KBParadise V60 Type-R or Vortex Pok3r?

[_Hustler_One_]

Hi LTT keyboard experts..

 

I have choice between KBParadise V60 Type-R and Vortex Pok3r. My main target is to get a compact 60% mechanical Cherry MX Red with the darkest black color to get the most stealthy look as possible to match my system. Please tell me what are the pros and cons on one vs the other..

[geo3]

I'd get the V60 because it's fully programmable. 

[_Hustler_One_]

1 hour ago, geo3 said:

I'd get the V60 because it's fully programmable. 

Is it? I missed some information about programable keys..

That's nice feature..

 

How about media keys? Are they waterproof?

What makes Pok3r is more expensive than V60?

[geo3]

53 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

Is it? I missed some information about programable keys..

That's nice feature..

Fully programmable means it has a general purpose micro-controller and runs opensource firmware.  You can load something like qmk or tmk on it. These firmware means it can do pretty much anything you want. ( For example all my fully programmables I have set up to be able to switch to a mode that emulates a mouse ) The Poker has programmable keys as well but it is what we call 'on board programmable'. This means you reprogram it using key special combinations. This method is a lot more limited (although arguably more convenient to use).

 

55 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

How about media keys?

If you wan't. See above.

 

56 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

Are they waterproof?

No, neither of them are that's a super rare feature. 

 

56 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

What makes Pok3r is more expensive than V60?

It's probably the Poker has PBT key caps vs the ABS on the V60.  But neither of them have keycaps that I'd personally want to keep.

[_Hustler_One_]

26 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Fully programmable means it has a general purpose micro-controller and runs opensource firmware.  You can load something like qmk or tmk on it. These firmware means it can do pretty much anything you want. ( For example all my fully programmables I have set up to be able to switch to a mode that emulates a mouse ) The Poker has programmable keys as well but it is what we call 'on board programmable'. This means you reprogram it using key special combinations. This method is a lot more limited (although arguably more convenient to use).

 

If you wan't. See above.

 

No, neither of them are that's a super rare feature. 

 

It's probably the Poker has PBT key caps vs the ABS on the V60.  But neither of them have keycaps that I'd personally want to keep.

I'm not familiar with programing keyboard keys. I just want a 60% mechankcal Cherry MX red or similar to it, with fully black color and maybe with white LED backlit, but not RGB, and media keys out of the box without program them first.

 

Do you have recommendation of what I need?

 

I like a keys with this type of printout position, on top corner formal letter style and small letter size on the keys, but I want it to have a white led backlit. This one V60 Type R MX Red is non backlit.

 

[geo3]

11 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

I'm not familiar with programing keyboard keys. I just want a 60% mechankcal Cherry MX red or similar to it, with fully black color and maybe with white LED backlit, but not RGB, and media keys out of the box without program them first.

 

Do you have recommendation of what I need?

 

I like a keys with this type of printout position, on top corner formal letter style and small letter size on the keys, but I want it to have a white led backlit. This one V60 Type R MX Red is non backlit.

 

The V60 comes programmed already so you don't have to worry about that. But if you never intend to use that feature then it's pretty equal to the Poker. It just comes down to preference. The poker has an white or blue and an RGB version and the V60 has a red/blue back light option. 

 

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3591

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3632

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3527

 

[geo3]

Another option would be the Ducky One 2 Mini.

 

[_Hustler_One_]

11 minutes ago, geo3 said:

The V60 comes programmed already so you don't have to worry about that. But if you never intend to use that feature then it's pretty equal to the Poker. It just comes down to preference. The poker has an white or blue and an RGB version and the V60 has a red/blue back light option. 

 

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3591

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3632

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3527

 

Those are really nice boards, POK3R letter style are comical I dont like it. While V60 letter style are formal and have a more profesional looks I like it.. I'm not into self customization yet like what I see on your profile pic, but I might get into it when I'm ready. At least I have the platform first before that time comes.

