Today we check out a mechanical keyboard that’s specifically made for mobile devices, and
is also a pretty affordable option.
I’ve seen this on Massdrop before, but haven’t seen much of it since, and this was provided
by Lightinthebox.com, so a big thanks to them.
This keyboard is from Bastron, who actually make glass keyboards as well.
But this is their mechanical keyboard, the Bastron MK75.
Opening up the box we have the keyboard itself.
We also get a small Phillips head screwdriver.
A Bluetooth dongle.
And a user manual.
However they do have a way better in depth one on their website, which I’ll link.
Ok so here it is.
And it’s a pretty straight forward design that they’ve gone with.
We basically have our keyboard, and then a channel to place our mobile devices.
The channel is pretty wide at about 11.5mm on the bottom, and 16mm for the top opening.
So it should fit most tablet devices.
The angle of your device will depend on how thick it is.
The slimmer it is, the more laid back it will be, and the thicker it is, the more upright
it will be.
The build is an all plastic construction.
This really is nothing special at all, but after you chuck in the 4 AA batteries it does
pack some weight at about 770 grams, and this will only get heavier with a device or devices
on there.
Without the metal there is some flex to it, but overall it doesn’t necessarily come
off as cheap feeling.
They’ve gone with a 75 key layout.
So we basically have a standard 60% keyboard with the function row on top.
And this makes absolute sense in terms of size, as it will span the length of the larger
tablets.
The tablet I have here is the Sony Xperia Z 10 inch tablet which is about 26.5cm wide,
and it still has some room on the sides.
Although what we can do is rotate it, and we can put our phone next to it if we want
to.
Or even another smaller tablet.
Because this is basically a 60% board, I think the main problem for this for normal users
will be the lack of dedicated arrow keys.
I’ve used 60% boards in the past, so I am accustomed to using keys on a function layer,
but for a casual user it is pretty annoying.
I mean I still prefer dedicated arrow keys on my keyboards because of the way I like
to work.
The font on the keycaps is the gamery font.
Now this is a keyboard that isn’t marketed towards gamers, so I’m completely justified
in saying that this is a terrible typeface.
It would look so much better to have a simpler font to make it cleaner looking and more professional.
Fortunately this has a completely standard ANSI layout, so you could change the keycaps
if you wanted to.
I think the overall design is pretty clean.
The design is based on function.
So it’s quite square.
It is a floating key design, so the switches are exposed from the sides.
And the base under the keycaps is actually quite slim.
Like if we cut off the rest of it, this would be one of the thinner boards out there.
This is all black, but there’s also a grey version of it which I personally think looks
a bit nicer.
Above the keys we have our Bluetooth channel buttons labelled 1, 2, and 3, that I’ll
go through later.
And we have another pairing button and the backlighting button.
The backlighting doesn’t have any brightness levels or effects, so it’s just on and off
which is fine.
But it’s very dim that it’s hardly even visible in a decently lit environment.
But it will still be useful in very dark conditions.
But I guess the reason they did this was to conserve power consumption and extend that
battery life, which personally is a good trade off.
And behind the channel, we have the quite bulky back section which also houses the batteries.
It’s nice that they provided a screwdriver to open the battery door.
And for some reason there’s no spot for the Bluetooth dongle to be stored.
This requires 4 AA batteries which are not included, and this can’t be used without
any batteries because there is no option for a physical connection, and can only be used
via Bluetooth.
I’ve been using this on and off for maybe a month or so, primarily with my tablet, and
it’s still running.
So I actually haven’t depleted the batteries yet, so I’m not sure how long they will
go, and I guess it’s also dependent on the batteries you have.
So really, so far so good in terms of battery life.
One of the big features they’re pushing is that this keyboard can simultaneously be
used on three devices.
We have the 3 buttons here, and these are the 3 different channels we can store a device
on.
To pair a device to a channel, just hold down the button for 3 seconds and it will start
rapidly blinking.
