I’m not sure if angry miao and boring have ever been said together in the same sentence.
That would make me the first to do that.
Their design has always been original, and sometimes even disruptive in the keyboard
community, with projects like the Cyberboard and AM AFA not only boasting bold designs,
but also new technology.
Today, we get to look at the AM Compact Touch, a board that takes a little more minimal approach
to its design, but still manages to retain the angry miao magic, and actually caused
a little bit of controversy in the process.
We’ll talk about it.
But first,
Let’s get this board unboxed.
Yes, the gloves are coming back, because this is some great attention to detail in the packaging.
There’s tons of fun detailing all around this briefcase style box, but unfortunately
it doesn’t really sit flat, which kinda took a bit of the novelty away.
Let’s crack it open, And first off is the board itself.
Turns out this is a prebuilt, so let’s set this aside for now and take a look at the
rest of the components.
And its actually impossible to finish unboxing this with the gloves on, so off they go.
First here is a allen key, We have two harder steel leaf springs, and
four softer phosphorous copper ones.
We’ll take a look at what exactly these do later.
Here is also a nice high quality screwdriver, various small components, which we’ll also
take a look at in a bit, and ribbon cables.
On the right side is some documentation, and a branded microfiber cloth.
For free.
Take that, apple.
Under all this is also what looks like plate foam, and it’s really weirdly shaped.
Okay, now we can get back to the board.
Theres a plastic layer with some bluetooth instructions.
On the bottom is Angry Miao’s wireless keyboard charging pad, and of course, our touch surface
arrow keys.
So the AM compact touch is essentially an HHKB sized board with the functionality of
a 65%.
We’ve got a south facing hotswap PCB included, with no layout options and a daughterboard,
which utilizes angry miao’s proprietary software.
In tandem with this, through their DIY site, you can configure RGB and also add up to 7
macro layers.
FR4 is included, but a POM plate is also available as an addon.
The AM compact touch will come in a variety of colors, including back to the future, night
drive, all black, which is what I have, 8 bit, hard candy, and special laser and mech
love colorways which include extra RGB lighting.
I was sent the bundle, which comes with a fully assembled board with angry miao icy
silver switches, stock gateron ink stabilizers, and the relevant keycap set.
However, you can also get this board as barebones, which comes without switches, stabilizers,
or keycaps.
Base kits on the initial indiegogo run turned out to be between $400, and $450, and bundles
between $500 and $550, so this board certainly isn’t cheap.
Angry Miao also has a discord, where you can provide feedback and find more details on
product roadmaps.
Before anything else, let’s do a stock sound test.
I was really impressed with the stock sound.
It’s clacky, but very rounded, making for an overall pleasant and pretty uniform sound
throughout the alphas.
Since the included stabilizers aren’t lubed, of course, these all have quite a bit of rattle.
The whole time I was thinking to myself, if this wasn’t PE foamed, it would be insane,
and to my disappointment, it was.
So let’s take a deep dive into this board, and then afterward, build it in my own config
and sound test it again.
Starting with the feel.
The default config for this board is pretty mild in terms of softness.
Since we only have an FR4 plate available, the actual typing stiffness isn’t going
to be that configurable, but the bounce certainly is.
This board utilizes a leaf spring mount, meaning the inner assembly rests on pieces of metal
which bend down when pressed.
Because of the shape of the leaf springs, you’re able to actually configure how much
distance they have before bottoming out, and thus increase or decrease overall bounce.
Mine came in the softer configuration, which ended up having a pretty low amount of bounce,
and you have to push kinda hard to see it happen.
And ultimately, while the leaf springs do allow for a highly configurable feel, they
can really only get so soft, so if ultra flexiness is your thing, gasket mount might be better
for you.
The included switches are actually really great.
They have good factory lubing and really don’t need any extra tuning, although I wouldn’t
really call them anything too crazy in the switch market nowadays.
The dual stage spring and long pole stem mean they have a similar snappy feel to a lot of
other offerings nowadays as well, which can be a good or bad thing depending on you.
So you read the title.