 

Thanks for sharing.. I think I'll stay with my tendency to get the V60 instead, but still considering about picking either the backlit one or the non-led at all..

[_Hustler_One_]

10 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Another option would be the Ducky One 2 Mini.

 

Correct, I also checked that one already but that comical logo again on the space bar, aaaaaarrrrrgh..! It ruined them.. But it can be swapped, right?

Do the time spent to deal with looking and swapping the keycaps worth to be done?

 

I'm worried I will end up spend time working on the PC hardwares more than I will use it for works.

 

On Ducky keyboard I tend to get the Ducky Zero 75% form factor instead. What do you think?

[geo3]

7 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

Correct, I also checked that one already but that comical logo again on the space bar, aaaaaarrrrrgh..! It ruined them.. But it can be swapped, right?

Yes, the key caps are easily swapped. They literally just pop on and off.  And I'm not sure but I think Ducky even comes with a plain space bar in the box.

 

8 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

Do the time spent to deal with looking and swapping the keycaps worth to be done?

 

I'm worried I will end up spend time working on the PC hardwares more than I will use it for works.

I'm the wrong person to ask. I mess with keyboards for fun. But keycap swapping is fast and easy. Just buy a wire cap puller if you intend to do it. https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=949

 

10 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

On Ducky keyboard I tend to get the Ducky Zero 75% form factor instead. What do you think?

Go with what you like. I personally prefer 60% and smaller.

[_Hustler_One_]

2 hours ago, geo3 said:

Yes, the key caps are easily swapped. They literally just pop on and off.  And I'm not sure but I think Ducky even comes with a plain space bar in the box.

 

I'm the wrong person to ask. I mess with keyboards for fun. But keycap swapping is fast and easy. Just buy a wire cap puller if you intend to do it. https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=949

 

Go with what you like. I personally prefer 60% and smaller.

What is the pros and cons of Ducky One 2 Mini, does it have something to stand out over V60 and Pok3r?

 

With those 3, which one that has the best value and feature regardless of programable keys?

 

Even I tend to get V60 but still unsure which one I will settle with.. V60 is the most stealth on its looks even with red/blue backlit, but I'm not a fan of RGB and prefer plain white lighting, while the others has RGB backlit which can be set at full white but they're too bling to be stealthy enough to match my system..

 

The perfect keyboard backlit which matched with my preference is Logitech G413 silver, only lit white color through the keycaps and doesn't show light on the base and between of the keys.. but the form factor is out of my preference..

 

Manufacturers, why you do this? (-_-)a

 

@geo3 thanks for gave me a good respond to my difficulties and be friendly.. Sorry for wasting your time.. Maybe I'm being too idealistic, and I always be like that and I hate it, but I can't help it..

[geo3]

I think the ducky easily has the highest quality keycaps, and possibility the best over all build quality. It also uses a USB-C cable which is nicer and more durable than USB-B mini. 

 

Over all the 3 of them are pretty close in what you get for the price. Personally I would lean to the V60 because of full programmablity and that I'd replace the keycaps anyway no mater what. But that's just me. 

[_Hustler_One_]

10 minutes ago, geo3 said:

I think the ducky easily has the highest quality keycaps, and possibility the best over all build quality. It also uses a USB-C cable which is nicer and more durable than USB-B mini. 

 

Over all the 3 of them are pretty close in what you get for the price. Personally I would lean to the V60 because of full programmablity and that I'd replace the keycaps anyway no mater what. But that's just me. 

If I finally get the V60, which keycaps would you recommend to replace its stock? And which keycaps that has the same lettering style as the stock one as I showed the pic above?

[_Hustler_One_]

@geo3 the ducky one 2 mini indeed shows a better keycaps surface. I like how its keycaps surface looks, it appears smoother that the others. But the chassis is 2 toned with black and white..

