Today we’ve got another custom mechanical keyboard build on our hands.
That’s two in a row, imagine that.
And I’m particularly excited for this one, as its coming from the guys who made the Aegis,
which was all about that left hand numpad, and they’ve taken it a step further in regards
to ergonomics with the EXT65 from aeboards.
The keyboard itself was a production unit, but I didn’t have the final packaging and
stuff.
So as you’ve just seen, each keyboard does come with a sweet sleeve from Y-CP.
Awesome quality, with soft insides, and just a great addition to the board which does promote
its portability aspect.
First impressions, it’s solid.
Solid as.
It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a full aluminium case.
I did have the brass plate with mine, but that will be an extra, with the default being
the aluminium plate.
Now let’s take it apart to have a closer look.
There’s 8 screws around the edge.
I had hex screws, but they will be normal Phillips heads on the final one.
Here’s the bottom piece with the rubber gaskets already applied on mine.
And yep, it is a gasket mount keyboard, which we’ll explore later.
And the inside is actually pretty nice and clean.
We have our engraving on the inside, so each unit is individually numbered, which makes
it that little bit more special.
And you’ll notice how there’s 2 gaps, with one on each side.
This is one of the unique things about the keyboard.
Because, we can do this.
Now from this angle, it doesn’t look like much, but I’ve just flipped the top piece,
which means it’s now reversed.
But we’ll get to that later.
The top piece is also of course solid as.
There’s a couple of internal marks, which I guess was from the anodisation process.
They’ll never be seen when put together, but they’re there.
Here’s the plate, and again, this is the sandblasted brass version, which is an extra.
And it’s 1.5mm thick.
They said that they designed this with relief cuts for better sound and consistent feel,
which I only really see around the spacebar.
And perhaps between the main area, and the numpad.
And finally the PCB.
You can kind of appreciate more how thin and long looking this board is.
But yeh, nice and clean, and a smooth matte black solder mask.
And yeh, simple, with just the one logo.
So let’s start building.
I’m using GMK screw in stabilisers which I lubed, and V2 Zilents, so a silent switch,
with a pretty strong tactile bump.
There’s not much flexibility with the layout, so we have split backspace, and then we can
have all 1u’s on the numpad.
But yeh, completely fixed everywhere else, including the bottom row.
I know some people won’t like that, and they’ve said that it was done to better
control how the keyboard feels, but yeh, you get what you get.
Also, it doesn’t support any backlighting.
And that also means that you can’t really make a mistake when soldering this up together.
The keyboard has 4 LEDs for lock and layer indicators, and I did mess up.
I was supposed to use the included spacers, which raise the LEDs, so that they’re not
flush with the PCB, so that of course it reaches the top.
When putting back together, you can see that there’s no screw holes in the plate, because
it is a gasket mount keyboard.
But the gaskets are only installed on the bottom aluminium piece, nothing on the top.
So the plate is sitting on the gaskets, and isn’t mechanically fastened to anything,
however, there’s metal to metal contact with the top piece.
I think normally with gasket mount boards, the plate would be isolated on both sides
which makes sense, but yeh, I’m not really sure how much of a difference one side is
to two sides.
And later in the video, we’ll be trying out the different gasket materials that comes
with the board.
And I think ideally, you’d put this together the other way, so plate into the top piece,
so that alignment is perfect.
And
here it is all done.
And straight away that layout is what stands out the most.
So essentially we have a pretty standard 65% keyboard, which is very popular, plus the
numpad on the left.
Whereas the Aegis, which was their previous keyboard, was more like a reversed 1800 layout,
but that brought up complications with the short left shift, and the arrow key placement.
With this however, it’s much more natural in that it’s what we’re used to, the only
difference is the numpad on the left.
And the whole idea with the numpad on the left is of course for ergonomics, and also
efficiency.
So first of all, normally the numpad takes up space on the right hand side, meaning that
your mouse is further away from the centre, which unnaturally extends your shoulder and
arm.
So in that regard, this is actually a 65% keyboard relative to the mouse, providing
you have space on the left on your desk.
And this just allows you to have that shoulder width posture that’s more natural.
Additionally, having the numpad on the left, means that we can use our left hand, and our
mouse simultaneously.
Whereas, we would usually have to switch between the two with our right hand.
It doesn’t have to be a numpad.
It does allow for a full 1u grid, and this is programmable via QMK and VIA, so super
easy to configure.
And essentially you can have a 4 by 5 grid of macros.
And with the addition of layers, which can be signified with the LED indicators, you
can switch between the numpad, and macros for different applications.
The other big feature that we saw earlier, was that we can flip the keyboard, and have
a negative angle.
The keyboard sits at 6 degrees, so nice and comfortable in stock form.
However to cater for more ergocentric people, such as those who suffer from carpal tunnel
syndrome, we can have this negative angle, which promotes a more natural hand posture.
So if we back up for a sec, before you get to keyboard ergonomics, what’s more important
is the table and chair setup, which would then allow for a proper hover typing technique.
