Today we’re back at the high end with a keyboard from Varmilo.
Varmilo is one of those keyboard companies that I’ve liked to follow, because they’re
always coming out with different, unique, and classy products, even though it is a niche
market.
They respect that this, like many other things can be a hobby the deeper you go into it.
And this keyboard is no exception.
This is the Varmilo VA68Mg RGB mechanical keyboard, and by extension, this will give
you some insight to the aluminium version the VA68m.
This keyboard comes in a few varieties.
The main other one is the said more standard aluminium alloy version - the popular VA68m,
which is more common and cheaper than this, and is for the most part the same.
The box is one of those nice textured ones, and has magnets to close it.
And I do test the keyboards for a while before filming, and I can’t remember at all how
this was packaged, so yeh, keep that in mind.
Opening up the box, we have some paper work.
The keyboard itself.
We have a Varmilo branded keycap puller.
One of the nicest mini USB cables I’ve seen come with a keyboard, with the little end
covers as well.
A coiled right angle mini USB cable.
And a short right angle mini USB cable
Just an amazing array of cables, with nice gold plated ends as well, giving us some flexibility
for cable management.
And they also included a really nice keyboard sleeve, but this was made for a tenkeyless
keyboard, so it’s a bit big.
And here’s the keyboard.
And it’s undoubtedly one of the classiest keyboards I’ve made a video on.
I have the silver version, but Varmilo also have other really awesome looking colours
and keycaps, but this is probably one of the more traditional looking ones.
This is a 65% keyboard, meaning that it’s about 65% of a standard full sized keyboard.
So it’s like a 60% board, but with the dedicated arrow keys, and some nav keys.
It has the exact same layout as the popular budget Magicforce 68, meaning that it has
completely standard sized keycaps, so replacing keycaps will be no problem, but these are
really nice keycaps anyway.
So keycaps will be easier to replace keycaps in comparison to the popular 65% Leopold FC660M,
which is the same as this Archis Retro Tiny.
It’s slightly shorter and narrower than a tenkeyless keyboard, so we’re missing
the dedicated function row keys, and some more nav cluster keys.
And of course, it’s much smaller than a full sized keyboard, without the numpad on
the side, giving you much more lateral space.
I personally really love 65% keyboards, and I find it to be my personal sweet spot between
size and primary functionality.
And I just love the look as well.
However these tend to not have the programmability and customisability that say a 60% would have.
First we can change the number row to the function row by pressing function and either
page up or page down.
We can also swap the function key and the windows key by holding them for 3 seconds.
And we can swap the left control and the caps lock key, by holding function and left control
for 3 seconds.
And that’s about it.
The build of this is an interesting one, and sets this apart from others.
This is made from a magnesium alloy, and is die cast, unlike the common CNC’d aluminium
that you see on many keyboards.
There’s actually a really good post on the process of this which I’ll link in the description.
And it’s some awesome stuff where they start with the actual ingots, die cast it, and is
hand finished.
And they have a table which puts it against aluminum, plastic, and steel.
There’s like hardly any fully steel keyboards, but it’s of course heaps lighter than those
The main comparison is the aluminium.
They state that magnesium alloy is 33% lighter, but at the same time, has great mechanical
properties, as well as better corrosion resistance.
So it’s great that it’s light for taking around if need be, while staying super solid.
But I do love me a heavy keyboard, and that’s where I personally actually would like the
weight of the aluminium version.
The design of the keyboard is a simple rectangular design.
As said before this comes in a variety of colours with different cases and keycaps.
This one has the sleek silver case, with grey and white keycaps.
Looking at the side profile it has a slight natural inclination, but can be increased
with the flip up feet.
The top line is actually slightly curved to fit the sculptured keys.
And these are actually shorter than OEM profile ones that you find on majority of keyboards.
On the rear we have our mini USB port.
And even the bottom of the keyboard looks pleasing, with simplistic branding and information.
Although I do miss their Comic Sans logo.
There’s a couple of feet for non slip.
The two flip up feet are also flush with the other feet when down, which I thought was
cool.
Now to the lighting, this is an RGB keyboard.
However because these do not have backlit keycaps, the lighting acts as a tasty underglow
for the keycaps.
While it may not make sense to some, it’s a more subtle way off adding light to a keyboard,
and is the preferred way for many enthusiasts if they’re to have any lighting at all.
The lighting was pretty difficult to understand since the VA68m manual isn’t the same, and
as far as I’m aware, there’s no english manual for this.
Interestingly they’ve stored the lighting setups on the top alpha row which is a first
for me.
And this is all controlled via the function key, so I guess they couldn’t put it on
the function row.
Function and Q are the solid profiles.
There are 8 profiles on here which by default are assigned to each colour.
And we can switch between these with function and the left arrow key.
The cool thing is that each of those 8 profiles can be colour customised.
This is done by pressing function and tab, and simply customising each key.
So what I’ve done on one of them is make a rainbow pattern, and we can see how nicely
that underglow flows and blends.
And these profiles are then used for the rest of the modes I’ll go through.
Function and W is the breathing mode, in which we can chose any of those 8 profiles.
E is a wave mode.
R is a ripple mode.
T is a snake mode, but then when you type, it lights up other colours.
Y is a single key reactive mode.
U is a single key reactive mode but with random colours.
I is a firework mode with different colours.
O is a rainfall mode, which looks quite pastelly.
And for whatever reason some of these colours look new, like there’s definitely a light
pink in there, and a samonny colour.
P just cycles through the colours, but each key also reacts.
Left square bracket does this random colour reactive mode.
