What actually impressed me, although, was the Base 65’s RGB lighting—between the clear physique, white silicone damper, clear switches and keycaps, and reflective aluminum plate, the RGB completely shines, making this keyboard a shiny centerpiece on any desk. Sadly, RGB programming is a little bit of a chore, and most manufacturing unit presets have extremely restricted customization choices.
Paying for look
The saving grace is HiGround’s collaboration with popular culture. You may get a keyboard made in collaboration with Minecraftand beforehand had tie-ins with video games and anime sequence, amongst others Naruto, Pokemon, Assault on Titan, Gundamand Yu-Gi-Oh. Nevertheless, this normally includes a trade-off: would you slightly have a high-end keyboard or one designed after your favourite media franchise? This keyboard is shiny, colourful and crisp. However apart from the visuals, the Base 65 keyboard would not do something new or something that justifies the worth.
I additionally need to word the road “all gross sales are last” in many of the firm’s product descriptions. Mix that with large model tie-ins and an emphasis on “restricted” drops, and I am reminded of the sneaker tradition of the 2010s based mostly on hypebeast collaborations; a advertising and marketing technique that emphasizes exclusivity and makes folks soar on “uncommon” (ie artificially scarce) merchandise and consider they’re extra worthwhile/larger high quality than they’re. I do know that is a whole lot of hype that goes past the standard of the ultimate product, however I believe it is vital to think about why keyboards are what they’re and why they promote effectively regardless of some issues they might have. (As a aspect word, a number of collaborative keyboards from HiGround at the moment are scalped on StockX.)
I additionally discovered myself considerably pissed off when attempting to check this keyboard, as a result of when HiGround was launched, each single web page on the web site redirected to a password-protected countdown. This meant that the keyboard’s documentation, drivers, and even fundamental product info have been unavailable whereas ready for the restricted launch (on this case Minecraft keyboard assortment).
Finally, it is onerous for me to advocate HiGround keyboards except you’re certainly desire a branded keyboard for a particular media franchise and are okay with the sacrifices in construct high quality and typing expertise.