Drakken Tech Spektrum Gaming Keyboard - [Matte Black] : Hot Swap Mechanical Kailh Blue Switches - Customizable RGB Lighting - Programmable Macro Functionality

First off this keyboard is slightly lighter than a Unicomp EnduraPro. In other words, its HEAVY. Its a full sized US-ANSI layout so its awfully large as well. Its unique among switch-modular keyboards because it actually has a bezel to speak of! None of that floating switch nonsense! Nope, with this keyboard, you switches are well protected from side knocks.Lets get some short comings out of the way first.Weaknesses:- The stabilizers for any key larger than one unit, is awfully rattly and in the case of the right shift, the top left corner when hit, softly binds.HOWEVER, they can be replaced/popped out easily should you want to put in genuine Cherry stabilizers.- The color wheel on the top right of the keyboard isn't fluid. There's a lot of static friction before it actually starts to turn. Not enough to overshoot, but it might annoy some people.- Instead of plastic, the keyboard is mostly rubberized. While this does make it resistant to outright exploding, AKA shattering, it does make it much harder to clean, as well as attracting debris rather easily.Now with that out of the way!:Strengths:+ Build quality is very hard to match! Razer is over here with quality control issues for days, and Drakken is over here chilling with a super reliable piece of hardware! And it has a weight to speak of!+ Due to the weight, the rubber pads on the bottom of the keyboard both make sure it will not move a single inch during intensive use! I type like a barbarian and it is still where I placed it!+ The flip out feet are also rubber tipped!+ Comes with a hybrid switch/keycap puller! The keycap puller side is the wire kind too so it won't scratch your keycaps!(+ There's a ridge above the F-row of keys that has space to place the keycap/switch puller tool and a pen if you want)+ SWITCH MODULAR. Ordered it with clickies and you ended up not liking those? Switch them out! (I'm so sorry about that! LOL)But no seriously, having a switch-modular keyboard that isn't a floating keycap design is actually huge. The massive size of the keyboard and its overall above average build quality really brings out the sound of the switches you put into it!+ The cable(s) are braided! Awfully thick too!(+ Drakken is attempting to allow for users in the future to use the Color Wheel for Volume control in the future!)+ Pretty affordable for what you're getting. Stellar and heavy build quality without going over $170 (USD) is fairly difficult to find in this day in age, let alone in general!Some double edged swords too:= While it does have pass through support for Audio, a Microphone, and one USB port, in the case of the Audio pass through port, it will heavily compromise the audio quality. For some reason it tilts it heavily into instrumentals. You can mess with the system audio preferences on your computer should you want say, the vocals back on track by shifting the audio slider. So while the pass throughs WORK, just don't expect $170+ from all of them.I cannot comment on the Microphone or USB pass through.= This all isn't going through one USB cable. Its actually 4 braided cables. One for the keyboard itself, one for the USB pass through "HUB", one for the Microphone passthrough, and finally one last cable for the Audio pass through.= No cable gutter. I put this here because realistically, it would be a pain to manipulate the thick cable should a cable gutter existed. So its one of those, it is what it is type of situations.= Again, its huge. Im using a RollerMouse RED so space is irrelevant to me but it is something to keep in mind. Even if you use a trackball, thats an awful lot of horizontal (and surprisingly, vertical) space it takes up!= Keycaps are cheap feeling ABS. They are durable, but in comparison to high quality SA form ABS keycaps, they don't hold a candle to those. I imagine this keyboard would look really good with SA keycaps! Then it would REALLY bring out the sound to the best it can be!= Media and volume function keys. (The FN key replaces the right Windows key BTW)= Okayish RGB. It does bleed slightly. But it is still bright and vivid! Yes you can turn the lights down or even completely off! (Keyboard does have a manual that has all the keyboard commands so you don't forget! DON'T THROW THAT AWAY!)