But for many, I know it’s not like that at all, especially when gaming, you’re most
definitely going to be resting your wrists.
With a standard angle, our wrists do bend upwards, and our fingers arch.
With a negative angle, our wrists are elevated, and our fingers aren’t as arched.
However, it can be difficult to hover, and it’s pretty much impossible to use when
resting your wrists on the table, so you do need a wrist rest if you don’t hover, and
it does need to be especially thick.
Even the one I have here is a pretty thick 25mm, which is thicker than most, and it wasn’t
quite high enough.
And with SA profile keycaps, which are known to be quite aggressive, with the negative
angle, it now becomes more neutral.
I did really enjoy the negative angle experience, which was mainly with the Cherry profile keycaps.
I think you really have to use it for a prolonged period to notice the benefits, especially
since I don’t experience any hand or wrist pains in the first place.
But it was comfortable to use real off the bat.
And that’s what this keyboard is all about.
It’s about functionality, and having a keyboard that serves a variety of needs.
So aesthetically, it’s also quite basic, which isn’t a bad thing, and it takes a
lot from the Aegis.
There’s sizeable bezels, which are equal all the way round, as it is of course reversible.
The chamfer takes the edge off the top.
And the gap between the numpad and the main area is also quite sizable which I like, and
has a very clear separation.
The side profile is very reminiscent of the Aegis with that curve which just gives it
a bit more character to break it up a bit.
And on the bottom, it’s completely bare, which is kind of a rarity with custom mechs.
In this regard, it doesn’t have as much character, and personally it does give a bit
of an empty feeling.
Usually there would be an engraving, or a weight with an engraving to give it that special
touch and uniqueness, and you know, it makes it feel special and premium which we’ve
become accustomed to.
However, because of the reversibility of the board, any branding would potentially be upside
down, so it’s been relegated to the inside.
I have the navy blue version.
It’s a very dark navy, and throughout the video I’ve shown it in different lighting,
and often it looks black, but in the light, the blue does come through.
But the anodised finish is clean and smooth all on the outside, and the two halves seem
to match perfectly.
It is also available in black and dark grey.
The thing with negative angle, is that it does look weird.
There’s no getting around that, because we’re just used to how keyboards look.
And yeh, it is kind of not the most aesthetically pleasing thing, and also the screws are very
visible in this configuration, which I feel adds to that notion that it is the wrong way,
even though it isn’t.
As mentioned before, it does come with a variety of gasket materials.
So we have rubber, which was already installed, silicone, Poron, and foam, each with 8 pieces.
Straight away we can see that rubber and silicone are very similar.
While Poron and foam are similar feeling and looking.
So let’s try these and give them a listen.
Sooo, yeh.
They all sound very very similar.
I’m using V2 Zilents, so they are a quiet keyswitch, and may not amplify the effects.
And they sound terrible with a mic because they’re quiet, so we pick up a lot of scratch
and background sound, and the spacebar takes over a little bit.
Based on the recordings, the Poron and foam are slightly louder.
Like they actually have a higher volume as we can see in Premiere Pro.
But in real life it’s hardly noticeable.
The rubber and silicone seem to have more of a thocky and bassy sound, whereas the Poron
and foam have a lighter and thinner sound, being slightly more higher pitched.
As for feel.
It’s just so difficult to compare, because it isn’t side by side, and the differences
for me, especially within a somewhat short period, were just so hard to notice.
And you can’t tell if it’s a placebo effect, since you know what you’re putting in, and
you have those expectations.
But if I have to say something, the foam and Poron may have felt a touch softer, as the
sound tests suggest.
I may be completely wrong, and perhaps with other keyswitches the differences may be more
noticeable.
And the brass plate is another variable.
But without side by side comparison, it’s very difficult to tell.
But it’s great to experiment and have the choice, so there’s that.
Alright, so all up.
Super easy build, especially with its mostly fixed layout, which provides control, but
loses out on flexibility and customisability that people may want.
The construction is fantastic, can’t fault it, and the anodisation is clean and smooth,
besides some imperfections on the inside of the top piece.
The keyboard does provide a lot of functionality.
I love the left hand numpad.
It just makes sense.
And when you pair with with the popular 65% layout, it’s beautiful match, and I think
it does improve on the Aegis in its usability.
And to add to that, the ability to change it to a negative angle is awesome.
I personally don’t have hand and wrist issues yet, so I can’t fully appreciate it.
But I know for sure, this will be an amazing feature for those that do.
And the gasket mounting is interesting.
It’s cool how they provided the different materials, even though for me, the differences
were very small,and I’m not so sure on the one sided gasket.
The cool thing is, is that this isn’t a group buy.
This will be available for purchase from their website which I’ll link.
Meaning that they’re all in stock, and you don’t need to wait months to receive it.
It is a limited custom keyboard though, so don’t expect to be cheap, but you pay for
what you get, and what you get is something that concentrates on delivering functionality.