i would recommend monsgeek m series. get variants that have qmk support. the total costs might be higher, but there are relatively richer options for a user to play with, e.g., plates, and various foams.

as for switches, it doesn't matter when the user is new to the hobby.

Yeah there's Monsgeek M2 and also a bunch of Keychron 100% models. Other than that I haven't seen many full size offerings.

These days I feel there are many cheaper and better switches than Cherries MX, although "better" is a totally relative term form one guy to another lol

right, full-size kits are relatively rare, compared to other form factors.

.. and yes, 'better' is relative, and also subjective. objectively speaking, cherry mx's overall quality control is better. however this doesn't translate into sound and feel preferred by users directly. typical users do not buy key switches based on overall quality control.

also, the current mx-based ecosystem is diferent from years ago, especially after our choices started to become many times richer. previously, most switches went through a natural process of wear-and-tear with time. (think soldered boards; natural means typing daily on the same board for years) these days, switch hotswapping is common. typical users might swap key switches when the existing ones are still few weeks/months old. by the way the practice promotes consumption, hence sellers are happier than before. all they need to do is to keep the momentum going.

the above affects typical usage patterns significantly, hence it's harder for users to notice the importance of certain qualities.

back then, not many could survive with time. cherry mx is the only proven one that can withstand long-term operations. (think vintage black. have you ever wondered why there is no vintage gateron, or jwk, etc.?)

o no saw this post too late. already ordered

appreciated nevertheless. hope i didn't make too bad a mistake


friend is a young person, they are not an enthusiast like us. at most they will just like the bling and maybe appreciate a mkb if they haven't experienced it before.


i did do my research, so it's not like i bought randomly. i even think it's nicer than the mkb i am still using










i watched the video it looks nice. it even has pbt. i think the rk i ordered uses abs? i'm fine with either. but rk will be using doubleshots so that's perfect.

this is the one i ordered it's called phantom for this color theme





i was looking at mongsok but i didn't like their color themes.

another thing, i saw the RK has more I/o at the back for wired, wireless, or bluetooth. Maybe the mongsok also has similar but i don't know


I was very impressed with the feature set of the RKM75 for the price point. But i have been out of the scene for a while, so maybe you can get better for the same price. but to me it looked quite good for the build and features. I won't be testing it hands on since it's a gift, it would be rude to do that I'll ask my friend to provide feedback later.

almost made me want to buy one too. but if it ain't broke...... this is why i bought a mkb in the first place. long lasting

but if not mistaken that screen is an oled? won't that get burn in if it's always showing the txt on the screen? does it have a time out feature or something to prevent burn in

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 12 2024, 04:17 PM

There is 1 major difference between the RKM75 and Monsgeek M1W.

Monsgeek M series is made from a solid block of aluminum.
That itself have several advantage
- it does look more premium
- it certain weighs a whole lot more premium too
- it actually changes the sound profile of the keypress quite significantly.

Nothing wrong with getting the RK M75 especially if you want a complete package ready to be gifted.


This post has been edited by LegendLee: Apr 12 2024, 07:11 PM

that is a good point.

So the RK is basically mostly plastic build with perhaps only the keycap face plate the only metalic aluminium part (my assumption) mostly?

I don't think my friend would mind that. But yes that does improve the build quality of the Monsgeek in my mind. I just wish they had some nicer color themes similar to the phantom

i've used both types of mkbs before, and the aluminium block does add some heft to it, which i find good for keeping the mkb in place.

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 13 2024, 07:40 AM

NuPhy Gem80 Review — The Rolls Royce of Mechanical Keyboards

https://wccftech.com/review/nuphy-gem80-rev...ical-keyboards/

yes, there is nothing wrong with the purchase. it's just a matter of choice. rk is fine. i believe it comes with double-shot abs.

every board is built differently. the outcomes of sound and feel from a particular combination (of parts and mods) are different because of that. plastic builds always have their places in this hobby. with the right combos, they can be good as well. heft alone cannot do much. it can only be helpful if other parts/mods are done right.

imo the current trend in mkb is still rich customizability with a single board. this is being passed from highend kits to mid-tier progressively. (like nuphy above) hall effect (he) switches are gaining attention as well. i hope one day we will have customizability to cope with mx, lo-pro, topre, and he switches, with a single kit.

now that, will be so much fun

edit: i have excluded old stuff like buckling springs, and alps. those didn't survive. massive adoption of mx designs have led to today's dominance of mx style key switches.

this was why sometimes i think cherry used to have a good marketing team. the dumb part about them was not keeping the footprint of lo-pro key switches identical to mx. if they did that, lo-pro would have been popular also.

This post has been edited by horns: Apr 13 2024, 09:20 PM

I'm totally fine with the Vertex V1, it is light and easy to type on and I currently much prefer it over those long or heavier springs. To me the typing experience is more or less similar to the other 2 switches namely Akko pianos and cream yellows that I'm regularly using.

