The qk65 was a great board.
But it has its shortfalls.
Qwertykeys has taken it back to the drawing board, this time, with the idea of making
a 60%, a form factor that has been ever popular in the hobby.
But instead of recycling the design like I thought would happen, they’ve come up with
something almost entirely new.
This is the QK60.
It's the culmination of years of Owlab design expertise, and a vision for redefining the
budget keyboard space.
I don’t have final packaging yet, so everything is just in a cardboard box again.
On top is a coiled cable and a screwdriver.
Also included are owlstabs v2, which I am personally not a massive fan of.
Also our bottom feet and gasket socks.
Something new this time around are RGB diffusers if you have winkeyless or HHKB.
These go under the blockers and help add a little flair to the board, instead of just
seeing through to the PCB.
The rest of the parts are inside this carrying case.
First is our hot swap PCB, PE foam, and plate foam,
Pink aluminum plate and POM plate, And the board itself, with case foam inside.
I opted for a pink bottom case, acrylic top, and golden stainless steel bottom piece.
Let's take a look at some basic specs.
Everything is detailed in the notion page in the description.
The QK60 is a budget gasket mounted 60%.
It comes with the option between 3 hotswap PCBs, all with daughterboards.
There is pretty minimal layout support across these 3, so I kinda wish they would have spent
more time making a PCB that gives users some more options.
However, all 3 of these PCBs are compatible with the 3 top case layout options.
There’s HHKB, Winkeyless, and Winkey.
And additionally, while the QK60 isn’t compatible with QMK or VIA, Owlab has their own custom
software made to streamline the experience.
For plates we have FR4, POM, Polycarbonate, and Aluminum color matched to your bottom
aluminum piece.
And for colors, we have 2 different shades of acrylic, anodized black, and e-white for
the top case, e-white and a whole bunch of anodized colors for the bottom case, and ewhite,
black, gold, and chroma for the stainless steel bottom piece.
Finally, the whole kit including owlstabs will be between 138 and 155 dollars.
For our build, I’ve already got TX stabilizers installed, lubed with 205g0 and XHT-BDZ.
I’m going to add on our aluminum plate And install popus lubed with 205g0.
Popus and alu is usually a pretty nice and clacky combo.
The aluminum plate is a bit tight.
Next I’ll install our gasket socks, which are as easy as sliding them onto the ends
of the plate tabs.
Now that the inner assembly is done, I’ll open up our case
Connect the daughterboard cable And screw the case back in.
On top goes GMK Rainy Day.
ST1 - Popus alu Turns out I don’t really like the feel of
popus, at least my batch feels kinda sluggish and it certainly sounds dull and almost sticky.
I’m going to replace these with tofu switches.
These have slightly large housings, so combined with this tight plate, are really a pain to
put in.
Let’s see if it was worth it.
ST2 - Tofu alu
Definitely less dull but kinda sharp.
Lets swap out the alu plate for a pom plate and see if it helps.
ST3 - Tofu POM
It’s still really sharp but has more tone.
So this config is really similar to the Haven65, but it’s more plasticky and dead sounding.
Tofu switches are full nylon, so they are generally going to lean closer to the sound
signature of something like MX blacks.
Even though I did combine them with a POM plate which is known to be deeper, I think
they still need some plate foam to calm down the plasticky sound.
Gripes aside, the sound is definitely more full and alive than the QK65, which is much
appreciated.
Classic owlab fashion is a ton of flex.
Just like, you touch it and the PCB goes straight down.
But the second installment in the QK series is starting to prove that wrong.
Despite still being more flexible than the QK65 simply because of the roomier case, Qwertykeys
cut down on the flex cuts this time.
I assume this is to help make it sound better, because more cuts means more sound leakage.
This is a compromise I’m fine with, because the flex is definitely still there, just not
as present as I would expect to be in what’s technically an Owlab board.
Again, compared to the QK65, there is simply going to be more flex with your configs because
the QK65 has the stainless steel mid piece.
This was a strange design choice, and I’m glad it was removed because it probably wasn’t
doing wonders for the sound either.
The exterior design is more complex than the QK65, albeit still very simple.
I could rattle off lists of boards that have very similar looking side profiles and backs,
but hey.
It’s a budget board, and there's really not much to ask for.
Just like the QK65 we still have this stainless steel bottom piece, but this is no longer
visible from the back of the board.
This is not going to be embellished, unlike this prototype which has our logo laser etched.
Thanks qwertykeys.
Just like the QK65, the bottom feet are attached with rubber pins.
Although this time it’s unnecessary because the screws are accessed from the top instead
of under the feet.
You can actually see the pins from the inside, which shows just how thin this bottom case
actually is.
Some of the edges have this really really tiny fileting, and I wish this was larger
because it makes them feel sharp.
Small chamfers and filets also sometimes make boards look cheaper to me, and it definitely
applies in this case.
Overall, the QK60 has a much more standardized interior, one that looks like 99% of gasket
mounted boards now.
This acrylic piece fills in the battery hole if you have a wired PCB, and is really the
only branded thing in the whole board.
But the one thing that really caught my eye was actually the bottom front lip that reveals
the bottom case.
This isn’t something I haven’t seen implemented before, and especially stands out considering
almost no boards put design thought into this area.
Pretty neat.
And most importantly, material quality is actually really good this time around.
Everything looks great, even the internals, which I couldn’t say so about the QK65 with
the non coated inside of the bottom piece, and the very rough cast aluminum middle piece.
So really good job here.
The board is great.
It’s by no means perfect, but definitely a few steps up from the QK65.
Yet, there’s just one more thing that I find a little off putting about this board.
Although definitely more accessible than the QK65, it still isn’t permanently in stock.
Everybody can pre-order a board, but only within a limited time frame.
The whole point of the QK series was to create accessible boards for everyone, and yet this
one issue is kinda undermining that.
But hold on
a second.
[interview question 2]
Aiden brings up a really interesting point that I didn’t consider when first writing
this script: keeping the board updated.
And separated drops are the most realistic way of doing that.
The qk65 round 2 for example brought some new stuff to the table, like more bottom colors
and new layout support.
And the round 2 of QK60, whenever that happens, might also do similar things.
In the end, keeping the board in stock and doing limited drops benefit consumers in different
ways.
The former increases accessibility, while the latter increases overall quality.
To qwertykeys, and really any budget board, both of these things are really big concerns,
so after our discussion with Aiden, I’m actually glad that Qwertykeys is taking the
big picture into consideration and compromising on both of these in a way I didn’t see before.
So there’s no denying that the QK65 has been influential on the hobby.
[interview question 5]
When budget friendly quartz watches were created, it shook the watch industry.
Similar to the custom mechanical keyboard space, we are just recently seeing an onslaught
of high quality budget friendly keyboards.
But despite the influence of quartz watches, expensive mechanical watches are still doing
well.
The niche for
ultra premium ultra expensive boards will always be here, and it’s really interesting
seeing what designers can do when they’re not limited by a price point.
I think the reason the budget custom space has remained almost dormant is because of
just that.
But the newest addition to the QK budget keyboard line adds another great option to the handful
of budget customs out there, and helps make it just a bit easier to enter the custom mechanical
keyboard world.