Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsCherry switch equivalents great value, but still imitations
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2020
This a "Geek" branded AK33 in black, with "Zorro" equivalents of Cherry Brown switches inside. It seems that the Ajazz AK33 gets rebranded by various providers.
In the box comes a little leaflet with function key shortcuts, a key puller and brush. Keyboard cable is detachable.
The lighting effects on this keyboard version are a constant or pulsing white light in several brightnesses, which can be disabled.
There is a little bit of contour to the keyboard tiering, the keys are semi low-profile and they have a hint of texture to them for a bit of grip.
THE KEYS: The all important key weight and touch seems fairly light and even to me. Needs between 1.75-2oz to depress a key. The brown switches give a little shearing sound when depressing the keys and the force required to depress the switch slowly builds towards the bottom of the travel, with a "bump" which tells you that you are activating the key. When the AK33 keys bottom out they create a slight ringing metallic sound from the aluminium keybed.
This keyboard was almost brilliant for the money, but just fell a little short. The layout of the keys is not ideal for finding lesser used keys, because the keyboard is crammed with keys. The Enter key is only half height. The Shift and arrow keys look 1.5x the width of regular keys. But the main problem I think was the SLACK feel to the keys. They don't wobble, but are slack in the up-down sense. Even Cherry red switches, the genuine ones, though not favoured by typists felt more positive in their touch than these Zorro browns. Just so you know where I'm coming from, I tend to average 70wpm when typing, and I have used a few genuine Cherry switch keyboards.
For gaming, I think it will be good. I was able to trill the keys quickly without problems. However the feel is not really positive enough for typing professionals.
Despite being initially impressed, the further I got with typing tests, the more errors I was making. I realised a lot of it was due to being used to laptop keyboard where the wrists are in the same plane as the keys. If you do not use a wrist rest then the keys for the little fingers are rather a long way away. It also improves the feel a lot to fit a couple of silicone O rings to each key as a shock absorber for comfort and it shortens the travel of the keys, which is the main drawback of this keyboard. The O rings reduce key noise by about a third.
