Been playing with boards worth multiple hundreds of dollars for the last few vids, so let’s
come back to the budget end with the Tecware Phantom L RGB mechanical keyboard.
Opening up the box we have our USB type C cable.
And I said I’d start calling this out, please stop folding cables.
And then we get 4 extra keyswitches, with a keyswitch puller, which tells us something.
And a plastic ring keycap puller.
And here’s the keyboard itself.
In the hands it a pretty light keyboard coming in at just under 600 grams.
So about the same weight as a typical 60%.
But the top is made from aluminium, and there isn’t much flex to it.
And maybe you can tell that it’s a bit slimmer than usual.
And that’s because the L means low profile.
At least, that’s what I’m hoping and assuming.
So the case itself is quite slimmer than a traditional mechanical keyboard.
It’s about 11mm thick.
But then this bit towards the back that houses the flip up feet and the USB type C port adds
a bit more thickness as it’s also on an angle.
And at its thickest point it’s about 16mm.
Although it does have a low profile floating key design, so that doesn’t particularly
matter, meaning that the case doesn’t cover the keyswitches.
What really matters is the distance between the base and the top of the keycaps.
Which at its thickest point is around 30mm.
This is about 10mm shorter than most of the other mechs I have in my room.
Again, at their thickest points.
So obviously it has portability benefits.
A bit easier to slip into a bag.
But more importantly to me is the ergonomic benefits.
The one thing about mechanical keyboards that I don’t particularly love is the height
of them.
I mean, with a proper typing technique and posture, the height doesn’t matter as much.
But as I am lazy, and many others are the same, especially when gaming, we rest our
wrists on the table.
And simply put, this reduces the angle and strain on your wrists.
And to be honest, I really did enjoy this aspect of the keyboard.
It’s legitimately just more comfortable to use for me personally.
And what makes this possible are these switches.
As alluded before, this is an Outemu hotswap keyboard, so we can pull these out with the
included keyswitch puller, and as always, they are pretty tight fit.
And the sockets and plate are actually only compatible with these particular low profile
switches.
These are Outemu Snap Spring Blue switches, which are slightly lower profile, which you
can see comparing it to a standard keyswitch.
It has a total travel of 3mm, and a pretravel of 1.2mm.
So not too far off a standard switch.
Interestingly, you can use these on a standard PCB.
The pin footprint is the same, and it works just fine.
And even better, reduces the height of a keyboard by a considerable amount.
When you shorten a switch, you gotta change from the traditional MX internals.
So the stem does not have a click jacket or tactile bump in the leg.
Instead the click and bump are created by, well they described well enough in the name,
snap springs.
Pretty cool to see something a little different.
So let’s see how they type.
They remind me a lot of click bar switches from Kailh, in particular their low profile
Choc series, although this isn’t as low as those.
The click isn’t as sharp as the click bar switches, and therefore not as crisp in its
sound.
And the tactile bump is quite mild.
But to be honest, you might like that as it is that touch less harsh and bit easier to
take.
Relaxing even.
They say that it has a 60g actuation force, so a medium sort of weight.
Although they did feel a bit lighter to me.
So it’s a little bit of a different experience.
It’s not as crisp as Kailh click bar switches, but not as rattly and mushy as say a Cherry
MX Blue.
So kind of an inbetween switch, which I ended up having a pleasant time with them.
And since it is quite slim, it doesn’t have a hollow feeling or anything.
Since they are shorter, you may think it would suit gamers, as most gaming keyswitches advertised
do the same thing.
Perhaps it does.
I always thought it’s a personal thing.
Personally I don’t like repetitive actions on a clicky, but I do find it better with
a shorter actuation distance.
So a pretty solid typing experience overall, and you know, it’s always good to see something
different.
Also, even though it is a clicky keyboard, the stabilised keys had minimal rattle which
is always great to see.
Obviously this has a big impact on the design of the keyboard.
So the case aesthetic looks pretty good to me, for a floating key design anyway.
Nice and simple, with the aluminium on top which looks and feels nicely finished.
Rounded corners and minimal branding makes for a clean look.
It’s just the keycaps really that kind of detract from that, but that’s a personal
opinion on these gamery looking fonts.
You may like them, and that’s cool.
However you can replace these keycaps if you want.
You won’t get much shorter than these middle caps.
But DSA does sit pretty low, so you could do that if you really wanted to.
But then you’d cover up the RGB backlighting.
You can download the software from their website, and it looks surprisingly sleek.
So we have 3 customisable profiles.
And it’s super self explanatory, we can select a key, and change it to whatever.
And that includes macros.
So in this section we can create macros with delays and such, and then you can go back
and assign them to a key.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to change profiles on the board itself.
You have to change via the software, so you can’t really quickly access the other functions
you assign to another profile.
Especially since you won’t be changing too many keys on your default, because you actually
need to use them as intended.
Then we have the lighting section, again self explanatory.
And finally the gaming mode section where you can disable some keys that may put you
in a spot of bother.
Overall, just a nice simple piece of software that works.
I still would like to be able to switch profiles on board to quickly access other functions,
because they are profiles, instead of layers.
Let’s take apart.
There’s a couple of Phillips head screws under some keycaps, and it comes apart super
easy.
This makes sense.
There’s some foam that goes between the PCB and the bottom of the case.
As I mentioned before, it had a pretty dense feel, and paired with the naturally slim construction,
it provides a nice base for typing.
The aluminium plate is 1.5mm thick, which is the standard, but as it’s the whole top
piece, it makes for a light keyboard.
And on the PCB it looks pretty normal, but of course where the switch pins would be,
there are the Outemu sockets which the keyswitches go into.
And has the usual SMD RGB LEDs on there.
The bottom piece is made from plastic, pretty basic, no ribbing on the bottom for reinforcement,
but it’s low profile anyway.
Looks like there’s room for a switch here, so perhaps there’s a Bluetooth version hovering
around under another brand.
And that’s the Tecware Phantom L. Always love coming back to the budget end of mechanical
keyboards.
This is 50 bucks, could probably get it for less.
And I say it over and over again,budget mechs are the most accessible, and these Tecware
boards are particularly popular in South East Asia.
The main feature of the board is its low profile form factor.
It’s gonna be light, it’s not going to feel super premium or anything.
But I actually enjoyed using something that’s a bit slimmer than what I’m used to.
And that’s brought about by these Low profile snap spring Outemu switches.
An interesting one.
Bit of an inbetweener.
Not the clickiest, not the most tactile.
I would say my experience with these have been a bit laid back, and less in your face
sort of thing, which I ended up liking.
And maybe that short distance will be comfortable for gaming.
I don’t know, that’s up to you.
And that’s the thing.
It’s a unique little board that will suit someone out there.