Samples are in!
Complete Album Here:
https://imgur.com/a/cpIdFAluminum CaseCompared to the stuff I've seen in the past, the quality of the CNC case is pretty good. Tiny little nick from the CNC machine, but the scratches are there from being passed around to a million people. Nice sharp machining lines and clean threads. One of the second set of feet were machined a little hastily though (looks like they weren't secured down tight enough) and the finish was pretty rough but that's something that I'll make sure to note when this goes into production.
The raw cnc texture on the case is pretty awesome. Sorta like a pearlescent finish that becomes a rainbow in bright daylight. The finish seems to be a little more scratch prone than the traditional anodization, but not by much. It is somewhat of a fingerprint magnet though being a semi-mirror finish.
A little change has to be made to the USB port though since it's too narrow. I'll probably go ahead and widen the whole opening instead to stepping it since it looks a little cleaner.
Bent Steel Plate, Steel Case, Steel PlateThese are done by the same factory as that of the XD60 and XD84. Same solid quality. The issue with flex on the bent plate that I had feared earlier isn't there since the front edge of the plate was brought a lot lower than with the 60 and 75 percent keyboards. Acrylic diffuser is a hair narrower than the last and makes fitting it a million times easier. The USB slot is now a rounded cutout instead of the square.
The designer also did an integrated plate/case with this one. I wasn't expecting much but the build is really nice and solid. The surfaces around the sides are layered over twice and it weighs a little less than the aluminum case and plate.
PCBThis is the first revision of the PCB without the SP ALPS ISO enter. Quality wise, everything looks good and all of the layouts look to be there. I'll need to double check 7u and 6u spacebar layouts again though.
Summary
Green light on quality and design. I'll build another updated interest check on price and other technicalities this week when I get a second round of price estimates from the vendor.