For the most part; mechanical keyboards are pretty loud.
Normally it isn’t too much of a problem at home, but in an office environment mechanical
keyboards can be a problem.
So today we’re going to check out the iKBC KD104 with Cherry MX silent keyswitches, which
I think is a candidate for a perfect office keyboard for a wide range of people.
Thanks to mwave.com.au for providing this keyboard for review, I’ll leave links in
the description if you want to check it out.
Opening up the box we have a wire keycap puller which is nice to see.
And also some extra blank red and blue keycaps, which are for the arrow keys and escape key.
There was also a mini USB cable included, but unfortunately I’ve had this box open
for ages, so I don’t know where it is.
And we have the keyboard itself wrapped in foam and protected by a dust cover, which
is always a great inclusion.
And finally we have a warranty card, and a tiny little user manual.
Alright so here’s the keyboard itself, and I have to make it clear, that I’m specifically
talking about the KD104 with these Cherry MX Silent Red keyswitches.
And that this, I feel covers a lot of people and working scenarios, however people and
environments will always differ.
In the past; I have thoroughly enjoyed and have consistently recommended iKBC products
for their value.
And this keyboard no different.
The keyboard keeps with their simple and minimalistic aesthetic.
It just looks like a normal keyboard, with a rounded rectangular enclosure.
I have the white version, however there is also a black version available, and the keycaps
are of the same colour and have a clean typeface or font on them.
In the top right hand corner, we have the lock indicator LEDs.
And the holes for the lighting are just holes and the bulbs don’t protrude or surface,
so it kinda does look weird and unrefined to me.
But also notice that there’s no branding visible, and is only on the bottom of the
keyboard which is on the metal information plate, which is a nice quality touch.
We also have 4 flat rubber feet for non slip.
And 2 flip up feet, however these are not rubber tipped which is disappointing, as it’s
pretty standard these days.
And they are only 1 stage feet, unlike on their F series, which have 2 stage feet.
One welcomed feature though is the removable cable.
And this is using a micro USB connection.
We also have the cable routing channel so you can go left, right, or centre.
Looking at the side profile it does have a natural inclination to it, in which can of
course be increased with the feet.
So it really does look like a keyboard that would fit perfectly into an office environment.
And this unassuming look is one of the factors I’ve considered.
Picking up the keyboard and it feels rigid and sturdy.
There’s hardly any flex if any, which is helped by the internal steel mounting plate.
It also maintains that classic mechanical keyboard heft, and weighs at just over 1.2kg.
This is a full sized keyboard with 104 keys as the model name says.
And it is featuring a completely standard ANSI layout, so the keycaps are very easily
replaceable.
This is also available in a tenkeyless version, if you don’t require the numpad, and that
will save you some space.
However the reason I picked this is because a numpad is necessary for many office environments.
The build is what you expect from iKBC.
It features a plastic outer enclosure, which has a slight texture to it.
The plastic feels fine.
It’s nothing amazing, but it certainly doesn’t feel cheap.
The keycaps are made from PBT plastic which is nice and durable and won’t shine like
ABS plastic keycaps.
The legends are laser engraved, and are grey, so not double shot like their other models.
Taking off the keycaps, these aren’t too bad, they’re about 1.2mm thick, which is
pretty decent at this price point.
Alright, so now to the keyswitches.
I have reviewed these before, so if you want an in depth look at them, you can watch my
video.
But these are the Cherry MX Silent Red keyswitches, and are light linear switches, meaning that
they have no click or tactile bump, and are just smooth all the way down.
The main keyswitches that you can buy with pre-made keyboards, like Brown’s, blues,
blacks, reds, etc.
Pretty much no matter what you get, they’re going to be quite loud, providing you bottom
out, meaning you press the key all the way down.
However you can type quieter if you have more control.
It’s often said that Cherry MX Blues are the loud switches, which is absolutely true,
but then something like Cherry MX Browns are quiet.
And while they are quieter than blues, they are still loud, and may be louder than what
people expect.
And this is a problem when you use one in the workplace.
Someone might buy a Cherry MX Brown keyboard to use at work, but it’s still going to
be a heap louder than everyone else’s membrane boards.
