I bought the new Cherry KW X ULP keyboard just to see what their tactile ULP switches were like. My first thought is that there's no way this keyboard is worth $200. It's pretty with the brushed metal top panel, very sleek, and I like how it can connect to the included wireless receiver (with a magnetic storage slot in the back), two Bluetooth devices, and through the included USB C cable. That's definitely a step up from any other wireless keyboard I've used. It also has three flip-out feet if you want a slight angle to your keyboard. The center foot really keeps it from flexing. More slim keyboards should have a center foot. I also like how the layout is completely standard, and even has space between the clusters of F keys, which is very rare in a slim keyboard. My job makes heavy use of the F keys, and having them all crammed together in a lot of keyboards makes using them hard. That's about where the good parts of it end, though.
The switches strike me as a solution to a problem that didn't exist. They really feel like slightly heavier and crisper scissor switches. The 1.8mm stroke is identical to scissor switch keyboards like the Logitech MX Keys or Microsoft's Surface keyboards. The weight is nice (65g), I like how crisp they are, and most of the keys aren't terribly noisy, but the space bar clacks horribly. It really ruins the whole typing experience with its noise. I have a Microsoft Surface keyboard that I carry around with me for work, and it's far quieter, and just a little less crisp feeling. That being said, I don't think this thing would be too out of place in an office. I've had coworkers that bang on rubber dome keyboards and make more noise than I make typing on the KW X ULP.
The keycaps are black painted polycarbonate, and Cherry warns you on the packaging that damage could occur if you try to remove them. I assume that the black painting will wear off well before the switches reach the end of their lifespan, and not being replaceable or even removable really seems like it would doom this keyboard at some point, along with the non-replaceable rechargeable battery.
The backlighting is decent. It's not terribly even, but it's fairly bright with 10 brightness levels, and the lights behind the caps lock, num lock, and scroll lock keys turn red when they're activated, which is a nice touch. I believe that there's also a Windows lock function that turns the Windows keys red, too. The number keys are printed in the normal order with the alternate functions printed above the numbers, which looks better than say, a Ducky keyboard, with their flipped legends, but the numbers don't illuminate, only the alternate functions (!, @, #, $, etc.).
I haven't had it long enough to test out the battery life with or without the backlighting on.
In the end, this thing is like the luxury car of slim keyboards. You pay twice as much as a Microsoft or Logitech keyboard for some very small improvements, and a lot of space bar noise. It's impressive that Cherry was able to make such low-profile mechanical switches, but I'd like to see them use better keycaps that aren't going to wear down or get shiny with normal use.
