The enthusiast plastic keyboard hype is on and even Rama can’t avoid it. The Kara is a HHKB
that’s cheap compared to their metal boards, but is really hard to justify when it plays in the
same price category as the GMMK Pro while offering not much more than the NK65, or the Portico.
If you’re interested in the full experience, please check out my unboxing and first
impressions stream. In short, the packaging looks and feels good,
but I would easily pass these up if it means a better keyboard.
As a matter of fact, I think I’m starting to dislike overdeveloped packaging since it’s all
waste after the initial unboxing. A plain brown box would suffice.
The only other thing I’ll say about the accessories is that the cable seems to be
the same one I got in the M60-A. That one failed after about a year of use, so keep that in mind.
If you’ve seen my M60-A video, you’ll know that I absolutely adore the way that thing looks,
and because this is just a plastic version of that, I love this too.
Of course it’s not a one-to-one copy due to limitations of the material
probably, but it’s close enough.
I love the thin side and front bezels paired with the large forehead. Like I said before, I think
this design really only works with this layout. I think a full 60% here would have looked wonky.
The rear accent is just another piece of plastic, so it’s not that exciting.
I have the Soya configuration which is this beige case and a translucent back piece.
The idea of an accent piece is cool but I’m not sure this is the best combo.
The bezels are extra tall, coming up past halfway for Cherry profile keycaps.
I love the way it looks, but if you type with your wrists resting on the table,
your fingers might actually hit the case, particularly on thumb keys like spacebar
or alt. I type with floating hands so not an issue for me, but it might bother some of you.
On the rear accent, we see a properly double-recessed Type-C
port, as well as the Rama logo above that. For this translucent color,
you can actually see the daughterboard cable resting up against the inside.
This is the same for the M60-A as well as the M65-B. I think it’s a little careless
that these cables are let loose inside the case, especially when translucent
materials are involved. I would like to see these get clamped down somewhere.
On the bottom we see a pretty similar story to the M60-A with these long rubber feet and grill cuts.
I think the custom engraved screws look pretty cool.
Finally, when we turn the lights on, we can see a very nicely diffused situation
thanks to the silicone insert and the frosted polycarbonate plate. This is with
black-bottom switches which typically don’t let any light shine through, so that’s pretty cool.
Of the three enthusiast plastic boards I have, I think this is the best looking one.
I enjoy the opaque beige color and the way it works with GMK Pristine. I think when
injection molded, translucent plastic ends up looking much cheaper, so this is a nice change.
That’s not to say that the finish on the Kara is perfect. Not all plastics
are created equal and things like Leopold have very good
or flawless exterior finishes with a consistent texture. Not so here.
The most glaring are these lines on the left and right sides. Not visible at most angles,
but this looks like some swirl marks that I’ve seen on SP SA keycaps. This is seen again right in
the middle of the forehead, which is more easily visible, as well as the front and rear walls.
Also on the front wall are these shiny spots
near the center. Which is again in a highly visible location.
On the bottom, there’s another dull spot near the center, which is disappointing.
These kinds of flaws exist on other enthusiast injection molded keyboards,
but this costs almost double those, so I wanted a more perfect finish.
I assume these are issues that come from keyboard makers’ relative inexperience with the medium,
but the Kara in particular is really expensive, so in my mind, the finish here is unacceptable.
The assembly process for the Kara is pretty straightforward but there
are certain aspects that need improvement.
Like most hotswap boards, you can choose to install the hardware
that creates a single assembly out of the PCB and the plate.
Because there’s a risk of creating unwanted hotspots, I chose to go without them.
The stock plate is polycarbonate which is a departure from almost all prebuilts.
This appears to be injection molded like the GMMK Pro, but is sized properly. By the way,
I don’t think Glorious has addressed or even acknowledged the plate issue yet,
so if you’re watching, go talk to Rama about it I guess.
One interesting thing here is that the silicone insert that goes between the PCB and the plate
is mandatory, otherwise the keyboard assembly would not be secured into place.
When you have the assembly put together, you’ll see that there are portions where the silicone
peeks out. You would assume that these are the mounting points, but you’d be wrong.
Instead of having a total isolation of the keyboard assembly from the case,
the wings of the plate touch the top case. The contact points for the bottom case
is all silicone so it is playing some role, just not the role that I expected.
There are three screw points for optional internal accessories such
as the silicone dampener or the brass weight. I have the dampener here.
This 45 dollar piece of silicone is much less substantial than the ones
included in the NK65 or the Portico. This was created and priced before the Kara,
but it just goes to show how much of a ripoff it is.
I no longer own it, but the 85 dollar internal brass would be easily more than the weight of
the entire board, so I’m not really sure that it would be appropriate in the Kara.
One thing here is something I’ve seen on the M60-A as well, which is that some screw holes
are not deep enough to create sufficient mounting pressure for the internal accessory. Not an issue
for this piece of rubber, but the internal weight would rattle around and make noise.
Because of the three piece design, we can get a rare glimpse at what it looks like under the PCB,
and it’s a little unusual. The keyboard assembly is angled,
but the bottom piece is flat, so this creates an uneven amount of space underneath the PCB.
Generally, keyboards have a constant gap under the PCB citing sound reasons.
Of course sound is going to be impacted by so many other factors,
but have a listen for yourself to see if the rows sound similar.
