Enjoy a bit of style while you Game, Work, and Play.
I grew up alongside the Xennials through the ’80s and ’90s. During this time, my mother worked several jobs, learned several skills, and promoted typing as one of those “must-have skills.” By the time I took typing in middle school, I was already well ahead of many of my peers. In fact, my mother sublet my skills throughout late middle/early high school to complete dictation. I was able to earn a little extra coin, while also enhancing my skill at keyboarding. Since that time, I have developed a preference for full-size keyboards, a Numpad, responsive keys, and did not particularly care about fancy colors/add-ons. However, as I moved off to college and nearly everyone was building their own PC, I wanted the visual pop to match the quality features. I am happy to admit that you can now buy a sub $50 keyboard that fulfills all of the above needs.
The Aukey TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard arrived in a 16 1/8 inches long by 7 5/8 inches wide by 2 inches thick black cardboard box. The main cover provided a subtle glossy Aukey logo atop a matte black background, which extended to all surfaces of the box. I found it interesting that so many surfaces were left unadorned. Except for a white SKU barcode sticker on the top panel, the top, side, and front panels were bare. At first glance, the back panel solely provided a single white barcode sticker. However, upon further inspection, I found that the company listed the KM-G14 model number, Aukey address, and product manufacturing labels in black font upon the black background. I removed the tabs from the front panel, lifted the lid, and removed the six-panel instruction manual, 24-month product warranty card with key sticker, and the 2 pounds 4.3-ounce gaming keyboard from the box.
Sticking to first impressions, the 14 3/8 inches wide by 5 5/8 inches tall by 1 3/4 inches thick Aukey TKL keyboard felt quite heavy. The device had an Esc key along the top left followed by the F1-F12 function buttons, PrtSc, ScrLK, and pause buttons. The subsequent row provided the tilde ~ button, the numbers 1-0, -, +, backspace, and the Ins, Home, and PgUp buttons. Beneath the number row, you will find the standard QWERTY layout (tab, qwertyuiop[ ] \, as well as the Del, End, PgDn buttons. The fourth row provided the Caps button and the asdfghjkl; ‘ and enter buttons. The fifth row provided the Shift button, the zxcvbnm, . / buttons, another shift button, and an up arrow. The final row provided a Ctrl button, windows button, Alt Button, large space bar, then another Alt button, Fn button, an indented button, a second control button, and then the left, down, and right arrows. In total, the KM-G14 keyboard had 87 ABS keycap buttons with 4mm actuator travel. Per the instruction manual, each keyswitch should survive through 50 million keystrokes and the keyboard provided a 1.8mg/5.9 foot USB-A/USB-2.0 black braided cable.
To get started, power on a computer with USB-A input ports and insert the USB-A cable into one of the ports. The keyboard will immediately illuminate and run through a counterclockwise spiral color cycle. The keyboard will then turn to a slow left-to-right ROGYBV wave pattern. To change up the color scheme, press the Fn button along the bottom right of the keyboard and one of the Ins/Home/PgUp/Del/End/PgDn buttons toward the top right to rotate between the 18 light effects. If you press the FN/Ins button, the keyboard keys will illuminate in a single color and then cycle through the options. Pressing the same button combination then changed the keyboard to a slow flashing ROGYBV rainbow. Finally, the keyboard will illuminate with a solid blue centered around the YUHJ keys then light blue, lighter blue, green, yellow, red, then purple. Pressing the Fn+Home button once appeared to turn off the keys. However, a simple press of any button led to a pebble in a pond appearance of color. Pressing the combination again led to a slow illumination of just the keys that I touched. Lastly, the combo created a row illumination pattern.
Pressing the FN and PgUp buttons provided a colorful sine wave pattern. Pressing the combination again, the keyboard created a more involved pattern. The colors started at the outsides of the keyboard, collected in a swirling pattern around the 789,yuiophjkl;nm, buttons, and then spread quickly outward. Pressing the combo for a third time created a blinking Christmas Tree Light pattern. Pressing the function and delete button created a variable color-changing wave pattern from left to right, similar to that described above. Pressing the combination again, the keyboard keys changed colors in unison. Pressing the combination a third time led to a snake chase color change pattern. Pressing the FN and End key once led to each key assuming one of the colors and then rotating through each of the colors. When I pressed the combination again, I noted that the keyboard created more of a pastel matrix theme. When I pressed it a third time, the keyboard created a moving row of colors in a top-down manner. Lastly, pressing the FN button and PgDn button provided a left to right followed by a right to left wave. Pressing the button again led to a single color illuminated keyboard. Pressing the keyboard combination one final time led to a center-out pulsing color change.
I enjoyed each of the above color options and personally found it fun to cycle between them. If I pressed FN and any of the other options, it returned it to the first press option. I liked the convenience of not having to remember what stage a particular light was on. Additionally, I found that I could press the function button and the left arrow button to change the lighting speed change, while the function button and the right arrow key allowed the user to choose from nine different color selections. The instruction manual provided a useful list of additional function and F key features: media player, volume control, mute, play/stop, previous/next track, open email/browser/calculator, brightness up/down, choose color, lighting direction (left arrow), lighting speed up/down, lock/unlock windows key and reset (fn/esc/f1/f3/f5).
Even though I prefer keyboards with Numpads, this tenkeyless keyboard provided a precise “anti-ghosting,” minimalistic experience. The included blue switches were precise and never missed a single keystroke. Using the livechat.com website, I was able to type 107 WPM/465 CPM with 98% accuracy with the keyboard. I was pleased with the recoil, the travel distance, the mechanical clicking, the short keystrokes, and the overall design of the keyboard. The bottom of the keyboard provided four 1 1/8 inches long by 7/16 inches wide sticky, rubberized stabilizer-feet and a two-stage elevator for added comfort. Although this may not be the most LEET of the keyboards, at the time of this review, I found the device selling on the walmart.com website for $27.99. Honestly, for the price, it seemed as if Aukey was giving these devices away. Whether you have a student at home, one going off to college, or you are looking for an upgrade for your work/home office, game/work in style with the AUKEY Mechanical TKL keyboard. For added features, reach out to the sales team/Aukey for added software for the keyboard.
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