Today we have something a bit different, but it is still a mechanical keyboard.
This is the Havit low profile mechanical keyboard.
And in turn we’ll check out the new Kailh low profile keyswitches.
Opening up the box we have some paperwork, which includes a small user guide.
We have the keyboard itself.
And we get a micro USB cable.
And as we can see, this doesn’t look like all the other keyboards we’ve checked out
on the channel.
As said before this is a low profile mechanical keyboard, so we have low profile keyswitches,
and this allows everything to be thinned down.
This also makes it very light, but with the aluminium plate, there’s not much flex to
it.
It weighs at about 500grams, which is mainly attributed to the aluminium plate.
They’ve gone with quite a simple rectangular shape and an angled profile, with a natural
angle of elevation.
So it’s actually not as thin as it could be, with the front of the case being an indication
of how thin it could be throughout.
It is tapered all the way round to make it appear thinner as well.
There’s a chamfer around the black aluminium, revealing a chrome edge.
And it is a nice smooth finish on there, which doesn’t really show fingerprints.
There is their logo above the arrow keys which I’m never really a fan of, but at least
it isn’t popping out or stamped or anything.
The typeface on the keycaps is simple, and it works for me.
I’m just happy they didn’t go with a gamery font, so good on them.
These keycaps though are thin ABS caps which is fine I guess, which is probably because
of their limited options, and these are the type that are coated black, and then laser
etched to allow the light to shine through.
So this is like the Razer and Corsair keycaps, and are very sensitive to oils from your fingers.
So they shine up very easily, and will eventually have permanent shine.
As for the actual thinness of the keyboard.
This is the thinnest mechanical keyboard I’ve had and used, so I’ll compare to some others
that I have.
This Vortex Core is probably one of the thinner MX switch keyboards, and because of it’s
flat case and DSA keycaps, it’s actually not that much taller than the tall side of
the Havit keyboard.
This Tesoro Gram Spectrum which is another low profile keyboard, but uses different and
taller keyswitches and is also not that much taller, but it’s also much flatter.
The Anne Pro which is a pretty normal 60% board is way thicker, also having natural
inclination to it.
And finally this iKBC C104 is just a stock standard full sized keyboard.
It has normal OEM keycaps, and is also obviously much thicker.
To be expected, it is a very thin mechanical keyboard.
But because of its angled design, it’s actually not as thin as it could be, and is only a
tad shorter than the Vortex Core and the Tesoro Gram Spectrum, from it’s taller side.
But while that is the case, it definitely feels and looks much thinner than it actually
is.
It’s also using sculptured keycaps, so they’re not just flat from the side profile, like
what you’ll see on something like a laptop.
On the rear we have a micro USB port, but notice how it has some plastic surrounding
it.
The good news is that with the included cable, it makes for a safe and secure connection.
However it will not fit most other cables.
I actually couldn’t find the included cable for most of the testing period, so I had to
strip off the housing on one of my micro USB cables, so that’s something to keep in mind.
An on the bottom we have some rubber feet, and two flip up feet.
So overall in terms of aesthetics and how it looks, they haven’t done much wrong at
all.
Of course it doesn’t have that premium look, but at the same time it doesn’t scream gamer.
I can tell that they’ve kept to a simple design, and in my opinion looks quite fine,
but this is of course just a personal thing.
Now to the main feature which are the keyswitches.
So pretty much all the mechanical keyboards we check out on the channel have Cherry MX
keyswitches, or a clone of it.
However this keyboard uses low profile Kailh keyswitches which is based on the Cherry ML
series, but has quite a few differences.
Unfortunately I don’t have an ML board, so I can’t make direct comparisons in it’s
shape and such, but I’ll link a video in the description below which does.
So as we can see these are very short, and everything is different to an MX style switch.
The one I have here is blue, and has both the Kailh and Dare-U logo.
However it says that it is from the Kailh PG1350 series, so it still should be the same
as the standard clicky switch which is white.
With a completely different shape, this is not compatible with any MX keycaps, PCBs,
and plates.
It’s also not compatible with Cherry ML keycaps, because the stem isn’t offset.
As said this is a clicky switch, and the way it produces that click is different.
