Well, my first little review so be patient with me. I ll update this review step by step.
Sections are
Introduction
1 Unpacking and first impression
2 Weight
4 Inner Quality
4.1 How to open
4.2 Material
4.3 Soldering plate
4.4 Some sizing details
4.5 Overall Quality
5 Keycaps
5.1 Lettering
6 Negative stuff
7 Resume
Introduction
Ok, I didnt found any statisfying reviews on this - have had a lot of filcos and the das tested already but wasnt statisfied at all, then the noppo choc jumped in, with noppo's agressive advertisement on the box and i thought give it a chance, because of this choc mini superb review you all know about / if not > read it here --->
Noppo Choc Mini ReviewSo, here we are...
1 Unpacking and first impressions
Well the box went throught hell but the keyboard iststill fine. it was good packed and this keyboard is really good and solid manufactured
my first impression was << wow, its heavy and really solid made >> far more solid than a das, ducky or even a mx 1800.. feels like a crossing between an vG6 Meka G1 and Filco - its quiet thick like a vG6 but feels solid as a Filco and both havent POMS <> the Noppo Pro has.
the first impression was.
no sharp edges, every piece is well made, no plastic or broken pieces around. its quiet a piece of a solid keyboard.
the chasisplastic feels for the first time like metal and because of the rly thick material. i wasnt dissapointed. all about it went better than expected :), ok lets see whats the weight of this baby.
2 Weight
i thought well, this thing is heavy lets see whats its weight and lets compare it to some different and older keyboards from cherry. i was really suprised :-)
its rly heavy for its size. so lets see whats in it :)
4 inner quality
4.1 how to open[/COLOR][/B]
well this board is quiet hard to open. if you dont know how (for the first time) 3 thumbscrews and 4 clips are holding this baby toghter. there are spaces to let you push the clips out from between the inner edge and the buttons but you could harm the caps, the switches and it was quiet difficult to find the right spot so i used some nail fail or creditcard and it went better to open the chasis.
the 4 clips arent easy to open with bare hands and you should have patience and a thin piece of metal or plastic less than 1mm.
4.2 material
well as you see on this pictures its solid plastic. i havent found any information about the material inside only ''enhanced keyboard" :-)
it seems for me as PBT between 1mm and 2mm the inner edges are 1mm the outer and chasis is near 2mm. no sharp edges at all. because of the edges around its more stable.
feet are pure rubber. no chemical smell at all from this keyboard. the switches are mounted on a 2mm thick metal plate and further soldered to the plate below it. thats why its so heavy.
metal plate on soldering plate + thick plastic = stable solid piece of keyboard.
they havent saved in plastic and metal on the pro and because of that it feels so good.
4.3 soldering plateok, lets take a more detailed look at the soldering plate and connection between switches metal plate and soldering plate
As you see on the pictures. the switches are on this metal plate wich is laying on the soldering plate the all switches are clean soldered. the metal plate is additional grounded and the metal plate is well made too. all switches are solde. no mess or dirty work in it.
the little chipset is for our usb n key rollover. it works with ps/2 and USB aswell. you can push all buttons you want capslock + shift +shift + i pressed all buttons down.. was fun to try pushing all down :) they have done a great job on this tiny thing.
4.4 Some sizing detail
the rubberfeet are indeed very high.
the top plate has 1cm edges around the whole keypads even between the F-buttons , so its not only a fancy plate, all edges laying on the metal plate so its more stable, than on an cherry for example, and there are no holes between the keypads every separation line/border between the F-buttons, the arrowbuttons and the keypad is going down to the metal plate, so pressing on the plastic between the numpad and f-buttons or somewhere else isnt deforming the top plate. the whole keyboard feels like a solid rock.
4.4 Overall qualitylthe overall quality of this keyboard is for this price outstanding - no empty spaces, sharp edges or deformed or nonfitting pieces. plate fits perfect into the chasis. but pictures are speaking a more accurate language.
very precise manufacturing.
