Darmoshark's new KT980, this time really became a tough guy style keyboard, is hard in the physical sense. Compared with the previous K7, the higher positioning KT980 uses the CNC aluminum alloy fuselage, the outer packaging is still an arms box, plus the accessories attached inside, it can be said that KT980 is a top version of K7 that is between customization and mass production, for those who plan to be in place in one step and are too lazy to assemble themselves.
Darmoshark KT980 is not the first product to make a general's suitcase into an outer package, and the words associated with these arms boxes are probably only "luxury", "high-end" and "faith". The brand recognition of this ammunition box is extremely high, and there is Darmoshark's relief Icon in the center of the box, which is very compelling.
The accessories in the arms box are also luxurious, with a spring USB cable, a key puller/shaft puller, a few shaft body keycaps, a wiping flannel cloth, and even a key for the arms box.
Exterior details
KT980 uses a partition 98 key, F area and letter area are next to each other, which is in line with K7, different from the common 98 matching mechanical keyboard on the market. The indicator light above the original independent digital area was also moved to the esc key accordingly, and there was a metal sheet on the upper floor for decoration, and the grade was instantly pulled up. The upper and lower covers of the KT980 are made of CNC aluminum alloy, and the traditional heaven and earth covers are assembled together. The border is a little narrower than the K7, and the R angle is much smaller.
At the same time, the upper cover adopts a large chamfer, which looks compact and slender from the front, but also hard. Because the 98 columns are basically partition keyboards, the arrow keys are divided as a separate area, so many 98 keyboard arrow keys next to the border to protrude a piece, K7 is no exception. But in this KT980, because of the "one-size-fits-all" approach through chamfering, the border of the entire keyboard becomes more natural and unified, without any sense of violation.
The lower right corner of the border is also inlaid with a nameplate, the "FOR FAITH" slogan, which echoes the huge Darmoshark Logo at the bottom of the keyboard. Regarding the chassis, in fact, that area has been hollowed out, and the interior is equipped with a high-gloss metal relief nameplate weighing 151.6g, and the two are assembled by screws. There is a saying that the metal nameplate is really a fingerprint collector, it is better not to touch it.
The CNC fuselage generally does not do too much unnecessary slotting, so the keyboard does not dig grooves for foot braces, but is replaced by hemispherical foot pads and conical columns, so that the keyboard comes with a certain inclination.
Keycap shaft body
KT980 no longer uses the K7 set of XDA height ball cap, replaced by a set of OEM height PBT sublimation keycaps, the color matching is similar to the common large carbon color, of which several personality keycaps are printed with Darmoshark pattern, is a shark riding the wind and waves, these keys have monochrome supplementary keycaps.
The feel is similar to the delicate and soft touch of the previous K7, which is very pleasing to the fingertips. The fly in the ointment is that the workmanship of the keycaps needs to be strengthened, and a very few keycaps have obvious burrs, which affects the perception.
The shaft body adopts TTC silent red 3 shaft body, which adopts the double safety sound reduction structure design, the upper cover and the base are independently silenced, the impact contact area is large, the elastic deformation is small, and the sound can be silenced up and down in segments. According to TTC's tests, the noise test of silent red axis 3 on the card board, bare shaft and keycaps was less than 40dB, and the mute effect was remarkable. After many iterations and upgrades, TTC Silent Red 3 has a better mute performance, and the feel is among the best in many silent shafts, which improves the shortcomings of the hand feeling and the rustling sound emitted by the friction of the shaft core is almost gone.
At first, I thought that the Shift key and other key positions were caused by the silent red 3 or the satellite axis, but the meat sensation did not disappear after changing to the TTC gold powder axis. After investigation, it was found that it was the reason for the keycaps, and the buckle was not tight enough to cause several large keys to have a fleshy feeling. If you encounter this situation, you only need to press the keycaps completely to the bottom (pressed), and the meat feeling is completely reduced, restoring the original feel of Mute Red 3.
KT980 uses anti-paste LED lights, TTC shaft seat supports three-foot and five-foot shaft body, leaving a lot of playability for the later stage, which is consistent with K7.
After disassembling the keyboard, you can see that in addition to the sandwich pad, there is a very thin silencer cotton at the bottom, which can suppress some of the cavity sounds. During use, it was also found that as long as in a quieter environment, tapping a few keys will also have a distinct cavity sound, because this metal shell is the easiest to amplify the cavity sound.
The main keyboard controller adopts nuvoTon NuvoTon's M252 series, based on the ARM Cortex-M23 embedded core, and supports the ARM v8 instruction set.
Software-driven
There is no special driver for KT980 on the official website, but it can be recognized with the driver of K7, anyway, these two keyboards are a shell, which is not much different in essence.
Similar public version driver operation logic is exactly the same, light settings more than a dozen modes + custom settings. Key customization is divided into APP mode and on-board editing, and additional FN1 layers can be set through on-board editing to expand the function of key combinations.
Lighting effects
Backlit in completely dim environment
This set of keycaps is not thin (the thickness is about 1mm), of which the keycaps have obvious light leakage, which is interesting, relying on the diffuse reflection of high-brightness LED lights and white positioning plates, the keycaps have a gorgeous semi-transparent effect when the environment is completely dark.
Then, because the sublimation character is printed to the upper left position, rather than the center, this set of keycaps has achieved the exact opposite effect of the two-color word transparent keycaps, creating an atmosphere characteristic of keycaps transparent and impenetrable words. It can retain a good look and feel when the lights are not turned on, and the characters can be clearly seen in a fully dark environment, unlike other PBT sublimation keycaps that are black. Whether it's good or not is a matter of opinion.
There are also limitations, this seemingly OK light leakage characteristic is only reflected in the white keycaps, and the other orange and black keycaps are strategically abandoned.
Write at the end
This KT980 is full on the basis of the K7, and the rare 98 is equipped with CNC metal body with an unusual texture, and some personalized elements have been added, which is a rare product on the market. All aspects are in line with high-end customized keyboards, so the price has also come to 1980 yuan.
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