Qpad MK-80 : MX Blue, blue LED, NKRO, and ugly...

[IanM]

Qpad MK-80 press release

Another gaming keyboard with mechanical keyswitches. It's good that more peripheral manufacturers and consumers are becoming aware of these things, but: oh dear Qpad, what happened with the styling here? 12 year old boys should not be industrial designers.

[sixty]

Now we know where the Xamor patents went.

[kaiserreich]

Who is the OEM?
These look the same like the Razers too.
EDIT: nevermind, I found out it was iOne.

[IanM]

I hope the Mionix isn't blighted by this kind of styling, but perhaps these do all come from the same OEM as the Razer, although the Razer isn't NKRO? Anyway, Mionix and Qpad mice do appear to come from the same family of designs, so the keyboards may be similar as well.

[kaiserreich]

Who ever that is making these, they sure are cranking the volume up pretty fast. Generally same design for the keys etc.

Maybe its gonna bring mechanical keyboards to the people who are paying for 'Gaming' keyboards on the right track since they are switching to Mechanical now?

[kaiserreich]

Is it possible for the keyboard to be made by 1 manufacturer (for economies of scale) but have different QCs appointed by the respective ....(whats the term here, enlighten me)company?

[IanM]

I don't think you understand the difference between contract manufacturer, OEM and ODM.

how much does this matter? You're right of course that there is a difference, and I will admit to lazily using OEM all the time knowing full well that it's often not correct, but I think most people will take it to mean the product is not really designed or manufactured by the brand name selling it.

The line is very blurry, and most of the time we won't know exactly who designed what, or if a specific variation in spec. was at the request of the brand doing the selling, or if they just asked for something "different" than their competitors.

[The Solutor]

[ what happened with the styling here?[/IMG]

It's clearly a rebranded Xarmor, which is widely considered one of the best looking mechs out there.

So what's wrong here ?

[noodles256]

idk who IanM is but he keeps popping up

[vun]

I actually like this. If this is pretty much the Xarmor with Qpad's logo on it I'll probably pick it up as the Xarmor looks interesting, but a hassle to get. With Qpad being a much bigger name this might be available within the country, which would be great.

[IanM]

So what's wrong here ?

I thought the "designed by 12 year old boys" comment was clear enough. I think this type of styling is inelegant and insulting to gamers, it makes the assumption that we are children and want products that look like toys or the ridiculous bodykits some people fit to their cars.

idk who IanM is but he keeps popping up

not sure what you're trying to say here? are you trying to say I should stop posting or what?

[The Solutor]

I thought the designed by 12 year old boys comment was clear enough.

Clear and wrong.

BTW if you have suggestions on nice looking keyboard I'm  all ears.

[vun]

I thought the "designed by 12 year old boys" comment was clear enough. I think this type of styling is inelegant and insulting to gamers, it makes the assumption that we are children and want products that look like toys or the ridiculous bodykits some people fit to their cars.

Looking at the popularity of Razer products among gamers I'd say the assumption is pretty accurate.

Edit: News about this board was just posted on one of the largest gaming communities in Norway and so far it's gotten only positive responses.

[Oqsy]

Ugly is ugly.

[IanM]

I'd say the assumption is pretty accurate.

it isn't, at best it's very out of date. The gamer demographic is much broader and average age is continually creeping upwards. A whole generation has grown up with games, so the twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings represent a vast part of the overall market, something that has largely been missed by PC component and peripheral manufacturers.

Razer are very successful, but they embraced the gaming peripherals market early, they have good marketing and they make good products (albeit with questionable build of some) Their styling is biased toward the younger half of the demographic, but Razer do manage to make products that are more broadly appealing, with many that are at least tolerable for adults.

[vun]

The fact that there are older and more mature gamers who want clean looking peripherals doesn't mean it's a shame to target the younger gamers. Just because the younger gamers create a negative stereotype many do not want to be associated with does not mean that they should be ignored. They are also more likely to spend more money on a keyboard if it is a "gaming" board whereas the older gamers tend to be more sensible and realize that you do not need a "gamer" keyboard to play games and therefore marketing gaming peripherals to them will be less profitable.

Hope this makes sense, might have to rewrite some of it.

[The Solutor]

Ugly is ugly.

If this is ugly, what the Decks are?

