Yo, today we’re back with another custom mechanical keyboard build.
This is something that I personally wanted to check out because of the layout, with its left
hand numpad, as I do love me some numpad. And this is the Viendi 8L.
Inside the box we have an assortment of knobs. However you will only receive one
based on the colour of the keyboard.
Then we have the accessories which are just a bunch of screws and the rotary encoder.
And then finally we have the keyboard itself. First impressions, it’s a nice shiny boy,
which always looks good brand new. And we have a little bit more of that on the bottom.
I believe that this is the only plate material available, which is brass, although it comes
in black for the Nero version. And it is for sure a huge part of the board's identity.
Again, early prototype unit, but as we can see, it doesn’t have the cleanest finish, although
you won’t be able to see it anyway when built. What’s more important
is how it looks on the outside, which is all good.
Arighty, let’s take it apart. There’s just 8 hex screws, and it comes apart like so.
Being an early prototype unit, this isn’t the final product, in fact there’s been
some pretty big changes which I’ll point out. Here’s the top aluminium piece, and this
part is largely unchanged. There’s some positioning holes and tabs, pretty simple.
And we can also see that the bottom edge has been milled, to give it a floating effect.
Now to the plate, and this is where the biggest design changes occured.
It’s made from 1.5mm brass, and we can see that there are a few cuts around the perimeter,
which gives it a little bit of relief, but it won’t do too much in this configuration
considering it’s a sandwich mount. Meaning that the plate is sandwiched between the top
and bottom aluminium pieces, with a lot of surface area in contact.
So they have changed this quite a bit. There’s been a lot removed where the rotary encoder is.
But more importantly they’ve cut more out to create leaf springs. These are the only
images I have, but they will undoubtedly give it more relief, how much more? I don’t know.
If we look at the wilba.tech Thermal, it’s kinda similar to that.
Supposedly this change will create more metallic ping, so they’ve added
a thin foam piece that goes above the plate, which I don’t think I‘ve seen before in this manner,
because it has switch cutouts, which would then block that shiny plate. And then
another perimeter piece where the plate meets the bottom.
We still have this soft squishy mid foam layer that goes between the plate and PCB.
And another more open foam for the case bottom. So that is definitely a lot of foam to try and combat
metallic ping, because of this particular sandwich mount design. I think we all have differing
opinions on foam, but this is definitely a case of some of the foam addressing a sound issue,
rather than complimenting the board. However, we haven’t seen the revised version yet, so
we don’t know for sure. Whether you’re a fan of that? That’s up to you :)
I believe that there is only a solderable version available, which I think is fine because hotswap
would be somewhat limiting for a board like this. And for this build we have some jwick Yellows.
And here it is, the Viendi 8L, designed in Saigon, Vietnam.
Lovely lovely looking board. As you guys may know, I’m a sucker for things that have
something different about them, and it certainly is a bit different. Starting with the plate,
it’s something that drives this board, first of all being shiny, it catches the eye. It does
also have a fillet to it, which I don’t think I’ve seen before, nice touch. And then we of
course have the smaller top alu piece to reveal more of the plate, creating this stepped design.
But because it’s so prominent you do have to consider it even more when trying to
match it with keycaps. And you can do the same with the knob as well.
The other funky looking part is the divider. They’ve milled out the ends. And it also houses
the LED indicators, although the bottom LED is an SMD RGB LED, so it leaks out the bottom.
But I just love the shape of these long thin keyboards, they look really cool in my opinion.
The bottom is simple, really clean. I really dig it. It doesn’t have a huge weight or anything,
but a nice shiny badge. It might be a little hard to see, but the V bit has vertical lines,
which is a nice bit of detail. It still is a reasonably heavy board at just under 2kg,
and some of you may relate, you do start to appreciate keyboards
not being super heavy sometimes, and being easy to pick up with one hand.
Alright, let’s get to the layout. I’m a huge believer in functionality and
practicality. And my daily driver is a testament to that. This is my good old iQunix F96. And
despite having all that I have, I use it because it’s wireless, and has a numpad, which I love.
I’ve briefly used a left hand numpad with the aeboards Aegis and the EXT65, but that was quite
a while ago now. The logic behind it is pretty simple. For most of us, we use our mouse with the
right hand. So if you want to use your numpad, you have to remove it from the mouse to use it.
Therefore you can’t simultaneously use both. Although I have done that with my other hand.
