Hey there I've just received my KBT Pure Red MX today and have been trying it out. Think it would be a good idea to share my first impression with this from a newbie perspective. In short, get it if most of the time you are typing documents (will explain more in the following).
IntroductionI'm a grad student with Computer Science background so writing/coding has been my daily routine. I use both Windows and Mac and mostly on laptops. Just recently I was really inspired by the Qwerty-writer project in KickStarter. It looked really nice and one of the selling points was it used a mechanical keyboard. The only knowledge I had about mechanical keyboards is from a friend who owns one, but I myself have never tried one -- all I knew was it used switches and was very nice to type on.
Knowing KickStarter might not be the best place to get what you see, and on time, I thought I might make one for myself. Plus that Qwerty-writer has the nice extra stand for tablets that I don't need. Hence the journey of looking for a good mechanical keyboard as the base. It happened that the CM QFR Brown MX was on clearance so I got one for a good price. It feels great to type (Brown's tactile feedback is great) and is very functional as the tenkeyless layout is compact yet having dedicated arrow keys. The stock USB cable is also good. Overall a nicely made keyboard especially for a person who has no experience using mechanical keyboard.
But then I started to realize I like a more minimalistic look keyboard, and it turned out there were only a handful of options. Also, I made it very clear to myself that I need arrow keys on the right because of my daily writing task. This limited me down to Poker X, Pure, GH60, and V60. Then I also realized they are also hard to find because some were out of production and some could only come from group-buys or very connected channels.
But with some help of the forum members I finally got my hands on this Pure with Red MX. I didn't really have a choice of which switch as this was the only one available. But I've read some comments saying Red is also good for typing and some even prefer it over Brown's. And so my hopes were high.
First ImpressionFirst off, it's tiny! Yet all the keys are of regular size, which is great as my fingers are used to this between-key distance. It's also very light as most of the components are plastic.
Now for the typing experience. Like I said I was comparing with my CM QFR Brown so the lack of tactile bump was quite obvious. I kind of miss that slight-click sound, but typing on Red has a really awesome choppy feeling. It's like you have a very sharp knife cutting into a fresh apple, or potato, all the way through. I'm not sure, however, why the spacebar is harder to press, perhaps it has a different switch, or it doesn't seem to have the wire installed between the stablizers... this I'll have to investigate more.
The lack of dedicated arrow keys soon became apparent to me, which was expected and was the reason why I didn't consider the readily available Poker II. I thought I'd immediately toggle the mode (SW0) that makes the lower right keys arrow keys, but I found out I started using the default Fn+okl;, which I still appreciated because I'm used to using my right hand to navigate. I stayed away from Pure Pro simply because I didn't want backlight with semi-transparent keycaps, and I wanted a longer spacebar -- just personal preference.
Using it on a Mac requires a bit of modifier key remapping. This might be also be possible by flipping a switch underneath, but I was too lazy to do that...
The case of this keyboard has no adjustable legs, meaning that it only has one angle. It's still comfortable to type on, but I personally prefer and steep angle.
I'm not very sure about the non-Plate-mounted design because it's likely that I'll drop something into the gap, but the plus side is if I ever want to open the switches it's much easier -- so I told myself. Guess I'll just clean my keyboard more often.
Future PlansI like this keyboard very much and would probably be switching between the CM QFR from time to time. But I sure won't forget what inspired me in the beginning. To begin with I really like the low profile of some of the CNC cases. And recently Massdrop has a case for sale, so it would be my next upgrade. Then I'm planning on sourcing some type-writer keys and experiment with the look. I might end up getting some keycaps of unique color to brighten things up, probably a 3-tone design.
Though this keyboard is designed in a way that further modding is possible, e.g, swapping switches, adding LEDs, mounting a plate, I guess I'll already have lots of fun by changing its appearance for now.
There is so much to do, just so little money
Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to reply to this post. I'd also like to thank some of the members here helping me to decide and finding the right keyboard. This is a great and helpful community!
Happy Typing!!
-victor 20140721
