Boasting infinite customizability, the
Flux keyboard is finally the answer to
what would happen if you made it a
keyboard and a display. [music]
It's a keysplay.
A disboard?
Whatever it is, this is just about the
coolest thing that I have ever seen. In
addition to allowing the display to be
used for dynamic macro assignments,
language switching, or just sick vibes,
it boasts top-tier keyboard specs, too,
including a 1,000 Hz polling rate with a
claimed 1.2 ms input delay and
adjustable actuation points thanks to
its analog Hall effect switches. Oh, and
did I mention that the force of those
switches can be changed by swapping out
magnets? And that the entire key frame
[music] can be taken off and switched to
go between linear and tactile feel in
just seconds? Not sold yet? The software
allows your key maps to change according
to the application you're using, and
Flux even offers an ecosystem of
accessories including extra buttons,
extra dials, and even more extra dials
for your gaming and productivity
pleasure. It even works across Windows,
Mac, and mobile OS's with Linux planned
for the future. Wait, already available?
Can anything possibly live up to all of
these promises?
Maybe.
But it won't be the Flux keyboard
because uh we found some stuff that they
claimed that wasn't quite true.
But there's still a lot to love here. I
mean, look at it. And look at these
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It's a storm!
That's right, guys. Ship storm is back.
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$225 worldwide. No code, no fuss, just
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The story of how I got my hands on this
thing is actually kind of funny. Reddit
user francisn goes boom posted that
finally, after backing this thing ages
ago, his Flux keyboard arrived. So, I
slid into his DMs and I said, "Hey,
can I borrow that to make a video?" And
he was like, "Sure." Said the story was
funny, I didn't say it was long.
The base is a solid chunk of machined
aluminum.
Does that get across the weight?
Good gravy, you could kill a man with
it. On the bottom, you'll find two-stage
angled feet depending on your
preference, as well as the latch
mechanism for the key frame, which is
the piece that goes on top and is the
frame that holds the [music] keys. Over
on the top, we've got our main USB-C
port, then on both the left and on the
right, we've got pass-through ports for
peripherals, storage drives, whatever
the case may be. [music]
And then in terms of other accessories,
we've got a dual-headed one here. USB
type A for data,
USB type C for another greater than 30 W
of recommended power,
and then a right-angled USB-C to go into
the keyboard itself because it's got to
power not just the keyboard, but also a
flipping display.
Well, it doesn't flip.
Unless you flip it. Now for the part
that's really exciting for me, according
to Flux, their key frame uses acrylic to
achieve 97%
transparency and
Wow.
That is
really clear. But, [music] more
importantly, has magnets on the side of
each key switch that it uses in place of
a more traditional method like a spring
to provide the spring force that lifts
the keys back up.
>> [music]
>> Because of that, you might use the quick
swap mechanism to change it out for one
with different force or with a different
[music] type of key switch. This is a
linear one, but they have a tactile key
frame as well.
>> [music]
>> Flux advises against touching the bottom
of the key frame at any time because, I
mean, getting fingerprints off of that
would be an absolute nightmare. And also
advises against using any chemical
cleaners, [music] even things like
alcohol that you might normally use to
clean something like a keyboard because,
uh, this is acrylic, and that's going to
be a really bad time. Hey, how's the
feel? Because there's no stem, you do
end up with a little bit of side-to-side
play on the key switches, which normally
wouldn't really matter, except that if
you accidentally press them off center,
>> [music]
>> it can cause them to sit a little bit
off kilter, which can lead to it taking
quite a bit more force to press them
versus if you press them in the middle.
It's not the most forgiving design. With
that said, you might not need to press
it very far. Flux offers the ability to
change the actuation point from anywhere
from 0.4 mm to 2.8 mm out of the total 4
mm travel. So, you can have it be more
like a like a hair trigger as you're
typing or as you're gaming. And finally,
the passive module, which seems to be
basically just a window into the screen.
Ooh, magnets.
