75% keyboards offer the best of many worlds.
Its compact layout means that you can retain much of the mouse room gained from something
like a 60%, as well as all of the keys commonly found on a TKL.
The Vortex Race 3 has been a popular such keyboard ever since it came out, and it’s
easy to see why.
Vortex continues the quality observed in their lineup along with an updated modern design.
The case is pretty much identical to the one found on the Vibe, which I looked at before.
It’s got a low profile case, which isn’t something I usually like, but like with the
Vibe, I enjoy this one.
The sharp corners with thin bezels look simple and elegant.
These are only available with traditional Cherry MX switches, which have black housings.
This provides sort of a void between the case and the keycaps, which emphasizes the “floating
keys” look.
The keycaps are also a high point in the Race.
They are a PBT Dyesub variety in the DSA profile.
They have about the same amount of texture as common Chinese DSA keycaps, which is to
say they’re approximately matte.
The legends are pretty sharp and relatively consistent.
The only sort of weirdness I noticed with them were the caps with two legends, such
as the number row and the semicolon.
The two legends seem kind of far apart, but the distance seems relatively consistent between
them, so I’ll mark that off as a stylistic decision.
These are about 1.3 millimeters thick, which I believe is thicker than usual DSA.
I don’t have any SP DSA keycaps on hand, but I believe those are typically 1.1 millimeters.
The F and J keys are also homing keys.
Typical homing keys have bars on them, but DSA profile uses these deep dish keys, which
just mean that the scoop is a little more distinct than all the other keys.
I prefer this to bumps because you don’t get a distracting piece of protrusion,
but you still retain the ability to find your home position.
You also get a bunch of extra keycaps with the Race.
The first set is for Mac compatibility.
As enthusiasts, this isn’t something we think about that often because we usually
end up being fine with incorrect legends, but the inclusion must be welcome for Mac
users.
But the really exciting part is with the multicolored modifiers.You get a set of red, green, blue,
and yellow replacements, which you can choose to use or not use.
I really like the look with all of these on, but of course, you can pick and choose what
you want.
Some people say it sort of looks like a Little Tikes toy, but I don’t really mind that.
One unexpected benefit to all of these extra keycaps is that you may be able to use them
to fill your 40% keyboard.
Of course you aren’t going to have correct legends for each key, but you’re probably
used to that if you are using a 40% anyway.
This is how my Minivan looks with the Race keycaps.
Moving on to the layout.
The 75% form factor is probably actually very familiar to most people because most laptops
use some variation of this.
If you look at my laptop, you can see that the layout and stock key placements are pretty
much identical.
This made the transition to this keyboard a breeze.
One odd thing about the Race 3’s layout in particular is the top row.
Most 75% layouts have the function row ortholinear to the number row, meaning that there is no
stagger between them.
However, on the Race, the Escape and Delete keys are larger than usual to provide that
stagger.
If you look at the function row in a TKL, you’ll notice those spaces between the clusters,
which I think is a good look, and some 75% boards, like the Magicforce 82 implement this.
I think that provides sort of a visual separation between the main part of the keyboard and
the auxiliary function row.
I think this stagger achieves the same effect.
Personally, I have never been a big fan of traditional 75% layouts because of their function
row.
I always thought they made that area look busy.
This resolves some of the visual clutter.
Of course, a huge problem with this is that most keycap sets don’t include 1.5u escape
and delete.
Not even large sets like GMK ones offer these, so If you want something with a correct row
profile and legend, you’re pretty much stuck with the stock keycaps.
However, I think the stock caps are high enough quality that you’d never really want to
change them anyway.
Perhaps the popularity of this board will introduce compatibility kits in future sets.
I’m interested to hear what you guys think about this.
Keycap compatibility aside, do you guys prefer a stagger or a grid in the top row?
Leave a comment down below.
Overall, the board is built fairly well for what it is.
For an aluminum keyboard, it’s relatively light, but doesn’t feel flimsy by any means,
and the base provides a solid foundation for each keystroke.
You can remove the keyboard assembly from the case by just undoing some screws on the
plate.
This reveals a case that’s really thin on the inside as it is on the outside.
This lack of material is probably what makes the Race so light, but I don’t have a problem
with that.
I do have a problem with these super thin standoffs though.
They look really flimsy and I’d be afraid of breaking them off somehow, maybe by over-tightening
the screws.
Just a quick look at the PCB, you can see that there are cutouts for RGB LEDs.
I’m not a PCB components expert, so I’m not sure if all the other parts needed to
make them work are present, but it would take a lot of work to make these work anyway.
Stabilizer rattle, which plagues so many retail keyboards is not found here.
Like all of their other products that I looked at in the past, the plate mount stabilizers
that come with the Race are excellent, with absolutely 0 noise.
Vortex once again proves that you don’t have to use genuine stabilizers to achieve
good results.
Looking at you, K-Type.
Like other Vortex boards, this is programmable, but I won’t go into that here.
I’ll link to other guides and the manual down in the description.
This particular Race comes with Cherry MX Browns, and has had no mod done to it.
I really do enjoy typing on this keyboard, particularly at the 0 degree angle without
the included feet.
The low profile case and keycaps provide a very comfortable typing position for
me.
I think the board also sounds pretty good.
The bottom out is nice and confident, and the lack of stabilizer rattle means no annoying
interruptions in your typing sound.
If you are a little bit more heavyhanded with your typing, you may experience a bit of ping
in the case.
When typing on my soft deskmat, this wasn’t a problem, but when I had it on a harder surfaces
or if I am holding it up, I can hear some of the hollowness inside the case.
This isn’t a difficult issue to tackle though.
Opening up the keyboard is really simple, so it wouldn’t take too much effort to lay
down some foam in the case
After adding foam to the case, I found the sound to be more muted, but have a listen
for yourself
With the Race 3, Vortex knocks it right out of the park once again.
It offers a sleek modern design that does low profile right, while providing all the
features that an enthusiast might want, and none of the unnecessary bling.
The inclusion of keycaps for customizability is a huge plus that opens up so many possibilities
for different aesthetics, which is aided by the weird but visually relieving staggered
top row.
Currently, it’s about 140 dollars on Amazon, but it does come up for slightly cheaper on
Massdrop from time to time, and I’d say this is a fantastic value.
Yes, you are sacrificing lighting, but that’s pretty much all you’re sacrificing, and
in return you get one of the best out-of-the-box typing experiences available on a retail keyboard.
If you’re looking for a mid range compact keyboard that keeps most of the keys found
on a TKL, this is the way to go.
Thank you for watching.
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