Too many keyboards and mice Part 23: Evolved Gasket, Dareu A81 elastic arm structure keyboard

The Gasket structure has been designed in the niche customization circle in the past two years, and now it has become the standard configuration of domestic mass-produced mechanical keyboards. Everyone should be familiar with it. This also means that the domestic keyboard circle has gradually extended from the differentiated competition on the shaft and keycap to the overall structure of the keyboard. After everyone uses the gasket, if you want to make a breakthrough, you will naturally need to make something different.

So Dareu A81 came with a new elastic arm structure.

Dareu should be the first batch of brands to use gaskets on mass-produced keyboards. If you use them early, you will naturally have a deeper accumulation in the keyboard structure and the impact of the sound, so it took a long time before you got the product. The sense of anticipation that had never been there appeared again.

The outer packaging still has its own style, and the design is very good-looking. I haven’t bought Dareu’s keyboard before, so I don’t know if it’s all in this style.

However, the inner packaging and accessories are a bit crude, after all, the positioning is not very high.

But the replacement keycaps are quite enough. Unlike the usual replacement keycaps for mac, A81 provides keycaps for adjusting color matching, including a space.

I used to be a loyal fan of 64 series keyboards, but after knowing how good 75 is, I feel a little shaken. . Although the mac system does not use the f area, the ratio of 75 is much more coordinated than that of 64, and it is more visually comfortable.

The main key area of ​​75 is the same for everyone, but the design of the 5 keys on the far right has different understandings. The selection of these 5 keys of A81 is still reasonable.

Because of the need to reserve installation space for the elastic arm gasket structure, I had to use a wide frame design, but I feel that this wide frame has the retro beauty of the cherry keyboard back then.

The 3-mode switching switch is designed on the left side of the keyboard, and the L-shaped lever is very convenient to operate. This is the most convenient keyboard for 3-mode switching I have used so far. When I work, I usually use a laptop + desktop together, and I need to switch frequently. This design is too friendly for me.

It's a pity that the switch between mac and win is still not easy to press, maybe my need for dual system switching is relatively small.

The 2.4G receiver cleverly uses the space of the indicator light for storage, and the design is thoughtful.

The texture design on the back is good. The keyboard does not provide a foot support, but comes with an angle that is about the first gear of an ordinary keyboard. It is suitable for most people, but users who like to use other angles need time to adapt.

My phone is the wireless three-mode version of A81, and A81 also has a wired version. These two versions are not only different in connection mode: the wired version is a rare steel-free (more accurate, no positioning board) keyboard, and the wireless version It should be to support hot swapping, it cannot be made without steel, and only a positioning plate can be added. So although they are all gaskets with elastic arms, it is obvious that the wired version without steel will be softer in theory.

For my three-mode version, the manufacturer made a translucent positioning plate made of soft PC material, obviously wanting to continue the soft elastic feel without the steel plate.

It is paired with Dareu’s own sky switch V3, and the keycaps are PBT two-color keycaps. It’s a pity that they are not ball caps.

The elastic arm design is to extend a T-shaped structure on the edge of the PCB on the basis of the original gasket of the gasket. The long T-shaped structure can obviously produce greater deformation than the entire PCB, so it can be said to be a more elastic and softer the gasket.

The feel of this combination is very interesting. The first feeling is that it is very similar to the feeling of the G80 3000 series without steel plate, but after all, there is still a positioning plate, so it is not so soft and soft. Smooth and soft touch, the overall feeling is not as soft as imagined, but a little soft, but soft and not fleshy, very silky and brisk, no matter in terms of touch or sound, it will not touch the bottom of an ordinary keyboard. "Snap". The weakening of the bottom sound makes the typing sound softer. The auditory feedback makes the overall input experience softer and softer. Because the sky switch only has a pressure of 40g, it doesn't feel too much bounce. I don't know if the 60g purple gold switch version will be more interesting.

Through dismantling, it is found that the slender elastic arm extended from the pcb is equipped with vibration-damping pads at the end, and these vibration-damping pads are the supporting points of the PCB and the bottom case. The deformation of the elastic arm is much larger than that of the PCB itself, but the actual feel is not as obvious as the structure.

The guess is that there is a thick bottom cotton and a huge silicone pad under the PCB to completely eliminate the cavity, but at the same time it also reduces the deformation space of the PCB to a certain extent, so instead of saying that the PCB is supported by the end of the elastic arm, it is better to say The pcb is supported by the entire bottom cotton and silicone pad, so the feel is also soft rather than elastic.

Since it is an evolutionary gasket, the sound is naturally the focus. In addition to the traditional sound-absorbing cotton and bottom cotton, there is also a layer of silicone shell between the bottom cover and the bottom cover to completely eliminate the cavity sound. The actual performance is really good, there is only a very slight and short bottoming sound when hitting, and there is no positioning plate vibration and cavity sound at all.

In addition to the elastic arm gasket, I think the appearance is also the characteristic of this keyboard, especially this small and fresh white and blue color scheme, the combination of white and low saturated blue is quite beautiful.

The quality of this set of keycaps is quite online, and the thickness of the material

Interestingly, there are actually 3 colors of keycaps, two of which are not the same blue. The saturation of the enter space arrow keys and esc is higher, so that the keyboard color is not so monotonous and at the same time it will not be garish. Moreover, these keys are additionally provided with a replacement keycap with the same low saturation as other keys.

Although it doesn't match my black desktop a little bit, the overall appearance is quite good.

I was looking forward to the RGB effect of this keyboard, but unfortunately, the translucent PCB cannot enhance the lighting effect, so it is actually relatively ordinary.

The unique feel of the A81 keyboard is different from most of the products on the market, but there is no way to say which one is good and which is bad. But if you like the old steelless cherry or the soft and soft feel, this is a keyboard you should know. Like it, and one of the few options.

Of course, if you want to be more flexible, you can consider the completely steel-free A81 wired version and the purple gold shaft version, which I think will be more distinctive.