5 Keycaps
so far so good, the most importang thing we re using at a keyboard are keycaps and noppo said we ve poms.. lets see...
dont take it serious with g15 and pbt caps :P
The Noppo Choc Pro POM Keycaps are well made and dont need to hide behind POM's from Cherry they re thick and good manufactured. they feel great and its fun to type on them. they are absorbing a lot of noise, if i would bottom them out in comparsion to doubleshots or PBTs
The Spacebar is POM too! The most doubleshot keyboards and pom keyboards have ordinary spacebars, this one is POM like the buttons! great
5.1 Lettering
lettering is something i cant say right now and how the keys will wear off, if they wear off easily. i am using this keyboard sinsce last week, and after writing, gaming and using it heavily nothing happened so far, but the time will show.
6 Negative stuffNobody s perfect but for this price its a perfect keyboard in my opinion, but we should face some negative aspects i realised and maybe they should be improved. without my cam i wouldnt realise this but lets face it:
This:
but its something i only realised because of making pictures, and its only at this spot some plastic was missing
This:
the ''enter'' r isnt perfect has a scratch okokok... if you havent makroseeing eyes forger about it, because from sitting in front of this keyboard you wouldnt realise that without a makro picture
This:
haven't found more :-) but maybe for reconsideration
- maybe the rubber-feet will fell off in some years.
- no usb hub
- not illuminated letters
- lettering isnt 100% Perfect but 99.9999% (differs from model to model and cam to eye)
Résumé
All in all, a fantastic well manufactured piece of keyboard, solid like a rock, no ''bing boings or spring noises'' its like a bar of true power.
Writing is very comfortable, the browns are very smooth and the POM keycaps are just something i missed at a filco
the price is the next argument for buying this one.
eventually one of the bigger shift-buttons or the enter button could snare if they re lightly touched but even the filco makes this sound.
the spacebar is cool like on a mx11900 or 1800. Pressing it left or right does not tend the spacebar - it goes down properly straight -
No Edges or some deformed spaces its precise manufactured.
If you want save money and buy something good this is it for sure. The closest thing to a filco in my opinion with far better keycaps!
ProSOLID LIKE AN AWESOME ROCK!!!
WELL MANUFACTURED
VERY GOOD KEYCAPS
PRICECons
EVENTUALLY SOME little tiny winy something somewhere
LETTERING isnt 100% but 99.9999%
MAYBE a BIG BUTTON SNARING somewhere
Additional Info - buying information > price was 74 € ~ ca 104$ + shipping
This Keyboard was bought from qtan5370 at ebay. Superfast and secure delivery methods, variaty of different shipping ways, does not cheat on shipping.
Very good communication with him. Would buy everytime again from hin and recommend him 100%... if you need special something, he will do. Hes nice and his prices, too.
http://stores.ebay.de/esportsgamingequipmentsTHX SO FAR^^
maybe you could help me with finding grammatical errors, or some bette spelling. (i am no native english speaking person) i appreciate any help in that case to improve this article.
Kind Regards
UPDATE: After one year of heavy use!!! review 24.07.2011 --> update 08.12.2012Hi Folks, page went down, all good reviews gone, but this one was saved to the archives, i ve filled it with pictures and hope this review is back again will searching google :)
I used this opportunity to add some new pictures afte one year of heavy usage. i used this keyboard for tons of textwriting, gaming i even carried it to work every day and back.
W A S D and little of SPACEBAR got shiny but rly after one heavy year of eating chips, raging while loosing, dorping it on the floor and different kinds of food nothing happend at all.
this keyboard looks nearly unchanged. lettering has worn a bit off but you can still feel the letters like on the first day.
here are some pictures. buttons are feeling great after one year, noppo choc is real a great keyboard. some thicker than a filco but real same looking keyboard, the POM keykaps are godlike to me, this little snaring was gone after some months of using this keyboard.
if you want to buy a real good keyboard with mx browns stick with this. i ve tried the DAS and Filco i ve collected tons of cherries and ibm keybords and this keyoard has beaten them in my opinion, because of the POM Keycaps (they are thicker than cherry poms), this real rocksolid build and this superb pricing! for 100$ or 75€ you will get an excellent mechanical keyboard nearly undestroyable. i ll buy a mini with poms too, after one year of heavy use
filco or noppo mechanical. nothin else! (íf you want rubberdome spring - go for topre)