This isn't needed today, but if you
wanted to put on any of their other
modules like their three-button module,
their single dial module, which can be
either clicky or smooth, [music] or
their three dial module, then this would
be great. It would allow you to kind of,
you know, put one of those over there,
one of those over there, or
whatever works for you. I'm going to put
this over here.
That is so freaking cool. The
possibilities are endless.
Woah.
Acrylic is not a great material for a
keycap. So, it's not objectively
terrible to type on, but it's not
comfortable. It's like kind of uh almost
sticky as you go across it because it's
so smooth it almost like like grabs you.
Okay. All right. Okay. Let's get the
software. Let's get the software.
Remember when 600 MB was a lot for a GPU
driver?
Pepperidge Farm remembers. All right.
Here we go. Woah. Hot keys for changing
my actuation modes? So, here, we go into
actuation, and then I can just change
anything I want. Oh, I want a really
light WASD, for instance.
Boom.
Save to keyboard.
Oh.
They already had one like that.
With really light WASD and fairly light
everything else. Okay, so we're we're on
the same wavelength, Flex. This is cool.
You can take your profiles with you from
one system to another. You won't get the
detection of your active application, so
it won't be able to like automatically
switch to DaVinci Resolve hot keys on a
non-supported system or when their
Polymass software isn't running, but at
least you can load up
most of the stuff that you need onto the
keyboard itself. I am
loving the configurability for this.
Would I actually love gaming on it,
though? Wait. No, I have no style right
now, though.
We can fix this.
Oh, yeah. I did Oh.
That is so freaking cool.
What is the point [music] of guns if
they don't kill people?
I can't say there's anything special
feeling about it from a gaming
standpoint, but I also wouldn't say that
it takes anything away. Realistically
though, that probably has more to do
with my skill than it does to do with
the quality of this keyboard. [music]
The Labs team found that while they
claim 1 to 2 milliseconds of input lag,
we actually found that it was more like
10 milliseconds on average. Not an
incredible result,
>> [music]
>> but
can your gaming keyboard do this?
Huh?
Ooh, clock. Oh, wait. I already have
clock. Ooh, analog clock. Ooh, flip
clock. But, wait. There's more. You can
upload videos to it. Apparently, it has
8 GB of onboard storage. So, they claim
[music]
multiple 1080p movies even. I just want
to see the jellyfish now. I just want to
play with it.
Sorry. Sorry. I'm getting distracted.
[music]
For the first time ever, Linus Tech Tips
coming at you from
a keyboard.
I don't even care that it's kind of A
BAD KEYBOARD.
AH!
OH, THAT'S COOL. AND LIKE IT'S not like
a crappy display even. It's not the
world's greatest display, but it's
decent. They claim 300 nits peak
brightness. We actually measured a
little higher than that. So, maybe
they're talking more like how much is
left after it comes through the keycaps.
We found it was about 280 nits. And it's
about 170 pixels per inch. I mean, this
is a a 1080p display. So, it looks
It looks really good.
I'm watching me manhandle a keyboard
while I manhandle my keyboard. It's like
having an out-of-body experience or
something. This is so trippy. Okay,
enough of that. They have a handful of
supported applications. So, let's fire
one of these up and see what we get in
terms of shortcuts here. DaVinci Resolve
and create.
And save. So, I'm here in my DaVinci
Resolve. All right.
In marker, out marker, don't have to
think about that.
Uh blade.
Boom.
Boom. Delete. Oh.
Dude, there's people I've met, let's put
it that way, that would love this. Their
only complaint would be, "But why not
more, though?" Oh, and this effect is so
cool. I didn't even notice this before.
If at this point you're thinking,
"What's the catch?"
Boy, do I ever have one for you. The
price
is a pretty tough pill to swallow. $530
gets you just [music] the keyboard,
no extra modules. So, if you can see
yourself getting more than $500 of extra
productivity, or if you just plain need
to have that swag on your desk, it does
what it says on the tin.
If you're quite literally anyone else,
it's a little tougher to recommend.
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If you guys enjoyed this video,
>> [music]
>> why not watch the one that I'm playing
right now? It's a classic. The world's
ugliest keyboard.
I don't know why it had that hockey
footage in it.