This is a review of my brand new
HPE87.
Bare in mind that I'm no expert, not very familiar with different technologies and terms yet, but perhaps this will be of some use for someone that is even remotely interested in this keyboard. I made the photos with my SGS3 and didn't try too much, sorry for the bad lightning and off focus. I am not a native english speaker so there will be some mistakes, if they bother you feel free to point them out. The post reflects my subjective opinion.
As far as I gathered
HPE is a Chinese manufacturer who makes keyboards that are, according to various sources, pretty much like chinese version of Filco keyboards.
This keyboard is available in white or black, with blue, brown, black and red cherry MX switches. I bought the white version with brown switches.
I got it from Qtan who was helpful and very good in communication by the way. The keyboard cost 67$, shipping was 22$ to Hungary (that's Europe for you who mix up Chechnya with Czech Republic
).
FedEx brought it to my workplace.
The packaging is kind of thin though, would have preferred a triple bubble layer but I guess this is what cheap shipping means, 22$ is very good price for this kind of item shipping...
Not too bad of a logo for a keyboard that is cheap considering what it is supposed to do.
I suppose customs people were really curious what is inside this big package considering the label said 25$. They must have been satisfied with what they seen since they didn't contact me to present invoices and pay for import (under 30 euro or so we don't have to).
And here it was!
The case looks OK, no cheap feeling to it.
Most importantly: it was straight. I hate boards that aren't and you need to try bending them back, or put something under one of the feet. It doesn't really bend either, very solid feeling. I like it.
I don't know what kind of key caps these are and what kind of printing technology it is (feel free to point it out), I feel the printing on the keys a little. Especially on the keys that have 2 signs on them, the upper one feels more textured, interesting.
Didn't weight it but feels of decent weight, similar to my QFR.
In-built cable which I actually prefer, it's just a normal cable, not too thin, some standard length (maybe 1.5m).
Caps and scroll lock LEDs are blue, a bit too bright, the round hole they are sunk in (that correct?) looks kind of lame.
Update from
cyberwave:
there is a blue led under F12 which lights up when u press Fn + F12 (deactivate windows key)
This is the bottom.. looks pretty standard I guess.
The rubber feet are pretty stable, surely the weight helps too, but it doesn't budge a micron when I type on it on my office desk (bit slippery kind).
The adjustable feet are quite snappy, even more than on my QFR, very solid, no weird looseness or anything.
Case back looks OK too from quality perspective.
I think I am like a kid sometimes, I like freebies! And the switches indeed look as expected, no surprises there.
At home after some 15 minutes struggling with the case I took a look inside. Especially because I did not find too much information about this keyboard and the other HPE review here doesn't show it (and that looks like a different keyboard anyway).
I don't know anything about electronics either, but the PCB looked pretty neat and tidy.
Update from
cyberwave:
the PCB is dual layer. with SMDs on the front side(PCB which is under the plate)
Some more shots.
Overall typing feeling is probably subjective since I never tried any other mx brown keyboard. Firs time it felt similar to some rubber domes. It is a bit different now already, but I don't yet understand how can one type on this without bottoming out. The bump is very, very small compared to the blue switches in my QFR (I am also a heavy typer, way too much for blues too but I incidentally like the feeling of blues a lot).
To whoever doesn't know brown switches: there is a little resistance, then a bump very near to top, then resistance is suddenly less but seems to increase a little as I press down and at the bottom gets quite strong, so jumps back quite forcefully. The keys feel a little 'sticky' (friction) compared to blues which seem like similar weight (maybe even a little more) but no friction like on browns, instead very crisp feeling.
Before purchasing a mechanical keyboard I heard they are very loud, well this doesn't really seem any louder than rubber dome keyboards if you tend to bottom out which most people do. It's the switch of choice if you need to type among normal people that aren't very tolerant.
The printing on the keys looks so-so, wouldn't call it very good quality. The keys themselves are, I think, a little bit more textured than on my QFR. Maybe because of this, they feel a little rubber-ish which I don't like so much (maybe not the right word, I am trying to describe it somehow). I think if I will ever come to use this keyboard a lot, I should definitely invest in some quality key caps, I read people saying it's pretty much standard like Filco.
Bottom line, let's see
my personal verdicts:
Pros:- cheap, considering it's a well built cherry MX keyboard. Adds to cheapness that it can be bought from Qtan which is half shipping price to Europe than US stores.
- keyboard feels well built, straight (!
)
- good, stable, not wobbly feet
- keys are very stable, not wobbly, quality feel to that
- key weighting seems very even (probably Cherry's merit, still)
- Caps has no in built led so I can later use a simple blank one
(so I can switch its function with backspace)
- more silent than I would have thought
- built-in cable (if you're OK with the cable I consider it a good thing, don't have to be careful with usb port)
Cons:- The feel of the key caps is just not to my liking, this may be subjective I don't know. I like a bit shinier feel.
- I like the more crisp feeling than this friction thingy which is most probably coming from switch type, not from HPE, can't tell.
- built-in cable (if you hate the cable you're kind of stuck with it.. or if you switch keyboards a lot it can be a disadvantage if they don't all have detachable cable)
- LEDs are a bit too bright and don't really look good aesthetically
- For me - in case of a problem warranty is near useless as with any item bought from abroad because of international shipping fees (OK I broke the seal anyway
) - this is pretty much same for me for every decent keyboard.
Finally:I bought this keyboard for two reasons: to experiment, and to have a less noisy keyboard for work.
I do not regret a thing, I've yet to see if I will get used to typing on it or not, but the experiment was worth it (can always sell it with not too great loss).
A keyboard that feels really solid and I basically have no quality objections to it excepting the key caps which I might change to something better. I read about a lot of keyboards on this site, and I think that realistically a keyboard this good for 89$ can be considered a very good deal for Europeans. OK, Qtan put 25$ on the shipping label which would have sucked if they lose it, but it also meant I did not have to pay our 27% VAT (just calculate, it's a lot). As a comparison I got my QFR for 130$ for which I payed more shipping and the VAT, too.
If anyone from Hungary would want a keyboard with blues or browns I can now honestly recommend the HPE87 as one of cheapest good option (afaik we only have red and black switches here locally - closest alternative would be to eBay a cherry keyboard from Germany, and from what I heard they aren't built so well).