And right square bracket is a breathing mode with that reactive lighting as well.
The main issue I have with the lighting is the customisability of the colours.
While it is RGB, we only have access to 8 colours that we can actually customise.
While it does cover most colours you would want, I expect more, because the LEDs themselves
are perfectly capable of doing so.
Like with the yellow, it’s a very fluro type of yellow, and then it goes to orange.
I would have really liked a bit more of a vibrant yellow, but you can’t do that.
And then there’s no pink, with only purple.
However in some of the modes, the other colours seemed to be displayed like pink, which is
a bit frustrating and doesn’t really make any sense.
This is where I think the onboard lighting system on the iKBC F87 really makes sense,
where you can bring up colour palettes and choose from there.
Overall though, the lighting is subtle and classy.
It won’t help you see the legends on your keycaps at night, so it’s more of an aesthetic
thing, rather than functional.
Taking off the keycaps, and we have some really nice 1.5mm thick PBT keycaps.
Again these are Cherry profile keycaps and are shorter than the standard OEM ones you
find on majority of keyboards.
They have dye sublimated legends which are crisp and hard wearing.
Underneath the keycaps we have the Cherry MX Silent Red switches, also sometimes referred
to as Cherry MX pink.
These are a light and linear switch, so basically just like the standard Cherry MX Reds, but
the upstroke and bottoming out sounds are dampened.
I’ve done a full in depth look at these switches in another video if you want to check
it out.
And here’s a quick sound test.
So yeh, they’re nice and quiet.
The travel distance is shortened slightly, and the feel isn’t as crisp as it has a
very slight cushion.
This keyboard is available in a variety of keyswitches though, so you can pick whatever
you want to fit your needs.
Taking the keyboard apart is very easy with just a couple of Philips head screws.
And we also have to remove the bottom row of keycaps, so the keyboard can slip out.
Here we have the top shell.
Despite not having much structure to it, the magnesium alloy is super strong, so there’s
no twist.
We can press the top and bottom inwards though, but it’s mostly the bottom.
And the rim at its thickest point is about 4.5mm
On the inside it’s pretty basic, and we can clearly see this pink finish.
The visible inside edges are pretty well covered, but in some spots we can see that pink colour,
which I’ll talk about later.
The bottom piece is stunning.
I just love stuff like this.
This has no flex, no twist, no nothing.
But at the same time, it’s very light.
The edges are about 2.5 mm, and this just adds to the outer top shell, effectively making
the thickest point about 6mm.
For many aluminium bases with high end keyboards, they’re usually CNC milled, so it’s really
cool to see a die cast case.
The feet can be taken off with a few screws, and by ripping some glue off, if you for some
reason need to.
And yeh, nice and metal, and not plastic.
The backplate or mounting plate for the switches is 1.5mm thick.
I don’t know for sure if this is also a magnesium alloy, but we can assume so.
But it’s definitely not steel, as it’s not magnetic.
The PCB is the Varmilo 68Key RGB V3.0.
And the timestamp on this is the 18th of November 2016, so quite recent.
It would make sense that this would be the same PCB on the newer RGB VA68M’s, but I
have no confirmation on that.
Ok so one of the biggest downsides for me is the exterior finish of the case.
In accordance with their post, the magnesium alloy case is electroplated and then sprayed
with a ceramic paint.
In my case though, there is pink under the silver.
So I asked about it, and was told it may have previously been a pink version of the case.
Therefore, it would be paint over paint.
I don’t know how good the adhesion is in this situation, but it is an odd situation.
My experience with this finish though isn’t great.
It scratches quite easily, as seen with a few spots on the keyboard, and I’ve been
using this keyboard on and off for maybe 2 months.
Scratching the inside of the case with my flathead screwdriver, and not even pressing
that hard, it scratches very easily.
In addition to this, the not so great spray coverage on the inside edges where it still
can be seen with the keyboard assembled is just a lack of attention to detail.
And I’m not talking about the inside edges like over here, that’s absolutely fine.
This may be an isolated incident, but this is what I was given.
Ok so this is definitely a premium mechanical keyboard, and it’s only for that select
few people.
But I more wanted to show what this keyboard represents.
There’s no doubt that this is a luxury item, where a bulk of that hefty price is just because
of the magnesium alloy case.
But that’s what I love about Varmilo.
We’re quite a niche community, and they create high end and unique products, which
makes their stuff even more niche, but they do it anyway.
A really cool example of this is how they released a bunch of different layouts for
a couple of their keyboards, which included many ISO variants, with French, German, Italian,
Spanish, and more.
I might be sounding a bit too positive, but I really appreciate and commend sizeable mechanical
keyboard companies doing different things.
It shows what can be done, and further validifies the niche market that is premium mechanical
keyboards.
And we have to be honest in that this isn’t really a practical purchase, and is definitely
an enthusiast type product.
The magnesium alloy construction is wonderfully strong, and also light.
The shorter xprofile dye subbed PBT keycaps feel and look amazing and classy.
It’s available with a multitude of keyswitches, with Cherry MX silent boards not the easiest
to come by at the moment.
And finally that RGB underglow for the keycaps gives it that bit of optional edge.
The glaring negative for me, and a real mismatch, is the quality of the finish.
It just doesn’t cut it, and scratches quite easily.
It’s a complete contrast to the rest of the well made and refined keyboard, so hopefully
they can and will improve on that, which I’m sure they will.
Their website is a bit iffy, so I’ll link their representatives reddit account, and
you can see many of their products there.
Hopefully Varmilo can continue to pump out these interesting products, because it really
was a pleasure to use this .