PC Hardware and Peripherals Chapter 183: Plain or Unique? NZXT Function and NZXT LIFT package experience review

With the popularity of mechanical keyboards, no matter which hardware brand launches its own mechanical keyboard, it is not surprising that it is basically a normal operation. It is not surprising that NZXT, a well-known computer hardware brand in North America, has also launched its first mechanical keyboard Function, and launched There is also the LIFT mouse. Next, I will talk about the NZXT Function series mechanical keyboard and the NZXT LIFT mouse.

Both the NZXT Function series mechanical keyboard and the NZXT LIFT mouse are available in black and white, and the ones I chose here are all black. The NZXT Function series mechanical keyboard includes three models: Function (104 keys), Function Tenkeyless (87 keys) and Mini TKL (68 keys). I choose Function here.

I personally think that the current selling points of mechanical keyboards are roughly divided into three categories: appearance (shape/color), wireless multi-mode, and hot-swappable switches. What attracts me to the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard is the use of Gateron hot-swappable. Pull-out switch design, the hot-swappable switch design allows players to freely replace the switch body according to personal preference, which can greatly improve the playability, and there is no need to worry about bad switches affecting the use of the keyboard.

The internal PCB board of the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard adopts a five-hole design. In addition to Jiadalong switches, it can also be installed and used with Cherry switches, Kaihua Box switches, TTC switches, and third-party custom switches.

The Jiadalong hot-swappable shaft body used in the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard adopts a standard 2-pin design, and only needs to be aligned with the corresponding holes on the PCB board when installing.

I personally recommend buying some different types of hot-swappable switches. For example, you can directly experience different switches on the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard at the same time. For example, the popular TTC gold powder fast silver switches are more fun.

The picture below is the installation effect diagram of the third-party hot-swappable shaft. After normal installation, these shafts can be installed and used normally, and the button functions are normal.

When it comes to changing the shaft, you have to take out the shaft puller. The shaft puller is made of a very hard metal material, and the operating experience is excellent. The original shaft puller and cap puller are the most annoying of all the keycaps I currently have, because they all use the gay purple color.

Let me talk about the good design of NZXT Function mechanical keyboard,

One is the design of scroll wheel key + three side keys.

The scroll wheel button is located in the upper left corner, and is used to quickly adjust the volume. The resistance is moderate, and there is a more obvious sense of scale. The surface is wrapped with rubber material designed to arrange particles, and it feels more comfortable.

The three side keys are the mute key, the WIN key disable key, and the brightness adjustment key, which can realize the effect of one-key mute, one-key shielding of the WIN key, and quick adjustment of the brightness of the keyboard light or turning off the light. The mute key and the WIN key disable key are designed with corresponding indicator lights. The difference is that the mute key will only light up in red when it is pressed, but it will not stay on after it is enabled. This should be corrected; the WIN key disable key indicator The light is white and stays on when enabled.

The second is that the dust cover and wrist rest are provided with the package. These two accessories are my favorite accessories. The transparent dust cover provided can effectively prevent the entry of dust or foreign objects. It is no longer necessary to buy a dust cover or use a towel to prevent dust. It is especially useful for northern players like me. The addition of the wrist rest alleviates the fatigue feeling when using the keyboard for a long time. It is worth mentioning that the surface material is not a leather material that is easy to collect sweat. There are a total of 10 anti-slip pads in the upper and lower rows at the bottom to effectively avoid the sliding problem.

The third is that the large keys such as SPACE, ENTER, SHIFT, and BACKSPACE all adopt the satellite shaft design, the keys are very stable, and there are no problems such as stuck keys or loud wire noise.

Fourth, the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard supports onboard configuration files, which can be used to store 1 default + 4 custom configuration files, and the onboard configuration files can be quickly switched through the four key combinations of FN+ F1/F2/F3/F4. What is worthy of praise here is that NZXT Function mechanical keyboard has corresponding official driver software NZXT CAM to manage its keyboard and mouse, radiator, motherboard and other products in a unified manner.

Fifth, the bottom of the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard adopts a large and small independent double-leg design, which can achieve two different height adjustments. The head of each leg has also been treated with anti-slip treatment, and it can be better matched with the rubber pad under the bottom. anti-skid effect.

Next, let's talk about other aspects of the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard.

The keycaps of the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard do not use PBT keycaps but ABS laser-engraved keycaps. If large grain textures can be added, the hand feel will be more comfortable.

The keycap fonts or symbols are mainly single-row. Only the seven keys such as F1~F4 are designed with upper and lower rows. perception.

The keycap adopts a standard cross opening design, which is convenient for players to replace their favorite keycaps, with higher autonomy and playability. The concave design of the keycap can better fit the fingers to improve the operating experience.

The NZXT Function mechanical keyboard adopts the mainstream wire separation design, and the interface is the mainstream USB-C interface, which is located at the front left. There are two points worth mentioning here. One is that the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard does not use a built-in metal panel design but an aluminum alloy metal cover design, which improves the wear resistance and scratch resistance; the second is the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard. The floating keycap design is also more convenient for users to clean and maintain and replace keycaps daily.

