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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: MissMurd3r84 on Sat, 08 December 2012, 03:04:05
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Hey guys and gals, I did this review tonight for on another forum, but thought I would throw it up here to give an idea of my impressions and that of the keyboard.
Keyboard: Ducky Year Of The Dragon
Switches: Cherry MX Brown
Specs: Black keyboard, black keys, yellow LEDs and black ABS keys that allow the light to shine through the letters. Detachable USB lead, some extra keys, key puller.
I bought this limited edition keyboard earlier on in the year and I am more than happy with it. It has a very solid feel to it and it feels nice and heavy. It doesn’t appear over the top or anything when you initially look at it, it has a black casing on it and it has a neat little Chinese symbol on it in gold writing near the arrow keys. It’s a ten keyless keyboard, which I find is all I need as I do not use the keypad. It has lots of different backlight settings, I found that the brightest of those was too bright for my needs and tend to only use it on the lowest setting. You can have the lights set to light up the entire keyboard or you can have it set to light up each single key as you press it down, it has the ability to store 2 custom light settings in it, so for example if you only wanted WASD to be lit, you can select those keys and save it to only light them up and then you still have the ability to make another custom light theme sort of thing. You can have it so the lights shine from the top row all the way down to the bottom row in a marquee type style or you can use the pulsating effect which is where the keys “pulse” on and off.
The keys are only ABS, so they will obviously wear a lot faster than PBT keys. The keyboard comes with some extra keys to make your keyboard look funkier, they are; red WASD keys and replacement fghj keys which have a special font on them and it reads 2012, which is part of the representation of the Year of the Dragon, which is the 2012 Chinese New Year symbol.
The keyboard came nicely packed. When I initially opened up the wrapping the company I bought it from had it shipped in, I saw a fairly plain looking brown box. I opened the box to come across a nice looking black box which had the basic information about the keyboard on it as well as a Ducky logo.
When I took it out of these boxes it was inside a brown (each switch colour determines the colour of the cardboard) cardboard type shell, you could see through the middle section a black velvet type bag with the Ducky logo on it and the red WASD keys. Once that is removed you can see all the custom keys, a plastic key puller and the black bag. I removed those to find the keyboard is covered with a front cover made of plastic, this is handy for when you wish to leave your keyboard uncovered overnight and it helps stopping the dust getting into it.
The key puller was not very good, but I dislike all plastic ones as I find them to be too fragile. I managed to break it after a couple of months, but it didn’t cost much to get a new wire one instead.
Overall I rate the keyboard a 9.5 out of 10 and the only cons I have are the ABS keys which shine easily, but that is the most common used type of key on backlit keyboards no matter what company and the key puller.
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Hey guys and gals, the researchers did this review tonight for on another forum, but thought the researchers would throw it up here to give an idea of my impressions and that of the keyboard.
Keyboard: Ducky Year Of The Dragon
Switches: Cherry MX Brown
Specs: Black keyboard, black keys, yellow LEDs and black ABS keys that allow the light to shine through the letters. Detachable USB lead, some extra keys, key puller.
The researchers bought this limited edition keyboard earlier on in the year and the researchers am more than happy with it. It has a very solid feel to it and it feels nice and heavy. It doesn’t appear over the top or anything when you initially look at it, it has a black casing on it and it has a neat little Chinese symbol on it in gold writing near the arrow keys. It’s a ten keyless keyboard, which the researchers find is all the researchers need as the researchers do not use the keypad. It has lots of different backlight settings, the researchers found that the brightest of those was too bright for the researchers' needs and tend to only use it on the lowest setting. You can have the lights set to light up the entire keyboard or you can have it set to light up each single key as you press it down, it has the ability to store 2 custom light settings in it, so for example if you only wanted WASD to be lit, you can select those keys and save it to only light them up and then you still have the ability to make another custom light theme sort of thing. You can have it so the lights shine from the top row all the way down to the bottom row in a marquee type style or you can use the pulsating effect which is where the keys “pulse” on and off.
