Finally!
We’re coming to the end of my Computex 2019 coverage.
There was a lot more other mechanical keyboard stuff that I just couldn’t make dedicated
videos with, so let’s check some of that stuff out.
Alright so, first we have TEX, who are also from Taiwan.
And they had some classy stuff.
The Shinobi is their new version of their 7 row mech with a trackpoint!
Which I guess is an upgrade from their Kodachi.
But yeh, stunning keyboard, based on the Thinkpad board.
It has the same layout as my old Thinkpad X220.
And they’re working on a Bluetooth module, which would make a seriously sweet keyboard
for a tablet.
The Beetle 2 was their 60% board, but it had the HHKB layout.
For some reason they had a bunch of boards inside glass cabinets, even though mechanical
keyboards are like all about touch.
But yeh, it looked nice, and had an aluminium case.
Sharing the booth, there was KBParadise.
They showed off a bunch of their 60% V60 keyboards, in various versions.
One of them was an analog version, in collaboration with Wooting.
So I assume they had the Flaretech switches in them, which can read the distance a switch
is pressed, within a certain range.
They also had a bunch of dye-subbed stuff.
Next up, we have some budget options from Motospeed and 1st Player.
Azio.
Now these guys had an impressive booth.
Just really nicely put together and well presented, which really reflected their products.
I’ve always seen this stuff in pictures, and never really thought much of them because
of their design.
But in real life, I was actually quite impressed.
They had a really cohesive line of products.
Their full sized and compact keyboards, which were 75% boards, came in a few different designs,
with combinations of wood, metal, and leather.
And they had matching mice and wrist rests, which also were super nice.
The Iris keyboard though was more my style.
It still had the same 75% layout, but had more conventional keycaps, and featured a
multimedia knob.
But the design overall is much cleaner.
And the N-PAD Unit matches perfectly with it.
In addition, all of their stuff is wireless, which I feel fits the audience.
And while they may not be for everyone, they certainly will cater well for their target
audience.
In a similar theme, ASrock had this themed PC build, which had a mechanical keyboard
embedded in it.
It looks to be a variant of the Magicforce68, so just a nice and cheap mech, but yeh, interesting
nonetheless.
Now onto Noppoo.
I’ve seen a lot of these keyboards, BUT, under different brands.
I don’t know much about who makes what, but it seems these guys are the OEM for a
lot of the budget stuff.
For example, the Choc 96, which features the awesome compressed layout, combining the numpad
and nav cluster, and has the magnetic top plastic housing, is the Rakk Ilis that I reviewed.
An amazing board by the way, as it also has Outemu hotswap sockets.
And there’s many other examples as well with many other brands.
The magnetic covers are cool though.
Normally plastic covers just clip in, and you gotta deal with screws.
But a magnetic cover makes it so easy to just change the look of the keyboard in seconds.
Unfortunately I didn’t get enough time at Wooting, which was disappointing, because
their Wooting 2 with their new Lekker keyswitches was really interesting.
The switch is still in the works, so the weight and such still may change, but it is a linear
switch, and from first impressions is quite smooth.
The Lekker switch improves on the older Flaretech ones, which only had an analog range from
1.5mm to 3.6mm, inside a 4mm total travel.
The Lekker switch has a full analog range, opening up more possibilities with its application.
Hopefully I can get my hands on a Wooting 2 to get into more detail, because there’s
a whole lot more to it.
And here’s some more miscellaneous mechanical keyboard stuff from Computex!
And that’s a wrap on Computex 2019!
There was actually a bunch of mech stuff that I missed, or didn’t get footage of.
I only attended 3 days, and these exhibition halls are huge, so I just couldn’t get to
everything by myself.
But it was such a great experience, and I did learn a heap in how to cover such an event.
So next time, I’ll be way more efficient, and hopefully bring better content.
Taipei is a beautiful city as well, I only wish I had more time to actually see a bit
more.
But I’m sure next time will be better.
Huge thanks to Tecware for supporting my coverage of Computex 2019.
Please check them out with the links below.
And that’s it, back to normal viewing now.
Being away for this long, I have so much stuff piled up, so stay tuned.