[Note to admins: Feel free to move this post to the Keyboards section if you think it's more appropriate there]
Such a deal, this solid and
cheap little keeb (LOL, I said "keeb").
They're warehoused in the U.S., so no waiting for shipping from China, as is often the case:
Don't ask me why they decided to call it a "Turbot". They probably had "Turbo" in mind, or something that'd sound like it—but as you may know, a
turbot is actually a popular food fish.
At least this board doesn't actually say "Turbot"; it just has a "T" logo. Officially, it's called a:
No, "water-resistant" doesn't mean you can take it swimming; as
the board's Amazon page explains:
Three holes at the bottom of Turbot mechanical keyboards are designed for drainage (Water-resistant with drain holes)
It's made by a company called Easterntimes Tech:
Their English website is quite ambitious, with cool photos of the many things they're working on. The English text is obviously a work in progress, though, e.g.:
"Understand That We Start From Here"—that's the company's English motto. Hmm, catchy.
One neat thing they're making is a board where the whole surface is lighted; they call it
The Big Show:
Back to the board at hand, though. It was well-packed, using the U-pad method that also makes it easy to re-store securely:
The manual explains the embedded media keys, and how to lock out the Win key. One line particularly caught my attention:
(They can't get just
one native English speaker to give these things a quick look? Oh well, have to keep costs down, I guess...)
The cable isn't braided, but it's sturdy and well attached, and a key-puller is included:
The laser-etched legends aren't the crispest I've seen, but they'll certainly do.
My cheap phone-cam made the keys look much shinier than they actually were. There's a bit of shine, but they're not actually slick; they have a slight matte finish.
As long as we're here... If you want to keep
any keys feeling and looking good as long as possible, I recommend these two habits:
1. Wash your hands before you type (it's just decent, anyway.)
2. Gently wipe your keys with a damp tissue every few days.
Grime and skin oil, not friction, are what wear keys IMHO. I have boards with pad-printed keys—not nearly as durable as these—that still look great after years of use. 'Nuff said.
The small blue lock-light LEDs are fine, not overly bright (that's just lens flare):
The manual says "Made of metal panel, with matte-finish texture..." That refers to the
top of the case. The rest is plastic---but quite sturdy, and textured the same overall:
Outemu blue switches (mounted upside-down, is that normal?) and thin (but solid enough feeling, to me) caps:
If you like clicky, clacky boards, you'll like this one. It's loud---we're talking, like, Model-M loud.
That is, except the stabilized keys (Backspate, Enter, both Shifts, and of course spacebar). They're so well stabilized, they're dramatically quieter than the rest, making a polite little
tick tick compared to the other keys's assertive
CLACK CLACK.
You can hear the contrast in
this audio demo when I hit some stab-ed keys around 0:03. This contrast may bug you, or not. I'm a musician, so I don't mind the aural variety. And if someone's around who doesn't like clickety typing, you get to include some irony:
CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK [tick tick, ha ha] CLACK CLACK CLACK...
If you're not into sonic mayhem, this board's a good candidate for O-rings. (I'll probably add some just for the slight speed increase you can get from the reduced travel length.)
The profile's, um, a profile:
So how does it feel? Great! The caps feel solid, and the board's weight and generous rubber feet keep it firmly in place. The F/J position markers are thin and at the very bottoms their keys, so you needn't feel them all the time if you don't want to---something I always appreciate.
As I type, Amazon's price of $30.99 still includes free shipping. And if
xmagusx's discount code still works, it knocks off a few more bucks. For that kind of pocket change, this board's a winner, IMHO.
