Probably the hottest keyboard on the market right now is this guy.
The Ducky One 2 Mini.
Which is pretty surprising, because it is a 60% keyboard.
And RGB 60% boards aren’t new or anything, we already have the Anne Pro keyboards and
the Vortex Pokers, which are both super popular as well.
So let’s see what this Ducky boy has to offer.
This has already been opened, but the contents are still the same.
We have the keyboard itself.
A user guide.
Warranty card.
A USB type C cable.
And a bunch of extra keycaps and a wire keycap puller, which we’ll check out later.
And here’s the keyboard itself.
This one has the Akko branding on it as well, so I’m not exactly sure if there’s any
differences, but it should be the same.
In the hands it feels decent, maybe a bit less nice because of the glossy plastic on
the bottom, but it has minimal flex because of the internal steel plate.
And it comes in at just under 600g, so very similar to the Anne Pro and similar boards.
What this does have is a unique aesthetic.
Usually we’ll have a 1 piece enclosure.
Here we have this contrasting 2 piece design, with the top textured satin plastic sloping
down the sides, and the bottom glossy plastic kind of going the two ways.
It’s certainly nice to see something different, because retail 60% boards have been so so
stale in regards to enclosure design for a while now.
And I personally like it, it has a bit more edge and character, while not looking too
out there.
The keycaps are pretty nice as well, and have classy thin and clean legends on them.
However we do get those extra keycaps in the box.
And from what I’ve seen, there’s a bunch of different colours.
I’ve seen green, orange, blue.
But with this, I got blue on grey.
And for whatever reason, we have arrow keys and a numpad enter keycap, which we can’t
use on this keyboard, so that’s a bit weird.
So really we get a backspace, enter, and 3 different escape keys.
And finally, the beautiful Year of the Dog spacebar.
So they don’t really add much of an accent at all, so it’s a pretty tame addition.
But the spacebar looks pretty sweet.
It is a UV coated ABS cap this time, but that allows for this beautiful artwork that lights
up as well.
On the rear we have our USB type C port, again, showing that most new boards are moving to
it.
And then some branding in a non-obtrusive spot.
On the bottom there’s a couple of rubber feet.
And we also have 2 stage flip up feet which are awesome.
And we pretty much never see flip up feet on 60% boards, because of how small they are,
so I’m actually really happy to see them here to give us some flexibility.
And finally we have our dip switches, which just change some minor things.
So DIP1 and 2 change the position of the FN key.
DIP3 changes caps lock to FN.
And DIP4 switches between N-key rollover and 6-key rollover for compatibility.
Okay so now to the actual Mini aspect of the keyboard.
Ducky have had the Mini before, but it didn’t really take off like this one.
And now they’re back to the 60% game.
So it’s just the main section of the keyboard, with the function row, nav keys, numpad, all
chopped off.
So we get this super compact form factor.
And with compactness we get better portability, but most of all, it saves space on our desk,
which allows our mouse to go closer to the centre, to create a more ergonomic and comfortable
experience.
And how they achieve this is by having all the other functions and keys on layers.
So as you can see on the keycaps themselves, nearly every key has another function on the
front of the keycap.
So there’s the default layer.
And then 2 additional layers, with the FN layer, and the FN + Alt layer.
The FN layer pretty much has all the missing keys on there.
So for example our arrow keys are on IJKL.
And we have the function row on top, all the nav keys like home, end, delete, insert and
all that on the right hand side.
We also have some media controls, and mouse controls if you really need it.
The FN + Alt layer is mostly to do with the customisability of the keyboard.
But mainly it’s all the lighting controls.
By pressing FN + ALT + T we can go through all the lighting effects and modes.
We can also have custom colourways, on the CM1 and CM2 keys.
So you hold FN + ALT + caps lock, and choose either CM1 or CM2.
And then you can go ahead and pick a colour for each key, with ZXC or spacebar for the
palette.
And then press caps lock and shift to stop recording.
One of the probably more weird things I’ve seen on a keyboard are the onboard games.
Like actual games on the keyboard itself with the lighting.
So there’s Ducky Gamble, which isn’t really a game.
It’s like heads or tails, where when you press spacebar it will slowly come to a stop.
And Ducky Minesweeper, which is minesweeper on your board.
I mean, I personally think it’s pretty cool, and interesting that they actually took the
time to implement this thing, and put it in the manual, and will probably be used once
or twice by people.
But yeh, still cool, because why not?
We can also record macros on board, which is pretty similar to how the Vortex keyboards
do it.
So we have 5 customisable profiles on the 2 to 6 keys, with 1 being the default, so
you can’t record to that.
