The 5QS Mark 2 will be outfitted with Cherry MX2A Brown, Crimson, and Silent Crimson switches. Das despatched me a evaluation unit with its hottest possibility, the MX2A Silent Reds. The underside-mount system, giant quantities of silicone dampening, and the silent crimson switches mix to create an extremely uninteresting typing really feel. The switches, silenced utilizing inside silicone strips, are naturally mushy and a bit mushy, and the underside mount makes this mushiness much more pronounced when typing. The sound dampening contained in the case absorbs no matter different vibrations and components of typing really feel would in any other case be current. The stabilizers are generic plate-mounted items that, regardless of being lubricated from the manufacturing facility, nonetheless rattled, even instantly out of the field. This was additionally made extra apparent by the keyboard’s silencing.
Ultimately, this keyboard’s typing feels mushy and sounds practically silent, whereas nonetheless sustaining some refined higher-pitched and rattly tones which might be disagreeable, however quiet sufficient to be lined up by headphones, earbuds, and even audio system.
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
In contrast to many keyboards in the present day, the 5QS doesn’t have hot-swap sockets. Which means except you’re helpful with a soldering iron and don’t like having a producer guarantee, you’ll be restricted to no matter switches the keyboard comes with from the manufacturing facility. The Lego-like customizability provided by hot-swap sockets has gone from a novel luxurious to an business commonplace in fashionable keyboards, so being absent on this mannequin, at this value, is considerably disappointing. Nevertheless, this does imply the 5QS goes to be marginally extra dependable than a hot-swappable board, since hot-swap sockets can often fail with in depth use.
Q Performance
Das’ huge promoting level with this keyboard is its “Q” software program, which is used to customise the RGB lighting and different capabilities. This can be utilized to use animations and patterns to the RGB, together with modifying the person operate of every key.
The RGB can be configured via particular person “applets” you put in inside the primary app. These can hook up with exterior functions and web site logins to show info like unread messages, alerts, and system info. A few of the extra fascinating ones embrace a four-day climate forecast, worth trackers for shares and cryptocurrencies, and value trackers for flights and video video games. In addition to that, there are a number of timed reminder apps for small duties like consuming water and standing reminders in case you’ve been sitting too lengthy.
Whereas all of those are cool ideas, even the perfect ones are held again by a significant flaw: RGB lights merely will not be an environment friendly solution to talk advanced info. For instance, the climate forecast applet has a number of coloration choices for various predictions, however solely a few of these make sense at a look: White for snow, yellow for solar, and blue for rain. Different choices—pink for overcast, and crimson for thunderstorms—will not be very intuitive. Until you spend quite a lot of time with this keyboard and alter your every day routines to acclimate to the brand new system, I doubt the common particular person will discover it useful to play a reminiscence sport with info that’s in any other case two clicks away on their pc. Whereas different keyboards (like Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75% Professional) combine secondary shows, this answer feels overcomplicated and underwhelming.