I recently purchased a Keycool 87 keyboard with help from imsto. I ordered the white Keycool 87, with MX Blacks, and PBT keycaps. I ordered the non-backlit version, as I don't plan to use this keyboard at night, and backlighting is extraneous for my needs. I received the keyboard yesterday, and here are my impressions so far.
UNBOXINGThe Keycool comes packaged nicely, inside a full color printed cardboard box. Opening the box reveals that the Keycool is covered by a cloth bag, and is protected from shipping damage by foam inserts. Removing the Keycool from its cloth storage bag, we find the keyboard inside, wrapped in plastic. Under the cardboard spacers in the front of the box, we find some nice extras are included. A white (matches the case color) USB mini B cable, with a Keycool branded cable tie; a small baggie with some colored PBT keycaps for WASD, Esc, and cursor arrows. Another baggie includes a red plastic scratch-tastic keypuller, some Costar stabilizers, and stabilizer inserts (black!).
INITIAL VISUAL IMPRESSIONThe keyboard is white. White! Like, BRIGHT white.
The PBT keycaps are also the same pure white color. The legends on the keycaps appear to be lasered, and they appear as a nice dark grey on the white PBT. There are LED windows on the Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, and Winkey Lock (F12) keycaps. The spacebar has the Keycool brand lasered on the front. F-keys have secondary legends of hotkeys/media keys. Where the right Win key would be, there is instead a Fn key, for using the hotkeys/media keys. The font for the legend appears to be Arial-esque, and is nice and clean. The legends on the modifiers appear to be slightly larger than on the alphas. This may just be an illusion, but they appear very bold. The red Esc, the lavender WASD cluster keys, and the blue cursor arrows use a different font for the legends, which is thinner than the stock keycap legend font, and also italic.
The spacebar uses standard switch/stabilizer mounting positions, and the stock spacebar is made of PBT, just like the rest of the keycaps. The spacebar is very slightly warped, as is common with PBT spacebars. Some heat and light pressure will straighten it out. There are also cutouts in the plate (and matching mounts on the spacebar) for using Costar stabilizers in the
Leopold FC200R spacebar mounting positions, so you could move the stabilizers inward and use the spacebar from a Leopold, if you desired to do that for some reason. You would need to bend your own custom length Costar stabilizer wire for that, though.
The bottom of the keyboard has rubber feet, and although they are thin, they make the keyboard very stable on the desk. The keyboard also includes plastic folding feet to raise the angle, and even these have rubber on the bottom. There is also a bevel along the bottom front with rubber feet on it, which matches the higher angle, to keep the keyboard stable with the folding feet extended.
The edges of the keyboard are somewhat rounded, with an angled bevel around the entire edge. The front edge is also at a slight angle. The appearance is clean, very similar to a Leopold. The white is bright white, not beige or off-white. The case is very tight, and well put together. It is held with 3 screws, and snap-in tabs around the sides.
USING THE KEYCOOL 87The MX Black switches are plate mounted, on a white painted metal plate. They feel just as they should. The typing experience is no different to me from any other plate mounted keyboard with MX Blacks. It feels similar in most respects to a Filco or a QFR. The Costar stabilizers on the modifiers feel right, again just like a Filco or QFR.
The PBT keycaps have that texture that you expect from PBT. The windowed keys have green LEDs under them, switch mounted, which are plenty bright for my well-lit office. The hotkeys and media keys work as they should, when pressed with Fn+the corresponding F-key. Pressing Fn+F12 enables the "Winkey lock," which disables the Win key so you cannot accidentally press it while gaming.
Overall, the Keycool appears to be a quality built keyboard. It's not the cheapest, nor the most expensive. For someone looking for a nice mid-range keyboard at around $100, I would definitely recommend the Keycool 87. If you want a bright white keyboard, with MX switches and Costar stabilizers, and stock PBT keycaps, the Keycool is a solid choice.
