The qk65 was clearly a very popular board.
Partly because of the big name behind it that’s created quite a few not so small projects,
but also simply because of its value and practicality.
Today we have something that stacks up in terms of value.
This is the JRIS65.
A new budget oriented 65%, but it’s by a studio you’ve probably never heard of before.
How does it compare to the current king?
Before we get started, this video is brought to you by Drop.
Drop recently released their Sense75 keyboard, featuring bisco material gaskets, south facing
hotswap, RGB underglow, and a weight piece.
The barebones kit goes for $250, and a fully assembled kit with DCX keycaps, Holy Panda
X switches, and phantom stabilizers custom designed by Gateron will run you $478.
The first 500 customers to order the sense75 will also get a free MT3 keycap set, limited
edition novelty keycaps, and a carrying case, so be sure to check it out.
Learn more at the link in the description.
First off we’ve got this note from MyKeyClub.
I’m changing my channel name now.
In this bag on top are screen protectors for the weight, and various cleaning things to
install them.
The board comes with an included carrying case.
In it is a cable, our POM plate, PCB and included tape,
And the board itself with feet and O rings, gasket socks, which are incorrectly labelled,
gasket jackets, which are incorrectly labelled, and a silicone piece to cover up the battery
compartment if you got a wired PCB.
Here is our PE foam, plate foam, and two layers of bottom PCB foam.
The PVD elements, of course, come plastic wrapped.
JRIS65 is a screwless budget 65%.
We have hotswap and solder wired PCBs, and also a hotswap bluetooth PCB.
The hotswap and soldered wired PCBs can all support stepped caps, split left shift, split
backspace, and ISO enter.
The soldered wired PCB can additionally support a 7U bottom row.
The bluetooth hotswap PCB can only support stepped caps lock.
QMK and VIA are supported for the wired PCBs.
For plates, we have polycarbonate, POM, FR4, Aluminum, and Brass, and for colors, bear
with me here, we have black maroon and black, navy and black, titanium gray and black, ewhite,
yellow, milky white, ewhite and black, yellow and black, and pink for the top and bottom
cases.
For the back and bottom weight, we have anodized aluminum black, silver, and gold, and pvd
mirror stainless steel gold, silver, black, and chroma.
That was a lot The prices will range from 155 dollars to
240 dollars, depending on your configuration, pause the video here if you want to know it
exactly.
Otherwise, we’ll move on to the build.
In this PCB are TX stabs lubed with 205g0 and XHT-BDZ.
I’m going to add on plate foam for good measure, our POM plate,
And green jacket linears.
These are stock, but they are also factory lubed.
JRIS65, just like the QK65, comes with gasket socks and gasket jackets instead of sticky
poron gaskets.
In my testing, these aren’t all that different from each other, so we’ll try the gasket
socks first.
With the inner assembly done, let’s open up the case to put it in.
Because this case has a screwless exterior, the screws holding the top and bottom case
together are on the inside here.
If you want to access these after building, you will have to temporarily remove a few
keycaps.
I’m also going to add in the battery compartment foam.
Now, I can connect the daughterboard, which has a ridiculously short cable.
I recommend disconnecting the cable from the daughterboard, putting it into the main PCB,
then putting it back in the daughterboard.
Let’s put the inner assembly in place, Screw in the case screws,
And install our keycaps.
Today we’re going with CRP round 4 to match this off white color.
QK65 was a pretty dull sounding board, of course with a few exceptions.
I couldn’t really get the board sounding great without the use of PE foam.
But the first config I tried on the Jris65 sounded great.
It seems that green and red jackets are just made for POM plates.
It’s nice and clacky, but still has a rounded sound that isn’t too sharp.
Every keystroke is super consolidated, with a poppy bottom out, and a very gentle top
out.
The spacebar kinda sucks, but this is just the problem with CRP, so the only gripe I
have is the hollowness.
The edge keys especially have quite a bit of it, so if you were to use any foam in your
build, case foam would probably be the one.
Although it seems like the alphas are free of this problem.
There is really not a lot of room for bounce in this board.
If you have a soft plate like me, you can actually very easily hit the bottom case,
which is not good.
I wish there was a thin sheet of foam included so the PCB wouldn’t actually be hitting
the metal.
Right after building, I noticed startling similarities with my Space65 build.
It similarly has a very soft feel but short distance until hitting the bottom case, and
an almost identical sound signature, despite every single component being different.
Listen to this.
The design is pretty flashy this time around, with the double PVD steel elements.
This kinda reminds me of the TGR Jane, which had a separate back piece and bottom piece.
Of course the Jris isn’t even close to being in the same price range.
On the top, we have uniform bezels, and nice rounded corners.
The top and bottom both have very small chamfering.
Moving to the side, we can see how the top case overhangs the bottom case, and that the
bottom case also has an angle to the rear portion.
At the rear is our centered USBC port, sitting in this nice looking cut in the top case.
Under this is the first weight element.
On the bottom is the second weight element, with the Jris wordmark etched into it.
Finally, we have 4 pretty tall feet.
The design is a bit more complex than the qk65, making it seem less like a budget board.
I personally like it a lot better, and it definitely can be compared to elements of
more premium 65s.
I don’t think I’ve actually seen this dual weight piece implemented before, so the
Jris is also bringing some innovation to the table.
The build quality is excellent.
Whereas the QK65 cheaped out on the inside of the bottom steel piece and casting the
aluminum middle piece instead of machining it, the Jris65 really doesn’t cheap out
anywhere.
The weight pieces look excellent and even come with screen protectors, which I thought
was kinda funny.
So lets sum things up.
Considering the QK65 restock, which bumped up the price and upgraded a few things.
Both have bluetooth options.
The jris has 3 color customizable parts, the top case, bottom case, and weight, while the
QK65 has 2, the top and weight.
Both have no shortage of plate options, with the Jris also including brass, and both include
gasket jackets and socks.
While the QK65 was a maximum of around 235 dollars, the Jris65 can go up to 240, with
a bluetooth PCB, e coated case, and stainless steel PVD weight.
And in my experience, the Jris sounds better.
To me, the Jris comes closer to being the perfect budget board than the QK65.
It’s not dependent on PE foam at all, doesn’t skimp in quality anywhere, and is designed
with premium 65s in mind.
So to those of you out there looking for your perfect entry board, or even a new one to
add to the collection, the Jris65 is it.