Yo! Today we have the Typ65+ from Axiom Studios in the wonderful Malaysia.
I did get a bunch of extra stuff in here that they provided for the build.
Here we have all the little bits. Then I have a hotswap PCB, which is in yellow.
And then in red we have the solderable version of the PCB.
Then for plates, I received 2 carbon fibre ones, 1 full plate, 1 half plate. And a full FR4 plate.
By the way, straps that don’t fall back down are good stuff.
I received the Garnet Red top with black bottom,
and it’s stunning, and we’ll see more of it later in different lighting conditions.
The other top colours are Jade and Grey, which both look sick too. And for the bottom,
there’s also a silver option, so that’s pretty cool that we can kind of mix and match.
Alright, let’s take it apart and have a closer look.
There are 8 hex screws that hold the top and bottom aluminium pieces together.
And then another 3 countersunk hex screws that hold in the internal brass weight.
It’s quite a thin weight, but it does span quite a bit of that internal bottom area. So
it doesn’t add a whole lot of heft coming in at about
275g. It’s more to help with the acoustics of the board, which should help with reverb.
Now to the bottom aluminium case. Again, this is also available in silver. As we can see I have a
prototype version, but it’s pretty good. Just some small marks, and this internal ano mark.
And quite a shallow clearance, so not a whole lot of room inside,
therefore the bottom retains some good thickness to it. AND no foam included in this build,
besides the gaskets, which is what these little grooves are for.
And we have our USB-C daughterboard here.
Now to the top case, and this reveals the 2nd mounting option that the keyboard offers. We
can see 8 spots for the plate tabs, with threads, meaning that we can top mount it, without gaskets.
Also, in the top corner we have our blocker accents,
in which we receive both brass and polycarbonate. So
you can change that out depending on the look that you want, which we’ll see later.
Alright, let’s get to the build. As shown before, there’s a choice between
solderable and hotswap PCBs. Hotswap means that we have a fixed layout,
which all looks very standard, besides the stepped caps lock. And of course we
can hotswap our switches without the need of any soldering work, although you will need
to solder on the through hole LEDs for the blocker if you want that lighting.
Then for the solderable version of the PCB, that’s where we get all the layout options with the
bottom row, split backspace and left shift. Normal caps lock, and of course ISO enter if that’s you.
Okay, I’ll start with the solderable PCB, and I’ve chucked in the stabilisers already.
In the prototypes they used singular colour red, green, and blue through hole LEDs,
however the production units will just be using white LEDs. Just take your time on these,
through hole LEDs can be a little sensitive, I think out of all of them,
2 didn’t light up. And these are the only LEDs in the board by the way.
They provided me with these Evil Airy switches, which are tactiles, and they suggested that I use
the full carbon fibre plate. By default, there is a choice between full or half carbon fibre plates,
which is an interesting choice, not the most commonly used plate material out there, especially
for being the default. FR4 will be available as an extra, no aluminium interestingly enough which
is the usual go to, however they will be releasing a universal plate file later on.
One thing to note which I didn’t show,
is that there are no standoffs that go between the plate and the PCB to hold them together, so
for the hotswap version just make sure that your switches are in properly.
Okay, let’s look at the 2 mounting methods. First up, top mount, meaning that we screw
the plate into the top aluminium piece. There are cuts in the tabs of the plate, which allows the
screws to go through, and is also for the gasket mounting. What that also does is give the plate
a little bit of relief, but also reduces the surface area between the plate to case contact.
The other mounting method is gasket mount. We’re given this length of EPDM oring gasket cord.
It’s approximately 3.5mm thick, not really an expert on this, but it seems pretty firm
and springy. And all we need to do is chop it up, and place them in the grooves in the bottom case.
Then the plate just sits on top of those,
with the cutouts in the plate making it super easy to position.
Putting the top case on, we can see that it doesn't take too much effort to close,
meaning that there is enough room in there for the gaskets to not be overly compressed.
And here’s the Typ65+ by Axiom Studios.
As the name suggests, this is a 65% plus a left hand macro column keyboard. The board
has a nice clean aesthetic, from the top, we have I’d say medium sized bezels, with the sides being
thinner, not that there’s any real standard. But the bottom bezel has a pronounced chamfer to
lower that front lip, inspired by the good old Cherry boards back in the day.
It’s not a huge chamfer, but still very noticeable and recognisable.
Every edge on this keyboard is chamfered by the way, at least on the outside,
besides the corners which are filleted. So, nicely finished and comfortable to hold.
