I was never a huge fan of the 75% layout.
But the absolute banger 75s that have come out have started to change my mind.
Owlabs is definitely not new to the space.
But qwertykeys is.
So you can imagine my surprise when I was asked to review the QK75.
It’s the result of feedback from both the QK65 and QK60, and a single part of a series
of boards qwertykeys aims to produce to allow keyboard enthusiasts to experience popular
layouts at a fair price.
As always, the packaging is not finalized, and our components are inside a plain cardboard
box.
In here is of course, our carrying case, and a box for accessories.
In here are Owlstabs v2, a coiled cable, and our optional rotary encoder and knob.
Lets get to the main components.
First off, interesting looking gaskets, bottom feet, some standoffs, and a daughterboard
cable.
Next is a solder PCB with PE foam and plate foam.
And a hotswap PCB with PE foam and plate foam, which is what we’ll be using.
Here is a POM plate, aluminum plate with flex cuts, and an extra daughterboard.
Lastly is the board itself with case foam.
Onto some specs.
Qk75 is a screwless PCB gasket mounted 75%, meaning it’s the first board in the QK series
to support plateless.
We have 4 PCB options: wireless ANSI hotswap, wireless ISO hotswap, wired ANSI hotswap,
and soldered for plateless builds.
Soldered, of course, supports the most layouts, including stepped caps, split left shift,
split backspace, ISO enter, and 7U bottom row.
For the case, we have colors in both annodization and a interesting spray coating.
For annodization, we have gray, red, blue, and green, and for spray coating, we have
black, mint, white, milky white, pink, and lavender.
Weights are PVD stainless steel and can come in either sandblasted or polished finishes.
Available colors are silver, gold, chroma, dusk, and black.
We also have 9 possible badges, and 3 different finishes for the knobs, making this board
incredibly versatile and customizable.
For plates, we have FR4, Aluminum, POM and polycarbonate.
Finally, depending on your config, the QK75 will range from $135 to $200 dollars.
I know I’ve said I’m not a huge fan of Owlstabs, but we’ll give them another shot.
Totally not because I’ve run out of TX stabs.
I’ll add the POM plate on top And in here go tungstens lubed with 205g0.
These are long pole linears made by Owlab.
I’m encountering a small issue here, where one of the holes is blocked for the split
backspace socket.
I have to trim off this pin with nail clippers to make it fit.
To finish off the inner assembly, we’ll add on these strange looking gaskets.
These are almost reminiscent of geon tadpoles, but mount slightly differently.
There are a total of 13, and also some on the left and right side.
Now, we can open up the case.
This has a screwless exterior design, so the screws are going to be on the top.
We can connect the daughterboard, install the inner assembly,
And close the case back up.
On top here will go our badge, which attaches magnetically,
And GMK rainy day.
I take back whatever I said about Owlstabs, because these are good.
Especially with XHT-BDZ, these are definitely a great option without having to balance the
wires.
So the alphas are just a tiny bit thin, and this is definitely the fault of the flex cuts.
Tiny strips of tape over them fixed it up right away.
There doesn’t seem to be any hollowness at all, which is great.
But I never really noticed hollowness in the QK65 or QK60 anyway, and the main issue was
always thinness.
The new gaskets definitely has a sound signature similar to tadpole mounting, and it almost
seems like this board just sounds like a QK60 mixed with a frog.
It’s definitely more full than the QK60 though, and don’t even get me started on
the QK65.
The addition of an internal weight this time around is definitely helping with honing in
the sound here, and is a step up from the QK65 and 60.
And keep in mind all of this is with zero foam at all, which is very impressive.
Qk evolution - sound got better from 65 to 60 to 75
So the flex is okay.
It’s fair.
It’s not insane, and it never really has been.
It seems like there’s a tiny bit more in the middle than everywhere else, so the gasket
stiffness is definitely affecting it a bit here.
It’s also due to the small bottom case space, and this is evident when you open up the case
and see how little the edge is elevated compared to other boards.
Overall, this new style of gasket mounting needs more experimentation to find its ideal
sound profile and feel.
The design is nothing too crazy.
First off let’s take a closer look at this interesting spray coat finish.
There are some specks that catch the light and almost look like glitter, and this is
a subtle thing that you can only really see when using the board.
It just looks really prominent here because our perspective is on the opposite side of
a harsh light source.
That’s your snippet of film school for today.
The finish itself feels slightly rougher to the touch than annodization, which I’m not
a fan of.
The side profile is very standard and jagged, the rear has our centered recessed USBC port
under the upper lip, and the bottom has our weight, with qwertykeys engraved into it.
Similar to the Thera75 v2, we have an interchangeable knob and magnetic badges.
The knob is pre-soldered, so all you have to do is screw it in and connect it to the
PCB.
My knob isn’t turning perfectly circularly, so it’s actually scratching up against the
edge.
Qwertykeys has already fixed this by increasing the size of the hole, so this shouldn’t
be an issue.
Overall, the design is still very simple and angular like the QK60, but shows obvious maturing
from the QK65 to 60 and now to the 75.
The silhouette of the bottom weight piece hints to the QK60, but otherwise, the design
is unlike the other two in the series.
I do wish the weight peeked out a little bit at the back or sides, just to make it more
present in the design.
The board has a very nice heft thanks to the two weights, much more than I was expecting.
And overall, the board just feels more premium than I was expecting, coming from the QK60.
There are just very obvious improvements in almost all the aspects, and I wanna dub this
the QK (r)evolution, marking not only the revolution the QK series is having on the
hobby as it gains more popularity, but also the evolution as these boards simply get better
and better in terms of design, sound, and feel.
Innovation in this hobby is sometimes rare, especially in the board space.
So its great to see qwertykeys stepping up and continuing to deliver boards that redefine
the standards for high end budget custom keyboards.