Today I finally received the keyboard I was quite happily expecting, it’s the Hummingbird68 from a group buy on Clickclack It’s a really affordable keyboard that I found advertised on Youtube as having amazing value, and I just had to buy it to test it out.
First impressions:
Packaging is good, can survive a melee battle between postmen, the ones with Hummingbird68 will win. Inside the box is a semi hardshell case, which frankly surprised me. It’s a really solid carrying case with a handle and two straps inside to hold the keyboard, you also get a dust cover included which is a nice bonus. The keyboard itself feels solid, and I will get more to that in the case section.
Case:
The case is aluminum, outwardly angled/chamfered, which is a look that you either like or don’t. Personally I prefer the boxy look of Tofu, but this one isn’t bad, looks well made. I find the edge on the top part of the keyboard slightly too high, it’s really close the keycaps, so each time you press the top row you can feel the edge of the case, which is a feeling I am not used to, but it might not bother others. I went with Glacial colourway, but there are several others, which you can check out below:
Colourways
Argent (Anodized Silver)
Inferno (Anodized Red)
Oynx (Anodized Black)
Verdant (Anodized Dark Green)
Glacial (Anodized Blue)
The case feels solid and the whole build is quite heavy at ~1742g, it’s actually heavier than my Tofu redux with brass weight which weighs ~1467g. Tofu is 60% format so I think if both were same the size, it would be around the same. On the bottom there are two large rubber strips which hold the keyboard in place
Keycaps:
Keycaps are apparently triple shot PBT, they feel nice to the touch, smooth and with the smallest amount of texture. There is no light bleed from underneath the keycaps, so this is good. At first I thought they feel cheap so I went and weighed the more expensive sets of keycaps I have, but they were around the same weight, letters were lighter by about 20% but space bar is actually heavier, no complaints here, I feel my main problem is with the switches.
Switches:
These are Hall effect type of switches, not mechanical ones. Magnetic switches are usually targeted towards gamers as they provide high accuracy and configurability. You can set how deep the press needs to be for the click to register, can set multiple activations per press, etc. The manufacturer named them Elven Blink, with these specs:
- Typing Style: Linear
- Initial Force: 37±5gf
- Bottom-out force: 50gf
- Total Travel: 3.85±0.2mm
- Pre Travel: Freely setting
- Pre-Lubed: Yes
- Spring: 18mm customized spring
- Lifetime: 100 million times keystrokes
At time of first opening:
I found them quite loud and clacky, first impressions are towards the negative side. They are quite rattly with noticable stem wobble. The stabilizers also seemed either unlubed, or very poorly lubed, keys were getting stuck when pressed, after lubing with Krytox it was much better, no more getting stuck. If I’m not mistaken these are soldered, at least the switch didn’t budge when I tried to pull it out, and I didn’t force my hand until I confirm this online
Next day after using it for a while:
So I tested it out a bit, playing my games of choice and chatting. For reference, I usually play FPS, MMO, Roguelite and Survival games. The spacebar kept getting stuck althought I lubed it, the keycaps are pressed down on the stabilizers all the way, so I will have to spend some time checking this out and possible taking it apart. The feel typing is not great, and it feels very wobbly. Due to the fairly high edge of the case, and it being close to the keycaps, there is also awkward feeling when using the keys close to the edge, due to you hitting them
I will test it out more and try taking it apart to see how it’s built, but for now the absolute low point of this package are these switches, as everything else is actually decent to good. What I did test was the switch travel, and it seems the switch is 3.4mm, so it feels strange that the official specs say 3.85, as this is outside of that generous 0.2mm tolerance.
Technical specs:
These are taken from the manufacturer, I have not yet tested response times extensively, so take it as you will.
Software
As far as options go, it’s pretty standard. You have RGB tab which is pretty self explanatory, performance tab where you set actuation, and some advanced things like “super response mode” and trigger/bottom optimizations, a tab where you can remap keys and a tab for setting macros. It’s a far cry from the Wootility, but I didnt miss anything special, what I wanted to set I could.
The software is included in the Group buy page and packed in two zip files. I will include the same file that is combined, and also link to the original one if you don’t trust me. It’s a zip of an installed Windows project, I hope it’s not a virus.
Direct download of a single zip
Original links from the Group buy page:
Conclusion
I am not sure if I got a bad model, but if it weren’t for the switches, or the board was hotswappable, I would recommend this wholeheartedly, as it stands, I would not use it, even in this price range. I have 3 other hall effect keyboards that were cheaper, have a cheap plastic case, but the switches and feel is much better, so I would prefer them to this. They too have 8khz polling rate and mostly same technical specs. Considering the information for switches is wrong, I would also take other specs with a grain of salt, but they could all be correct here You can see the sound test here, I recorded a quick video, will re-record for better quality and possibly a mini review