[digitalleftovers]

Don't forget the Tessoro Keyboard.

[IanM]

Hope this makes sense, might have to rewrite some of it.

I understand your meaning just fine. To clarify my position - targeting young gamers is fine, it is a huge market. My objections are that almost all gamer products are targeted this way, it's much wider than just keyboards. I also object to the way the younger gamers are patronised. many are more mature and don't want to be painted with this image either, they would rather have products more in the Apple mould than products with fins, grilles, spoilers, go faster stripes etc.

None of this changes my opinion about the styling of the Qpad/Xarmor/iOne. It's a particularly dismal (lack of) effort.

[guilleguillaume]

This Keyboard is like their rebranded Beyerdinamic MMX300 called Qpad QH-1339.

[Nautilus]

Now there probably IS a handful of key manufacturers.   Lots of people capable of producing keyboards though.

Never quite understood the fascination with the manufacturer of the product at Geekhack or OCN.  It's the DESIGNER and QUALITY CONTROL that counts.

That's probably why Duckys Sucky.

Dude, yes.

[vun]

From what I've gathered there isn't really a notable market for classy gaming peripherals. In my experience older gamers generally do not care very much about their equipment as long as it works for them. I'm not saying everyone's like that, but from what I've seen a lot of them are. There isn't really that much money to be had from that market, so the best you could hope for is like-minded people to start a small niche company to make this.

It also seems to be a fine line between a typical "gamer" peripheral and normal ones. You need to be dead on with your design, otherwise you'll end up with something that has already been done better and cheaper in most cases.

This is a very interesting topic, though, so if I'm wrong on this or have missed something I'd like to be enlightened.

[IanM]

Clear and wrong.

I'm sure we can disagree on this and still get along. It's a matter of opinion, not an attack on your manhood :smile:

BTW if you have suggestions on nice looking keyboard I'm  all ears.

There's not too much scope for distinct styling with keyboards. I'd say the basic Cherry and Realforce keyboards look quite ordinary, but inoffensive. The likes of Filco and Leopold are a step up, just slightly more elegant and cleaner. Apple and the Logitech diNovo are perhaps better designs (in terms of look) but nothing to get too excited about.

If this is ugly, what the Decks are?

I think the Decks are also awful. I actually considered buying the small one for the compact size, but it just looks like a cheap mess so I decided not to bother.

[The Solutor]

The likes of Filco and Leopold are a step up, just slightly more elegant and cleaner

I really can't understand your point, the Xarmor is just a plain, clean, backlit keyboard, with an optional wrist rest and a matte finish.

No superfluous lights, funky fonts, no spoilers, antennas, guns, carbon fiber, red lasers, whatever.


And you are speaking about it as if it had all of those things.


I bought it because the clean and plain design.

Seem that you are speaking about the Xarmor, while looking at a photo of a Black Widow or something lookalike.

[The Solutor]

Ducky it's free of bells and whistles yet STILL manages to look ugly.

The ducky IS ugly, too ugly for my taste, btw i put the funky fonts on the bell and whistles bill Edit:nevermind, i mixed deck and ducky. I find the ducky nice, at least not more different than most of the other non backlit kjeyboards.

I'd wait an see what Mionix has up it's sleeve to see if we get the worlds first good looking Backlit Mechanical Keyboard.

I'm curious too, would be the second good backlit mech keyboard.

If available with the ISO layout and with a good choice of switches, can win hands down, but probably will be an Xarmor with a different retroillumination.

[IanM]

I really can't understand your point...

the discussion moved onto the broader issue, but if you want to me to identify the specific areas where the designer failed with this:    the upper area right area:

• fake grille pattern from a 1970s audio cassette player
• indicator lights tacked on over the top, and don't match the grille
• tacked on I/O panel

outer edge

• messy second lip/collar to raise the height of the casing above the keyswitches
• at each end - strange cut out in the lip/collar

wrist rest

• that stupid grille pattern again
• the large gaps at each end that mean the fit is non flush, half designed - possibly to accommodate easy manufacture with no consideration to the finished look?

choice of materials

• glossy looking keycaps are jarring against matte looking outer case (bad photo?)
• all plastics look cheap (even if they aren't cheap)
  

logo/branding

• generic design keyboard design encourages the retail brand to demand their own stamp on the product, hence the large squeezed in wherever it could fit Qpad logo

overall

• extremely cluttered, inelegant, mismatched details and incoherent design

[The Solutor]

• glossy looking keycaps

The keycaps are all but glossy

• matte looking outer case

Yes, very nice finish indeed

all plastics look cheap (even if they aren't cheap)

All plastic looks very good even in a cheap keyboard, because the keyboard IS cheap if compared with other featureless cherry boards.