Since more or less settling on this 3 switches, it is a good choice for my use case as the V1 I'm using it in the office as it is relatively muted with the Nylon housing. The other Akko switch, I just use it at home. Therefore I'm not actively looking for alternative switches to try as the market is just swarming with so much switches, overwhelmingly so, which I think is a good thing, more choices are always better, right..

Something I'm looking to try out is those 60%/65% KB with big copper or brass weights. Something like the bottom half is totally made out of copper or brass. From what I gather, the boards that are predominantly made out of aluminium and couple with smaller copper or brass weight, the weight does not have much of an effect on the KB. Having or removing the weight does not make much of a difference. A big piece of copper weight tends to make the sound more dense, and I would very much interested to experience it.

Also I recently got a set of CRP R4 keycaps, and I do like the surface texture. If I"m not mistaken, they are PBT keycaps and the other PBT keycaps that I have is the Shenpo. Both are stated as cherry profile, but I find that both are slightly different, which is noticable when typing on it. The Shenpo feels "flatter" and the edges do feel "sharper". I prefer the CRP over Shenpo at the moment.
Any comments on CRP keycaps?

some good news and bad news to report.

good news first




bad news




my experience with the brand so far


shopee seller didn't respond after 1 hour. i see they are active on shopee every few minutes so somebody is there and not on their lunch break. anyone else have this sort of customer service for the official rk shopee store ? to get sent the wrong item is one thing, but to not even reply to a report on incorrect order is very poor customer service.

all i did so far is send them evidence of the incorrect order and also remained civil. still no reply. are they perhaps busy or something? i'll wait 1 day before i request full refund


when you order shopee mall they have a policy for x8 refund if not authentic. sadly that doesn't apply for incorrect product from an authentik item from the brand?



For anyone wondering how shopee refund works



-be mindful of the shopee guarantee time limit.

-do not click received item

-you may need to extend the shopee guarantee time limit depending on the time to expire for it

-do not open the package ideally to be able to claim the refund successfully

-if you don't want to receive refund to a shopee pay wallet (i don't), DO NOT setup a shopee pay wallet. simply just add your bank account to shopee account, then it will be sent to there instead which is preferable (i don't want store credit ty very much )

-for shipping to return, either you drive to the drop off location yourself, or pay for a courier to come collect from you (supposedly this will be refunded to you as well). I'm not 100% sure if you select courier to collect they will refund, so to be 100% sure, you can just drop off at collection point which is guaranteed to be free




this is what rk's own refund policy states
https://rkgamingstore.com/pages/return-refund-policy


shockingly, you the buyer are responsible for paying the shipping to return the item, even if they (RK) are the ones who done goofed up I don't see any mention of them refunding the shipping cost to return the item, so i am assuming they expect you to bear that cost even if it's not your own fault. Or maybe i am mistaken? does anyone know?

But if you refund via shopee, supposedly you don't have to pay to return via shipping. So if you do want to refund, do it from shopee, and not from the RK own website



this is what blue switches sound like. awful if you like classic typewriter retro obnoxious sounding mkb to annoy others in the vicinity or yourself, go for it. But i don't *not judging others

also blue switches tend to have issue with quick successions of double tap for gamers. that hasn't changed since last i checked has it? another thing i don't like about blue switches




one user commented on this model blue switch


i still hate blues. with blues you either luv them, or hate them. no in between xd

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2024, 01:09 PM

between fast silver and brown switch, which do you recommend?

what is the difference between a silver and a red?

Just another comment on customer service. For example, when i ordered from a certain shopee seller for some parts, they are fast to reply and polite and also answer my questions even technical ones which they ask their engineers and forward it back to me on time. even when they have to take break, they will inform me as well and not leave me hanging.

They will even advice not to order a part if unsure if compatible or not even if they should be trying to sell stuff regardless (they have a conscience ). They even gave me personal voucher because i am a regular customer. They even took special care to ship out my item quite fast (i didn't demand this but they did it anyway which was nice of them)

This is what customer service should be like.




RK CS on shopee is slow x-x; 2 hours and counting still no response. they are active in shopee still I'm not expecting the red carpet or any such thing, but if someone gets an incorrect order and reports it to you, don't ignore them for 2 hours+ when you are online right now active for that entire duration just how busy is it for them? maybe i misunderstood and there is so many customers to deal with, if that is the case fine. Will wait 1 day if nothing then well, my initial impression was correct




*update

if you inspect their shop overall reviews, a lot of people complained their customer service is horrendous. Incorrect item shipped, no refund, and the list goes on


expectation
my only expectation here, was for them to acknowledge the issue, refund, and make arrangement so i can get the correct order on the next shipping without worrying another mishap will happen. i'm not asking for anything beyond reason here. are they so adversed to interacting with their customers?

reality
ignore the customer when they report wrong order received no resolution whatsoever. basically the problem doesn't exist


review
didn't open package, but from what i read before purchase i don't doubt it's a good mkb (i could always be wrong but i give the benefit of a doubt since i never saw any bad reviews of this mkb yet). however, their customer service is dog shi-t

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2024, 01:25 PM

*update

got reply from seller after 2+ hours. they said they sent the correct item. blue switch



i gave screenshot proof i ordered brown. and the box says its blue switch. is he gas lighting me?

this is the exact wording




hopefully this is a mere innocent misunderstanding on the seller part. looking at it negatively, the seller knows they done goofed up and are now doubling down with their gas light. which do you think this is?


anyway already sent back the mkb return at the nearest drop off collection point. easy and fast now the seller has about a week to acknowledge the return item.