And if you know just a little bit about keyboards, you’ll know this board really does look
like a 60%.
The happy hacking profile to be specific, which is the only one that has blockers in
the very bottom left and right corners.
What angry miao has done is converted the arrow keys from the 65% layout into a touch
surface that you can simply swipe your thumb across to activate.
When i first saw it, i thought it was really gimmicky, but after using it for a few days,
it’s actually held up really well.
It’s naturally placed right where your thumbs would be, making it very easy to access.
The sensing is really fast and accurate as well, meaning it’s actually super useful
if you use the arrow keys a lot.
The controversy comes from a variety of issues, including whether this is enough to justify
calling the board a 65%.
Initially the layout presented the board as a happy hacking keyboard, but strangely without
the split backspace which is generally considered part of the layout.
But before the touchpad was designated for arrow keys, thinking about the board from
a 65% perspective also didn’t really make any sense.
But after taking feedback from their reddit posts and changing the name, I think angry
miao’s idea of a board that isn’t a 65%, but manages to retain most of the functionality
of one while reducing the overall footprint, comes across well.
In the end, it was pretty much just a semantics issue, and not a big deal.
But with that covered, let’s take a closer look at the design of the board itself.
We have a pretty large top bezel, and even side and bottom bezels.
The top and bottom edges are slanted, which actually makes the board kinda hard to pick
up, and overall, the silhouette is very angular.
The bottom area is a separate piece, and it might be interesting to see later on if angry
miao would let buyers customize the color of this piece separate of the rest of the
case.
On the back is what seems like a wireless antenna, our recessed centered USBC port,
and some rather obnoxious engraved text above it, which is thankfully optional, and this
is also configurable with the custom edition.
Lastly on the bottom, we have a removable barcode for anticounterfeiting measures, and
angry miao’s proprietary wireless keyboard charging pad, which works with their wireless
charging deskmat.
Also a little not for sale printing.
The typing angle is quite steep versus something more flat like the QK65, which, if you mind,
is kinda a problem since a wrist rest can’t really be blocking the touch pad.
And also just a sidenote, it’s really hard to see, but the included keycaps are crazy
finger oil magnets, and were absolutely covered after just an hour or so of use.
And with our deep dive done, we can finally get to building this keyboard in my own config.
First off, we’ll open up the case, and disconnect the inner assembly, which involves
a lot of ribbon cables.
With the case open like this, we can see how complex the internals really are, and also
the internal brass weight, which is definitely contributing to the high price tag.
Next we’ll disassemble the inner assembly.
The keycap stems are pretty tight and seem to always come off with the switches as well.
The default config includes case foam, plate foam, and PE foam.
All I’m going to do here is remove the PE foam,
Remove the stabilizers, And retune them.
After breaking them open, I found that they actually have a small coat of 205g0 on the
wires.
I’ll just tune these like I usually do, And we can complete the inner assembly again.
I’m also going to keep the leaf spring config the same, as I was fine with it before.
Now we can reconnect all the ribbon cables, Close up the case,
And install GMK Dualshot 2.
Let’s take a listen.
So it does end up sounding kinda lame.
All my switches with this dustproof style stem do end up having this high pitched plasticky
sound, so I definitely think the switches are at fault here.
I’ll try different configs with other switches in the future, and judging by the volume and
lack of hollowness, I think finding the right switch will make all the difference.
Overall, I think this really isn’t a board for someone without a whole lot of custom
keyboard experience.
Working with the leaf springs and ribbon cables isn’t easy compared to the building process
of a lot of other boards, and the value definitely has yet to compete with the likes of boards
we’ve seen, like the QK series.
But when you’re paying this much for a keyboard, especially one of this size, the value is
primarily found in the novelty, which angry miao has definitely delivered upon.
Everything from the unboxing, to the wireless charging capability, to the customizable leaf
springs, to the star of the show, our touchpad arrow keys, is fresh and not something you’ll
easily find outside of angry miao boards, if at all.
And for that, while I would definitely like to see more fair pricing, the AM Compact Touch
is a truly innovative board that offers unique features, and ultimately, a unique experience.