You know I like displays and you know I like keyboards. So what if they took a display
and put it inside the keyboard? So we've got the EpoMaker Shadow X
and they sponsored this video so I could take a look at their keyboard and tell you what I think.
Wow, there it is. It's a 70% hot swappable board, gasket mounted,
pour on foam, PC plate, and this one's got bluebird switches.
I've never tried them before, they're linear. We'll check them out today. So we've got combo key cap and switch puller,
which is always great. I like to see the dual ones, not just the switch puller,
which makes sense because it's hot swap. So you can take these switches out if you don't like the ones that come with the board
and put whatever you do wanna put in. Comes with a decent little sleeved cable,
USB-A to C. Then we've got extra switches and extra yellow keycaps.
So actually I think the yellow and gray could work pretty well.
These are extra switches. Maybe they're the bluebirds, they are blue.
The top is like a sea foam green and then we've got a blue on the bottom housing.
Let's do a little bit of investigation just to see if these are the same thing
that we're dealing with here. They are, okay, so they're all bluebird switches.
They're linear switches, not super lighter heavy, they're about a 47 grand actuation force.
It's got a little screen here that we'll try later on.
And then aside from that, it's kind of a compact size. My only real problem is they say it's designed
for enthusiasts and professionals and it does look really nice. I really would like a little bit more space shaved off.
These outer bezels are kind of long. It's really not the end of the world,
but it's not the tiniest keyboard in the world.
Now, considering it's wireless, we do have a battery in here and it does 3000 milliamp hours, which is okay.
Definitely not the highest battery I've ever seen, but it's not tiny either.
It's reasonably comfortable to type on
with not an egregious typing angle or anything like that.
Also, if you don't like the typing angle, it has one of my favorite things, two stage feet.
So you want a little bit, you want a lot,
flip the feet up, put it down, and you're good to go. If I flip it over, it looks like a pretty typical case.
We've got a bunch of screws on the bottom here so you can open it up easily.
If you want to, it doesn't look like any are hidden by feet or anything like that.
And then we've just got four little rubber bars for feet,
which is totally fine. I actually usually prefer the bars instead of the single little circular nubbin feet
because it just kind of adds more surface area. And while it might not be
the most compact keyboard I've ever dealt with, it's only 906 grams, which is under a kilo.
And it's honestly like not that heavy. So if you want to travel with it,
it's really not the end of the world. We figured out the knob. We took a look at the quick start guide in the website.
It turns out it's for the different pairing modes, including three different Bluetooth devices
if you so choose. It's wired 2.4 gigahertz
and then three different Bluetooth layers. So choose whatever you want.
I'm going to switch to wired because that's what we want to do. And it is working, I believe.
I'm happy to say that our wired only comes in
at 6.9 milliseconds of latency, which is totally acceptable.
Our wireless receiver, the 2.4 gigahertz, does almost double that going up to 12.36 milliseconds
of latency, which is still acceptable. And then Bluetooth only kicks it up a little bit to 13.6,
which depending on your range or what's in between you and the Bluetooth
or the 2.4 gigahertz could be worse, could be better.
Your mileage may vary, but it didn't introduce a ton of added latency.
So it's totally okay to use this in whatever wireless mode you might desire.
Let's plug it in. You know, I want to type on it and I want to look at the RGB.
EpoMaker offers their own software on the website
and you can do whatever you want in here. Set macros, change the screen,
which is the thing I care about the most. So let me just like paint a little something here
and let's put a line. Yeah, that's great. Oh, this is gold.
We should just sell this for sure. Oh, you can upload pictures.
Oh, it's doing it. Oh my God, it actually worked. Okay, that was actually really easy.
It's a masterpiece. It's just random scribbling.
Let me, oh, I think I found it. Select picture. Oh my God.
Okay, we're going to do it. The system works Linus face. What?
That's pretty great.
One thing to note, if you're using software like this, since the pixel count is kind of predefined,
you definitely want to fill it out a bit better. For example, with this one,
the picture is not the right aspect ratio. So I've got black bars on the top and the bottom,
but that's an easy fix when you have more time, especially if you're really good with Photoshop
or even just paint, honestly, you can upload GIFs or whatever videos you want
to this thing and have it just kind of go, or you can have it just on the start screen
that it had there with a bit of information and whatnot, whatever you prefer.
I love it. I kind of wish I had this on all my keyboards now.
It's a feature that I would like to keep. I promise they did sponsor this video,
but I'm really not even chilling. I genuinely want a display in like all of my keyboards now.
It's pretty cool. As for the RGB, it is south-facing RGB.
So if you want north-facing for more better shine through on your keycaps,
you're not gonna get that. My only other kind of complaint is while they have a lot of premium materials in here,
the stabs are mounted to the plate.
They're not mounted to the PCB, but let's see, you know, maybe it's okay.
That's not the worst.
Yeah, honestly, for plate mounted stabs,
I'm pretty impressed. I think the spacebar could use a little bit of work, but frankly, that's just about any keyboard you buy.
You've really gotta fix it yourself, but that's okay. Let's see how the actual typing experience is.
All right, you know, I've been using tactile for quite a while, but let's see how I am with linear as these days.
So here we go.
120 words per minute, 99% accuracy.
That's not bad. I noticed there's a bunch of comments about how I always say I can type faster.
Yeah, that's slow for you. 120? Yeah, that's really slow for you.
That's not really slow for me. That's not bad. 120 is kind of my average, to be perfectly honest.
Honestly, these switches, I didn't mind them too much, and I do like the sound of the keyboard
just straight out of the box. It's really that pour-on foam layer,
and the PC plate that are really giving you that kind of deeper, richer, creamier sound.
The switches themselves feel good. I don't mind them,
and I kind of want to get back into linears now. Maybe I'll buy some new switches soon.
But yeah, overall, the construction is decent.
I think that plastic keyboards have certainly come a pretty long way in the last few years,
especially for travel, if that's what you're looking for. Most of the weight in this is probably coming from the battery
if I had to take a guess. As for price, it's surprisingly reasonable.
It's on sale right now at the time of filming for $73,
which is frankly not bad for a wireless keyboard of this caliber.
Normally it's 86, which is still pretty good.
That's under 90 bucks, USD. Overall, it's pretty decent.
I kind of wish the knob had a bit more utility, but if it's the keyboard for you,
mostly because of this display, maybe look into some other reviews from other creators,
or check it out at the link below. Thanks so much for watching.
Make sure to subscribe and have yourself a great day.