Ducky Shine 7 (Cherry MX Brown)

[Mateyyy]

First review here on the forum, so hopefully the formatting and all isn't too rough. I might edit and try to further improve it later on.

 

 

I've been using the Ducky Shine 7 for close to a month now, specifically the Gunmetal Grey variant with Cherry MX Brown switches. Throughout this time I've used it for gaming, writing and a tiny bit of coding, and my experience with it has been great so far. It retails at $159.99 in the US, and surprisingly I managed to get it at a very close price compared to MSRP, which is 150 euro.

 

In the box, along with the keyboard you get a Ducky branded keycap remover, an extra set of coloured keycaps and stylised Chinese Zodiac spacebar, the keyboard's cable (USB-C to USB-A) and a manual.

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All of the keycaps are high-quality doubleshot PBT, with the exception of the stylised spacebar which is made out of ABS. It still feels good to the touch nonetheless, though with long-term use it might get kind of messy.

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The stabilisation on all the keys in on point, and the font is very clean and easily readable. This is actually one of the things that has made me steer clear of other gaming keyboards like Corsair's, which have a very gaudy font on the keycaps in my opinion. In fact, this "gaming" keyboard wouldn't look out of place even in an office environment at all:

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Along with the keycaps, what also makes the Shine 7 feel so good to type on is the solid zinc alloy plate that covers the top and sides of the keyboard, which gives it a very premium and solid feel, resulting in barely any flex whatsoever.

Granted this does come at a cost, it is fairly heavy, coming in at just under 1.5kg, so portability is not exactly one of the Shine 7's strong suits.

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It's just too bad that the premium quality doesn't extend to the included cable, which feels cheap and is rather short. Thankfully it is removable and therefore replaceable, but this is still a little disappointing when taking into account the price of this particular keyboard.

 

Another problem, or inconvenience rather, is the fact that the red PCB and LEDs underneath the spacebar are visible and quite distracting at certain angles. Pretty minor detail but hopefully this will get revised in a future iteration.

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For ergonomics, there are two separate incline settings if you're into that, and by default the keyboard is completely flat. There is no wrist rest included here, unfortunately.

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Typing on the Ducky Shine 7 feels excellent. After having used exclusively Cherry MX Blues for several years, I've got to say that MX Browns still have a pretty noteworthy sound when bottomed out on this particular keyboard, but aren't even close to being as loud as Blues.

The switch itself feels nice and responsive, if a little mushy. These actually feel a lot more linear than I was expecting from a switch that's clearly marketed as tactile. Don't get me wrong, the tactile bump is there, but it's so slight that they're not even close to MX Blues when it comes to their tactility. If anything, this actually made me want to try out linear switches, particularly MX Blacks. Maybe that'll be my next switch of choice, who knows.

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Ducky's RGB software, to be frank, really needs some polishing. I mean it works, but it's not even close to being on par with how their keyboards feel physically.

The software allows for full RGB control and macro programming. You can't save your settings to the cloud, but the keyboard does have onboard memory which allows for up to 6 custom profiles so that's not really an issue if you ask me.

Unfortunately, the software only has support for WIndows - it's not compatible with Linux and macOS. Thankfully though, Ducky's software is not required to customise the lighting or to program macros, it just makes these things easier.

 

Speaking of RGB, the lighting on the Shine 7 and all of Ducky's current RGB keyboards in fact is absolutely gorgeous. And while I don't have my LEDs set to rainbow puke but just plain ole white, I was surprised to see that white is actually white, and not some bluish/purpleish tint.

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One sort of minor complaint, and I'm not sure whether this is just an odd quirk with my particular unit or if this is present on all of them, but some keycaps make the LEDs underneath look quite shadowy/cloudy. It's not too big of a deal, especially since it's not very apparent unless you closely inspect those specific keycaps, but considering the price of this keyboard, I think it's fair to note down even the little things.

I think it's most visible on this Ducky logo keycap:

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Here's a cookie if you made it to the end of the review. In short, if you're a fan of Cherry MX switches and are looking for a premium full-sized keyboard that doesn't scream "G A M E R", the Ducky Shine 7 is a very solid choice that you should definitely shortlist. It does have a couple quirks which hopefully will be ironed out in future versions, but still they're not major in the slightest and don't take away from the fact that Ducky has done a great job with this keyboard.

8 out of 10.

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The good:

• premium build quality and look
• great to type on
• customisable RGB and macros
• the extra included keycaps are a nice touch

The bad:

• nothing

The mediocre:

• cheap but fortunately replaceable cable
• software could definitely use some work
• some keycaps not allowing the LEDs underneath to Shine through properly (see what I did there?)

 

I'll surely be using the Shine 7 for some time to come, but those small 60/65% keyboards, like the new Huntsman Mini or Ducky One 2 Mini/SF look damn good. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes on them, for whenever I do end up upgrading.

Any feedback or questions are welcome. Thanks for reading!

 

Full-size gallery: https://imgur.com/a/95J8XIn (well not really full-size but still better than the ones in the post here)

Edited July 30, 2020 by Mateyyy

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

Good review. An enjoyable read. Thorough.

 

One thing though, you mentioned the price a few times but I don't think you mentioned what it actually is.

[Mateyyy]

5 hours ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Good review. An enjoyable read. Thorough.

 

One thing though, you mentioned the price a few times but I don't think you mentioned what it actually is.

Cheers!

I added it in now, I actually didn't even realise that I forgot to mention it haha.

[SeraphicWings]

I have one and it's my favorite mechanical keyboard, ever

The build quality is exceptional, it's rock solid no matter how hard you press, the default keycaps are high quality

Only thing I don't like is the cable, and occasional electrical conduct from touching it