 

With all of the missmatch with my main goal that is to get the darkest theme aesthetic system, the pok3r and ducky are too much.

 

I think I will go with V60 even without any backlit and will do like what you will do to it, replace all the keycaps maybe.. Man, you're injecting new virus to me.. I'm dragged to this mechanical keboard stuff deeper than I would expect..

[_Hustler_One_]

@geo3 aaaaaaand.......I'm stumbled on this before I actually take action to buy the keyboard we discussed..

 

 

I don't mind to replace all these white and red keycaps with black ones.. The extra keys on the right edge of the board might give me some convenience.. It's a GMK UNIQEY C70.. My God! This one is a cool board..

I'll educate myself about this one.. Behold!

[geo3]

22 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

If I finally get the V60, which keycaps would you recommend to replace its stock? And which keycaps that has the same lettering style as the stock one as I showed the pic above?

Oh boy... Before I go any further I must warn you, you can as I have, spend more on keycaps than on the keyboard itself. The set in my profile pic cost me $200, bought used.  Also keycaps preferences are very subjective. Between shape(aka. the profile), layout, material, print method, colorway, thickness, and manufacturing quality, there's an overwhelming amount of variety.  I would wait a bit after getting your keyboard before deciding on keyboard. 

 

I can post something more tomorrow, I'm on my phone now. I can list several sources do aquire caps and let you know generally what to look for. You can also visit Reddit's r/mechanicalkeyboards to see examples of what different kinds of set are out there.

 

14 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

Man, you're injecting new virus to me.. I'm dragged to this mechanical keboard stuff deeper than I would expect.. 

My deepest sympathies to you and your wallet.

 

 

[_Hustler_One_]

52 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Oh boy... Before I go any further I must warn you, you can as I have, spend more on keycaps than on the keyboard itself. The set in my profile pic cost me $200, bought used.  Also keycaps preferences are very subjective. Between shape(aka. the profile), layout, material, print method, colorway, thickness, and manufacturing quality, there's an overwhelming amount of variety.  I would wait a bit after getting your keyboard before deciding on keyboard. 

 

I can post something more tomorrow, I'm on my phone now. I can list several sources do aquire caps and let you know generally what to look for. You can also visit Reddit's r/mechanicalkeyboards to see examples of what different kinds of set are out there.

 

My deepest sympathies to you and your wallet.

 

 

The unique feature of this kind of keyboard is hard to resist, when I moved from membran to mechanical for the 1st time, I admit there's no way I want to go back to membran.. Now all of these compact mini keyboards with all their own unique properties and versatility dragged me further..

 

And this one,

1 hour ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

 

I don't mind to replace all these white and red keycaps with black ones.. The extra keys on the right edge of the board might give me some convenience.. It's a GMK UNIQEY C70.. My God! This one is a cool board..

I'll educate myself about this one.. Behold!

It's really nice keyboard but after some research, there's no function key row, and its price is stupid $300 for a single unit.. Seriously? So that's unreachable from my value point of view.. Move on..

[geo3]

6 hours ago, geo3 said:

I can post something more tomorrow, I'm on my phone now. I can list several sources do aquire caps and let you know generally what to look for. You can also visit Reddit's r/mechanicalkeyboards to see examples of what different kinds of set are out there.

Ok here are a bunch of places I get keycaps from:

https://kbdfans.cn/collections/keycaps

https://pimpmykeyboard.com/all-products/keysets-kits/

https://www.originativeco.com/collections/keysets

https://novelkeys.xyz/collections/keycaps

https://www.massdrop.com/mechanical-keyboards/drops

https://www.aliexpress.com/af/keycaps.html

 

There actually many more this lol. 

