Unexpectedly, the fever went away! The first mechanical keyboard for keyboard newcomers - Royal Axe R108

cause i want Protect the cervical spine , so bought a stand for the laptop.

After using the bracket, although the cervical spine problem has been alleviated, a new demand has arisen - I have to buy a keyboard, and it is best not to drag the long USB cable, so I need a keyboard that supports wireless or Bluetooth functions .

Considering that I am used to the membrane keyboard that comes with the notebook, I first bought a portable Bluetooth keyboard British Fick V750B ——Nowadays, the most important consideration for me to buy a membrane keyboard is portability—but it is too small, and there will be false touches when typing, and if you change devices, you have to switch frequently, and you have to re-adapt and connect every time you switch, which is time-consuming exhausting.

Then I entered a Lenovo's wireless full-size keyboard and mouse combo . However, I found that the adjustment of the keys is not good, and the backspace key is very uncomfortable to press. It is very laborious to press it every time, and I always feel like something is stuck. . .

Moreover, this wireless keyboard interface is 2.4G, and switching devices must be re-plugged. Since the mouse and keyboard share a USB receiver, the mouse also goes away after the receiver is plugged and unplugged to switch the keyboard, which is also inconvenient.

So I was thinking whether to buy one Three-mode mechanical keyboard Bar? Just recently, because of Zhihui Jun’s DIY video, mechanical keyboards have exploded again. Technology is based on changing the shell. If you want to buy it, you have to buy a hot-swappable switchable shaft to change the keycap. After all, there are so many good-looking keycaps, plant a large grassland, buy a mechanical keyboard, and give yourself a chance to experience it!

Although I did some homework, I am still a newcomer when it comes to mechanical keyboards. There are so many mechanical keyboards on the market, which one should I buy? Before buying, I sorted out my needs, mainly——

1. It must support wired, bluetooth and 2.4G functions, that is, three-mode.

2. It is necessary to be able to change keycaps and shafts to avoid buying "orphan" keyboards.

3. Because of the need to input numbers, I need a small keyboard area.

These needs have brought two options: 1. Buy a finished keyboard, 2. Buy a kit + shaft body + keycap and assemble it yourself.

I have considered whether to buy cheap kits that are now popular (such as JJK84, wolf pie) + shaft body + keycap, and try to assemble a keyboard by myself-calculate the cost: one or two hundred for the kit, one hundred for the shaft body, and one for the keycap. One hundred, it is estimated that it will take three or four hundred yuan to get it done. However, cheap kits require a lot of accessories such as sound-absorbing cotton, and strong hands-on ability. Although I, as a newcomer, have no practical concept of hearing, touch, etc., but I don't understand ≠ no requirement. It is more secure for newcomers to enter the pit or buy products from large manufacturers. So I finally chose to buy the current popular model on JD.com - Royal Axe R108.

The keyboards I bought before were all directly filled with the keyboard in a cardboard box, and at most it was covered with a layer of plastic bags. But the packaging of the Royal Ax surprised me a little bit - a thick and heavy big box. I know this keyboard is heavy, but I didn't expect the packaging to be this heavy.

After a long unpacking process - there is a box inside the outer packaging, and there are two boxes in the box, one contains four cute gold powder switches, keycap replacement tools, and switch replacement tools, and the other contains a very thick one. Braided data cable.

Then there is today's protagonist - the Royal Axe R108 keyboard body.

It has its logo on the side-I prefer this design without the logo printed on the top of the keyboard. An overly obvious logo will give people a sense of oppression, and it is difficult to ignore the keyboard manufacturer you are using when using it. On the one hand, this approach of Yufu saves the space above the keyboard, and also makes people like me who don’t like to see logos feel much more comfortable. The keycaps are printed in two arrangements, the upper part is the windows keys such as Alt Win, and the lower part is the mac keys such as Cmd Option. It is very friendly for people like me who use two models at the same time.

The same goes for the left side. Here I found an interesting phenomenon - the order of the Royal Ax keyboard is completely in accordance with the order of the Mac computer keyboard. When the command on my mac keyboard is using a virtual machine, it corresponds to the win button of windows, and the option key corresponds to the alt key. In other words, it is exactly the opposite of what is designed on the keyboard! So when the time comes to use the win virtual machine on the mac, there may be a little confusion. . . .

The keyboard area on the right feels silky! Hey, really, I didn't expect that the input of numbers can be so smooth! Compared with the membrane keyboard used before, it is either stuck or touched by mistake. . .

I thought there would be no separation between the several major keypads, but in fact there is a separation, and it is quite obvious, and it will not cause accidental touches at all. Although the upper F functional area is not separated and is relatively compact, its height is different from that of the lower buttons, and the frequency of using the F area is actually not high. The most commonly used backspace key, space, carriage return, tab, English letter area, feel very good!

