutely impossible to understand anything other than photos.
Reviews of the qtan store were only good, so I decided not to contact ebay and ordered directly on its website. The keyboard cost me $ 94 + $ 28 international shipping. Three days later, the seller sent me a track code, which was tracked another couple of days later - the package had just flown from Hong Kong before the Chinese New Year. This was my first overseas purchase, so I was a little worried, especially after reading the articles and reviews about Russian Post. But she did not let down: the total travel time was 24 days, which, in my opinion, is quite good for Russia. I received the parcel too quickly, almost without a queue (in Russia, a queue of less than 30 minutes is not considered a queue).
Unpacking
The seller carefully wrapped the box in our favorite polyethylene bumpy.
Mail successfully overcame this barrier and the corners of the box were noticeably dented.
The box has double walls inside, so the keyboard itself was not damaged. The photo shows a poor equipment - a keyboard, a USB-miniUSB cable, one white key, a two-sheet manual with an explanation of the additional functions of the keys (although it is difficult to call an inscription in Chinese).
And here is the painted textolite. In my opinion it looks great, but my girlfriend said that this is the most creepy keyboard that she saw. I will consider this a compliment, I guess.
The keys are removed easily, if you suddenly want to replace - this can be done without problems (for example, there are all sorts of colored keys in the same store, etc.). It can be seen that the switches here are MX Brown.
The keyboard was unexpectedly high, as in front
so and back
But on the other dimensions it is very compact, compare with my previous keyboard. By the way, on the left in the photo you can see the USB receiver from the keyboard.
Description, Testing, Impressions
Perhaps it is time to write the characteristics of the keyboard:
- Available switches: Cherry MX Brown / Blue / Black / Red
- Wired and wireless modes of operation (detachable miniUSB cable)
- Size: tenkeyless, missing pad
- Number of keys: 87. One Win-key, the second is replaced by Fn.
- Key plastic type: POM
If you pay attention, then to the left of the Print Screen there is a noticeable small shiny spot - this is a drop of solder. Almost does not interfere, only slightly distracts its brilliance. The rest of the assembly no complaints.
Go through the additional features of the keys. In this photo, all the inscriptions on the bottom are perfectly visible.
Red functions are activated with the Fn key.
F1-F6 - multimedia capabilities. Sound, pause / play, track change. My AIMP works great.
F7 - disable the Windows key, the so-called. "Game Mode". Although I, perhaps, never in my life did not interfere with the Win-key.
F8 - activation of power saving mode during wireless connection (for more details see below).
Also, with the help of Fn, you can activate 2 more modes - NumLock (Fn + PrintScreen) and SwitchLock (Fn + Pause Break). In NumLock mode, the central part of the keyboard starts working as a normal pad - it can be useful if you suddenly need to use a lot of calculator. SwitchLock simply swaps the CapsLock and Left Ctrl keys. I myself could not guess why this is necessary, but in the Chinese review it is written that, also for games, it seems that it is more convenient to keep Ctrl pressed.
KRO Testing
Key Rollover - the number of simultaneously pressed keys - is often referred to as one of the important advantages of mechanical keyboards, and, of course, I wanted to check it out. For this I found such an online test . My keyboard showed an amazing result - any number of keystrokes were recognized (at least as much as I could press with two fists). To check, I decided to test a regular scissor keyboard - only 4 keys were recognized. I'm not sure that this is really useful, but it is always nice to know about additional features.
Wireless connectivity testing
Going to the wireless connection is very simple - just unplug the wire, insert the USB receiver into the computer port and move the small lever on the bottom of the keyboard. It is determined and begins to work immediately. I did not notice any noticeable delay when typing characters. From the next room prints normally :) In the German review, it was said that it’s not working perfectly - because of the power saving options, the keyboard turns off after 10 seconds of non-use, and the next press is not fixed immediately. Either I did not understand the translation from German to English, or some kind of marriage - I have no such problem. By the way, remember the combination Fn + F8. It turned out that it only turns off the LEDs (CapsLock, NumLock, etc.), such a saving. Of course, I don’t have any wireless statistics, but the Chinese review has 70-80 hours of normal operating time, 60 days in standby mode.
Personal impressions
Impressions of typing is completely subjective, and you can safely not trust my opinion. But I really like both the sound and the tactile sensations from pressing the keys - the difference with membrane keyboards is huge. Specifically, the sound from the Brown switches is not very loud, it does not wake up the neighbors at night, but it is noticeable, so I didn’t take it to work, I'm afraid I will distract my colleagues with a thud.
I also like the compactness of TKL keyboards, after my previous “board” the amount of free space on the table increased dramatically
Oddly enough, the main feature of the keyboard is wireless - I don’t really need it. Still, I prefer to use reliable wires and not worry about the ever-ending batteries. On the other hand, the choice is great. Now I can take the keyboard, disconnect the wire, move the wireless mode lever and go to the sofa, watch TV shows and correct the subtitle synchronization by lightly pressing the keys.
The design of the keyboard seems to me very cool and unusual. At the same time, due to the lack of a lid, spilled coffee on the keyboard can be fatal. Although, judging by the reviews, most likely the same will happen with any mechanical keyboard. Still, in theory, without a lid it will be more convenient to sweep crumbs from the keyboard :)
It's time for the first minus for me. It turned out that because of the great height, it is absolutely impossible to use the keyboard without a stand under the wrists. Separately, they are not sold here, so without thinking twice, I armed myself with an impenetrable argument “why not?” And sawed off the extra edges from the stand to the previous keyboard. Now it has become convenient to type, and it looks almost not collective. True, the stand does not attach to the keyboard itself, but it seemed convenient to me - depending on the position of the hand, you can position the stand closer or further.
Just as a minus, you can consider the absence of Cyrillic on the keys. But I think that for most habrazhitel this will not be a problem. On the contrary, it is a great way to learn how to type blindly. I’m not quite used to it, and sometimes I’m wrong (so don’t hit hard for typos).
Conclusion
All this text is written on the presented keyboard, and I am absolutely pleased with it. I have nothing to add, so it remains only to structure the pros and cons of the keyboard.
pros
- Mechanics, with any type of switches Cherry MX
- Wired and wireless connectivity
- Design (controversial, but I think this is a plus, because this is one of the distinguishing features)
- Additional key functions
- Compactness
- Price (relative to other mechanical keyboards)
Minuses
- Poor package bundle, even compared to other Chinese keyboards
- Imperfect assembly
- Increased chances of killing the keyboard with spilled liquid
- Lack of localization (expected, but nonetheless)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/171441/
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