Epomaker Skyloong SK61S - Gateron Optical Blue Clicky

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hellothere

15 Jul 2021, 16:48

TL; DR: Lots of positives for the keyboard, itself. Didn't like the switches.

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LINKY

While I'd love to post another Chyros-homage review, I'd have to go back and watch 5 or 6 of his videos to get into that groove.

Why I bought this:
I hadn't tried the Gateron optical switches, yet. There's currently a $10 off coupon on the SK61 and I had a $25 Amazon gift card, so the total was only around $50 including tax. Additionally, I've got 7 or 8, mostly old, iPads lying around. I definitely have use for Bluetooth keyboards.

Size:
This is a 61 key keyboard. I mostly prefer TKL/Ten Key Less/75%/84% more than a full size keyboard. However, considering that most of my favorite keyboards are vintage, I generally have to use full-size 101+. This is the first 60% I've ever used. More on this in a bit.

Switch:
I got blue. I already have a SteelSeries Apex Pro which has linear Hall Effect switches. I wanted to try a "contact-less" switch that was either clicky or tactile. I don't really care if it's clicky or tactile, I like 55g weighting, and the blue clicky was about $6 less expensive, so there ya go.

Other:
I think the keycaps looked and felt great. They're PBT "thermal sublimation" caps and are available in a couple different colors. However, I think I should have gotten the version that had the function-layer options cut into the keycaps. I didn't do that because I really disliked the font.

I don't really care about RGB, but this keyboard has that. The keys are opaque, so you're just getting the lighting through the gaps between the caps. It's a bit subtle, which is OK. One small negative is that if you're using the default RGB setting, it's very difficult to see the blinking light around the key to choose the Bluetooth channel.

The keyboard feels exceptionally well made. It's solid. Has some heft and it doesn't flex. You can also use this on a Windows PC, only, with a cable. A cable is also included and it also looks well made.

One of the big things I wanted was connecting stuff to each of the SK61S's three Bluetooth channels. As mentioned, I have a bunch of iPads. I also have a MacBook pro. My newest iPad and MacBook are around 2017 models. It was a little challenging to get the keyboard connected to both the iPad and MacBook at the same time. Both only liked being connected to a particular channel and did not want to switch for anything. I got them connected, though, without a visit to Epomaker's support pages. If I wanted to connect three iPads, though, I'd probably have to visit those support pages. YMMV.

"Wow, hellothere, that's a mostly positive review! It's also pretty cheap and I can still get that $10 off coupon! I'll go out and buy one right now!"

Hang on for just a minute.

When I started typing on the keyboard, I was only hearing clicking from the stabilized keys and maybe one or two other keys at random. I even took off a couple key caps to make sure that I had blue switches. Yup. I figured it out after a couple minutes: the click on these keys is so high that an extremely light tap on a key makes it click. If you used anything close to normal typing speed, which is only around 60 WPM for me, you bottom out and there's no click. Only your modifiers clicking while you type makes for an extremely annoying typing experience.

As a bonus, the switches are close to Cherry MX brown scratchiness level, which I thought couldn't even happen with an optical switch. I checked the SK61 right next to my Apex Pro, which has regular Gateron red linear switches for its numeric keypad, function keys, etc. No scratchy on the reds.

So, this thing's going back. I don't think there's another clicky or tactile optical switch keyboard with Bluetooth currently on the market. I would rather get something I haven't used before, so I don't really want a TKL version of the Apex Pro -- plus the adapter for USB to iPad costs $20+.

User avatar
Karmel

15 Jul 2021, 17:15

Good review!

I was thinking of getting one of these to see what Gateron optical switches felt like, but there were so many negative reviews that I didn't want to take any chances even though it's dirt cheap. I've also been scarred by 60% keyboards, I hate em, I feel sick whenever I have to use one, so there's that.

That click problem wouldn't matter to me though since I would want the linear variant to test how smooth it is, but they're hot-swappable by default so if I wanted to try the clicky or tactile variant I could just buy some and swap them in.

User avatar
joebeazelman

31 May 2022, 23:11

I also purchased a super cheap mechanical keyboard from either Amazon or eBay, I can't remember. It had blue switches with a full layout and cost me around $20. I'm not sure of the brand, but its identical to the Ajazz Chyrosan did a review on. I absolutely love clicky keyboards and never thought I would ever encounter one I didn't like. My clicky switch experiences were all Alps and Model Ms and Fs.

When I saw "clicky" and the price, I added to my cart and was excited when it arrived. It was a fairly well constructed keyboard, better than the average plastic bodied variety. The aesthetics were awful, however. The case had the brushed aluminum finish and they keycaps had the rainbow colored LED backlighting with the typical ugly clear stencil font.

None of it deterred me. I am quite forgiving if they typing experience is good enough, but I was in for a nasty surprise. The switches had the most loud and piercing sound you could imagine. It was like having bad sex. After about an hour of typing, I packed it up and sent it back. To this day, I'm still scarred by clicky switches, favoring tactiles and even to my surprise, linears over them. MX switches really made a terrible mess of clickies switches. It's no wonder most of the fan fare in the MX community is around linears.

User avatar
hellothere

01 Jun 2022, 00:58

Mind you, I rarely frequent r/mk or really any other "modern" keyboard fan 'site, but I do remember more than a bit of hype regarding Kailh Box clicky switches and, based on my experience with pink, jade, and navy Box switches, I think those were worth the hype. The hype I did see about the optical linear switches were more in line with, "It'll help you be 1337 g@m3rz." That doesn't really do anything for me, as I haven't done any computer gaming of any kind in at least a year. Unless you count Plants vs Zombies 2 on my iPad, which is now 13 years old.

I do pile on Cherry browns, mostly because everyone else does and I think it's funny. However, I've owned and own a few Cherry MX brown, blue, and red keyboards and the main takeaway I have is, "There are better choices out there at the same price-point," not just because they're terrible switches or anything.

https://youtu.be/0xH-imuniec

User avatar
kbdfr
The Tiproman

01 Jun 2022, 06:28

hellothere wrote:
01 Jun 2022, 00:58
[…] I do pile on Cherry browns, mostly because everyone else does and I think it's funny. […]
:lol:

User avatar
Elrick

04 Jun 2022, 03:03

hellothere wrote:
01 Jun 2022, 00:58
"There are better choices out there at the same price-point," not just because they're terrible switches or anything.
I would say all CherryMX design and manufactured TODAY are absolute Land-Fill style of switches.

You can't recycle them hence the earth is stuck with them for a few thousand years, unless a volcanic eruption happens then they deserve the melted position :evilgeek: .

In fact, the Cherry Corporation should in all decency file for Chapter 11 and leave this planet, once and for all.

User avatar
kbdfr
The Tiproman

04 Jun 2022, 05:54

Elrick wrote:
04 Jun 2022, 03:03
[…] I would say all CherryMX design and manufactured TODAY are absolute Land-Fill style of switches.

You can't recycle them hence the earth is stuck with them for a few thousand years, unless a volcanic eruption happens then they deserve the melted position :evilgeek: .

In fact, the Cherry Corporation should in all decency file for Chapter 11 and leave this planet, once and for all.

hellothere wrote:
01 Jun 2022, 00:58
[…] I do pile on Cherry […], mostly because everyone else does and I think it's funny. […]

Q.E.D. :mrgreen:

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