Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ever since Cherry's patent on mechanical switches expired, we have been seeing a good deal of keyboards popping up listed as "mechanical" keyboards. These are typically cheaper because they used clone copies of Cherry's original design which makes manufacturing cheaper and in turn, the price of the product cheaper. These clone switches usually have lower quality specs and standards than Cherrys, but are still good switches. The most common are: Kaihl (Kaihl also produces Razer's green and yellow switches), Gateron, Greetech, and Otemu. E-Element uses Otemu switches in this keyboard. Please note: although this keyboard is listed as a RGB LED keyboard, you do not have the customization that you see in higher tier keyboards. You cannot pick a custom color. The LEDs are restricted to: red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, a pinkish purple, and white. When typing on this keyboard next to my Razer Blackwidow Ultimate (older version that uses Cherry MX Blue switches) there is a slightly noticeable feel between the switches, but you have to be feeling for it. The Z-88 is much louder than the Blackwidow. Due to the slight difference in feel, I do prefer the original Cherry MX Blues in the Blackwidow compared to the Otemu switches in the Z-88, but I have been using MX Blues for over ten years, I'm going to feel a difference, so your mileage may very. However, when paired with 0.2mm o-rings, I prefer the feel and sound of the Z-88 over the Blackwidow. The sound and response of the keyboard is cleaner and nicer to use. Physically, the keyboard is very sturdy with very little flex. This is due to the metal backplate under the keycaps. The bottom of the keyboard has four rubber pads and the end of the feet also have rubber pads to reduce movement on the keyboard. E-Element has included cable routing channels on the underside of the keyboard so the cable may exit on either side or out of the middle at the back of the keyboard. The keycaps are double-shot injected molds. The outside being black with laser etching and obviously the inside being a translucent white. The fonts on the keycaps are ok, but they're not my favorite. I've replaced the letters and number caps with the caps from a Logitech G710+ I had laying in my closet. The RGB LED lighting is decent. If you're used to using a Logitech, Razer, Cooler Master, Ducky, etc; the brightness of the LEDs will disappoint you. The max brightness is about half the max brightness on my G710+ and Blackwidow. It's fine though to be honest. I've never used max brightness on my Blackwidow or G710+. There are 10 color modes for this keyboard. They are: -Unison color across the whole keyboard -Breathing -Gaming mode which only lights up WASD, the arrow keys, and your escape key. -Color Spectrum. The LEDs gradually change through the color spectrum. -Single key lighting. The key that you strike momentarily lights up. -Wave. The brightness across the keyboard alternates creating a wave affect. -"Snake" mode. The LEDs start at escape and one by one light up across the keyboard and then cycle back. -Ripple. After striking a key, a ripple affect is created by the LEDs. -Surround. The keys immediately surrounding the key struck is momentarily lit up. -Off. Derp mode. These lighting modes can be cycled through by hitting FN+PgDn. The different lighting modes have different colors to them and different speeds. The brightness of the LEDs can be adjusted by hitting FN+Up Arrow and FN+Down Arrow The speed of the animations can be changed by hitting FN+Left Arrow and FN+Right Arrow You cycle through the colors by hitting FN+"=" and FN+"-" There are various multimedia keys and a windows lock key that can also be used with FN as well. I personally brought this keyboard because I wanted a mechanical 60% keyboard with backlighting. I didn't want to spend $130 on a RGB Pok3r only to find out that I didn't like 60% keyboards. However, I do like the format and I do like this keyboard. I'll will be using this for my daily driver from here on out.