And here’s a quick sound test.
And as we can hear, these are much quieter than the other keyswitches, and in my opinion
is perfectly acceptable to use in an office.
However there is one issue.
The stabilisers.
Stabilisers stabilise the longer keys, so that only 1 keyswitch is used.
So we have these wires on each of the longer keys, which include the very frequently used
space bar, enter, and shift keys.
And the stabilisers on this keyboard are horribly rattly, and in turn create sound, making the
keyboard unnecessarily louder than it should be.
Plus it also really detracts from the typing experience, making it feel very cheap and
low quality which is contrasting from the rest of the keyboard.
To try and fix this, we can take off the keycap and apply lubricant.
Dielectric grease and Super lube are often recommended for this.
Although sometimes lube won’t do the job well enough, so we can shove something in
there to help it, and I’ll link a video for this.
However this does in turn add to the cost, and shouldn’t be a process that has to be
done to make the keyboard more usable.
And this goes for many keyboard brands out there, using poor stabilisers.
iKBC which is part of the Vortex group, just don’t have good stabilisers which is a huge
negative for all their keyboards, so I really hope they get it together, because they are
a huge and reputable group.
There’s no external screws, although there was a sticker that I took off that may void
warranty, but it was completely out of the way anyway.
So to take the keyboard apart, we have to pry the top shell off, which is always scary
for first timers, and some keyboards can be pretty tight.
And there are 2 Philips head screws that hold the keyboard down to the bottom shell.
Alright, so here’s the top plastic shell, and there’s no surprises here, just pretty
much a standard decent piece.
There is flex, as well as with the bottom plastic shell, but when put together with
the rest of the keyboard, there’s no issues.
The bottom piece is more stiff, but doesn’t feature much ribbing for reinforcement on
the bottom surface.
We have the micro USB port held down by 2 screws, and these have been known to kind
of fall apart on other keyboards, so you can hot glue that up if wanted.
But again very basic, and not the thickest of plastic.
Although one good thing about basic cases like this, is that they can be spray painted
or hydrodipped very easily.
The mounting plate is made from 1.5mm thick steel and contributes the majority of the
weight, and is bent at the front and back for that extra rigidity.
Looking at the PCB and it’s very clean.
This perhaps may be the same PCB as the backlit TD108, because at the top right we do have
space for those 4 extra keys, but the enclosure doesn’t allow it.
And there’s also resistors and holes for LEDs to go in, so we can actually solder in
LEDs if you wanted to.
So I’m actually just gonna go ahead and do that.
I’m using 2x3x4 rectangular 2 pin white LEDs.
But you can use 3mm circular ones, or ike 1.8mm LEDs.
And lastly, the price.
Again, iKBC in my opinion is one of the best value brands out there for solid mechanical
keyboards with Cherry MX keyswitches.
In Australia at Mwave.com.au, this sells for $109 AUD, which is like 85 USD.
There are a few little cutbacks I feel were done to reach this price point, at least from
the other iKBC keyboards I’ve tried.
The keycaps are PBT which is good, but have laser engraved legends.
The LED lock indicators are just flush holes and looks a bit unrefined.
The non rubber tipped flip up feet just shouldn’t be a thing.
But the biggest downside for me are the absolutely shocking stabilisers for the longer keys,
however this is the same for the whole range.
But that’s all really.
This is a very affordable keyboard, relative to other keyboards of this sort.
But then there’s just not many keyboards with the MX Silent keyswitches on the market.
It really is kind of a rare keyboard, that features this reasonably solid build quality
with an internal steel plate, simple and clean aesthetic design, the Cherry MX silent keyswitches,
and of course having all of this at this sort of price.
Obviously everyone’s different, and you can go up or down depending on your budget,
or go for the smaller tenkeyless version if you don’t need a numpad.
But with all these factors considered, in my opinion I believe that this is one of the
best keyboards to recommend to a person who doesn’t really know too much about mechs,
and is looking for an office mechanical keyboard.
Thanks again to Mwave.com.au for providing this keyboard for review.
I’ll put links in the description if you want to check it out.