= The backlighting on the lock keys only turn on when the lock is activated. So Caps-Lock for example, will glow blue when activated. It ignores the backlighting settings so even if the backlighting is "off" on "all keys", the lock lights will still turn off and on. Like wise, when all lights are turned on, the lock keys will only light up when activated. Note that, this isn't a bad thing since the actual lock lights to the left of the color wheel, is a bit difficult to read. So its hard to tell by those lock lights, which lock is on and which isn't. But since each lock key DIRECTLY lights up when used, its much easier to tell if caps lock is on or not since the caps lock will just glow if its on. So if yall are wondering why those keys aren't lit in the Amazon product pictures, thats why. Whether or not you can change this in the external software, I'm not sure as they do not currently have external software support for Mac. I've been told that they are planning it after they fully finish the Windows one, as this company is still fairly new which is understandable. Even without the software, this is still a very good purchase!Note:* It comes with a hard plastic cover in the box. If you keep it, you can put it over the keyboard to protect it from dust when not in use. Its awfully durable for what it is so I HEAVILY recommend not throwing that useful piece of plastic away!* I'm using Hako Royal Trues in my particular one. If you like the rounded feeling of rubber domes, but with active resistance against bottoming out, those are the switches for you! They're sold by the NovelKeys website. It ends in.xyzSo if you want more switch options to test in this keyboard, knock yourself out!OH and one last tip before I go. The USB cable that has a USB symbol on both sides, that is for the USB pass through! The USB plug with a USB symbol on only ONE side, THAT'S the one that is for the keyboard itself! That way you know if you're plugging in the keyboard, or the hub on the keyboard. I'm going to check later to see if they work independently of each other. (For example, having ONLY the hub USB plugged in, will it work even if the keyboard itself is "off"?)

One thing to say before I list the pros and cons, I've never used a mechanical keyboard before, so I'm no expert on the matter, but so far I really like it overall.Pros:1: It is very heavy and feels far sturdier compared to my old membrane keyboard I've been using for the past 10 or so years, this thing does not flex at all.2: The keycaps and switches are easy to swap out.3: My old keyboard only had red backlighting, so the full RGB backlighting on this is really nice to have.4: My old keyboard had glossy plastic around the keys, so it got dirty very quickly. The rubberized coating of this one, while it does attract fingerprints a little, is much better than the old one.5: They included a some extra switches and a fairly nice keycap and switch remover.6: It's actually smaller than I expected it to be, it's a bit taller than my old keyboard, but quite a bit less wide, so I have more room on my desk now.Neutral:1: I don't really think I'm a big fan of the clicky switches, it's a bit too loud for me (and everyone else in the house lol) But, you can easily swap the switches out whenever you like, so I'm not listing it as a con.2: The font on the keycaps isn't great, and they feel a little cheap, but you can swap them out for whatever you like, so I'm not listing that as a con.3: The button and dial thing on the top right of the keyboard is a little redundant since you can do the same things with the FN key, but I don't think that's really worth listing as a con.4: Doesn't have dedicated macro keys like my old keyboard, but I rarely used those anyways so I don't really mind.Cons:1: When the keyboard arrived the right shift key didn't work, so I had to swap out the switch with one of the included spares. One of the metal pins on the installed switch was bent. It was easy to swap out, but it should've been working out of the box.2: The button in the middle of the dial wasn't installed properly, so I had to remove it and put it back on correctly. that and the previous con makes me think that they didn't test the keyboard at all before shipping it out.3: The 'lock' keys (Num Lock, Scroll Lock, Caps Lock, and Windows Lock) don't light up the same way as the other keys, they only light up when on (For example, when you use caps lock to type in all caps) and are always off otherwise. Also, they are always blue and don't match the colors of the rest of the keys. Maybe you can change the way they work in the software, but I haven't tried that yet, I might try that later and update my review afterwards.So overall I think it's a really good keyboard for the price I paid ($49.99 USD), my requirements for a new keyboard was that it needed to be very durable, easy to replace things if a key or something did mess up, easy to customize if I didn't like the default switches, have RGB backlighting, and feel nice to type on. It passes those requirements perfectly fine at a much lower (at least half) price than other keyboards I looked at.