Next, let’s talk about the experience of using the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard.

In terms of lighting, the default brightness of the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard is not high. The picture below is the rendering at the highest brightness, and there is no glare. Through the light brightness adjustment button on the left, we can adjust the brightness of 4 levels or turn off the light.

If you want to adjust the lighting mode, such as color, direction, speed, etc., you can directly use the lighting function under NZXT CAM. Here we can directly choose a variety of preset lighting effects, or adjust a single button or a certain Zone keys are set individually. The NZXT Function mechanical keyboard has two main functions in NZXT CAM, namely lighting and remapping buttons. Remapping buttons allow users to specify button functions, set FN key combinations or macro recording and other functions.

NZXT Function series mechanical keyboards use Gateron red switches, which adopt the same linear switch design as Cherry red switches. The feel is close to Cherry red switches, and the keys are straight up and down, but the bottoming feeling and rebound force are slightly crisper , the overall button noise is not much, and the button experience is quite smooth. I personally feel that the left Shift, Backspace, and Enter keys are a bit loose in terms of key experience, and it is necessary to adjust and optimize.

After introducing the NZXT Function mechanical keyboard, let’s take a look at this NZXT LIFT gaming mouse. The first feeling in the hand is that it is very light. The actual weight is about 66.57g. It is a lightweight gaming mouse and it moves more briskly. The NZXT LIFT gaming mouse adopts a left-right symmetrical design, which can be used directly by people with left and right hands.

The NZXT LIFT gaming mouse is designed with an integrated wire. The wire adopts a lightweight but high tensile strength paracord design, and the length of the wire has reached 2 meters. If it is changed to a separate wire design, it will be more practical.

The surface layer of NZXT LIFT gaming mouse is made of skin-like material, which feels more delicate and has a certain anti-slip effect. The disadvantage is that it is easy to get dirty, so it is not suitable for people with sweaty palms. In addition to the left and right buttons and the scroll wheel button, the NZXT LIFT gaming mouse has added a DPI button and a double-sided button design.

In terms of lighting design, the NZXT LIFT gaming mouse does not add a lighting design to the scroll wheel, nor does it add a background light design to the NZXT logo at the tail, but only adds a symmetrical light strip design on the left and right sides of the bottom.

The light strip at the bottom is only the upper part. Personally, I feel that a half-wrapped U-shape would look better. I also hope that the light strip can be exposed, which will be attractive to players who prefer lighting.

Let’s take a look at the bottom of the mouse. The top and bottom of the NZXT LIFT gaming mouse are designed with large-area Teflon foot stickers. At the same time, Teflon foot stickers are also added around the oval hole in the center, which effectively improves the sliding experience. NZXT LIFT Gaming Mouse uses the original PIXART PMW3389 sensor that is common on mid-to-high-end mice, supports up to 16000dpi, and supports NVIDIA Reflex low-latency mode. In addition, the NZXT LIFT gaming mouse uses Omron micro-movements with a lifespan of 20 million clicks.

In terms of user experience, as a person with big hands, I feel that the arc design of the NZXT LIFT gaming mouse is not bad, it can fit into the palm of the hand, and the grip is more comfortable. The position of the two side buttons is moderately designed, which is more convenient for thumb operation.

The driver management software corresponding to NZXT LIFT gaming mouse is still NZXT CAM, and the functions that can be realized include lighting settings, macro recording, storage gear and so on. Like the FUNCTION mechanical keyboard, the NZXT LIFT gaming mouse also supports the default + 4 customizable configuration file functions, which is convenient for quickly calling the corresponding configuration in different scenarios. One point to be explained here is that the macro recording function corresponding to the keyboard cannot record mouse operations at present, nor does it support inserted mouse operations, while the macro recording function of the mouse can normally record mouse + keyboard operations, so if you need to record keyboard and mouse operations at the same time, Then you need to match the macro recording function corresponding to the mouse. In addition, whether it is a keyboard or mouse firmware upgrade, do not use it with a USB HUB to avoid problems during the upgrade process.

In general, as the first mechanical keyboard and mouse launched by NZXT, NZXT Function and NZXT LIFT belong to the mainstream level in terms of material workmanship and hardware configuration. Overall, the overall quality is not bad. At the same time, it can be better with the official driver software NZXT CAM. Improve product user experience.

I hope that the official follow-up can provide more keyboard switch versions for players to choose, such as tea switch, silver switch, etc. By the way, PBT keycaps and Cherry switch versions will be launched for players to choose. At the same time, it is necessary to follow the market to launch wireless multi-mode machines. keyboard. As for the mouse part, I hope to strengthen the lighting design, add a light strip design for the scroll wheel and logo, and make the bottom light strip longer.

The above is a simple experience this time, thank you for watching.