The KBD66 has been around for quite a while, but if I’m correct, there’s only been
two rounds.
I’ve previously done a review of the 661, which has the same layout, but I think the
design on that is different enough that the two can coexist.
If KBDFans does decide to continue the original 66 line, I think they should revise the design,
since in my opinion, that’s this keyboard’s weakest point.
But before we get into that, let’s get everything else out of the way.
There are a couple issues with my 66 that may or may not be unique to this particular
keyboard.
The first is with the tolerances in the top and bottom portions of the case.
These two pieces attach by just three screws on the bottom.
Undo these, and you can lift up the top half to reveal that the rear portion is held on
by these latches.
The problem I have is that these latches and latching points aren’t tight enough, so
they create additional unwanted reverberations while typing.
The second problem is that I have a bit of surface flaw in a pretty visible area in the
empty space next to the alphas.
This of course will differ with every unit, but keep in mind that this might be the level
of surface finish quality that you might get
The keyboard assembly is tray mounted onto the bottom case with some screws.
There are a lot of mounting points, so the bottom out feel is very hard and secure.
This is in contrast to the KBD661’s sandwich mount which left the middle of the plate largely
unsecured.
I obviously don’t have the same switches installed, but I slightly prefer the solution
found on the 661.
With that said, let’s have a quick listen.
This particular 66 is built with 65 gram zealios.
I would describe the typing experience to be largely unexceptional.
While there is that bit of solidness that comes with the heavy aluminum case, it just
doesn’t do anything special for me.
I suspect that the biggest factor in this is the tray mounting mechanism.
Not only does it make the bottom-out feel more harsh, the shallow cutout under the pcb
makes the overall pitch of the keyboard too high for my liking.
When I asked a non-enthusiast friend to try it out, she said it felt like a toy when compared
to my other keyboards.
Another thing to consider about this board is that the switches are mounted with the
LEDs facing north.
This is optimal for utilizing shine-through keycaps, but ruins compatibility for thick
Cherry profile ones.
This is actually the reason that I have a hodgepodge of random OEM profile caps for
this board.
The switch orientation is the same for the 661, but I didn’t notice it then.
I have that built with Kailh Pro Purples, and maybe the top housing for those switches
handle this issue better than Gateron ones used in Zealios.
So you’ll be stuck using non-Cherry profile keycaps for the most part, which is bad news
for GMK fans.
Finally moving onto the design department, this is all going to be subjective, but in
my opinion, the mediocrity continues.
Compared to the 661, the styling on the 66 is much more traditional.
From the top, It’s just a simple rectangle, with somewhat sharp corners..
From the side, you can see that the top edges are rounded, which I think looks sort of cheesy.
I think this look could have been improved if the corners were similarly rounded, but
they are left relatively sharp.
This creates sort of a visual conflict between smoothness and sharpness, that doesn’t really
work for me.
This trend continues when looking at the board from the back.
The major design element on the 66 is the big rounded rear corners.
These smooth features are somewhat uncommon since they probably take a good amount of
machine time, and I think it’s sort of wasted here.
It sort of resembles what you see in the high end Camp C255, but I think it’s done better
there.
The flat sides, thick bezels, combined with the lack of cohesion in smooth and sharp design
points all contribute to this board looking clunky.
So the unexceptional typing experience combined with what I think is an ugly case design,
really keeps me from using this very often.
When compared to my other boards with the same layout, the Clueboard and the 661, it’s
just kind of boring and clumsy looking.
I know a lot of people didn’t like the 661, but at least its creative.
The 66 in contrast just seems like a brute force approach to making a metal keyboard
of this layout, with design coming as an afterthought.
I’ll probably be getting rid of this, because of everything I mentioned, and I won’t miss
it.
And maybe KBDFans won’t either.
They don’t run this very often, and maybe if they do in the future, they’ll change
up the design, or just phase it out.
It might have been fine a couple years ago when there weren’t that many aluminum boards
around, but from today’s perspective, this just looks dated.
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