The xox70 is a gasket mounted screwless functionrow-less TKL.
We’ve got hotswap and soldered PCBs with daughterboards.
Hotswap has a fixed layout with a 7U spacebar, and solder can swap to stepped caps, split
left shift, 6.25U spacebar, split backspace, ISO enter, and split right shift.
We've also got the option for a split 3U spacebar, and as you saw before the stabs for that are
provided.
QMK and VIA are supported, and through them you can also change the badge light.
We have 6 plate options, with FR4, polycarbonate, and aluminum each coming in either full or
half plates.
For colors, there are currently 7 options, but this will be trimmed down to 4 for the
group buy.
These include black and silver, silver and blue, moss and black, plum and black, lilac
and silver, ewhite and eyellow, and pink and black.
Finally, the XOX70 will run you about 380 dollars.
In this PCB are TX stabs lubed with 205g0 and BDZ.
I’m going to add on the aluminum plate, and in here go White Jade tactiles.
These have been lubed with 205g0 only on the stem, and 105g0 on the spring.
With the inner assembly done we can get to the case.
Having a screwless design, the case assembly is a bit different from usual.
The screws holding the top and bottom case together are on the top here.
I’ll install our gaskets Finally, we can connect the daughterboard
Insert the inner assembly And mount the top case back with the top screws.
I’m going to use DCX White on Black, to highlight this pretty plum color.
before we go any further I wanna just say that we have a discord!
it's pretty dead at the moment, I’m not fooling anyone it’s very dead but we plan
on hosting events and VCs and stuff.
it's a great place to chat with us and a bunch of other content creators here as well, and
just generally really cool people, so be sure to check it out.
Unorthodox case design comes with unorthodox sound.
And for the XOX70, this is for the better.
The sound without foam is really lively, albeit just a tiny bit hollow.
I initially wanted to use white jades on an FR4 half plate, but the first PCB I received
was scuffed, and the next was hotswap, so I had to settle for aluminum.
Not really a good idea, as the sound is very sharp in this configuration.
If you choose a switch and plate combo that works well together, the sound will no doubt
be excellent stock.
I intend to rebuild this board with some high pitched linears later on.
Purely internal brass weights are contributing to the quality of sound here, and this was
something seen with other great sounding boards like the F1.
It's definitely more suited for the high pitched side, although with enough effort you could
probably get a decent thock as well.
The feel is also pretty versatile.
You don’t need to use foams for good sound, so that definitely opens up the avenue for
some huge flex..
Using only the ESD protective foam and doing a half plate build is definitely the play
you want as much movement as possible, but I opted this time for less.
The aluminum plate still has bounce because of the leaf springs and cuts on the gasket
tabs.
I'm a big fan of this, because it’s not stiff to the point of making the tactiles
too harsh.
Let's take a look at the design.
On the top we’ve got uneven side bezels, being larger on the top and bottom.
Above the arrows here is our RGB badge, slightly inlayed.
Looking at the side we can see that the top piece is level, while the typing angle is
provided entirely by the bottom piece.
This is embedded on every side.
Towards the rear we have this very strong curve that ultimately ends parallel to the
top case.
This makes for a very nice side profile in my opinion.
In the center here is our recessed USBC port, with a very interesting cut in the bottom
case to accommodate it.
Finally, the bottom has a large stylized XOX engraving.
FRLTKL is one of my favorite layouts, simply because I love super wide looking boards.
I would consider this design on the more simplistic side, just because there isn’t a whole lot
of accenting or things going on.
It’s just our neat little badge, fancy back curve, and bottom engraving.
Internal weights are a compromise I'm willing to have for good sound.
I absolutely love how versatile this board is.
Unlike some other boards which are pretty much stuck to a certain sound or feel profile,
the XOX70 will give you good results pretty much no matter what you throw at it.
However, I think it’s worth is pretty up in the air, being almost 400 dollars with
not a whole lot of external flair.
But with this level of sound without foam, this board is gonna be one of my keepers,
and might just be one for you as well.