There is a switcher on the right, which is a knob design. BT on the top corresponds to Bluetooth, 2.4G in the middle corresponds to 2.4G USB receiver, the icon below corresponds to wired, and OFF at the bottom means off. In the middle is the toggle switch for win and mac keys. A on the left corresponds to the upper and lower case switch, 1 corresponds to the digital switch, and the bottom is the battery indicator.

The back of the keyboard is this arc-shaped design. The use of kickstands is not supported. The actual use experience is that the foot support is not required, because its height is sufficient and just right. No adjustment is required.

There is a magnetic socket for a 2.4G receiver on the side.

The keycaps have this matte texture. A frosted grainy texture can be captured with a macro lens. Although it is very subtle, there are indeed some reflections under strong light, which is very beautiful.

The inside of the keycap can be seen to be a two-color injection molding process.

Gold powder shaft! Super soft and waxy, the sound of pressing is very light, it is a very gentle feeling.

Silver-plated pins, sparkling~

Royal Axe's R108 series offers three color schemes - lava castle, whale falling into the deep sea, and walking in the galaxy.

Walking in the galaxy-my good friend bought this, the color matching is very cool.

This is the actual picture taken by a friend, and it looks like there is no color difference from the promotional picture.

This color scheme is "Whale Falling into the Deep Sea", and it is also my favorite color scheme among the three.

This one is "Lava Castle", which actually looks closer to milk chocolate, but I don't know why it has such a bluffing name.

I chose this "Lava Castle" for two reasons: 1. Good price. At that time, there was news about a good price on the website. JD.com’s flash sale was 499 yuan (equal to the price of the pre-sale period), and the new customer benefit was added - 10 yuan, and then Jingdou and red envelopes were added, and the final price was 471 yuan. 2. Good match. The white frame, if you DIY with keycaps after you get it, it can be better matched with light-colored keycaps.

Royal Ax has the ability to connect 5 devices at the same time. I usually need to switch between two devices, the two are Win and MAC, and the mobile phone is three devices. If it is a wired keyboard, I have to plug and unplug it frequently, so it is convenient to switch + support five devices at the same time The ability is very convenient for me.

Switch the key arrangement of Win and MAC systems by toggling the button.

The connection method is switched with a physical knob. If you need to change the Bluetooth-connected device, just press Fn+Q/W/E.

Practical use experience - switching the Bluetooth connection device is very sensitive, and the connection can be completed within a few seconds after the switch button is pressed. It is much more convenient than changing the 2.4G USB interface and re-pairing Bluetooth.

I usually use it less with the lights on, so I don't worry about battery life. The capacity of 4000mAh is equivalent to the battery of a large-capacity smartphone.

This is the most common boat-shaped structure, which contains silicone pads and sound insulation pads inside. The switch is a gold powder switch, which is cost-effective and very suitable for beginners—after all, the purpose of choosing hot-swap is to experience different types of switches in the future—of course, I am very satisfied with the soft gold powder switch at present, and I do not plan to replace the switch for the time being . I have seen the introduction that the gold powder shaft costs two yuan more. After actually experiencing the feel, I feel that this price is very reasonable in terms of the quality of the gold powder switch.

Very compact 108 arrangement, there is no partition between the F area and the key position, and there is a very narrow partition between the numeric keypad and the upper and lower keyboards. I read the reviews and said that this kind of compact arrangement may need to get used to, but I didn't expect that I would get used to it without any time to get used to it. . . .

Refer to the picture below, mine is version B - there is no horizontal bar on the space bar, and the ↑ of the arrow key is white. ——I like this combination very much. Because there is a color in the middle of the arrow keys that is different from the others, it will be more dramatic.

It is said that there are 18+4 lighting effects. Although most of the time is usually used for office work, lighting effects are rarely needed, but if you replace the more transparent keycaps, lighting is essential. In fact, the hands-on experience is that the switching of lighting effects is very convenient. In the future, you can try to insert some transparent or translucent frosted keycaps to experience the cool lighting.

For this AEK height PBT two-color ball cap, there is relatively little information on the Internet, so I asked the customer service for a comparison chart. It can be seen that the height is much higher than the original factory. I speculate that making R5 so high is helpful to distinguish the F function area. After all, the keys are arranged without partitions, and it may be easy to press the wrong one.

Here is a more complete keycap height comparison chart for your reference:

Great value for money! Although many articles are discussing the price/performance ratio of the Royal Axe, it is not a loss to sell it apart, etc. But for a newcomer, the most important thing is that this keyboard can meet their own needs. For example, I need to type a lot without getting tired, and the softness of the gold powder switch is just right for me; I need a fast Bluetooth connection. Switching between devices is easy. . .

Although it is said to be a fever reducer, the pursuit of comfortable peripherals will never stop. Maybe the switch or keycap will be replaced in the future. The Royal Axe R108 has set a pretty good standard for me at this starting price. .