Azio Levetron Mech 5 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,671 words · ~8 min read
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Azio listened and implemented advice
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from NCX employees on their Mech 5
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gaming keyboard. So, this is from their Levitron series of keyboards. It is a
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mechanical keyboard. And I'm not going
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to say who the NCIX employees were, but
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if there's anything you don't like about this keyboard, then I hope that you have
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a keyboard yourself that is capable of writing Russian characters so that you
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can email the NCIX employee who is responsible for your
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dissatisfaction. Um, mechanical keys.
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The cherry black mechanical key switch is widely believed to provide the best gaming experience. featuring a linear
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design ideal for rapid pressing of keys and the right stiffness to help prevent
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accidental key press. It also has a dedicated key for turning the Windows
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key on and off. Personally, I don't use that, but some people do. Has a numeric
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keyboard that can actually be attached and then detached to put either on the
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right or the left side of the keyboard, which I think is kind of neat. You can also just take it right off and use it
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as a standalone USB keyboard, which is or keypad, which is kind of neat. Some
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people like those. Anti- ghosting ensures multiple keys register when you
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press them simultaneously. That's good. Modular design attaching modular
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accessories. Okay. Unlimited profiles. Create and save as many profiles as you'd like for maximum key
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customization. Require software. That's cool because I can't imagine a reason
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why anyone's keyboard software actually has a limit to how many profiles, but
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they all do. And this one doesn't. Neat.
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The add-on macro D-pad expansion allows for six additional programmable keys.
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The expansion module rail enables custom positioning by sliding the D-pad left to
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right. So, I'll show you guys that after. Volume knob, water resistant,
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remain functional even if accidentally exposed to liquid in such an event. Do not flip or shake the keyboard and the
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liquid will properly drain
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itself. It's kind of neat. Lifetime support by phone, live chat, email, and
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including warranty. Okay, you can phone
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their support about your warranty, but your warranty is 3 years.
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Here is the keyboard itself. So, you can see it looks like um a no number pad
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keyboard when you first take it out of the box, but then you will find all the
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modular accessories and hoo-ha that you
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didn't initially see once you take the keyboard itself out. There's their
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packaging. Here is their extra USB
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cable, which I will show you what it's for in a minute. Here is the modular
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D-pad dudad. D-pad duad.
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Nice. I satisfy even myself with my
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quirkiness sometimes. All right, we have the
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included software, which you'll need for your programmable keys with unlimited
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profiles. Your quick start guide, which pretty much shows you how a keyboard
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works. Okay, I don't think I'll be needing that. Uh, and then we have the
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keyboard itself. So, we had a look at the Mech 4. In fact, uh, Slick pointed
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out a fascinating uh, a fascinating fact to me, and that
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is that the Mech 4 was the first unboxing he ever filmed with me back
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when he was doing his job application. So, I thought that was interesting. So,
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here we are. We've uh, we've come to the Mech 5, and this will be the last
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unboxing he ever films with me cuz he's fired. Actually, I only fired him once
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today. Usually I fire him multiple times in a day, but then I always rehire him,
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so he's not too he's not too put off by it at this point. All right. In terms of
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the cable that's included, it is uh just over one full Linus arms span in length.
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Includes two wires, one for presumably, yes, the built-in hub, and the other for
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the actual data to the keyboard itself. It uses a nice thin cable, though. I
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like that. Instead of like one of those super thick, ridiculous cables just for
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the sake of, you know, having a couple connectors end up at the other end.
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Um, in terms of the layout of the keyboard, we have what to me is the Hold
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on. There we go. We have what to me is the ideal layout where you've got your
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long shift, long shift, long enter, and long backspace. It does have two Windows
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keys and no function keys. However, the fact that you have all these
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programmable keys, which you can switch between A or B, as well as the dedicated
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Windows key means this Windows key shouldn't really bother gamers for the
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most part. Ah, so they did not make the mistake of
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one of their contemporaries who also builds mechanical keyboards. These are
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all mechanical and these are all mechanical and these are mechanical and
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these are mechanical. This is a full mechanical keyboard with the couple of
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small exceptions being the volume
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dial. Clearly, if you put a key switch in it, it would be stupid. Um, also the
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Windows on and off and the A and B uh switch between these programmable keys.
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These are also not programmable, but it just depends on I mean whether you want
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to use them or not. And what's cool is you can put them on, flip it away if you
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don't feel like using it, and flip it down if you want more macro keys to use
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during a gaming session. So you'll have all of these and all of these, or you
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just won't have them. It actually slides on in much the same way as like, you
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know, like a sniper scope. In fact, oh, look at this. No, they even have like
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shiny like glassy pieces on the sides. And yeah, it's okay. That's totally
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totally sniper scope inspired design. And that looks like the rail that you
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slide it onto on the See, you can actually position it wherever you want.
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So you can throw it over here if it's, you know, here that you desire to have
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it. And you can put it here if it's here that you desire to have it. It's totally up to you. Personally, I'd probably put
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it right about there cuz I don't have much use for F1 when I'm gaming. Uh, but
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escape might come in handy. And you never know when you might need F5. F5 is like my favorite key on the
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keyboard. Um, so I want to show No, it's not. I lied. Um, so I want to show you
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guys how this works. Basically, there's a USB port. There's a
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USB port, and you put the thing into the
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thing. You clip the thing onto the thing, and then it will sit on the left
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of your keyboard. Tada. Or you undo it
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uh or uh preferably with the switch on the
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bottom. Unput the thing in the thing.
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preferably with the switch on the bottom. Fold that back
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over. Open up the other
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side and plug it in there and clip it
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into place. I think it's cool. Or if
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you're one of those people, in fact, Slick was just pointing out to me a
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little while ago the lack of mechanical
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detachable keypads because lots of people like to use the uh the shorter
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keyboards. So, the ones without a number pad for general use, then they have
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their mouse. Then they have the keypad on the other side for like more
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efficient hand movement. This is a mechanical keypad.
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So, it comes with it. All you got to do is plug in the USB cable and plug it
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into your computer and you have a full mechanical keyboard keypad including a
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dedicated calculator calculator button, which I am personally a huge fan of. It
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is also a very well-built one with nice long rubber pads on the bottom as well
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as two different height options in terms
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of how you want to lay it down on the desk. So, check this out. You can either do flat, in which case it won't move.
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You can do half inclined, in which case
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it Oh, it will actually move a little bit. That's a shame. Uh or you can do
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fully inclined, in which case it won't move. This is probably the one I would go for cuz I like this angle when I'm
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typing on a number pad. The keyboard actually has the same options as well.
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So, you can see here that it's got two of these where you can do either the
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full height, the half height, or the no height at all
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depending on what you're into. Wrist rest is Oh, look at that.
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Permanently attached wrist rest. That seems like the kind of thing I might
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complain about cuz it's less customizable, but it isn't because every
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keyboard should have a wrist rest and uh the ones that are detachable tend to
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break. So, there you go. I'm a fan.
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Wow, this is actually really good. Has a volume dial.
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Doesn't have a number lock light as you may or may not have noticed because it's
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on here. So, that's just an FYI. And has kind of a cool overall aesthetic to it.
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Very uh very nice overall build feel to
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it. Not a lot of flex to the to the deck of the keyboard
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itself. Yeah, I'm impressed.
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So, thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the Levatron
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Mech 5 from Azio. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more
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