E-White KBD8x Mkii mini-reviewSo like many people I was excited about the KBD8x Mkii board, especially with the newly offered e-white finish.
So I joined the group buy and proceeded to wait. And wait. Annnnd wait some more.
Then finally it arrived (the GB had delays, not by much) - to which I started my unboxing. (
Video Here)
It started out with some pretty decent packaging (KBDfans has generally pretty good packaging/protection for their boards, so there were no surprises here)
They included bumpons and some of their stabilizers as well...
And now for some glamour shots:
And now for the flaws:
And now with the plate and silencing pad installed:
Overall -- it's an okay board. There are a lot of finish flaws over the board and in the brass, so the QC was not the best here.
This would be considered b-stock in any other group buy, but I guess this is considered acceptable to KBDfans.
Another thing that sucks is they forgot to include the o-rings with my silencing kit, so I'll have to reach out to them to get them to ship replacements that I'm sure will take 8 weeks to get to me, but that's life.
The board has some serious heft to it, and the brass has an interesting finish - it's very matte and doesn't pick up fingerprints very well.
The machining is crisp and overall very well done, there are some mild machine marks on the inside of the case, but once you have your board assembled, you'll never see it.
The e-white finish feels hard, so I hope it will be durable, even though the finish is very uneven in thickness in a lot of spots.
The fit of the case and the parts is very good, fairly tight tolerances, and the included screws are fairly good quality.
The plate is smooth, clean, well cut, and seems to have the clearance for the stabilizer wires which is nice. And it's plenty thick and rigid, which is also nice.
The PCB is thick, well constructed, the pads look good, there isn't any excess flux (ok by the USB-C connector there is but that's fine), my Windows 10 machine saw it right away and it all works.
The silencing pad is the described 3mm, and fits relatively well to the PCB. (Could have been a little better, but it's fine overall) - will do sound comparison once I build the board.
The color of the e-white is also very neutral thankfully and will look nice with various keycap sets (hopefully once Kuro/Shiro ships I'll be able to do a white on white comparison)
Am I happy with the board? 70-80%. For the money I was expecting a better finish to the exterior.
I've bought a lot of boards from them in the past with zero finish flaws (2xKBD75's, 1xKBD75r2, 2xTofus, 1xTada68 case) so I don't know what they were thinking.
I'm kind of bummed, but at the same time I really don't want to have to wait to send this back and get another replacement (if they'd even offer it).
Is the KBD8x Mkii in e-white worth the $300+? If you can accept some flaws, then sure. If you want a flawless board, maybe pick something else.
*Edit: I've since reached out to KBDfans to see what can be done. After talking to other recipients of the e-white board, theirs were in a lot better shape (theirs had only a couple electrode marks)
UPDATE: After some back and forth, KBDFans has agreed to send me a replacement bottom half of the case (since it had the most flaws), as well as the o-rings for the silencing kit.
I still would have preferred a new board, but I decided to accept this offer. Stay tuned for it to arrive.