Also on top we have that blocker design. Remember we can put the included brass
piece there instead of the polycarbonate I have,
but I think the LEDs shining through looks pretty cool, plus it is a layer indicator.
Looking at the side profile, we have a comfortable 6 degree incline.
The red top alu piece slips over the black bottom piece, giving it a clean
seamless design. I like how the red runs all the way down, and how it’s flat with the surface at
the front there. There’s also space to pick up the board, but you can one hand a 65% anyway.
Looking at the rear we have a centred USB C port, which splits the two colours beautifully.
And this is where the bottom case colour is more noticeable.
Finally to the bottom, remember that we had an internal brass weight, so
nothing out here, instead we have quite a large engraving, but
otherwise pretty simple. To be honest if it was mine, I’d be tempted to fill it in with something.
It’s a fun layout to use. I’ve always been a fan of 65% boards in functionality with
dedicated arrow keys, and it’s compact form factor. Adding the macro column on the left
gives it a more elongated look which I also do like. And while it extends the keyboard,
it’s on the left hand side, so it doesn’t interfere with your mouse space. Macro’s
are useful for people that use them, even just for media controls, which can be done via VIA.
But I know there’s a cheeky bunch of you that sees this as an artisan column.
Alrighty, I recorded a few configurations, so let’s give em a listen.
Starting with the soldered build, full carbon fibre plate with the Evil Airy tactile switches.
Only the bottom housing was lubed with Tribosys 3204, and not filmed. Interesting one,
there’s a lot flex towards the middle on either side of the lateral flex cut
which is present on both the plate and PCB, which creates some vibrations when typing.
But because we have a carbon fibre plate, the bottom out is pretty sharp,
higher pitched in sound, but not particularly loud. The spacebar though, sooo good.
The difference between top mount and gasket mount wasn’t much. Top mount is slightly higher pitched,
a touch clackier. While the gasket mount supporting the board from the bottom
softens the bottom out a little bit. But again, it wasn’t huge for me. I think for
tactiles I preferred the slightly dampened nature of the gasket mount, which was really enjoyable.
Moving onto the linear build with the half carbon fibre plate. I used SP-Star meteor whites,
lubed lightly with Krytox 205G0, and filmed. The switch itself is on the clackier side already,
and I only had them lightly lubed to keep that characteristic. Although personally I feel
that they need a full plate to accentuate the switch, so that’s my bad using these on here.
However, as we can hear, they still maintain a sharpish bottom out, although it’s a little flat.
Not much depth to it. I feel that the full plate would have been much better.
I wasn’t entirely happy with that, so I chucked in some Alpaca’s which are 62g linears,
lubed well with 205g0. And as you could hear, huge huge difference. For me, the board really came
to life here. Much poppier, didn’t feel as flat anymore, and just everything. A bit more thock,
depth, it was fuller, and just more substance to each keypress, which was super enjoyable.a
I did also test the FR4 plate, but it was pretty dead with the SP-stars I had,
and I wasn’t a fan personally.
So for me, I enjoyed the tactiles on the full plate. The SP-star meteor whites weren’t amazing
on the half plate, with the Alpaca’s a lot nicer for me. I preferred gasket for the tactiles,
and top mount for the linears. I think Lightning and Jae used MX Blacks, or OP Blacks? And they
both sounded amazing, so that sort of thing may be the way to go. Check out their streams by the way,
both extremely knowledgeable, more than me. What I wish I could have tried was linears on
the full carbon fibre plate, but unfortunately I don’t have a brr gun, so I ain’t doing that.
And that’s the Typ65+ by Axiom studios. Had a lot of fun with this one. I love how it looks,
it’s clean, but not without character. The colours are sick, and it’s nice we can choose
the bottom colour as well. Left hand macro column is cool for actual functionality, but
I think it’s just nice for that bit of spice.
The ability to choose between top mount and gasket mount gives us something to play with, although
with the specific configs that I tried, the differences weren’t huge, but still noticeable.
The groupbuy for this board will end on the 14th of December, or until sold out with 350 units.
It’s priced at 1640 Malaysian Ringgit, which equates to
approximately 385USD according to Google. So yep, as always custom keyboards are expensive,
but that’s pretty fair, pretty good to see something like this under 400 bucks. I’d
say it’s a solid buy if it’s the sort of board you want. If you wanna check it out, I’ll chuck
all the links in the descripti on. I hope Max doesn’t do a Vyron. Bless and Terima kasih.