Nixeus MODA Mechanical Keyboard - Brown Switch - Unboxing, First Impressions, and Mini-Review

[Some Tech Nub]

Aha!  My first review here on LTT.  I was debating on doing a video, but I prefer doing write-ups.

 

Originally posted on TS.

 

Now, over on http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ , one deal really caught my eye.  It was this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/2olh4j/keyboard_nixeus_moda_tkl_with_kailh_browns_8030/

 

Featuring: Nixeus MODA Mechanical Keyboard - Brown Switch (Silent Tactile)

http://www.amazon.com/Nixeus-MODA-Mechanical-Keyboard-Tactile/dp/B00L1TLINC

 

I've never heard of this company.  Apparently they sell monitors.  Or something like that.

 

Holdup now, lemme give you a little bit of background on my experience with keyboards.

 

All my life, up until a couple months ago, I've been using membrane keyboards for desktops, or chiclet/scissor switches on laptops.  They worked - I didn't know mechanical keyboards existed anyway.  I mashed buttons.  They registered on the computer.  Life was good.

 

I entered the tech world about one and a half years ago.  I learned about the world of computers, and with it came mechanical keyboards.  I wanted to try one out, and my first full-keyboard experience was when I picked up a Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013 in mint condition for $70 shipped, some couple months ago.  $70 for a keyboard!!!?!?!?!?  It was insane to me at the time.

 

The blue switches felt cheap.  I was sure that their clickity-clackity nature would die within days.

 

Fast forward to about 3 days ago.  I've learned to love the blue switches.  The tactile bump, the noise of the switch and the steel backplate.  It was so satisfying that I had trouble going back to membrane keyboards and laptop keyboards.  After a long time, though, I realized that the keyboard was really, really wide.  For some reason, I didn't notice this problem with the full-size membrane.  With the Blackwidow Ultimate though, it felt cumbersome.  My right hand wrist got uncomfortable after my 4+ hour gaming sessions.  I wanted a tenkeyless keyboard.  I rarely used the numpad, as I never grew up learning to use it.

 

Ideally, I'd like an inexpensive, simple, backlit TKL keyboard.  This didn't exist.  I also wanted to try out Cherry MX Browns, as I'm planning to move into an apartment for college next semester and my Cherry MX Blue keyboard would probably be quite annoying.  The Ducky Shine and Cooler Master Rapid-I got close, but were much too expensive for me.

 

So when this $50 deal popped up(seems to have risen to $60), and the reviews looked alright, I picked it up.  It was too cheap to pass - the Razer Blackwidow Tournament was $60, and I was highly considering it.  No backlighting - we'll see how I fare over the next few days.

 

Now, back to the main event.  Did you forget what this article was about while reading my keyboard background story?  We're talking about the Nixeus MODA Mechanical Keyboard. 

 

 

Woah, another rollback.  Here's the box it came in.  I have Amazon Student Prime, so I got this baby in 2 days.

 

 

Box is a bit big for this guy, don't ya think?

 

 

Here's the same picture of the front again.

 

 

"Nixeus Certified".  Well, you put the switches on your keyboard.  You must have liked something about them by doing that.

It's also nice to see that there's a 3 year warranty on such an inexpensive keyboard(I believe MSRP is $75, though).  Although I highly doubt that they'll pay for your shipping when you send it in.

Also good to see that they don't obfuscate what switches they're using.  Kailh brown, right on the front of the box.

 

Now let's flip the box over.

Blah blah blah.  Not too sure who would use a "Home" and "Mail" media key, but whatever.  I'd have liked to see a previous or skip track here.  I don't see that on this keyboard.  Bummer.  Overlooked that a little bit, but I'll talk about the layout later in the overview.

 

Bottom and side of the box have branding.

 

Let's check out the other side.

 

 

Same blingy stuff.  Cool.  Time to cut this box open and see what's inside.

 

 

Ooh.  Decent packaging.  Soft foam on the left and right sides of the keyboard.  Keyboard's in a plastic bag,  and it looks like the blue keycaps and puller are on the top.

 

Time to pull this stuff out and unwrap it for the camera(which, by the way, is the shitty camera on the HTC One M8).

 

Keyboard, keycaps &  puller, warranty card, and quick start guide.  Not a whole lot.

Let's put the keyboard aside and take a look at the accessories first though.

 

 

Quick start guide.  Doesn't look like there are any track skipping shortcuts .  Guess I'll have to map some in WinAmp.

Hey, if you turn this thing over, the inside's totally blank.