*update

contacted

https://rkgamingstore.com/

support@rkgaming.com

they claim they are the distributor not the manufacturer/brand owner so how do you contact them? or are they just bsing and giving the run around? i sus the later. checked google did not find any other relevant site

short story is, they're saying shopee malaysia store nothing to do with them since they are another of the many distributors for this brand but not the actual company itself for the brand. supposedly.



*update

now it seems the box shows the incorrect information. the mkb inside is indeed the brown switch.

But the seller did not clarify it properly the first time.

And by the time i received the clarification mentioning this, i had already sent the package to the collection point.

X_X; unlucky.


so at this point shopee said have to wait package returned to seller, before they can raise dispute and return package to me. i hope they don't charge me for shipping since it is not my fault.

1. box has incorrect information
2. seller didn't explain properly the first time. by the time he explained properly he had done so hours later.... (see the issue here). But by then already too late since i already sent back the package for refund at the collection point.




noticed the seller used a translator for typing. maybe this is why a misunderstanding happened. he was a bit too careless in his explanation. Don't state the switch is blue confirming my suspicion it is the incorrect order. Properly say it is brown but the box is labelled incorrectly. That is all he had to say the first time


based on his half a-ssed responses he is not being diligent. so he has to take blame for this issue this is what happens when you delay replies and don't properly clarify your replies properly. shopee will complain to him (some penalties? complaints?), and i have to to delay receive my item. nobody wins

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 17 2024, 06:56 PM

I’ve not tried RK switches before.
But if they’re anything like cherry or gateron equivalent, I don’t like any of the choices. But I dislike gateron/cherry browns the most.

These days we don’t really identify a switch by just its color too.

dayum. things have become way more complicated since i was last on the scene.

Just curious, then what switch do you use/like if that is the case ?

i think thats still base on personal preference?
for me, office i use mixed linear and tactile, home use full linear

Yeah RK gaming store on shopee quite bad service.

I tried to order a keycap set from them last Dec, put in the order but no movement for 5 days.

I message them to ask why not sent out yet then they answer because no more stock. in the end have to choose some other one and got it like 2 weeks later.

Their keycap set is dyesubbed but super faded out and dont feel nice at all. I said i wanna return but they rejected it and in the end I just took the hit. Blacklisted them afterwards. Their CS is really bad.

It’s really personal preference.
There is a release of a new switch pretty much every week so there is no shortage of choice.

But these days I prefer to go for switches with sufficient factory lube so I don’t have to lube them myself.

thought you'd be interested to know i had sent back the keyboard for refund. so now it's just waiting for seller to accept. if they don't, then in 2 day it will auto refund. shopee is already on my side on this matter so not worried if things escalate. shopee seemed angry with the seller, but i washed my hands off the matter. If they plan to penalize seller, it has nothing to do with me, not my mistake to begin with


what is clearly obvious to me, is NEVER order directly from the
https://rkgamingstore.com/

Can you imagine you order something then need a refund? i imagine you will be the one losing out (you have to pay for shipping so not free. correct me if i am wrong on this. but this is my assumption based on what i read). With shopee at least you have some protections (if they are at fault, shopee can protect you). I looked at rkgamingstore refund policy, i am not convinced

PS: no coupon was offered as apology for their f*** up. So stingy Not even an apology which is free as common courtesy especially when u f*** up and waste customers time


*update

seller reply back hi, but many hours lapse and i see i wasn't refunded by seller since they have to click the "refund" to release the fund. otherwise i have to wait a day. they know this because it was clearly explained to them way earlier. clearly seller being difficult, probably trolling or he really blur I get they may want to check before refund, but it's been 1 day since they received it, so why no refund yet?



yes steve, you don't even need to say hi, because i can see from shopee the acitivity alert to know you are there at your desk not helping do your job properly at all. no need even to reply anything to let know exactly what you are doing, cauz it's obvious to every1 by now

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 19 2024, 08:06 AM

i do have some dye subs from an old cherry classic keyboard. they do look faded. Not as crispy as double shot keycaps.

Not sure if due to wear of an old donor keyboard, or they are simply just like that. I only have that one set of keycaps, so i don't have any other dye sub keycaps to compare them to.

If you were to ask me which i prefer, i definitely liked doubleshot since it's resistant to wear and has excellent contrast.

dye subs have a special unique look some may enjoy i guess it's a matter of taste.

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 19 2024, 08:14 AM