My new Keycool 84 white keyboard with Cherry blue switches and white PBT keycaps arrived this afternoon. I got a very favorable price from Qtan on GH. It was amazing tracking the rapid journey of the package through Asia and the US. I am surprised it got here so quickly.
The keyboard looks somewhat better than I had expected given its low price and the fact that it seems not to have garnered as much attention as a serious keyboard on the forums as some other keyboards have. Although I am not all that keen on its "wall of keys" appearance, I think that this might be improved by changing the keycaps, perhaps with a two-tone scheme. However, the stock keycaps are laser-etched PBT that look reasonably good and that have a a pleasant dry velvety feel akin to slightly roughened stone, such as pumice.
The typing feel and sound are good. Key presses are even across the board, and on bottoming out make a satisfying "thock" sound. It appears that the stabilizers are Costar, which makes it somewhat harder to change keycaps on the large keys, but it provides a better keystroke and bottoming-out sound and feel than one tends to get with Cherry or Leopold stabilizers.
The keyboard measures 12.5 inches wide by 5 inches tall. This is is only 1x-key wider and a row taller than a Poker II, which measures about 11.5 inches wide by 4 inches tall. Within its small area, the Keycool 84 includes a normal layout of alpha keys along with dedicated arrow keys, F-keys, and all the remaining keys in the center island navigation cluster of a full-size keyboard. It accommodates all this plus a standard spacebar by reducing the size of the right-side modifiers to 1x each, using a 1.75x right-shift key, and eliminating the separation of the F-keys and navigation island into separate zones as found on standard TKL or full-size keyboards. The layout of the F-key row is a bit strange, as it is aligned with the number-key row, and the height of the F-keys looks too low. However, after using the keyboard for a while, I became somewhat accustomed to the odd look of the F-key row. Again, the appearance of the key layout might be remedied by the judicious use of contrasting colors and adding some space to provide demarcation of functional zones.
Subjectively, the Keycool 84 feels lighter than the smaller Poker II, but the switches are plate mounted and the board feels solid. Objectively, I found that the Keycool 84 weighs 641 grams -- more than the 584 grams of the smaller Poker II. The Keycool sits firmly on the desk with no wobble with or without the rear legs extended. The legs have rubberized tips and so the board does not slip. The keyboard comes with a detachable matching white USB cable that inserts and detaches easily from the recessed connector on the keyboard. Cable routing channels are provided so that that the cable can exit from the center-, left-, or right-rear side of the keyboard.
My typing speed and accuracy on the Keycool 84 are on par with my results using my IBM SSK and CM QF Stealth keyboards. I have had no trouble at all with the short 1.75x right-shift key, but occasionally I hit the End key instead of the Up-Arrow key. I expect that I might adjust to this minor orienting detail after a bit of practice. However, this kind of typing error highlights the fact that the navigation island and F-row on traditional keyboards are separated spatially and sometimes by color from the main typing area to help orient the typist and prevent accidental striking of F-keys or cursor keys.
I am primarily a Mac user, and the Keycool 84 appears to work well with the Mac, including media controls. The only things that seems not to work with the Mac is the embedded numeric keypad; however, this works just fine under Windows 7 and Linux.
Overall, I am reasonably pleased with the Keycool 84, much more so than I had expected; the keyboard was a pleasant surprise. I would rate it as good, especially considering the relatively low price that is available by ordering via Qtan. To my mind, the keyboard could be improved by removing the top row of F-keys and putting these into the Fn layer. Delete could be Fn+Backspace and Insert could be Fn+I. The keyboard would then be only 1x-key wider than the Poker II and it would have filled in the space above the Right-Arrow key that is empty on the current versions of the Leopold FC660M and FC660C. This trimmed-down Keycool could then be a real winner.
