Today we have a custom mechanical keyboard build that
I’m especially excited about, because it’s one that I think I’ll actually use,
with some very cool features, and the pictures looked sick to be honest.
So as it says on the box, this is a prototype unit, so there’s still some things that aren’t
final, and I’ll point those out. Nice box though. And I’m cutting it real late with this one,
as this keyboard is currently in group buy, for like less than a day, 8pm Pacific time.
So apologies for that, it takes me long to make these, although a bunch of streamers have
already shown it off, so I recommend you check those out if you want more information.
Anyway here it is, the Skog Reboot from Percent Studio. And it is looking damn fine.
I have the black version, but there’s some pretty sweet and unique colour options which
also include powdercoating and e-coating which is cool. This one however is anodised,
and out of the box, I can’t see anything wrong with it. And that bottom though.
First thing as always, chuck on the rubber feet. And there’s only 2 feet,
because of the special adjustable ones which we’ll check out later.
Alrighty, let’s take it apart to have a closer look.
Here we have the bottom aluminium piece, and straight away we see the two big circles, which
kinda look like laptop speakers or something.
You don’t need to take them out to be able to adjust them, but it makes it easier.
So despite looking like it can slide, there’s actually 2 positions? I believe. And how it works
is that we have this disk that turns. And on the disk, there’s a gap to release the actual foot.
And you can see on the foot that there’s 2 hooks, so as you turn the disk, those hooks will grab on.
However, you do have to tighten it quite a bit to be rigid, as we’re clamping from one side with
not a whole lot of surface area. Therefore, it makes it pretty tough to untighten. And in fact,
my 2nd foot, I couldn’t even turn the disc. But to be clear, this is a prototype unit, and they
did tell me that they will work on the mechanism, plus tolerances may have been weird at this time.
But yeh, I’m pretty open minded when it comes to keyboard stuff, because I appreciate things that
are different. And it’s definitely really cool to see something innovative in trying to
have adjustable feet. But what I have here isn’t great, plus it’s just the bare metal on the table.
So not sure on this one, but it for sure will be improved on in the final version.
Back to the bottom, and in the middle we have the Percent Studio logo with some plastic which
will of course let some LEDs shine through. And on the right we have our rotary encoder,
and this is the included default knob, which is solid as, proper alu.
To the top assembly now, and this is a 3 part construction. So with those screws out,
we have the top aluminium piece. And it already has the foam gaskets installed. And these are
actually friction fit, no adhesive, and I guess they can do this because the grooves go
pretty deep as the foam pieces themselves are quite thick,
and hopefully should provide some give and playroom with its compression.
Then we have the 1.5mm aluminium plate, FR4 is also avail. And notice how at the bottom
there’s some big cuts. That’s not for extra layouts and stuff,
but for the Bluetooth module which is exciting. They also have cutouts for the
switch clips. It is just a standard 1.5mm plate, but I don’t know. They’re there.
And finally the mid piece with more gaskets all the way round.
And of course that plate sandwiches between these two gasketed pieces.
Alright, let’s build this. Here’s the PCB. Supports 5 pin MX style switches,
and has RGB backlighting. More interestingly we have this thing marked BLE, and going
back to that gap in the plate, this is for our Bluetooth. And next to that we have some switches.
As I’m probably gonna use this somewhat regularly, I’ve wanted a silent board for quite a while now,
so I want to dampen the stabs. I didn’t have any bandaids around, so I tried electrical tape, but
it did jack all, so be right back.
Been a while since I’ve bandaid modded actually. These fabric ones should soften
that bottom out quite a bit. And I’m using Durock stabs for this.
Here’s our BLE module, and this just goes straight in.
It’s not the most stable thing, but it should be fine.
Also included in the package is a silicone dampener, which goes in between the plate
and PCB. This is optional on whether you use it or not though.
It should dampen and potentially tighten the sound and feel. So that’s up to you. On the website,
they also mention a foam dampener that goes underneath the PCB, but I don’t think I got that.
And the switches! Big big thanks to my beloved Kodazzle, you absolute champ. I have Seriko’s,
which are a silent Durock linear, and of course based on Zambumon’s Serika keyset.
Which by the way is on pre-order at the moment. Please consider GMK Serika 2.
I also lubed them with Krytox 205G0. Honestly, I would have probably liked something a little
thinner, because silents are already quite mushy, so I just did a light application.
But in my opinion, you gotta lube silents to get the best out of them, especially in sound.
I have the solderable PCB which will offer some layout flexibility, including ISO.
The hotswap version has a fixed 7u ANSI layout.
Now to the exciting bit. For me at least. Again, this is a prototype unit, so it doesn’t have the
connection for the recommended Nokia BL-5C and BL-5J batteries. I was told for now,
I could use any 503040 battery, but I of course don’t have any of those laying around,
but I know I have some wireless keyboards around.
First I tried my old Anne Pro 2, but that didn’t work, so then I opened
this brand new Durgod Fusion something. The connector thingo isn’t even the right size,
but I forced it together, and check that out.
And just repeating again, to be clear. This is a prototype,
so this is not how it will be. There will be a proper connection for the Nokia style batteries,
which also will not be included in the box, but are very easy and cheap to acquire.
To top it off, we have GMK ASCII designed by Oblotzky. Huge thanks as always to my mate
Jono for letting me borrow all these keysets, in an effort to keep these boards looking fresh.
Also thanks to Nathan for not using ASCII on his Skog, apologies.
