Author Topic: Epomaker NIZ Plum 84  (Read 5161 times)

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Offline danwomansan

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Epomaker NIZ Plum 84
« on: Sun, 25 April 2021, 22:23:05 »
my first post on this forum in a long time, to review the keyboard I got a couple days ago, this should already tell you a bit about the keyboard ;)

So this is my first EC keyboard, bought from Epomaker and shipped through amazon for a total of $170 Canadian Dollars. I bought this keyboard because it represented a very nice price point for the *legendary* EC typing feel, looked rather nice, and had a layout I really liked. In this review I will cover impressions so far about typing feel, desk feel, features I've noticed so far, sound, and inclusions in the box.

so for type feel: you already know what it feels like if you've ever typed on EC before. extremely light keypress without sticking, "just enough" style tactility for fast typing with delicate fingers, and mid-ground smooth without lubing. altogether there's nothing wrong with the feel and everything it's good for, it's very good for. I'm usually a heavy tactility person so at first this didn't wow, until I started typing very fast for very long periods on it. no finger fatigue, no pulling, tactility just at the right spot. mmmm. a world of long-term comfort that is only rivalled (yet not beaten) by my lubed, muffled gat yellows board that recently got stolen. yes, I feel this beats a lubed gat yellow, but only because of my preference for having some tactility. a linear-lover would've loved my gat yellows board more than this one.

desk feel: compact and unmoving. the latter is an issue for me as I have neuro issues causing idle motor restlessness, meaning I'm all over the place, and I like moving the keyboard with me so that it's always at a comfortable angle. however, if you're a still-sitter or have a gliding deskpad, this is no issue (most people buying these obscure keyboards do). the cable management is good though could be slightly improved, but no complaints. the keyboard is also very heavy for its size, whether that's a plus is a personal thing. oh, and also the right shift is actually well-sized! so rare for this size of keyboard.

features I've noticed, capslock has an underglow light (YESSSSS ive wanted a keyboard with this forever), fakemouse movement is done with the left hand in a very comfortable positioning, the keyboard has plenty of lock buttons and reprogrammability, and I like the layout of the fn layer and position of delete.

box: it comes with stiffening springs in the box! you just pluck a cap off and place the spring on the dome housing then put the cap back on, very nice addition. also included is mac caps, for if you're using the keyboard on a mac in mac mode, and a keycap puller.

overall opinion here, a very nice keyboard at its price, with some very personal annoyances that don't really matter or are upsides for most people who will buy one.

oh and the sound... it's hard to capture in a recording without having a "baseline" everyone's heard before without compression for comparison. I could pull out a crappy rubberdome and compare the volume levels and sound, but I'll refrain from doing so and just describe this: the deep thud of topre and other good EC you're used to hearing in the comparisons, but if you've never heard it in real life, it's extremely quiet. most keyboards I've used, including so-called "silent rubberdomes" can be heard from outside of my small office if I'm typing fast. this one can't. ambient noise in the house outside of my office is too loud to heard this over it. if I open the window and there's a slight breeze all i need to not hear this keyboard is to put on my (open-back) headphones. it's dead silent.

EDIT: remove swearing

EDIT 2: remember to place edit messages
it's pronounced "danw omansen", not "dan woman san"

Offline gh_pp

  • Posts: 199
Re: Epomaker NIZ Plum 84
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 15 May 2021, 23:01:51 »
I too, am a topre lover, and yet I sold all my realforce TKLs because QMK spoiled me.

Dip switches are so 80's, and realforce only allows swapping caplock & ctrl is just not cutting for me now I've gotten used to QMK's power.

Does the Plum allows arbitrary key assignment like swapping \| and backspace, remap the useless printscr, pause, scroll lock key to mute, vol up/down etc?

Any other useful customization exposed by their software? (like one-shot modifier, etc)

The 4 brands under EPOmaker marketing (Skyloong, Niz, AKKO, AJAZZ) all have very powerful microprocessors (32 bit ARM) for fancy led controls, yet they would not port their board to run QMK because it's not main stream, what a waste (as a lot of expensive custom keyboards still use low powered AVR MCUs)

If the plum line (topre clone) supports the split spacebar module (like the Skyloong GK series) I would have bought 2 TKLs for work.
It's so much more comfortable than MX clones IMO.

 
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