Since I’ve got into this whole mechanical keyboards thing this year, I’ve realised that I am drawn to black, grey, white, and orange key combinations. I have no real idea why, it just seems really 70s futuristic. There’s something that feels very clean and “correct” about it to me.
A few months back I ordered a (very reasonably priced) set of Carbon keycaps from nocapskeycaps and updated the look of my original TeckNet and my Ajazz K620. Here’s how they ended up looking:
So, when Epomaker offered to send me one of their brand new (not actually shipping to the general public until January 2021) GK96S keyboards, I was pretty excited.
The GK96S is a 96 key, RGB backlit keyboard, which works both wired via USB and wirelessly via Bluetooth. It’s available in right and left-handed models (num pad swapped to the left for the left-handed version).
The board itself comes in a choice of black or white (I got white), and then you can choose all black ABS keys or a combination of black, white, and orange PBT keys. Obviously, given my intro here, I went for the second option.
Wait though, what do ABS and PBT stand for? ABS stands for Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, and PBT stands for Polybutylene Terephthalate. Clear? Good. Basically, ABS is the cheaper plastic, closer to what your old Windows keyboard’s keys were made of. The ones the letters wore off on, and which ended up all smooth and shiny. PBT keys are better, stronger, last longer, and cost a little bit more. More than you wanted to know? Probably.
The GK96S comes with a choice of black, brown, yellow, white, blue, red, silver, or green Gateron switches. I went for brown keyswitches, which means they’re Tactile, not too loud, and generally good all round.
What’s this switches thing? All the different switch colours have slightly different attributes, which means they’re better suited for gaming, typing, programming, or whatever. Broadly, switches fall into three main categories: Linear (quiet), Tactile (medium), and Clicky (loud). The switches on the GK96S are hot-swappable, which means you can easily change and replace them yourself without any need for soldering. See, now you’re becoming a keyboard bore expert.
The GK96S is a compact keyboard, which means that it has all the keys of a full-sized keyboard, but with the same key spacing used right across the board (i.e.: no extra gaps between the numbers and the Function keys, between CTRL and your Arrow keys, etc). Even though I’m used to typing on a 65% / 68 key (Durgod Fusion) keyboard most of the time, it did take me a day or so to get used to the position of some of the right-hand keys.
A quick try revealed no problems whatsoever connecting via Bluetooth to my IPad and laptop, but I have mostly been using the GK96S with my PC. It’s lovely to type on, the backlight is really nice (more on that in a bit), and its great to have a num pad and full set of Media Keys again; things I didn’t really know I was missing until now.
The GK96S takes up approximately 2 inches more desk-space than my 65% board, but even so it feels just a little bit too big for me to use out and about (especially compared to the pocketable Morgrie RKB). That’s no reflection on the portability, battery life, or performance of the GK96S though, just my own personal preference.
Okay, the RGB lights. Now, I love a backlit keyboard but, as a writer, I’m after a solid colour rather than a light-show. The GK96S caters for both, but it also does a whole lot more.
Fully Programmable
Except for the Standard Mode, all the rest are fully programmable. The non-programmable Standard Mode will be your solid backup in case you get lost in the codes and settings. Meanwhile, you can remap and program your keyboard according to your needs for faster and easier use by using the other modes. The three Onboard Modes with pre-set layouts ensure that you can easily customize your keyboard in your style based on the device you use, even if you are new to remapping a keyboard.
You download an app, and you can access a ridiculous range of lighting set-ups and animations. I had a bit of a play, but I was terrified that I was going to mess the keyboard up, to be honest. I made sure I’d reset everything back to default and then shut it down. Lots of people will have a lot of fun with this, and there’s clearly a huge amount of potential for customisation. I might have another go when I’m feeling a bit braver.
Now that I’ve spent a couple of weeks using the GK96S on a daily basis, I’m in no hurry to swap back to any other keyboard. It really has pretty much everything you could want or need, it feels great to type on, and it looks great. It’s black, and white, and orange.