Start from a 90$ keyboard, buy 100+ LEDs, count the additional work, the complex key manufacturing, the usb hub, and try to stay in the 130$ range, if you can.

Be sure, no one will put an Xarmor in the Guggenheim, and it not will be cited as example of industrial design, but this keyboard still looks way better than many many KB out there.

[Eric5676]

Happy to see another player enter the game.

Going by those pictures, I can't say I'm super thrilled with how it looks, either.

[Oqsy]

Ricer kb is riced.

[BucklingSpring]

XArmor U9BL clone, different name, different wrist rest.

[The Solutor]

The huge logos on the wrist rest are ugly. One on the board, maybe one on the wrist wrest is fine. The grille area on the wrist rest looks like a wannabe trackpad. If those keys aren't shiny, then someone's been lubing up before using it. Those keys make it look like a used filco. The indicator light area, again with the grille crap, being raised is bad. I have to agree with IanM. It looks like a cheap toy. Why are you trying to defend it so much?

I'm sure you are trying to convince more yourself than the other users that this keyboard is not worth and that the already bought Deck is better

It's really an hard task, i presume.

The deck has that retarded fonts (not retarded as the razer's one, but still retarded), looks ugly (really ugly), lacks the USB hub, the wrist rest, the nice matte finish and is fitted with those odd two pieces keys.

Last but not least costs 40$ more

It wins just in the switch section because the clear ones.

So be honest and ask yourself if the Xarmor/Qpad really looks as a toy or if it just a better and less expensive keyboard than yours.

[vun]

I find the excessive amount of Qpad logos to be annoying, but at least it makes sense because it's a rebrand. The ugly fonts of Deck and Razer are just unnecessary, although I seem to be the only one who thinks the Razer font looks better than the Deck font.

[The Solutor]

The ugly fonts of Deck and Razer are just unnecessary, although I seem to be the only one who thinks the Razer font looks better than the Deck font.

I think also that the razer ones are nicer, but they are harder to read, and even less practical is the inversion of lower and upper case symbols.

The decks one are "just" ugly

The qpad branding is surely more invasive than the xarmor one, but we have to wait for the price, 25$ less could be worth the more evident branding.

The branding could be also changed on the production models as happened to the xarmor one.

[vun]

I'll probably end up saving money anyways because if I want the Xarmor I'll have to order from the US I believe, while the Qpad branded version will be available within the country. That's about $50 saved already for me, so I don't really mind the logos.

[The Solutor]

I'll probably end up saving money anyways because if I want the Xarmor I'll have to order from the US I believe, while the Qpad branded version will be available within the country. That's about $50 saved already for me, so I don't really mind the logos.

They are actually more than 50$

[vun]

I was talking about shipping. Generally shipping things from the US costs around $50 from what I've seen.

[The Solutor]

I was talking about shipping. Generally shipping things from the US costs around $50 from what I've seen.

Yes, shipping is a bit more than 50$, but you have to add the VAT/Import fees and accessory costs.

Here In Italy I payed 21 euros of VAT and import fees and 11 euro which is a fixed price that the Italian posts are asking to manage the toll procedures.

Thys will probably vary from country to country.

[stupefaction]

The XArmor/QPad keyboard is way too big for me, and I'm not a fan of backlighting. In all other respects, however, I don't find its styling to be aggressively bad. It's actually fairly bland apart from the grille at upper right, which appears to be decorative rather than functional. I can see why people would find it tacky. Take that away, and you're left with a design that's cleaner than your average Microsoft or Logitech keyboard, I would say. I don't see any of the swooping curves or super-glossy surfaces that are the bane of much computer design today.

[BucklingSpring]

The XArmor/QPad keyboard is way too big for me, and I'm not a fan of backlighting.

In case you are not aware, the wrist rest is removable.
The keyboard itself is quite compact for a "full size".

[stupefaction]

Any keyboard with a numpad is too big for me.