To start we press FN + ALT + tab for 3 seconds, and the caps lock key will start blinking.
Pick the key you want to implement the macro to.
And then do whatever sequence you want.
When done recording, press FN + ALT+ tab for a second, and that’s it, you’ll have your
sequence saved on a key.
There’s a bunch more other little stuff that you can do, and the manual goes through
everything in more detail that I didn’t, because there’s a lot to cover.
So if you actually have or get this board, I’d recommend you read through it.
And that’s the thing, you gotta know this stuff because it’s all onboard.
There’s no downloadable software like nearly every other keyboard out there.
And for many, that can be a negative, because you don’t have that interface to easily
go through all the options.
Everything is done with all these somewhat complicated key combos that to be fair are
labelled, but it’s still not as intuitive.
Anyway, back to the keyboard.
The keycaps are made from 1.2mm PBT plastic, and are doubleshot, so the legends are another
piece of plastic and will never fade away.
And underneath the caps we have Cherry MX Browns on this particular board.
This is of course available in the other Cherry MX variants, including MX Speeds and MX Silents.
The browns are tactile switches, so they have a mild bump halfway, but have no click.
This actually provided a pretty decent typing experience, even though MX Browns aren’t
my cup of tea, it felt solid enough on this board.
And the stabs, they’re surprisingly pretty good.
They look to be self made, with this actually quite cool grey and blue design.
They have’ minimal rattle if any, which is a very rare thing to see on retail keyboards,
and I can’t even see any lube in there, so yeh, pretty impressive.
To take the keyboard apart, there’s a couple of Phillips head screws under some keycaps.
This isn’t my board, so I’m not going to force these two pieces apart.
But you can see it’s 2 part design, and the inside is very simple.
I would have liked to see some metal standoffs, instead of just tapped plastic.
And even though there’s no real reinforcement or ribbing, it’s actually quite sturdy.
We have a 1.5mm steel mounting plate, which gives the keyboard it’s heft and rigidity.
And here’s the PCB, and as usual, it looks very clean.
The solder joints look good, nad of course we have our RGB SMD LEDs, instead of through
hole.
Okay, so the reason I actually have this board with me, is because the USB C port came loose.
So I had to take it off, and solder it back in place and secure it better.
And if we look back at the case, it doesn’t look too bad.
I mean there is some support for the bottom of the port, and the PCB itself prevents it
from going the other way, but the case wall itself is quite thin, and I guess just doesn’t
give enough support.
So please please be careful with that, otherwise it can be tough to fix for most people.
So overall, the good old Ducky has impressed, and have come back to the 60% game with a
very complete keyboard.
It is a packed space, and they’ve differentiated the actual look of the keyboard with this
unique enclosure design, which I think is quite important.
But they of course have that big brand name behind them, helping its popularity.
There’s a lot to like about it.
It has a solid build with an internal steel plate.
Nice looking and feeling keycaps.
Vibrant RGB backlighting, and a decent amount of customisability onboard.
However onboard customisability isn’t for everyone, and even myself, I’d prefer some
sort of graphical user interface to deal with all this stuff, because it can be a bit complicated.
Comparing it with the competition.
I see 2 main competitors.
The Anne Pro 2.
And the Vortex Poker 3 RGB.
At average pricing.
The Ducky is about 100 bucks.
The Anne Pro 2 is about 80.
While the Vortex Poker 3 RGB is about 140.
So it’s coming in at about a medium price.
The Anne Pro 2 is a great value keyboard.
It has most of the features this has, with RGB backlighting, doubleshot keycaps, programmability
- BUT with software.
It’s also available with either Gateron or Kailh Box keyswitches, which I consider
to be better as well.
Quality isn’t too different, but the Ducky probably edges it out in fit and finish, and
quality components.
But the big difference is the wireless capabilities.
The Vortex Poker 3 RGB, is pretty much the Ducky Mini, except it has a full aluminium
case.
But comes at a premium price.
With the Poker 3, you’ll be getting that for the heftier case.
But that’s been out for a while now, so that may be refreshed soon.
So the main competitor for most people would be the Anne Pro 2.
I really like both keyboards, the main difference being wireless.
So if you need wireless, then it’s an easy choice.
Again, the Ducky fit and finish is a touch better, including the nice stabilisers, but
yeh, there’s not a huge difference between the two, and I’m sure you’ll be happy
with both.
A big thanks to Joshua for lending me his keyboard for review.
These will be coming back in stock very soon all over the world, after pretty much everywhere
got ripped out of stock before Christmas.
So best of luck to all.