Well, I finally picked up my Exent yesterday and I bring you some pics (sorry, no DSLR) and a bit of an insight on it.
I can confirm there is no bill or receipt of any sort attached to the box and that is declared as a gift as juahenza told me in a PM. I only had to pay for managing fees (in Spain, but YMMV).
Bad things first:The bottom was awfully cracked
As you can see in the pics, the cracks are pretty notorious, specially the middle one, which goes from the top edge of the piece down to the middle of it. That means that you can push one side and pull the other and easily break the piece in two.
The cracks on the sides are dangerous too, since they form a triangle and I think I could pull off the piece if I tried.
Moreover, I noticed a new thing about it (or at least I haven't read anything here about this). It seems that the junction between the PC bottom and the feet is not completely flat, and tightening and un-tightening the middle screw made the PC bend a significant bit. It was not much, but that's definitely not good because it creates a point of strain and it sure doesn't help keep the PC bottom uncracked.
I took some pics and recorded a little video where you can clearly see the crack opening and closing as I turn the screwdriver to tight or loosen the screw.
Loose:
Tight:
Can you spot the difference?
Here's the video:
(I don't know why, but the video turns upside down when I upload it, I can see it fine in my computer and I also rotated it before uploading, but it stays upside down
)
This is an issue I'd like the GB runners to see, since I can't properly see if the feet are not straight in the surface or if it's the PC bottom.
Besides that, the polycarbonate feels very sturdy, has a nice finish, is detailed enough and doesn't have very notorious milling traces (some minor traces on the inside surface).
I can say I quite like it, but being heavily cracked I feel disappointed.
The PCB was not fully workingAs we all know now, not all the PCB's will arrive fully working and will need to have a bit of work done on them.
Knowing that, I plugged mine in and opened up bootmapper client to try the LED's.
You can see the result below.
There are some of them not working at all (pressumably just a reflowing issue) and one of them where the green doesn't light up anything at all. I'm personally a bit worried about this one because if it wasn't soldered properly, the next ones would fail, but I'm hoping it will work when I reflow it.
After that, I flashed the same layout I have in my b.face, just to try the switch pads manually (with metallic pliers) and opened EK switch hitter.
Then I realised there are pads that are not working at all. I do not recall anyone in the thread having this problem and frankly I still hope I did something wrong when checking them, but Switch Hitter can detect triggers even when they have no key assigned, and some of the pads weren't registering any trigger at all.
I will make further checks, but today I'm going away for a few days and it will have to wait.
Not bad but neither good things:The packagingAlthough the keyboard itself was very well protected with big, sturdy and thick foam pads covering the entire inside of the box, it wasn't secured in place. That wouldn't be a problem if all pieces where tight and metallic, but since the PCB comes inside and loose, and there's a polycarbonate piece, that was not a good idea.
Before opening the box, I could hear and feel the keyboard tumbling around inside. I think anyone here know that when you ship an item inside a box, you have to make sure it won't move inside the box, and as I said, you could make an exception if it's only one piece (or it behaves like one), but there cannot be loose things inside the box, because they will get damaged.
When I opened the box and saw how the PCB moved inside the case, I was surprised the USB was still in it's place. GB runners should at least tape the PCB to the inside, or better than that, add a thin layer of foam inside the keyboard so the PCB doesn't rattle inside.
I suspect that the keyboard being loose inside the box also contributes to the PC cracking, since the piece is "a bit" flexible and the feet puts a point of pressure and a lot of weight on it, possibly making it crack when the keyboard goes up and down inside the box.
I wouldn't rate this as bad since the idea is not bad at all and the foam was a more than enough protection for the board, but shipping the keyboard loose inside and the PCB loose inside of it was not a good idea because it's not full metal. I doubt anyone of the premium kits will have this problem.
The feetI found a little milling defect in the feet. You can see in the pic below there's a bit of residue of a trace. I consider it a minor issue since is very small and in a piece you won't be seeing unless you specifically look for it. Also, I could file it down with care and not screw up the surface finish. It bothers me since someone could consider this as a B-stock, but oh well.
The good things:The anodising
The anodising is superb. I mean, this is the first anodised aluminium I own, but I compared it to a MacBook, iPhone and Xiaomi Mi note and this keeb anodising is on par with the one on the MacBook and almost as smooth as the one on the iPhone. The colour itself is a bit lighter than I'd wanted it to be, but blue is a difficult colour to anodise. (Although the pics are taken with a Nexus 5X, I think the colour is pretty accurate, maybe a tad lighter in the spots with more light reflecting).
I found a little smudge on a side, but it was just some dirt or glue and it went off easily. I couldn't find any defect at all, no discolouration or anything, it's just perfect and evenly smooth. Top notch work in my opinion.
Conclussion/ThoughtsThe keyboard itself is awesome and I feel it's important I say this to cheer up people around here. I feel disappointed about the cracked bottom and the PCB not properly working. I know I will have to wait months for a new bottom, but I do feel happy about having this board.
It weights a ton, it's very sturdy, awesome looking and feeling. I'm eager to make a build out of it.You can see here the complete gallery:
https://imgur.com/a/9RkIIAs a side note to this improvised review, I think I received one screw for the plate less than necessary, since there are 5 holes and I received 4 screws, making the plate flex a lot in the middle bottom, but can't recall if this was said before in the thread (I do remember something about screws). I also didn't receive stabilizers, but I have yet to confirm if I ordered them (I think I did, but can't find the invoice now).
