I don't think I’ve told anybody this, but when I was first getting into the hobby summer
of 2019, the space65 cyber voyager was my endgame keyboard.
Absolute endgame.
I wanted that keyboard so bad, but the fact that it was solder just broke my heart.
And today, we have a space65 sent by graystudio to review.
It’s somehow all come full circle.
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Let’s get into the unboxing.
We have 2 boxes, but let’s take a look at this accessory box first.
Here are our POM plate, FR4 plate, plate foam, PE foam, case foam, and hotswap pcb.
Very interesting choice of color.
I’ll quickly note that all of these components have plenty of flex cuts.
The stuff in this bag that fell out include the bottom feet, gaskets, optional stab shims
because the PCB is extra thin, an extra LED diffuser, and some other necessary parts.
We also get an extra daughterboard, in addition to the one already installed in the case.
Now let’s get this main box open.
Here is the board, with this thin isolation sheet already installed.
The black bottom inside here isn’t actually the bottom of the case.
This is actually a midpiece.
You can see by the daughterboard cable that the case actually does go deeper, even though
the PCB will not have this extra space to flex.
On the side of the box are tools, including a magnetizer and demagnetizer, tweezers, required
screw bits, extra screws, and a very premium included screwdriver.
I’ll get into the purpose of the magnetizer thing later.
For now let’s look at the specs.
The space65 is an aluminum gasket mounted 65, with hotswap and soldered PCBs with daughterboards.
The soldered pcb has split left shift, stepped caps, 7U bottom row, split backspace, and
ISO enter, while the hotswap PCB only has stepped caps.
We have a lot of color options.
You can choose between silver and dark gray, pink and lavender, pink and teal, blue and
dark gray, Mecha 01, light gray blue and dark gray, light gray and dark gray, dark green
and black, red and black, ewhite and black, or off white and gray.
Plate options are FR4, polycarbonate, or POM.
QMK and VIA are both supported, and the typing angle is 5 degrees.
Finally, the price ranges from 375 to 405 dollars, depending on the case finish and
pcb type.
Of course, we already have our gateron ink stabs installed, lubed with 205g0 and xht-bdz.
On here go the plate foam, pom plate, and for our first build i’ll use stock keyfirst
blings.
So space fully commits to screwless.
I’ve never built a board like this before, so it was a little bit weird at first, especially
with this middle piece.
The screws in the middle piece hold the top and bottom together.
Usually this is done with screws on the outside.
You may be thinking, how are you supposed to screw these in once the PCB and plate are
inside?
There are actually holes that line up on the PCB and plate that allow the screws to pass
through once the board is put together.
Don’t worry though, these holes are larger than the screw, so the screw points won’t
hinder flex at all.
Once the case is open, we can apply our gaskets, add case foam, and install the inner assembly.
This board also has a difficult daughterboard cable, so I would recommend threading the
entire cable through the middle piece, then plugging it in.
When the daughterboard is through, we can screw the top and middle together.
Before we put on keycaps, we need to connect the top case and bottom case using the first
screws that I took out.
These are the ones I was talking about earlier, and we can finally talk about the magnetizer.
This allows you to magnetize the screw bit, making it much easier to guide these case
screws through the holes in the pcb and plate.
With this, the middle piece is now anchored down to the bottom piece, and the board is
all connected.
And of course for our space65, we have to use gmk space cadet 2.
Let’s take a listen.
The sound in this specific configuration is a little bit thin.
You might have better results with switches that are on the louder side, or a different
plate.
It might also have something to do with this middle piece, and the bottom part of the case.
At least there isn’t any hollowness at all.
Alex’s sound test for example, sounded pretty similar to what I hear from my unit in real
life, so it might just be the sound signature of the board.
The feel is kinda unique.
The pcb and plate both have a ton of cuts, so there's naturally also a lot of flex.
But because of this middle case piece, it can’t flex very far.
So the result is an assembly that’s really easy to push down, but bottoms out very quickly.
It's interesting.
There’s ton of vibrations, but I’m not sure this is the bounce that a lot of people
are looking for.
Graystudio does give you these special gaskets though, so you can fine tune the feel to your
liking.
Some of the blings sound and feel mushy, so I really wish the quality of the factory lubing
could be improved.
But overall, I think this board is going to have a much more pleasant amount of bounce
than the previous iterations.
Design is the strong suit of this board.
On the top, we can immediately see the RGB badge.
This is magnetic, so you can easily swap it out for different colors.
Also notable are these width and height proportions.
It's wider than it is tall, which makes for a very thermal-esque look.
The top and bottom both have very large chamfers.
The side profile defines the middle piece, with the left also having an rgb diffuser.
On the front side, we also have a bit of a larger cut towards the middle.
I really like when boards show their accent colors like this, as it makes the overall
design a lot more interesting.
At the back, we have this weight piece, with a lot of angular machining.
In the center is what I presume something to make picking the board up easier, and our
non-recessed center usb port.
Flipping it over shows the rest of the weight, with more machined accents and space65 written
at the bottom.
Overall the design of this board is very complex, but is something that I really like.
The storm colorway with white and black accents is really neutral, and I think works very
well with the middle gray and pure blue of space cadet.
RGB is very easily configurable in VIA, and has plenty of options.
There is light bleeding, but this is because I forgot to install the small piece of light
blocking foam included with the board.
This should fix the problem completely.
Graystudio is an experienced vendor, and this board has already had 2 previous iterations,
so material quality is top notch.
This is an electrophoresis white coating, so it would naturally have less visible issues
than a fully anodized board.
The aluminum parts look great as well.
Some would say this board is overpriced, being around 400 dollars without boasting any brass
pieces and whatnot.
But you kinda have to consider the amount of machining this board has compared to some
others.
It's a very complex design, and that adds to the price.
To me, Graystudio makes some of the more unique designs on the keyboard market, and the amount
of color options only adds to this.
given that this isn’t really a new board anyway, most of what I said is already given.
I think the purchase decision ultimately comes down to how much you value your aesthetics,
as that is the thing about this board you definitely can’t ignore.
And that's all I have for you today.
Thanks for watching this episode of nearlucid.
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