The 65% keyboard space is starting to get oversaturated. Personally,
I don’t see this as a bad thing, as it opens up more choices for everyone. But with it,
also comes new budget boards. QK65, Zoom65, Jris65, and today, the Aurora65,
an in stock, $190 board that claims to compete with all of these options.
First off is an extra carbon fiber plate.
Now onto the main box, which is pretty premium feeling with this magnetic latch.
It seems very mode inspired. We have a sticker,
some VIA info, And our real contents,
like a decent switch puller, Big screwdriver,
Keycap puller that I don’t recommend using, and a braided USBC cable.
Finally is the board itself, which is already prebuilt.
Aurora65 is an aluminum and polycarbonate gasket mounted 65%. We are locked to a south
facing hotswap PCB with no layout options, but this does support VIA. It has a daughterboard.
For plates, aluminum is included, but you can also buy carbon fiber,
FR4, polycarbonate, and POM separately.
Aurora65 comes in either black or white and will run you 190 dollars.
So aurora65 comes prebuilt with an alu plate, tuned durock v2s, plate foam, and PE foam. I
wanna test how good their stock config is, so we’ll throw in matchas lubed with 205g0
And top it off with this very unique warrior keycap set by AlohaKB.
Let’s take a listen.
So it seems like the stabilizers are barely tuned, despite the websites claim that they
are pre-lubed. This is a bit annoying, because even though it’s prebuilt, you’d have to take
it apart to fix the stabs, which kinda defeats the point. Besides that, it’s a pretty standard
loud PE foam sound signature. The edges sound noticeably hollow, especially around the spacebar.
The prebuild itself is kinda outdated. I would have preferred no standoffs on the plate to help
with sound and feel, TX stabs as they are much better stock and lubed, and obviously,
no PE foam, at least not preinstalled. A good board shouldn’t need PE foam as
a crutch for its sound. So let’s build it again,
but this time with my choice of config. We’re going to start with the same hotswap PCB,
but I’ve swapped out those durock v2s for TX stabs with 205g0 and XHT-BDZ.
I’ll throw on the plate foam, carbon fiber plate,
And in here go those same matchas lubed with 205g0.
This board has a kinda strange inner assembly. We have to first connect the
daughterboard and middle case to the PCB, then screw the middle case to the top case,
and finally the bottom polycarbonate piece. I’ll top it off with GMK civilizations.
Let’s take a listen.
I am very pleasantly surprised. This is why I generally love carbon fiber as a
clacky plate option, but it works especially well in this board. It’s
nice and high pitched but not with a sharp downstroke, which I can reluctantly refer
to as a creamy sound signature. But keep in mind that this is without the PE foam,
so the polycarbonate bottom is probably helping a bit with this sound profile.
Neither of the plates I received are forgiving, so this really isn’t a good
demonstration of how well the Aurora65 can flex. Taking away the standoffs did help quite a bit,
but most of the bounce is still coming from the gasket compression,
instead of the plate or PCB bending. There does seem to be more bounce
on the edges though, which is interesting. The gaskets themselves are also pretty stiff
compared to other boards I've worked with, so it’s not like this is really helping much
either. But these matchas are slightly overlubed, which actually cancels out the sharp feeling that
comes with the relatively stiff mounting and stiff plate. So if you want a similar sound but a more
forgiving feel, I would either go for non long poles, or if you trust yourself enough, slightly
overlubing your switches. Sounds crazy, but it can work really well if you know what you’re doing.
The silhouette of the board pleasantly reminds me of something rama would do,
with its nicely round borders, filleted edges, and moderately chunky bezels.
Of course, as you take a look around though, it’s not nearly as embellished. On the left side is the
USBC port, and the bottom is all polycarbonate, which peeks out just a little bit on each edge.
And also these really large feet. Something I noticed was that the blocker here doesn’t sit
flush with the bezels, which is usually the case. Overall, it’s simple. Simpler than both the QK65
and Jris65. Really, when compared to the Jris65, it seems as if these boards are in
two completely different ball fields, even though they just aren’t. So even though there’s nothing
objectively wrong with the design here, I would appreciate the use of materials and
design to match the level of “premium” that Owlab and Mykeyclub are already delivering.
Being a budget board, I would also really like to see the inclusion of more foams so users can tweak
their sound profile, namely some sort of bottom case foam that doesn’t block the LEDs. even if it
has to, I think it’s a worthy tradeoff to suppress the hollowness that comes up in certain configs.
RGB? The RGB is
decently diffused, but not perfectly, and is also visible through the gaps on the top here.
And of course through VIA, you have plenty of options for customizing your lighting.
I’m happy to say that the quality of the aluminum is flawless. Everything looks great there. But
the bottom polycarbonate could definitely use some work. It’s rough to the touch,
and also just looks more hazy, which is a sign of lower quality. Worryingly, this also leads
to nicks and scratches being more visible. Although this isn’t deal breaking, because
the piece is only on the bottom and polycarbonate is straight up just not easy to work with. It’s
why the QK60 transparent cases are acrylic instead of polycarbonate, and why I suggest Odin gaming do
the same. It’s more transparent and is less prone to scuffs, making it a better option overall.
Something the Aurora65 does that no other major budget 65 is currently
doing is keeping the board in stock. I went deep into this discussion in my QK60 review,
and I do highly recommend checking that video out if you want a great budget keyboard option,
as well as an insightful chat about board sale methods. And calling back to that,
I really think that having a board be accessible is half of the definition
of an entry level board. How are you supposed to enter the hobby with a board that you can’t get?
That’s really besides the point though. There are still issues with this board, namely in
the stabilizers, price tag, and materials. But with these issues rectified, I’m sure
that the Aurora65 can change the budget keyboard space just as it promised to do.