 

 

Here's the warranty card.

 

 

Here are the keycaps and the keycap puller.

 

 

It's really freaking hard to see the lettering.  WASD and arrow keys are given to ya.  I'm leaving these in the box.  They also feel pretty cheap too.  Cheap ABS, methinks.  I'm not going to dip this stuff in acetone though.  Keycaps are still keycaps.

Keycap puller is the cheap kind, but it works.  Whatevers.

 

Now, for the main event.  Drumroll, please.

 

 

Boom.  Oops, turns out I cut off the right side a little bit.  My bad.  Deal with it.

I'm not too picky about how lettering looks.  This looks fine to me.

 

 

The right side does look a little funny as they've shifted the block of 9 buttons downward to accommodate the extra media keys.  Better to have them all than none, I guess.  Also, the End key seems to have a slightly darker color.  Maybe it's just the lighting here.

Also, wtf is the bottom chin.

 

 

Just like on the Razer Blackwidow, this thing has like a 1.5" chin that I can't figure out what its purpose is.  It's not long enough to be a wrist rest.  Also, it's got these fake screw things.  I don't mind them too much, but it would have been nicer if Nixeus chopped off the chin and these janky "screws" and let the keyboard be smaller.  I'm currently typing this review thing with this keyboard, and am trying to get used to this keyboard and switches.  The chin hits my wrist, but it ain't no friggen wrist rest.

 

Enough rant. Let's flip this guy over now.

 

 

//rant

The bottom chin is hollow.  Please, next time, just save some plastic and don't make a weird bottom chin.

//endrant

 

Bottom is pretty clean.  Rubber feet on each corner.  QC sticker.  Nothing much to say here.  Two legs on the bottom pop up in one position.

 

 

No rubber on these guys, though.  My keyboard was slipping and sliding with these legs out, so I recommend you either get a sticky table or leave these fellas down.  Keep this shit low.

 

 

Close-up of the keyboard's bottom.  It's got a nice texture, I guess?

Time to flip this back over and take a look at the top.

 

 

This is the area where the Nixeus logo protrudes a little bit.  As you can see, the cord's attached here.  Thick rubber cord here.  Seems durable enough.   I don't have any pets that claw onto cables, though, so this may be a negative to you.  I personally don't care much for braided cables - they're just too damn stiff.

 

Now, let's follow this cord.  Seems like a 4-6ft cord.  I suck at estimating this stuff.  Gimme a break.  Aha, here's the connector.

 

 

It ain't silver for sure.  Looks to be maybe gold plated.  Not like that's going to improve anything, really.

Let's jump back to the keyboard.

 

 

Voila!  The Khail switches.  I'll take Cherry MX over Kailh any day, but Cherry MX Browns never come down to the $50 price range.  I tested every switch to make sure the whole keyboard was working.  I did notice some slight inconsistencies, but I type fast enough so that I don't really notice a big difference.

 

The right arrow switch did seem a bit more wobbly than the rest.  A little bit worrying, but hell, I'm pushing down on these switches, and not pulling them up very often.  The connection seems solid, even in its slightly wobbly state.  And when I say wobbly, it's maybe like 0.25-0.5mm more wobbly.  Not a terrible amount, but still noticeable if you look and test for it.

 

I wonder if that backplate is actually metal... Urgh, my fingers can't feel the backplate.  Lemme take off this neighboring Ctrl key...

 

 

There.  Yep, that's cold metal.  So there's a metal backplate, in a nice grey color.  Not bad for this price range.

 

This backplate does make the keyboard pretty sturdy.  The plastic feels like the cheap type - but the durable and flexible kind.  It doesn't feel brittle, and I think that's good.

 

Now, let's do a size comparison.  Lemme just reach over and pick up my Blackwidow off the floor.

 

 

Dang.  That's a pretty big size difference.  The Nixeus has much smaller bezels on the side as well, which I'll count as a positive.  I think I'll miss the backlighting though.  Sigh.

 

Speaking of backlighting, there are a couple of keys with LEDs.  This would be the Scroll Lock and Caps Lock.  The keycaps are still opaque, though, so you'll have to look at the light on the grey backplate instead of the light shining through the keycap.

 

 

It's blue!

 

 

And lemme line these two keyboards up a little bit better...

 

 

Pretty massive size difference.  I'm a big FPS player, and macros aren't super important to me.  So far, the spacing between both of my hands feels a lot more comfortable.

So now, my final thoughts after typing this whole overview.