The keys are only ABS, so they will obviously wear a lot faster than PBT keys. The keyboard comes with some extra keys to make your keyboard look funkier, they are; red WASD keys and replacement fghj keys which have a special font on them and it reads 2012, which is part of the representation of the Year of the Dragon, which is the 2012 Chinese New Year symbol.
The keyboard came nicely packed. When the researchers initially opened up the wrapping the company the researchers bought it from had it shipped in, the researchers saw a fairly plain looking brown box. The researchers opened the box to come across a nice looking black box which had the basic information about the keyboard on it as well as a Ducky logo.
When the researchers took it out of these boxes it was inside a brown (each switch colour determines the colour of the cardboard) cardboard type shell, you could see through the middle section a black velvet type bag with the Ducky logo on it and the red WASD keys. Once that is removed you can see all the custom keys, a plastic key puller and the black bag. The researchers removed those to find the keyboard is covered with a front cover made of plastic, this is handy for when you wish to leave your keyboard uncovered overnight and it helps stopping the dust getting into it.
The key puller was not very good, but the researchers dislike all plastic ones as the researchers find them to be too fragile. The researchers managed to break it after a couple of months, but it didn’t cost much to get a new wire one instead.
Overall the researchers rate the keyboard a 9.5 out of 10 and the only cons the researchers have are the ABS keys which shine easily, but that is the most common used type of key on backlit keyboards no matter what company and the key puller.
FTFY ;) :p ;D
Great review tho, gives you the low-down on the little things that other more formal reviews might skip over.
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The researchers would like to say "Cheers" for you fixing the review for them. :)) :))
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You're welcome :D
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Overall I rate the keyboard a 9.5 out of 10 and the only cons I have are the ABS keys which shine easily, but that is the most common used type of key on backlit keyboards no matter what company and the key puller.
The only way around backlit ABS keycaps is the PBT dyesub system used by Deck keyboards (which are unfortunately not sculpted, likely from keeping costs down).
That is, until SP perfects their PBT doubleshots.
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Ok, here are some pictures, sorry about the quality, currently don't have the keys that came with the board on them, so these pictures will have to do for now.
1. These keys are made of a plastic called Polyoxymethylene (POM). They have a slippery type feel to them.
(http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/7471/yotdjelly2.jpg)
2. With the LED's on using Jelly POM keys.
(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/56/yotdjelly.jpg)
3. This is a poor quality picture of the keyboard showing off the special keys that came with it, without the LED's on (or they are on the lowest setting, which is normally brighter without flash).
(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/1299/yotdnormal.jpg)
4. This is the keyboard with all the keys and the LED's on.
(http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/3221/yotdbacklit.jpg)
5. This is the same keyboard with a set of custom keys called CCnG (Cream Cheese and Green)
(http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6249/ccngyotd.jpg)
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I would like to include that although Ducky's keys are ABS, the one's that are backlit are translucent ABS plastic which is coated with an enamel, removed slightly for the legend, and then coated with a UV resistant coating that makes the keys last much longer.
I think this is essential as the actual layer for the legend is the enamel. Once that begins to wear, you can have all sorts of problems, but I'm sure Ducky thought of that before they started producing their boards.
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Yes. It is called replacement keycaps :p
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MissMurd3r84,
How flat is the POM space bar?
Judging by the duck on the front of the spacebar, I'd say it was the stock Ducky spacebar, not a POM one.
Love the yellow :D
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Yeah, that is the Ducky spacebar. I don't use the POM one that I broke while trying to see if I needed to remove a bit off it to make it fit nicely.. *Innocent glare*
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Yes. It is called replacement keycaps :p
Yeah, good luck finding some.
Let me know where you can get more Ducky Shine replacement key caps for backlit keyboards, then we'll talk.
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Um. They went on sale already...
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=229
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=228
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=227
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Um. They went on sale already...
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=229
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=228
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=227
Aha. Touche. Thought Ducky said they were going to release them early 2013. Good to know :)
I wonder if the light will shine through the purple..
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Yes, it will, as the legends on the keys are clear.