$36us brown mechanical illuminated keyboard, what's wrong with it?

digitalwanderer

wandering
Legend
I'm tired to death of my Razer Deathstalker and its chiclet keys. I thought I could get used to them, but I can't. I've been looking to try a mechanical keyboard since my son got his, but he got a rather nice one and my wife isn't too keen on me spending money...well ever. So I've been on the lookout for a cheap one, and I think this is it:

Velocifire VM01 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Brown Switches LED Illuminated Backlit Anti-ghosting Keys (Black)
61FWXRCuyhL._SL1200_.jpg


My question, is there something wrong with this I'm missing or does it not look like a pretty decent brown mechanical keyboard for the price?
 
Razer is generally cheaper in general which is what you're seeing.

My recommendation before opening the box:
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/mechanical-keyboard-guide


Would definitely follow the guide. Could save you a lot of money In the long term.

Lots of different brands out there as well. I own a Leopold, which has served me well. Now I am looking at a Topre, since I have been doing less keyboard gaming on my PC.
 
I have a wife who would kill me if I spent more than $50 on a keyboard right now, I still haven't told her I got this one at $35 and I'm a bit fearful she might get annoyed with me. She's kind of sensitive about me spending monies on computer stuff, but in fairness she has damned good reasons for it living with me for 21+ years. ;)

I just saw the price on this one, it had backlighting and brown mech keys, and couldn't find any reviews on it because it's a new Chinese import. I figured it's worth $35 to check it out and see how it is, and since there are no reviews out for it I could give my opinion on it. (I'm trying to get back in to writing.)

One thing I'm confused about, what do you mean "razer is generally cheaper in general"? Do you mean price or quality, because their prices didn't seem too cheap to me.
 
I have a wife who would kill me if I spent more than $50 on a keyboard right now, I still haven't told her I got this one at $35 and I'm a bit fearful she might get annoyed with me. She's kind of sensitive about me spending monies on computer stuff, but in fairness she has damned good reasons for it living with me for 21+ years. ;)

I just saw the price on this one, it had backlighting and brown mech keys, and couldn't find any reviews on it because it's a new Chinese import. I figured it's worth $35 to check it out and see how it is, and since there are no reviews out for it I could give my opinion on it. (I'm trying to get back in to writing.)

One thing I'm confused about, what do you mean "razer is generally cheaper in general"? Do you mean price or quality, because their prices didn't seem too cheap to me.
Build quality. They tend to break really fast or don't have quality components. Their mice are okay though. I've been burned with their other product lines enough to not buy them anymore.
 
True enough that, my first Lycosa I had to return because the touchpad thingy on it didn't work and after only about 3 years my "d" key got flakey. On a plus for Razer though they just sent me a new Lycosa and let me keep the one with the busted touchpad thingy and my wife is still happily using it.

The no reviews of this keyboard was a big selling point for me in a way, I'm dying to write something and a keyboard write-up is a pretty damned easy thing to do. ;)
 
Oh, on mice I'm a pure logitech man. I fell in love with the freewheeling or clicking mouse button back with the Revo MX and haven't been able to break the habit. (G700s right now. :) )
 
I'm tired to death of my Razer Deathstalker and its chiclet keys. I thought I could get used to them, but I can't. I've been looking to try a mechanical keyboard since my son got his, but he got a rather nice one and my wife isn't too keen on me spending money...well ever. So I've been on the lookout for a cheap one, and I think this is it:

Velocifire VM01 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Brown Switches LED Illuminated Backlit Anti-ghosting Keys (Black)
61FWXRCuyhL._SL1200_.jpg


My question, is there something wrong with this I'm missing or does it not look like a pretty decent brown mechanical keyboard for the price?

I'm going to guess those are the cheaper Kailh switches that attempt to emulate the Cherry MX switches. Hence no mention of Cherry MX. It's still going to be worlds better than your old chiclet keyboard, but likely won't be as consistent in key press actuation force as Cherry MX switches, unless you get extremely lucky. Good thing is, if you haven't used Cherry MX switches extensively in the past, you're unlikely to notice. :)

They are good switches for people on a strict budget looking to get into a mechanical switch keyboard.

Oh, on mice I'm a pure logitech man. I fell in love with the freewheeling or clicking mouse button back with the Revo MX and haven't been able to break the habit. (G700s right now. :) )

I'm in the same boat. Everytime I buy a new mouse, I think about trying something different from Logitech, but just the thought of not having a free spinning flywheel for the mouse wheel makes me abandon that thought.

Additionally ever since they improved their switches for the mouse buttons (the original MX Revolution that introduced the flywheel had horrible switches like Razer mice), I haven't really had a reason to want to switch from Logitech, except to try something new.

But that Flywheel. :D So I just recently ended up getting the Logitech G900 Chaos. It's expensive as hell, but wow it's so good. I just wish it wasn't ambidextrous, as I prefer the 4 button layout on the left side like the G700s versus the G900 with 2 buttons on the left and 2 buttons on the right. Wouldn't be a problem if I only needed 2 thumb buttons, but I actually use all 4.

Regards,
SB
 
Good catch. I assumed they were Cherry switches because they used the same colour categories. Razers older Mech keyboards used Cherry MX switches, but I can see now that they have been switching over to Razer switches.
The nice thing about Cherries is that if you have issues on Cherries parts are available for replacement. It's a bit of work, but if you are paying a huge price for your keyboard and a switch dies you can replace the components,or you want very specific customization, you get that opportunity with Cherry MX switches.
here are some videos of the process

First video that guy owns some serious solder removal gear.
 
Silent_Budha - I had a G700 that I loved, but the left-clicker went out. I was pissed, but the G700s is pretty identical except for much better switches and some ugly graphics on it.

iroboto - I suck with a soldering iron :oops: , plus if something goes wrong with this one it's just $35.
 
UPDATE : Still love it and it has held up very well! I added some o-rings to quiet it a bit and had a scary pop spill/rinse off experience, but it's still doing great and looking good. I got really lucky with this one. :)
 
Back
Top