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last time we talked about Thermaltch's TTE Sports Poseidon line. We were
marveling at how inexpensive the Poseidon was compared to competing
backlit mechanical keyboards. Now they're back with the Poseidon Z, a
keyboard that is functionally pretty much the same thing, but comes in at $10
cheaper. So, what did they do to reduce the price even further, making it one of
the least expensive full-size mechanical backlit keyboards on the market? One
word, kale. No, not cabbage. Key
switches. Our first Poseidon, this one right here, used Cherry MX blue switches
manufactured in Germany. Well, our Poseidon Z uses blue switches, whoops,
that are manufactured in China by a company called Kale that happens to use
the same color-based naming scheme and also have a very similar internal design
to their switches because Cher's patent on their switch design has expired. All
right, so then what is the difference? Well, functionally, not much. The two
keyboards are basically the same thing. It's got a fairly plain jane design with
no real alterations to a standard 104 key layout. There's a gaming mode button
at the top right that disables the Windows key and some media control keys
that can be accessed with a function modifier that you'll find at the bottom
right. It also features uh 6 to 8 key N
key rollover, which I understand what they're saying. It's 6 to 8 key rollover
depending on which keys you're pressing, but that isn't N key rollover. Hopefully
they can get that fixed on their site soon and hopefully one of these days I'll get through a review of a
Thermaltch product without finding errors or typos on their boxer website.
But anyway, there's cable management down here so the cable can come out the right, the left. They've also got nice
high quality rubber grips on the bottom, even on the fold out uh elevator piece
that allows you to incline the keyboard. The whole bottom of it is grippy and
thumbs up for that. But let's get into
what is the difference. Why is it cheaper? Well, because manufacturing in
China is cheaper for all kinds of reasons. Cheaper labor and lower costs
associated with transporting the switches to the factories where the
completed keyboards will actually be assembled, just to name a couple. What
you trade though, in my experience, is looser manufacturing tolerances. I've
used a couple of Kale Blue switch keyboards so far, and this one is
noticeably heavier than any Cherry MX Blue or even other Kale Blue keyboard
that I've used before. closer to Cherry MX greens than to Cherry MX Blues just
from typing on them. And that's the difference. I mean, look at this. You
can probably even hear the difference. Cherry MX blue, kale
blue. Well, trust me, there you can hear the difference even if you can't pick it
up on the mic. One Cherry MX keyboard to another, there will be variance as well,
but with a newer, less proven manufacturer, the potential for us to
discover significant differences from batch to batch is definitely still
there. Okay, then Lionus, is it okay for Thermaltch to do this? Doesn't it feel
deceptive? And you know what? No, I don't think so. Honestly, I'm pretty
okay with the way Thermaltch is doing it. They're not calling the switches
something that they're not. They're just calling them TTE Sports certified
mechanical blue switches. All things that they are. And more importantly,
they're passing at least some of the savings on to the customer in the form
of a lower price and a longer five-year warranty period. This contrasts with
Razer's approach where they also discontinued all their Cherry MX based
keyboards, but then charged exactly the same amount for the newer models with
Chinese switches. Something that they may feel justified in doing since
they're now rating their switches at 60 million keystrokes versus 50 million
keystrokes, but I would have liked to see a token discount or a longer
warranty to go along with the longer rating on the switches or something at
least. So, there you have it. This video ended up being more about Kale than
about the Poseidon Z. But that really is the main story here. Anyway, thank you
for watching, guys. Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked
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