So as I said before there are many different aspect of keycaps that can vary greatly. But in general you want to look out for a couple things quality wise. First only ever get caps with a printing method of either dye-sub, or double shot. The rest are not durable and will wear off with use. And 2 prefer caps made of PBT plastic over ABS plastic. ABS wears down over time with touch and becomes very smooth and glossy, they also will start to yellow when exposed to UV light. ABS is not necessarily bad, it's just that PBT is better. Also a lot of people prefer the sound of PBT caps which is thicker and deeper than ABS.

 

6 hours ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

And this one,

It's really nice keyboard but after some research, there's no function key row, and its price is stupid $300 for a single unit.. Seriously? So that's unreachable from my value point of view.. Move on..

This is what we call a 65% because it's similar to a 60% but with a bit extra.

An alternative 65% to this one with a similar layout is the TADA68.

If you like those keycaps that set is DSA Honeywell.

 

I one owned a TADA68 and loved it. Great quality board. I only got rid of it because 65% became too big for me and I wanted to go smaller.

[_Hustler_One_]

17 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Ok here are a bunch of places I get keycaps from:

https://kbdfans.cn/collections/keycaps

https://pimpmykeyboard.com/all-products/keysets-kits/

https://www.originativeco.com/collections/keysets

https://novelkeys.xyz/collections/keycaps

https://www.massdrop.com/mechanical-keyboards/drops

https://www.aliexpress.com/af/keycaps.html

 

There actually many more this lol. 

So as I said before there are many different aspect of keycaps that can vary greatly. But in general you want to look out for a couple things quality wise. First only ever get caps with a printing method of either dye-sub, or double shot. The rest are not durable and will wear off with use. And 2 prefer caps made of PBT plastic over ABS plastic. ABS wears down over time with touch and becomes very smooth and glossy, they also will start to yellow when exposed to UV light. ABS is not necessarily bad, it's just that PBT is better. Also a lot of people prefer the sound of PBT caps which is thicker and deeper than ABS.

 

This is what we call a 65% because it's similar to a 60% but with a bit extra.

An alternative 65% to this one with a similar layout is the TADA68.

If you like those keycaps that set is DSA Honeywell.

 

I one owned a TADA68 and loved it. Great quality board. I only got rid of it because 65% became too big for me and I wanted to go smaller.

That GMK UNIQEY C70 got 2 columns of extra keys on the right, while TADA68 only has 1 column. I really like that C70 layout, but why no function keys? How can I go to BIOS and other without them? 

[geo3]

18 minutes ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

How can I go to BIOS and other without them?

Since you were planning on a 60% I assumed you knew they use layers.

So Fn + 1  = F1, Fn + Backspace = Del for example. You have all functionality available yo you. A 60% doesn't have arrow keys but I can still use them. My WASD keys act as arrows when I hit my Fn key.

[_Hustler_One_]

@geo3 How about the "non-Type-R" V60 Gateron Yellow? I don't have experience with Gateron switches..

 

This one has more stealthy looks than the MX Red V60 I showed you before..

[_Hustler_One_]

12 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Since you were planning on a 60% I assumed you knew they use layers.

So Fn + 1  = F1, Fn + Backspace = Del for example. You have all functionality available yo you. A 60% doesn't have arrow keys but I can still use them. My WASD keys act as arrows when I hit my Fn key.

Correct, I knew how to F1-F12 on it, but on that Uniqey C70 it doesn't have F1-F12 shown on its keycaps

[geo3]

Most people who aren't hung up on brand name think Gateron switches are better than Cherry. Their yellow switch is a medium weight linear switch, slightly heavier than a red.

[geo3]

1 minute ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

Correct, I knew how to F1-F12 on it, but on that Uniqey C70 it doesn't have F1-F12 shown on its keycaps

What's shown on the key cap has nothing to do with what is actually typed. Only someone making the board will have to match the legend on the cap to the function of the switch.

[_Hustler_One_]

28 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Most people who aren't hung up on brand name think Gateron switches are better than Cherry. Their yellow switch is a medium weight linear switch, slightly heavier than a red.

What is the difference between Type R and the non-Type R?