 

Build Quality:

Budget.  It's still pretty solidly built, having a pretty nice backplate, but the very slightly wobbly switch and the cheap overall plastic build makes it slightly better than "Cheap".  Then again, I got this for $50.  I didn't really expect anything more.

 

I shoved some hot glue next to the switch and now it doesn't wobble.

 

Comfort:

It's kind of comfortable, I suppose.  I can BARELY rest my wrist on the 1.5-2 inch chin if I want to.  The chin's right side where there's a line that goes up a bit is annoying, as the bottom right part of the chin is recessed.  This means that if my right hand is resting on the chin, I do feel the slightly sharp and uncomfortable edge of plastic.

 

Typing/Switches:

They are significantly different from Cherry MX Blues.  People describe MX Browns as "Blues without the clicky sound".  This is definitely not true.  The Browns have a MUCH more subtle bump, and it isn't as defined as the blues.  They are much quieter though.  I did get to try a logitech keyboard not too long ago at Best Buy, and that had Cherry MX Brown switches.  The Kailhs feel similar, but they just seems a lot more inconsistent across the whole keyboard.  Some keys have a more defined bump, some are really subtle and almost feel linear.  We'll see how these stand up over time.

 

I have done some sound tests of the Cherry MX Blues and the Kailh Brown switches.  Take a listen:

 

Cherry MX Blues on my Blackwidow Ultimate: https://soundcloud.com/sometechnoob/cherry-mx-blues

Kailh Browns on my Nixeus MODA: https://soundcloud.com/sometechnoob/kailh-brown

 

Note: Sounds were recorded with my Primo EM-172 Microphone capsule, hooked up to my desktop's onboard audio input.

 

The overall layout is the typical US layout.  I managed to relatively easily change from my Blackwidow Ultimate over to this little guy.  Doing typing tests, I was a bit slower.  However, I've only had this keyboard for about three hours.  It took me a couple weeks to get used to Cherry MX Blues.  I think it'll take about a week or so for me to get used to these Browns as well.

 

6KRO:

This keyboard advertises 6 Key Rollover.  That's down from my Razer Blackwidow's 14Kro.  I've tested some keystrokes with microsoft's tool: http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/content/projects/KeyboardGhostingDemo.aspx

 

I haven't found any ghost keys, but here are some things to note:

Spacebar seems to have 5Kro.  6Kro in most places, otherwise.

ASW: Fail

ASX: Fail

GHY: Fail

ASDF: Pass

JKL;: Pass

ERF: Fail

Pros:

- inexpensive

- Some dedicated media keys

- Small in size

 

Cons:

- Mediocre build quality

- No num pad (if you need one.  This is a pro for me)

- Kailh Switches.

- Lacking music skipping hotkeys

 

 

So overall, you get what you pay for.  This keyboard's MSRP is $75, which I think is a bit high.  For $50, I think it's fair.  If you're looking for an inexpensive tenkeyless brown-switched keyboard on a budget, then this keyboard is a pretty good deal if you can find it for around 50-55 dollars.

If you've read this far, I applaud your endurance.  Thanks for reading!  I'll do these every once in awhile.  Now, back to gaming!

 

Full list of pictures here: http://imgur.com/zF5MDmO,miMdHC5,U9RrkOK,8RiciPj,xQ02kwL,wg8mc3G,kbXc26H,MdsqqZP,YF9dmSY,FBF0s5Y,OKZzRcr,kA2JrET,AF1LAbY,rlalYGU,W2XDZgT,pjq74bJ,LQWwhHI,dXRqCVk,4XpmTAp,3L6GM8h,DyYBSac,YLFEuJs,fkxHkY2,GssdvBg,38BR0B3,PvG80D4,ZIrYL08#0

[Vitalius]

Me gusta.

ESDF master race.

[Some Tech Nub]

ESDF master race.

 

wat.

[atrash]

wat.

makes it easier to press that ctrl without flexing your pinky too much. and it feels more natural too

[Some Tech Nub]

makes it easier to press that ctrl without flexing your pinky too much. and it feels more natural too

Interesting.

 

Doesn't feel like that to me though, but maybe it's because I've already logged a couple thousand hours of TF2... where crouch is ctrl.

[Shroomster]

Do the keys wobble around?

[Some Tech Nub]

Do the keys wobble around?

 

They don't seem any more wobbly than the Cherry MX Blues on my Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013.  I might even go as far to say they seem to wobble a little bit less(besides the right arrow key that might not be properly mounted).

[Sintezza]

Great review

 

Why did you wrote it in black?

Anyway i will check on your review @ TS