And then you just go to the Bluetooth settings on your device and connect it.
And we can do the same with the other 2 channels.
So now that we have 3 devices connected, to swap between them, we just press the channel
number and use the corresponding device.
It’s worked on every device I’ve tried so far.
I’ve tried it on Windows, Android, MacOS, and iOS, and they’ve worked seamlessly together.
It’s also really nice that they gave some attention to the Apple users with the command
and option keys on there.
There’s also software that you can download from their website allowing you to pair it
up with your PC via the Bluetooth dongle.
The experience is pretty smooth, but there is that bit of latency which is noticeable,
but for mobile device use which mainly consists of typing, rather than gaming for me at least,
it’s absolutely fine.
But yeh, you won’t want to be using this for gaming because you will feel it the delay.
The button next to the LED on and off button is for syncing it with their own mouse, which
you can also get bundled with this.
And this allows you to use the mouse to switch between the channels as well.
Also on the back are a couple of small rubber feet, but unfortunately the flip up feet aren’t
rubber tipped, which should be a standard at this point.
Now to the switches, these come in a standard version which are these clicky blue switches,
and a quiet one which I assume are maybe Brown’s or something.
These say Kai Hong on the housing, no idea where that’s from, but it’s just a chinese
clone of the Cherry MX Blue switch, so it’s loud, tactile, and clicky, with a medium weight.
To me they feel very similar to the Outemu Blue’s, so really they’re just like the
Outemu’s.
And here’s a quick sound test.
It’s dependent on what environments you will use this keyboard in, but as an overall
package, loud clicky switches doesn’t really make sense, as it makes it less versatile.
This is specifically made for mobile devices, which means that it would be very useful to
bring around with you to use with your devices.
But this is definitely too loud for many scenarios that aren’t at home, like at a workplace
or at school.
Of course there are variables, but for the most part, it is too loud.
Making it pretty much only useable at home, or secluded areas.
Alternatively, if we have a quieter switch, it makes the device more versatile and portable
in a sense.
So definitely overall, the quiet version makes more sense.
To take the keyboard apart, there’s 9 Philips head screws on the top side.
And 6 on the bottom side, with 1 under the battery door, and 2 under the top feet.
And this is indeed an all plastic construction, so there is no metal plate.
Instead we just have a plastic plate.
There is flex outside of the case, which doesn’t happen with the usual steel.
While the bottom shell is thin, and still has flex, it’s surprisingly solid enough
with just a touch of ribbing on the bottom surface for reinforcement.
We have our header with the leads that go to the battery compartment.
The connection is solid, so it should hold fine.
The PCB is clean and the soldering job is top notch.
The SMD LEDs are on the other side of the PCB, so there’s hardly anything going on
back here.
So overall it’s a very functional mechanical keyboard for mobile devices, and does what
it sets out to do.
I think the only difficulty in using this for some people will be not having the dedicated
arrow keys, in which other competing keyboards achieve with a truer 75% layout.
The typeface on the keycaps could be better, and I feel like it would have gave the keyboard
a much more presentable look if it did have a cleaner font.
Perhaps the lighting could have been brighter.
But it isn’t a problem for me personally, and it does conserve the battery life.
The keyswitches are unknown to me, but I mean they’re just another Chinese clone and pretty
much just feel like Outemu Blues.
So they feel good, but I can’t make any comments on the longevity of them.
This is available in the quieter switches, and to me they make more sense, as it allows
you to use it in more environments.
The overall design is simple and functional and looks pretty good in my opinion, especially
with different keycaps.
I like the Apple compatibility with the command and options keys, and it’s ability to be
used with multiple devices.
The build is nothing special.
There’s no metal, which does make it lighter, but of course it doesn’t feel high quality,
but at the same time not necessarily cheap.
Thanks to lightinthebox.com for providing this keyboard for review.
I’ll leave the links in the description.