No one will accuse Angry Miao of making a boring keyboard (or earphones). The company’s previous releases, his CYBERBOARD, Am Hatsu, and Am AFA, are as over-engineered as they are unique. When the company first started teasing the new 60% board, it seemed too conventional to be an Angry Miao product, but while staying true to tradition, there’s a twist here.
AM 65 Less: AM Compact Touch is a wired and Bluetooth enabled 60% keyboard with HHKB layout. That is, there are no function keys and no numeric keypad. It also lacks the arrow keys that are standard in this layout. Keyboard enthusiasts typically put these arrow keys on a separate layer and access them through key combos. As you can imagine, it’s a bit cumbersome, especially if you write a lot. But Angry Miao’s designers put their heart into this layout and decided to place a small touch panel on the front of the case instead of keyboard shortcuts. The argument here is that this offers the benefits of a small 60% keyboard and a symmetrical HHKB layout while still having arrow key functionality. Did I mention that Angry Miao really likes to over-engineer their own products?
Image credit: TechCrunch
Initially, the company called the board an “AM 65 Less”, which caused a bit of confusion in the community as it’s not actually a 65% keyboard either. The official name is now AM 65 Less: Am Compact Touch.
Last month, Angry Miao sent me a review unit of the NES-inspired ‘8-bit’ colorway (there are 7 variations in total).
Despite being a touch panel, this is the company’s most popular keyboard. It has a hot-swap PCB, so you can easily change the switches if you want, and it looks pretty ordinary for a small keyboard, except it has south-facing RGB lighting and a taller front.
Image credit: TechCrunch
It’s certainly the most controversial aspect of the board, so let’s talk about the touch panel first. It means that you don’t have to move your wrist as much as your thumb can handle cursor movement because the cursor is already aligned with the touchpad. may move. To fix the kinds of typos you find while writing a word, it’s easy to go back a few characters. As for what else you can do with keeping your finger on the touchpad, it becomes a bit of a guessing game whether you can time things right to stop the cursor where you need it. I ended up placing it, but of course that defeats the purpose of the touchpad. Your mileage may vary.
Having the touchpad on the front of the board also means you can’t really use the wrist rest. This annoys me with the fact that the board is at an unchangeable 10 degree angle. We placed the wrist rest a few inches away from the board, leaving just enough room to use the touchpad, but the high angle was never an issue. is recommended.
As with all Angry Miao products, this one is not for everyone, sorry. The fact that it feels and sounds great makes up for its quirks, but I can’t help but wonder what an Angry Miao 65% board with arrow keys would be like.
One of Angry Miao’s latest innovations is an adjustable leaf spring that allows you to change the PCT’s flex, so you can go from a very hard to a soft typing experience. Most other keyboards today use gasket designs and highly flexible PCBs for a softer typing experience. If you do it right it usually works, but on many keyboards I’ve tested recently it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. It takes a little more effort to open the and make changes to the springs).
In addition to the various springs, the board also comes with all the tools needed for replacement, a very good screwdriver, an extra bottom foam mat, a cleaning cloth, replacement cables and screws. No carrying case. Instead, Angry Miao opted for a soft carrying pouch.
The build quality here is impeccable. The company says his CNC milling of the aluminum case alone takes about six hours, after which the case is sandblasted and then painted (all colorways use his two colors: the first one to the top of the line). key and the rest of the keys). Mechanical his keyboard fans aren’t too picky, but I think you’re going to have a hard time finding issues with the execution here, be it the rounded corners, the paintwork, or the finish on the inside of the board.
Opening the board from the top is a little unusual, but it’s also fairly easy to take apart. Once inside, there are a few more connectors than you are probably used to. This is partly due to the battery and Bluetooth module. It’s also easy to see why the board sounds better. Not only is it plenty of foam, but it also has just the right amount of copper (the entire keyboard weighs about 3.3 pounds). Add a battery and you have a board with little room for sound to hollow out. There is no rattling due to the screw-in stabilizer.
If you own Angry Miao’s Cybermat charging mat, you can also charge your AM 65 Less wirelessly.
The switches that come with the bundled version are Angry Miao’s Icy Silver switches. These are premium transparent linear switches made by TTC with a 2-way spring and 45 grams of initial force. There’s very little stem wobble here, and it’s very smooth, but one thing worth noting is that the switches often popped out of his PCB when the keycaps were removed. That wasn’t an issue in everyday use, but it’s still worth mentioning.
All this results in a keyboard that is a pleasure to type on. Each time you press a key, it sounds like two billiard balls hitting each other. This is what I personally seek.
Image credit: angry miao
Like all Angry Miao products, the 65 Less isn’t cheap, but the price isn’t completely exorbitant in the world of high-end mechanical keyboards. The standard base kit without switches and keycaps retails for $398. A bundle of switches and keycaps that match your variant of choice is $498.
It’s quite a difference, considering that the likes of Keychron charge just $20 extra to go from barebones kits to fully assembled kits, but many of these are custom designs. Yes, and the company sells the Switches for about $1 each.
We’re also talking about thick, high-quality keycaps, at least on the 8-bit version I tested. increase. of the vendor. These are triple-shot ABS keycaps with Latin and Hiragana legends that combine the original base kit with its novelties. Other variations feature keycaps that the company has created in collaboration with his Domikey and others.
Image credit: angry miao
I haven’t tested these, but there are also two special editions. The Laser Kit, which costs $450 for the base kit and $550 for the bundle, features LED light elements on the front left and right (inspired by Tesla’s Cybertruck, the company says). The $515 and $615 Mech Love versions have customizable LED elements in the open space next to the first row and personalized engraving on the back. The company may later make these additional LED modules available as add-ons.
Whether these boards are worth it is up to the beholder. The fact that Angry Miao is launching all these variations must mean that the company believes there are quite a few orders. This is arguably the company’s friendliest offering, and while the price may seem eye-popping, it’s well within the ballgame of high-end custom keyboards, where the keycaps themselves often cost $150 or more. As with many “hobbies”, at some point you’ll pay a lot for incremental improvements. Whether or not you own a keyboard that costs as much as a laptop, you have to decide for yourself. This is arguably the closest Angry Miao comes to building a straight-up everyday keyboard.
Pre-launch of all these variants will be available on Indiegogo on February 2nd.
Image credit: TechCrunch
Bonus: HyperX today launches its first artisan keycap, Coco the Cozy Cat. The game-branded 3D-printed artisans are available today (starting at 9am EST) and tomorrow for $19.99. Apparently, this is the first in a series of limited-time designs that the company plans to release monthly.
