Ducky Shine Mini - Mechanical 60% Keyboard
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,602 words · ~8 min read
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welcome to lonus Tech tips make sure you guys subscribe for our I think awesome
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maybe you think it's awesome too Daily Tech videos today we're going to be
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checking out the ducky shine mini a 60%
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size keyboard with a whole lot more under the hood that initially meets the
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eye Cooler Master neptun Series CPU
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coolers are available in a variety of radiator sizes to perfectly suit your
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next build click now to learn more despite the as expected excellent
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build quality with you know it's aluminum housing and stuff right off the
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bat there was some stuff I really didn't like about the shine mini some things
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are good you can use the function modifier to access your F Keys volume
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control arrow keys print screen Etc but its tiny layout means that it has to
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make the best possible use of the keys
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that it has and I really felt like not having a function key on the left hand
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side requiring a function modifier to access escape and having TIY as the main
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layer over there and the placement of the arrow keys in the second layer on
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the right directly above the lone function key so you can barely get both
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hands in there we're pretty serious sins then I uh I put on my actually
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doing reviews instead of just hating on things based on initial Impressions hat
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and checked out the stuff that came in the Box turns out you get a plastic dust
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cover you get a key cap remover you get
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a warranty card you get some replacement Laser eted Key caps and ah yes the
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manual turns out ducky thought of everything that I just bitched about you
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can use those replacement key caps and some really neat reconfigurability of
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the keyboard to change the Escape key functionality add a contextual menu
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button swap the priority of delete and backspace add another function key
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wherever you want on the bottom row as long as you don't override both both of
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your controls both of your alts Etc and
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change the wi at the internet lock key to something a little more useful like
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function or control freaking awesome we're off to a good start here now the
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setup process for this is not as intuitive as I think ducky would like to
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think it is it definitely require some trial and error the manual or the kind
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of intimacy with the functionality of your keyboard that only certain people
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will ever have but if you've got a reference in front of you it's pretty
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quick to set up and even then it's not the kind of thing that you'll need to do
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often anyway just hold function alt H to
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enter the ducky advisor setup mode and
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the appropriate keys will be eliminated Q quits the mode and if you press
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anything else it'll guide you through the reconfig process using illuminated
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numeric keys to change modes freaking awesome again and I haven't even touched
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on lighting yet it's a ducky shine so of course there are lights and this time
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it's not just single color lights we get dual LEDs in each key ke switch that can
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operate alone or Blended together for a pretty satisfying variety of colors you
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can change modes with function alt G from 100% back lit with any Blended
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color you'd like just adjust each led by holding Z or X to reactive typing with
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the same independent LED brightness controls to reactive mode with
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randomized colors I actually really like this one to tripping balls mode also
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known as completely random effects on every key all the time to wave mode
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which is pretty self-explanatory to color cycling mode which just Cycles
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through every available color to finally off mode which if you're using on a
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ducky shine is is basically bad and you should feel bad one last lighting mode
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is the custom mode which allows you to use the LED in the caps lock key to
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determine what color you're setting then assign individual colors per key you can
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save two userdefined schemes here that you can recall using functional V or B
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which leaves us with the final feature one that I intentionally glossed over at
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the beginning of this video and expected to give exactly zero cares about because
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when Nick told me about it I was like but actually it ended up being one of
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the my favorite features on this keyboard the mouse emulation key block
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hold function and use WD to move the mouse cursor around you can also with
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nearby Keys press left and right click and you can actually swap those around
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with ducky advisor if you prefer and you can even move the scroll wheel up and
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down the only unfortunate thing that's missing is that you can't middle click
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the scroll wheel but the acceler ation curves are well tuned and overall it
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works surprisingly well this whole review was done on my laptop without
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touching the trackpad or a mouse and without getting frustrated I used my
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keyboard for all my mouse movement now we just need a wireless one for media PC
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users so conclusion time then it's a ducky so that means you get all the
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things that go along with that there's Stellar reputation for build quality
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genuine cherrymx key switches no software required for configuration of
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any of its functionality which means everything it does works on any OS
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anytime but that you can't really find tune things like if I wanted uh trip
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balls mode to leave off out of the randomized pattern for
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example but all that ducky goodness
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comes with one big caveat here you need to decide if a 60% is right for you you
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get the extra desk space especially on the right side where you move your mouse
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with the ergonomic benefits that are associated with having your arms closer
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together but you lose convenient access to a lot of keys on your keyboard that
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you might find yourself missing at least for a while while you're still getting
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used to it speaking of getting used to things deals aren't hard to get used to
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and boy howdy have we got one for you today today's video is sponsored by mass
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drop and they worked with ducky to bring you guys an awesome deal that is live
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right now on the ducky shine mini in this video you can get it with cherrymx
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red or blue switches or for aim lied time with the very unusual Cherry MX
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clear switches now I'm sure most of you have heard of Mast drop by now but if
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you haven't you should definitely check it out they're a site that facilitates
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group buys for a wide variety of products many of which are PC and audio
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related they work directly with manufacturers and Distributors to
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guarantee that you get the best price available on brand new stuff and they
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ship to as many countries as the manufacturer will allow they have two
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options to buy you can buy in at any price or you can commit to buy and only
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confirm your order if the drop gets enough orders to reach its lowest price
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and to top it all off M drop is even giving away a ducky shine mini to one of
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our lucky viewers just sign up using the link in the video description and yeah
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I'm not going to read that out and you will be entered to win if you're already
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signed up for Mast drop just leave a comment below this video mentioning
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either a product you would like to see me review next or a product that you'd
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like to see on mass drop and you will be entered to win winners will be contacted
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by mast drop on October 25th so thank you to Mast drop for sponsoring this
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episode of lonus tech tips and be sure to head over there and check out their ducky shine mini MK drop if or excuse me
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drop if it looks appealing one last
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thing though because this review of a ducky product features a deal on a for
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mention product and apparent conflict of interest I feel like I should clarify
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the arrangement Mass drop not ducky sponsored this video and they did so at
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a flat rate rather than on a sales commission basis Our obligation is
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simply to explain the benefits of mass drop in general and we get no extra
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payout if you guys buy keyboards or don't buy keyboards or whatever else so
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I hope that helps thanks for watching guys like this video if you liked it
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dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me know if your feelings are more complicated than this and also
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to enter that giveaway um guys also check out the other Link in the video
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description to support us you can give us a monthly contribution you can buy a sweet t-shirt like this one or that last
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one right you can change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so we get a small Kickback whenever you
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buy I don't know dry erase markers
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thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe
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be