A standard MX switch will use a click collar, however this uses a click bar.
So as we can see here, when we push the key, the stem will move that bar, and finally it
will release and hit the housing to create that sound.
And without the click collar, there is no rattle at all after the click.
The other unique characteristic with the click bar, is that there’s 2 clicks for each keystroke.
So one on the way down, and another when it goes back up.
And since there’s no other bump on the stem, that’s what also creates the tactile bump,
which isn’t as strong, but it’s still there.
And the sound the switches creates is quite a sharp and high pitched sound.
And it’s very clean in its sound but also in it’s feel.
So when we add that to the short travel distance of the switches at 3mm, with an actuation
distance of approximately 1.4mm, it makes for a very unique typing experience.
It’s a very light and crispy experience, that is quite refreshing to me personally,
having mostly used the typically 4mm travel distance switches.
The stabilised keys which are all the longer keys feel very sharp and responsive, and produce
no rattle which is really nice to see.
Each size of stabilised keys have a unique shape to the metal bar.
And the keyswitch housing itself is also different, as the top housing has the little ridges to
pop the stabiliser wires in.
I have also checked out the Tesoro Gram Spectrum which also regarded as a low profile keyboard,
but they are completely different, as we can see by the keyswitches.
Another thing is that by having the keyboard more flat, it is a bit easier on your wrists
if you do rest them on your desk.
This is a backlit keyboard, so we have a variety of lighting modes which is accessed via the
function key at the bottom, with the arrow keys controlling the brightness and speed
of the effects.
We can also customise the lighting, by picking what keys we want to be lit up by pressing
function and F12.
And we have 5 profiles, so we can pick one, and then customise it as you please.
Meaning that we can have 5 different custom lighting profiles for different situations
if needed.
However we can do more if we download the software from their website.
We can easily pick and look through the lighting effects here, and we’re able to control
brightness and speed here as well.
We can also adjust the response time and report rate if need be.
However the more useful feature here is being able to customise each key.
So we can set it to do a combination, open up a program, be some sort of shortcut and
all that.
We can also assign a macro to it, like type out a sentence.
This can be very useful for people who take advantage of it, and take the time and effort
to set it all up.
Opening the keyboard is easy with a couple of Philips head screws which are hidden under
some keycaps.
And here’s the bottom ABS plastic shell.
And it has some ribbing on the bottom surface for reinforcement, and as we can see, there
is a heap of room because of its angled design.
So future keyboards with these keyswitches do have the potential to be thinner.
And here’s the rest of the keyboard with the PCB and keyswitches mounted onto the 1.5mm
thick aluminium plate.
And we can see how thin the switches actually are, and you can imagine what different designs
for cases could be.
The PCB itself is clean and I had not issues with it.
It is different looking to the normal MX PCBs, but it’s still the same in that we have
the 2 switch pins, the centre prong, and we also have the 2 other prongs that hold it
with the PCB.
Then there’s the diodes, with our SMD LEDs and resistors for those.
Overall it is a very unique experience, because it’s quite new, and that there’s like
not really any other keyboards that I can see on sale right now that have these switches.
But I know there’s quite a few that are going to come soon, from like Vortex, Mistel,
Tesoro and all them.
So I don’t know, perhaps the brand Dare U did have some sort of period where it was
exclusive to them.
And this is a budget board as well, so the build is what you expect with the thin aluminium
and plastic.
The keycaps are coated ABS, so they do shine up really easily, but I don’t know if they
had any other options at this time for backlit keycaps.
I like the simple singular colour lighting, and I happen to like blue.
But probably white would have been more flexible with other setups.
But what it really comes down to is the typing experience.
And I know many will not feel comfortable with the reduced travel distance, but at the
same time, many outsiders would actually prefer it, as it’s not too far from a laptop experience.
Using a click bar mechanism, it’s loud with a high pitched sound and has a very crispy
clicky feel to it.
It’s also very light to type on, and with the short travel distance, it makes for a
very easy going experience as well.
It is a cool alternative mechanical keyboard.
And I for sure enjoyed having a break from the traditional stuff with this, and perhaps
you might too.