Alright, cheers to Ryan and Kennua for their time at Treehouse. I’m feeling good today,
and I gotta spark something for the channel, so I’ll give one away one of these later in
the video, so stay tuned for that. Also before we start, just gonna quickly mention that the
Sydney Mechanical Keyboard Meetup is coming up on the 10th of September. Awesome event to check out
everything to do with mechs, and I’ll be there. I’ll have a link in the description for that.
Okay, here’s the top. Gotta love how translucent coloured plastic looks, so pretty.
As mentioned by Ryan before, this is essentially an injection moulded version of the aluminium
Praxis, so it has the same mounting points and screw holes. It does feature brass inserts for
the screw threads which is good, so it should be nice and durable compared to tapped plastic.
Here’s the bottom piece, very simple, no option for a weight like the original
aluminium Praxis with polycarbonate bottom, and the injection moulded plastic would
definitely be thinner than the original. While there is some small support along the walls,
the bottom for the most part is just empty. We also have to remember that all the cheap
pre-built plastic mechanical keyboards that you see are also injection moulded,
and they tend to have support ribbing along the bottom surface to improve rigidity.
So I’m not sure what it is, or if some lateral support structures would help with straightening,
but it’s not looking great. As we can see, it isn’t flat,
not even close. And that goes for both the top and bottom pieces,
which curve the same way too, like together, so it’s not like they can counteract each other.
With all this being said, I’m not an expert on plastic moulding and design,
so take it as you will. I did talk to Ryan about it,
and it is known, and it’s just a part of it, but you’ll see later how it is.
Now to the plate, which is 1.5mm aluminium. This is the same plate used by the aluminium Praxis,
so again, same top mount design and mounting points. However remember that this keyboard does
come with a hotswap PCB, that being the Valor Rev2 HS, which is fitted with Gateron hotswap sockets,
so there’s no need for any soldering work. Personally I think this fits the Praxis IM
perfectly, being a more budget friendly board, perhaps more beginner friendly, and hotswap
just makes it easier to try different switches and typing experiences. So I’m all for that.
Also there’s a bunch of these small side firing SMD LEDs which might be interesting,
because of course we have that translucent case. However,
I know there’s not a whole lot of diffusion going on here, so let’s see how it is.
Alrighty, let’s put it together. First up Staebie stabilsers. These are developed by these guys as
well, and basically they wanted stabs that just worked out of the box, because as you may know,
stabs take a lot of work to get right. However, I did just chuck them in without lubing, especially
because 2u stabs tend to be okay, BUT there was rattle, so I still recommend to use lube.
Back home, cheers Johnnyboy. Switches, we’re gonna try two. First up Gateron
Oil King switches from my good friend at Mountain Keyboards here
in Australia. These are an 80g linear which is pre-lubed, so this should be interesting.
And then the rest of the assembly is super easy,
just gotta screw it together. It does also use all the same screws which is always nice.
One
thing I did notice is that the heads of the screws seem to be a little too large
for these holes I think, because the more I screwed them in, and there shouldn't be
too much risk going a little tight because of the threaded brass inserts, but it started to
push the top shell outwards which isn’t great, because we’re putting even more stress on that
plastic. However it looks like that should be an easy fix for them, just smaller heads.
Lastly! The keycaps. For this board I really liked what they had in the store, and I'm fully onboard
with going with the same sort of colourway as the case itself. Like they have GMK Jamon, Frost
Witch, Belafonte, BUT, it’s a translucent case, and recently there’s been an influx in translucent
keycaps. I had a look around, and fortunately Switchkeys had these Lelelab, not sure how to
pronounce it, but it was available in a bunch of colours, and what better board to use these on.
Unfortunately
because of this Alice layout, we need another 2.25u for the left spacebar,
and remember it is hotswap, so there’s no getting round it. So… I had no choice, had to cop another
set. If for some reason you don’t need a 2.25u left shift, please buy this spare keyset off me.
And here it is, the Praxis IM.
Love the look of this thing.
Translucent plastic always hits different for me. Definitely prefer it over opaque plastic, I dunno,
just makes it more interesting. And I think I hit the spot with these keycaps. It matches so well,
even though the hues of the blue are slightly different between the case and the keycaps,
everything else comes into play. So for the case, you have the black plate coming through,
which kinda gives it a bit of a tint. And then for the keycaps, you have the actual switches
themselves. So I used the all black Oil Kings, but also the white and green Built By Nim linears, and
both worked really well. I’m not sure if using more colourful switches would work as well,
I definitely think black and white is perfect for these.
The white legends on the keycaps work beautifully too, they’re using the same typical sort of
rounded Helvetica typeface which we’re all accustomed to, although they are just UV printed,
so durability, we’ll just have to wait and see, but for now it looks great. And the translucent
nature with the visible structuring and ribbing extends from the keycap stems throughout the
keyboard. It’s just how it is, you get to see the threads, the screws, and everything else.
The side profile, you can see the plate and PCB. And on the bottom,
it’s just an unobstructed view of the PCB, which again I kinda do question, perhaps some sort
of support would have been beneficial, because even fully built, it is curved.
Now the thing is, and I did talk to him about it. If you use it with a deskmat,
it’s no issue at all, even being this light, it still sinks in a bit and it’s covered,
no problem. So they kind of assume that you will use a deskmat, which to be fair many of us do.
Now let’s get to the sound test.
Pretty
interesting. It’s
pretty alike to other injection moulded top mount keyboards,
however what I do like about this, is that it’s just a pure top mount.
No foam or silicone or gaskets, making it a little different to the others.
You can definitely feel the plastic characteristic of the keyboard. It has a slightly dampened feel,
slightly softer because of the plastic shell, so it goes a touch towards the thocky side. However,
it’s got that slightly deadish muted plastic response. For me, the Gateron Oil Kings,
while nice switches, they weren’t suited to this keyboard, it was a bit too mushy and muted in
my opinion. I definitely felt that the Builtbynim linears which are a long pole switch and clackier
by default, brought out more life, and I really enjoyed this combination in both sound and feel.
I would probably bet that a nice strong long pole tactile would
work here. I think in general just a more lively switch will do the trick,
and yeh I really enjoyed how the Builtbynim build worked out. I also did try OP Blacks,
which kinda go in between those 2 switches, and they were pretty good too, very pleasant.
And that’s the Praxis IM, AKA Injection Moulded Praxis. I love the board for what it is. I love
it’s backwards compatibility, and just providing a cheaper option of their Alice style keyboard.
Also just another cheaper Alice option on the market is nice to see, making it more accessible,
and remember it’s an in stock item which is awesome. 135USD or 190AUD, still up there, because
you don’t get switches or keycaps. So while it is towards the budget end in the enthusiast market,
it’s still definitely a bit to cop. But you do get a quality hotswap PCB and the solid Staebies.
There are a few quality issues with the case itself. If they can fix the warp,
and the screw sizes, it’ll be a lot better, because for me it needs to be fixed. But it
just looks so nice, and the combination with the keycaps it’s just perfect honestly. The
feel is decent too, not as great as the Aluminium Praxis in my opinion,
but that’s a given, and it’s hotswap, so there’s room to explore.
I’ll chuck all the links in the description. Huge thanks to Ryan for letting me visit the Keyboard
Treehouse store, the guys there are doing an awesome job especially in Australia. Thanks to
John for your accommodation. And to Antonio, I’m sorry, I didn’t quite make the fortnight.
Okay, giveaway time. Let’s say, be subscribed and leave a comment
down below on what you think about the keyboard. Good or bad, whatever. And I’ll
extend this to my Instagram as well, sus the description. Thanks for watching, and bless.