VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS WIRELESS MK (White Version) Review
There are a lot of companies that manufacture mechanical keyboards and for gamers, CORSAIR, Logitech, RAZER, etc are considered the top-notch. On the other hand, VELOCIFIRE is a company that you might not have heard about till now. They design a plethora of gear related to keyboards and no doubt the company aspires to serve its customers with high-value products.
PRODUCT INFO VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS MK Manufacture VELOCIFIRE Available at View at Amazon
The quality of keyboards from Logitech, Razer, and likewise is inevitable, however, they have a complementary price as well, which is simply unacceptable to budget users. Meanwhile, VELOCIFIRE takes another aisle. Their keyboards are shockingly inexpensive while having a comparable build quality to some of the most renowned and expensive keyboards in the market.
Personally, these keyboards offer a very similar experience and the quality often exceeds that of mainstream keyboards. Surely, you don’t get the mesmerizing looks of the gaming keyboards like CORSAIR ones but for the price, we really don’t think that it could get any better. The most promising products of the company are the wireless mechanical keyboards which have received immense attraction from the masses recently.
VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS MK is a tenkeyless keyboard, as it can be guessed from the name and it comes in white colour, offers MX-style Brown switches and wireless connectivity. The keyboard comes at a low price of around fifty bucks and this price is tremendously astonishing for a keyboard that offers mechanical switches and wireless connectivity. We will be looking at this keyboard in detail today, so let’s see if this keyboard is worth buying or not.
The box contents are as follows:
- VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS MK Keyboard
- Quick Start Guide
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- Keycap puller
- Wireless USB dongle
Design & Closer Look
So, let’s have a look at the design of the keyboard. First of all, the case of the keyboard is made of thick plastic, which is great for the given price. The colour of the plastic is white and it has a matte texture which feels very nice to touch. The keyboard uses a solid steel plate, which feels excellent and is overall considered better than aluminium due to extra weight and rigidity. As for the design of the keyboard is concerned, it looks fairly minimal, thanks to the tenkeyless form factor. There is the VELOCIFIRE logo at the front-right side of the keyboard, which is certainly better than the black version, where the logo was present above the arrow keys. The keyboard offers a sandwich-design case, which means that the plate and the PCB are present between two plastic pieces that are held together with screws.
Since it is a wireless keyboard, it comes with an 1850 mAh battery, which is present inside the case at the top-centre location. As for the bottom of the case, there are multiple rubber feet which help in keeping the keyboard fixed on your desk and there are two feet for raising the angle of the keyboard as well. Speaking of the angle, the keyboard already is quite inclined and you probably don’t need to use those feet. There is an on/off button at the bottom of the keyboard, which is great since this is a wireless keyboard and you don’t want it to be turned on all the time.
The keyboard can be connected only with the devices that provide a USB port because it needs the USB dongle to be inserted in order to be recognized. This is different from Bluetooth keyboards which can even work with mobile phones and this fact might be deal-breaker for some people. There is no place on the keyboard to store the dongle, which would have made it quite easy to store the dongle and you can lose it if you use the keyboard with multiple devices.
Switches & Stabilizers
The switches of this keyboard are very different from most of the mainstream keyboards. Instead of using Cherry switches, the keyboard uses Outemu switches, which are considered a bit lower-end considered to Cherry ones. Apart from that, the keyboard comes with only Brown switches, which means that you won’t be able to get your hands on blue or red switches if you want. The brown switches, however, are quite good for gaming and typing and a lot of people prefer using brown switches instead of others. The reason for this is that it is considerably quieter than the blue switch and yet offers tactility which makes it less prone to mistakes in typing.
As for the Outemu Brown switches, these switches are different from the Cherry Brown switches in some parameters. First of all, these switches have an actuation force of 55 grams while the Cherry Brown switches have an actuation of around 45 grams. Moreover, the switches have a higher tolerance than the Cherry switches which is why they often feel inconsistent across the board. Other than that, the feel and the tactility of the switch is very similar to the Cherry Brown switches. This fact makes these switches better for people who like Cherry Brown switches but want something that is a bit heavier, as Cherry Clear switches become too heavy as well.
The stabilizers of the keyboard feel as cheap as most of the gaming keyboards in the market, which is a bit unexpected, however, you can lubricate the stabilizers with dielectric grease; a very common solution for rattling stabilizers.