On stream, I had major trouble with the front screws due to their tightness.
The resistence really made me feel like I was doing something wrong.
Thankfully some of you had the same experience so I forged ahead.
When I try putting it in without the plate,
there’s intermittent resistance so I think there’s a problem with the threads.
Speaking of threads, all screw points on the board use threaded metal inserts unlike the NK65.
Since I’ve reviewed it, the Novelkeys board acquired a couple loose threads. Of course,
I’m going to be disassembling and reassembling a lot more than the average buyer, but effectively,
the durability has been tested, and it’s not good.
This feature is not unique to the Kara. The much cheaper Portico has them too but
they’re the more generic brass inserts similar to what you can find in computer cases.
The custom hardware found in Rama boards does add to the perception of quality,
but that breaks down a bit when some functionality aspects are overlooked.
One of the reasons why I was having some trouble with the bottom screws was that the Torx T10 heads
were a little too shallow. Maybe it’s correct and I only think this because the threads were tight,
but regardless, there needs to be a revision.
One major advantage that the Kara has over other enthusiast plastic boards is
the daughterboard. Having the USB port be located on a separate PCB means that
the mounting mechanism has all the freedom to move up and down without interference.
Not that this has abnormal amounts of assembly movement,
but it’s the principle that matters. Besides, this is a much more elegant solution.
Overall, the Kara fits together adequately, and there’s decent
consideration for reinforcing wearing parts, however, with the price being what it is,
I expected near perfection which is certainly not what we got here.
At almost double the price of the NK65, this really only adds the daughterboard
and threaded inserts while removing things like stabilizers, the carrying case, and the internal
dampener. When comparing the internals against its competition, it feels like a total ripoff.
I was initially pretty excited about how this board might feel,
because I assumed the middle silicone piece made up the mounting mechanism, but in reality it’s
more like a sandwich where only the bottom of the plate touches the squishy material.
So how does it feel? Pretty good! Considering the plate material and the mounting mechanism,
it’s no surprise that the bottom out feel is nowhere close to the concrete on the M60-A.
Maybe the silicone is absorbing the vibrations because I can’t really feel any
of it transferring from one hand to the other, but the softness of the bottom-out is very apparent.
When compared to my E6.5 which has a top mounted polycarbonate half plate,
the bottom out feel is significantly softer.
I have this other keyboard that uses a Unikorn-style o-ring mounting mechanism with
FR4 plate and 30A o rings, and they seem to on the same spectrum of feel, with the only difference in
the mounting mechanism being that there’s a top piece touching the top of the plate on the Kara.
Compared to a foam strip mount like the GMMK Pro or the Portico,
the Kara is slightly more dampened.
I think it’s safe to say it does offer a good enough typing experience especially if you’re
looking for something softer. I think one cool mod would be to cut off the wings on
the plate to see how an assembly secured exclusively by silicone flaps might feel.
Rama boards often have a reputation for being
hollow which is something that can be exacerbated with plastic cases.
For the most part, the suspicions hold true. It kind of sounds like a regular prebuilt keyboard
except with the plastic bottom-out tone coming from the polycarbonate plate.
Maybe this has to do with the excessive amount of space under the PCB, or maybe it’s just inherent
to the material, but don’t go in thinking you’re gonna get a keyboard that sounds like magic.
And here’s a comparison to see if the silicone insert makes a difference.
Setting aside the price for just a bit, I think the Kara is a pretty good keyboard. I love the way
it looks, the feel is alright, and the sound is tolerable. The fit and finish could be better and
additional included accessories would be welcome. So with all that said, I would be more than happy
to pay the same price as the Portico for one of these, but obviously that’s not how it’s priced.
Total cost of the Portico shipped to me was about 130 dollars and for that much, you get all of the
equivalent pieces from the Kara plus stabilizers, a carrying case and an included internal dampener.
The total cost of the Kara with the extra internal
silicone was 230 dollars which is honestly just ridiculous.
Especially now that we have boards like the GMMK Pro, which is obviously not perfect,
and Glorious has been doing some questionable stuff in relation to the plate and the PCB,
the Kara’s price tag is almost impossible to justify.
Just because it has Rama’s logo on it, doesn’t mean it’s going to
somehow transcend the limitations of the injection molded keyboard medium.
At the end of the day, this, along with all other enthusiast plastic boards,
have more in common with a Leopold than a Tofu, so my recommendation
is that you should get the cheapest one for experimentation, then move onto a metal board.
To be fair, I’ve been presenting the GMMK Pro, NK65, and the Portico to be direct alternatives
for the Kara, but I guess you aren’t going to find an HHKB layout in any of those. And
if you’ve just fallen in love with the way it looks, I mean, there’s no helping that.
But if you’re just looking for a good value entry level keyboard,
this couldn’t be further away from that. With the M60-A,
I felt like it was just an expensive board, but with the Kara, I feel ripped off.
In the last couple of years, Rama’s become this entity that seems to do pretty well,
and has decent reach to people outside of typical keyboard enthusiasts. But it’s pretty obvious
that the end goal is form over function every single time while charging through the roof.
Just take a look at these 64 dollar plastic boxes that can be paired with 42 dollar partitions.They
always have been trailblazers in finding the new boundary of nerd consumer stupidity
and they won’t stop until you stop buying.