And here it is. The stunning Skog Reboot custom mechanical keyboard. I’m a sucker
for things that look different, but not crazy. And that’s just where I’m at, going through
all these boards, you start to appreciate a bit of uniqueness in aesthetics. That being said,
for everyone else, this is a big purchase starting at 419USD, more for hotswap
and Bluetooth. So obviously aesthetics becomes a more important deciding factor.
But I love how this looks. First of all, I’m a big fan of how tenkeyless boards look.
They’re just classic and timeless in my opinion. And being winkeyless with the blockers just
adds that bit more character. The 3 part top assembly does present this lip along the top.
It also creates I guess a seamless side profile. And I love how the cutout is
blended in the front and back. Very clean. But that also gives us somewhere to lift the board,
and I love that. Especially for a wireless board, it’s perfect.
But the aesthetic statement is the bottom. This wavey line design. I love this so much. And
I dunno, it kinda accentuates that beautiful ano finish, which is a little softer and grainy. But
the waves gives it some dimension, and with dimension light and shadows come into play.
Let me know what you think of it, because I’m in love it, and I know that it won’t be for everyone.
In the middle we have our light up logo. Another nice touch, and again, not too common.
We of course have our adjustable feet. I think it’s really really cool to try
something like this. Like this is a lot of time and effort put in,
and for sure would have added to the cost, just like all these other unique bits.
But yeh, I really appreciate it, and they do look really cool. Hopefully they improve on it,
because what I have is pretty scuffed. A little wobbly. While I did have issues with adjusting it,
that should be fine in the final. I don’t think sliding on the desk will be much of an issue,
but I’m still not super comfortable with just having the metal on the table.
Back to the top, and the other eye catcher is the knob. We don’t often see rotary encoders on TKLs,
because there’s not like an obvious spot for a corner blocker, which is the usual go.
This does however make use of the empty space above the arrow keys, which also has the small
LED strip, which is also neat. But yeh, it’s a small knob, which was definitely the way to go
in the space it has. But being small it is a little difficult to use. Doesn’t turn as easy
as a big one. Definitely not a one finger use thing, which you can often do with the bigger
ones in the corner. So I definitely haven’t used it that much, besides mute by pressing it.
Which is unfortunate, because personally I love using rotary encoders. You can program
them to do whatever, and yes, this keyboard is fully programmable via VIA and QMK. Usually I
just use it for volume and mute anyway, but usability isn’t the greatest for me.
Bluetooth! is an additional 20 dollars. And as I’ve expressed before,
I love wireless keyboards. And we don’t often get to see them at all in customs, so
this got me real excited. The common issues with Bluetooth in customs, is how to allow
it to communicate through the case. Remember it can’t go through solid alu, so usually you
gotta have a window or something. And secondly, battery life issues with QMK being so taxing.
So first they have a separated BLE module daughterboard, which apparently improves signal
reception. But they have it situated underneath the spacebar, with the massive cutout in the
plate. So that’s the window for it to communicate. However, it hasn’t been the most solid connection
for me. I have my PC kinda to the side, beneath the table. But it’s not far by any means. For the
most part it was fine for typing, but I definitely noticed a difference between wired and wireless.
Not all the time, but sometimes it acted up being pretty slow which wasn’t great. With a clear
line of sight, it was pretty good. So I’m not too sure how it’ll be and with different setups. I
don’t think anyone else even tested it, so we’ll have to wait and see. But for now, not amazing.
And finally the typing experience. Let’s have a quick listen.
I chucked in Seriko silent switches, lubed and filmed, so very very quiet
as you would have just heard. If you want to hear it with more conventional switches,
there’s already a bunch of other people’s videos doing that. But I wanted a silent board to use.
Funnily enough, the downside is that it’s difficult for me to accurately determine and
express how the board feels relative to others, because I’m not using like a normal linear
where it’s easier for me to tell whether it’s hard or soft, and that goes for the sound as well.
And again, I’m sure you can find all that info from Taeha, Apiary, MechMerlin etc. To me,
of course the switches are dampened, but I think it has a dampened feel, Remember we have that
silicone piece in the middle, and physically, we can see there is a bit of flex and a bit of give
so it shouldn’t have a harsh bottom out. And it’s good to see the thick gaskets give it breathing
space, so they’re definitely not compressed too far. Whereas sometimes with thin gaskets or too
much compression, you lose that softness of foam or whatever material. So a gasket mount board
providing it has give, should provide a somewhat dampened experience in both sound and feel.
But again, I’m not too sure because I’m just not accustomed enough with silent switches,
and don’t wanna get hammered for dishing out wrong information. So
my apologies. From what I’ve seen and heard though, it’s been really good, so there’s that.
And that’s the Skog Reboot custom mechanical keyboard. There’s actually quite a lot going
on with this board, so much to get through. Aesthetically, it has its own unique look. Has
a lot of character, with the wavey bottom, the light up logo, the feet, the lip on top,
the small LED strip, and the knob. There’s a lot, but it’s not overwhelming. The feet, not great for
now. The knob, cool, but I didn’t use it too much since it is a little difficult to use personally.
I really appreciate its wireless capabilities. In my experience, the connection hasn’t been
the greatest. I’ll need more time with it to be honest to see how it performs. But
just having that option on a high end custom is awesome.
So it really does offer a lot, like when you list things like that, it’s quite a bit more
complicated than other boards. Not that it’s a bad thing if it isn’t. All we need to see
is better execution on the final version, but even now, it’s a lovely
lovely board. Again, group buy closing extremely soon, I’ll chuck the links in the description.
I will be using this more often, so sometime in the future, I’ll mod this
aesthetically to truly make it my own.