But having the numpad on the left, you can be that bit more efficient. But for sure, you’re
gonna have to be someone that does quite a bit of number entry to get the most out of it. Most of
my number entry is like with just Adobe programs, which aren’t super number heavy anyway, but I’ve
still found it pretty good. But it definitely takes some getting used, with all that muscle
memory I‘ve built over all these years. Sometimes it’s just more comfortable using the right hand.
We also do have the ability to change the orientation.
But by default it’s mirrored to a normal one.
The other big potential advantage, and probably more applicable to more people, is with
ergonomics. A normal numpad kind of impedes on our mouse space, so we tend to offset our keyboard to
the left. Or, move the mouse further out to the right. Both resulting in a wider spread.
With the numpad on the left, it effectively works as a 60% keyboard, providing you have the
deskspace. And that’s been one of the best aspects for me. I don’t need to offset my typing position,
or my mouse position by much at all, and I’ve found it really comfortable.
As said, this is like a 60% plus numpad. However they’re really pushing the use of arrow keys,
because they’re often used in tandem with numbers. You can do this with most 60%’s,
but right now I have my arrows keys as such, and then for the shift key,
if I tap it, it works as the up arrow key, and if I hold it, it works as a normal shift, which
is something you can consider if you still want dedicated arrow keys.
And finally we have the knob. I know not everyone is a fan of them, like my mate Jimmy
who wants everything lifeless. But it’s so useful, even purely just for volume, so good.
Having it in the top left corner is awesome as well, feels very natural.
I know I’m being extremely positive about everything to do with the layout, but
that’s because it genuinely suits me. The only things I miss are the function row,
and the right hand enter key which is amazing by the way. But
yeh, won’t be for everyone, but it’s a really fun form factor to have.
Alrighty, let’s give it a quick listen.
Okay, remember that there’s quite a few changes to be had, so this typing test won’t be super
reflective on how the final keyboard will type and sound like. For the one I have though, as expected
it’s a pretty stiff board. There’s pretty much no flex to it, because of its sandwich mount and its
plate design. Being only available in brass is also a limiting factor, being one of the stiffer
and denser plate materials. Aluminium for example would probably ease it up a little bit.
That being said, I don’t mind it, it’s solid and dense. Has that hard bottom out, but
it isn’t too harsh, and sometimes I like that. It does rely on foam a bit to tighten it up,
and that’s why we still get that slightly dampened and muted sound and feel.
The mods are pretty sharp and thin though, some dampening would help those. A while later I ended
up desoldering it, and I forgot to put the thick mid foam layer back in. And I actually prefer it
without the foam. The difference isn’t huge, but it’s a little sharper, a little clackier,
and I just like that more natural feel sometimes. Kind of hard to explain, but sometimes it’s nice
to have that space inside the board, where foam can make it feel congested and flat in a way.
I tried tape modding it, but it didn't do too much.
So overall, this prototype unit is hard in sound and feel, probably won’t align to most
people’s preference. But that’s the thing, it’s preference. Not all boards need to be the same.
It doesn’t have issues with ping or hollowness. Perhaps with tactiles it might be cool.
As for the updated design, I don’t know, it’s always difficult to predict. Based on
the wilba.tech thermal, it may become more bouncy, certainly more vibrant, although
there is the addition of more foam, however that’s always optional in the building process. So
I think it’ll improve, but I don’t have it in front of me, so I can’t say for sure.
It would have been nice to maybe have an alu plate, but it is what it is.
And that’s the Viendi 8l. I’ve really enjoyed using this keyboard, mainly because of the layout.
In theory it makes sense, but while I do like to use my numpad,
I don’t think I use it enough to give the most informed opinion on it.
I love the rotary encoder, I like the aesthetics, the form factor. The only thing that I don’t
really side with is the plate. It kinda seems that so much of the board revolves around the plate,
and that comes with its quirks. In order to have it exposed on the exterior,
we have this sandwich mount design, and then it’s only available in brass. But then they’ve
made a couple of changes to help soften the board, which then requires more foam to fix
the potential sound issues that may arise . However that’s just part of the boards character.
So I believe the final product will be more aligned to most people's preferences. And
I hope that’s the case, because I do like everything else about it. So I’m keen to see that.
And that brings us to the starting price of $388USD. Obviously as always
that’s a lot of money, but relative to everything else at this time,
I think it’s pretty fair. There will be several vendors worldwide which should make it easy,
and the group buy will start on the 29th of October, and end on the 14th of November.
If you wanna check it out, I’ll have all the links in the description. Thank you, and bless.