Keycaps
The keycaps of the keyboard are very impressive and one of the best features of the keyboard. Most of the cheap keyboards like this come with thin keycaps and in fact, even the high-end gaming keyboards like CORSAIR K70, etc use very low-quality keycaps. This keyboard, however, provides Doubleshot ABS keycaps that are not only durable but also are a lot thicker than most of the keycaps in the market. Doubleshot means that the keycaps are made with two different materials; the outer shell is made of black ABS plastic while the legend’s part is made of translucent milky-white plastic. This method is considerably better than lasered keycaps, which are made of translucent plastic entirely, painted black and then the legends’ area is lasered. Therefore, you won’t be suffering from messy legends even if you use the keyboard for a decade.
The thickness of the keycaps gives the keyboard a very nice touch and the acoustic profile of the keyboard is changed hugely as expected. This is a great advantage of buying this keyboard and if you are a fan of custom keyboards, you won’t have to spend on high-quality keycaps from the market. These keycaps, however, are still ABS keycaps and unlike PBT keycaps, these will start to shine in a couple of months. As for the legends, we really liked them because they do not provide that gaming font and they are very clean as well. The functionalities on the function keys, however, are not shine-through and will wear off over time, although those keys are rarely used.
Keyboard Lighting
The keyboard comes with white SMD LEDs, which means that the lights are present below the switches unlike the regular LEDs, which are present above the switches. This affects the keyboard in a couple of ways. First of all, the switches need to have clear housings because if the housing is not clear, the user won’t be able to see the lighting.
On the other hand, you can desolder the switches very easily and you won’t have to desolder the LEDs in order to remove the switches, so the job gets pretty easy in case a switch gets bad. As for the keyboard lighting, it can be either turned on or turned off. There is no software for customization and you cannot use any kind of lighting styles. To be honest, the white lighting does look pretty nice and we are pretty sure that most users would like this neutral white colour instead of red, blue or green colour.
Performance – Gaming & Typing
Gaming Performance
The gaming aspect of the keyboard is although not as impressive as the high-end offerings from RAZER and Logitech, still, it should be fine for people who do not want to get the best of the best. Usually, linear switches are considered better for gaming, as they are missing any kind of resistance but a lot of people use tactile switches so that they don’t accidentally miss-press any key. The keyboard provides N-key rollover though, which means that you won’t have any problems with long combos in games like Tekken 7, etc. The response time of the switches is surely higher than the latest optical switches in the market but one needs to be an expert gamer in order to notice this difference. Since the keyboard does not provide RGB lighting or any lighting styles, there is a chance that it won’t be magnifying the aesthetics of your system but the white colour ensures that there is no mismatch between the colour-themes of the rig and the keyboard.
Typing Performance
Now, coming towards typing, this keyboard can easily become your favourite keyboard if you have not typed on a mechanical keyboard before. Even if you have used mechanical keyboards before, this might interest you a lot, as it provides unique tactile switches, nice lighting, and high-quality keycaps. Since the keyboard provides a small form factor, you can use the keyboard during travels as well and easily connect it to the laptop, thanks to wireless connectivity. The switches are rated for 50 million presses, which makes it a very durable keyboard and you probably won’t be suffering from faulty switches any time soon.
Conclusion
All-in-all, VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS is one of the best budget wireless mechanical keyboards and provides a lot of unique features. It offers Outemu Brown switches that are tactile switches and the keyboard comes with white lighting. The small form factor makes it great for gaming and saves the space, however, you should look at other offerings from the company if you work with Excel sheets and other similar software applications. The keyboard comes with high-quality thick Doubleshot ABS keycaps and the font on these keycaps is also very nice. There is no software for customization of lighting or creating any kind of macros but still, this is one of the cheapest wireless mechanical keyboards in the market right now.
VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS MK
Best Budget Wireless Mechanical Keyboard
Pros
- Extremely cheap
- Small form factor
- White LED lighting looks really nice
- Thick Doubleshot keycaps
- Wireless connectivity
Cons
- Subpar stabilizers
- Only come with brown switches
Weight: 2.2 lbs. | Actuation Force: 55 g | Key Switches: Outemu Brown | Switch Lifespan: 50 million strokes | Actuation Point: 2.0 mm | Dedicated Media Controls: No | Keyboard Rollover: N-key rollover with anti-ghosting | Battery: 1850 mAh (12 hours with backlighting on)
VERDICT:VELOCIFIRE TKL02WS offers a lot of high-end features at a price that does not seem to be beaten any time soon and if you are looking for a cheap wireless mechanical keyboard, you don't need to look any further.
Check PricePrice at the time of the review: US $46.99 / UK N/A
