Premium is an elusive concept that many custom keyboards try to achieve.
It’s something everyone defines differently.
And today, we look at the Augur.
It aims to bring an air of the idea of premium to a price tag that isn’t.
But is it truly the boundary breaking combination of high quality experience and low price that
many strive for?
So the augur comes in this nice custom carrying case.
Let's get to the stuff on top first.
In this bag are small parts, like two sets of gaskets with different stiffness, stab
shims, bottom feet, and a daughterboard.
Next is our multi layout solder PCB, and our two FR4 plates.
Finally is the board itself, wrapped in paper.
Augur is a winkey or winkeyless gasket mounted 60%.
We have a solder PCB included, which supports the following layouts, and an optional hotswap
PCB.
There is a daughterboard.
For plates, we only have FR4, but both full and half plate versions are included in the
box.
And for colors, the in stock sale had E-White, purple, and black.
Finally, Augur is $278 for all anodized case options, and $288 for e-white.
However, available options and additions may be subject to change, as JLabs prepares for
a Augur group buy.
In here are durock v2s lubed with 205g0 and BDZ.
On top goes the FR4 half plate, and we can add in alpacas lubed with 205g0 and filmed
with deskeys.
Let’s go ahead and solder these in.
With the inner assembly done we can get to the case.
Again, we have gaskets in two different stiffness’s, and these seem to be the softer ones, so I’m
going to leave these for the bottom case and install the stiffer ones on the top case.
The gasket spots in the case are actually slightly wider than the gaskets themselves,
giving you a little bit of leeway when installing them.
Now I’ll connect the daughterboard.
The space for it in the case was so tight that I actually had to sand the daughterboard
down to fit it.
With the inner assembly in, I can reinstall the top case, and to top it off, I’ll be
using GMK 80082.
So, the board sounds great and also has a good volume, even with the alphas being plateless.
This is definitely because of the lack of flex cuts, other designers take notes.
I went heavier on the alpaca lube job, and this definitely helped lessen the usual plasticky
sound profile of JWKs.
Now, it’s a very pleasant clack with a rather rounded high end.
If we’re being nit picky, I do wish the sound had slightly more body or mid range,
which foam might have been able to add.
Lastly, there’s no hollowness, which is great.
Despite the lack of flex cuts, the board still has a very comfortable amount of bounce.
Of course, the half plate is helping with this, but it’s primarily due to the very
thin gasket tabs on the plate.
These are so thin that I’m actually slightly worried for their structural integrity and
longevity, given that I’ve seen that these can sometimes get bent permanently downward.
Although, if you only type normally and aren’t slamming the keyboard, it shouldn’t really
be an issue.
This board is just proof that the flex cut trend needs to be stopped.
Soft small gaskets combined with 1.2 mm PCBs is already enough to offer comfortable bounce,
and I also think the trend of going for an overly bouncy experience should also be forgotten.
Because at a certain point, it just becomes fatiguing for daily use, and I think the Augur
in this plateless config hits the sweet spot of having enough flex to be very comfortable
for daily driving.
The shape of the board sitting on the table is essentially a single angular piece, with
only this cut and logo at the back hinting at the bottom case.
The bottom case itself sits flush with the top, sporting the fairly thin brass weight
and middle emblem, which I actually think looks pretty nice.
But overall, the board has a very simple and inoffensive silhouette, which I don’t think
many will be able to chalk up as premium.
Especially not these bottom feet, which strangely don’t fit in their cutouts.
The bit that I do like is that the top bezels are different thicknesses, which in my opinion,
does contribute to a more premium look.
Something that confused me during the build was that the two cases didn’t sit flush
when unscrewed.
This is because the gaskets are positioned in a way to actually be touching each other
without even installing the inner assembly.
When you screw in the case, however, it compresses the gaskets so that the case can sit flush
like it’s supposed to.
Having this gasket compression passively isn’t something that should be happening, and I
suggest modifying the gasket cutout depth in both cases, as less gasket compression
would also mean more bounce.
For the design, I think the price point is pretty understandable.
While I don’t like the lack of options in terms of foam and plate materials, these are
things I’m hoping the group buy will fix.
But when considering the sound profile and feel, I’m honestly perfectly content with
the configs you’re able to make even with the limited options.
And from this perspective, the Augur really does fulfill its promise of providing a “premium”
at a fair price.
So while these various factors make me unable to call this board the same level of premium
in other aspects, the Augur definitely comes very close to emulating the experience of
something much greater than its price tag would suggest.