Quite a decent mechanical keyboard on sale from Banggood's AU warehouse. Only the Gateron Blue switch variant is instock. It also comes with USB Type-C connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, customisable RGB and keys.
- Apply the coupon BGAnneAU at checkout
AU$ based on current Mastercard rate. Free shipping included.
Referee gets $2 in coupons. Referrer gets 10% off (if referee spends over US$10)
Why cheapest
have been using the RK61… excellent for the price, $67 AUD from ebay shipped is the usual price (Aus Stock) Have also used custom key caps
Do you have a link to what you bought?
I just gave it a google. Popped up right away.
https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEw…
Hard to get any cheaper than this, but you can check on aliexpress. Might be lesser quality keys and keycaps though. If you want it really cheap, you can purchase a plate, the keys and keycaps, and solder the keyboard yourself using wires.
Yes, You will get no RGB, shitty software, ABS keycaps and gaming legend, no wireless, no type c (You might like this).
eBay, namely the GK61 optical keyboards (Gateron switches). They're also sold on Amazon, AliE and the other Chinese vendor sales points.
You can get some PBT keycaps for them from a few places as well.
Royal Kludge from Amazon. Very nice 60% mechanical keyboard for the price.
Magicforce 68 Keys Mini Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Brown Switch Silver White 😙👌
https://www.ebay.com/c/880702185
You get what you pay for an Anne Pro 2 is pretty decent tbh.
I really wish these are hotswappable. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I don't know and am scared to desolder.
Anne Pro 2 has a Kailh and Cherry variant if that's what you're after ;) More expensive though.
Been tossing up this one, keychron k2 or the ducky one 2 sf.
Not sure if Im brave enough to ditch the arrow keys with the Anne pro 2
I have the Anne Pro 1 and once you map fn to the caps lock key, I found the arrows are more seamless than traditional arrow keys.
Thanks. I just watched a review and it also has the "tap" function. Where the buttons in the bottom right corner can be used as arrows keys of you tap them.
I think I could live with that.
Takes a bit of getting used to. The right shift tap for up arrow works if you only want to go up one line. Two main issues:
Once you get used to that (or re-program it and use another layer for arrow keys) it is an excellent keyboard.
I ended up making the bottom row, 4 keys on the right, arrow keys in a vim style.
hold shift down hoping it will scroll up doesn't work. Holding it is for right shift. You'll need to tap tap tap tap.
Just using this keyboard at home for personal use and for WFH (hardly do intense excel work where using the arrow keys would be significant)
So should be OK. Just ordered it.
I'm in the same boat.. been looking for some 75% or some 65% boards… hot swap pcb tho… anyone have anything they would recommend? Link?
depends on your budget ^-^
True. up to 110.00 usd.
get a kbdfans tofu!
If you are looking for a reduced space kb, which still maintains most of the functions, then I really recommend the Vortex Race 3 (or rac3 sometimes).
Great keyboard, great keycaps, only downside is no bluetooth and no backlighting.
Was looking at the K6. Thought to myself, hey 90 or so bucks ain't that bad. USD. Close window.
Yeah I have heard it's really good. Unfortunately comes to around $150 aud incl shipping. If the K6 was closer to $100 aud I would definitely buy it.
I have the Ducky and I quite enjoy it. No arrow keys scared me too lol. I'm sure the Anne is great also.
Not sure if Im brave enough to ditch the arrow keys with the Anne pro 2
If you currently have a full-size board, cut a piece of cardboard and put it around the main section of your keyboard. If you find yourself trying to reach out of that section regularly, then 60% is probably not for you.
I understand "small for the sake of small", but I've always found that the loss in functionality of a 60% vs. a TKL not to be worth the small size benefits it brings. Personally, I use a full-size as my main keyboard since I need the numpad, a TKL on my secondary computer where I don't really do much work and I carry a 60% for on-the-go typing, but I just can't use a 60% full time.
I'm with you on the 60% confusion. Not sure why they make these, guess it's a cost saving thing since less pcb/switch/key needed. I am always using page up/down, home/end and the print screen key. Also find myself using the numpad at least every half hr. Drives me mad when laptops have the home/end keys buried under an fn function, almost unusable.
I think it depends on the kind of user.
Someone like my wife would probably be a good candidate for a 60% user. She basically never uses those extra keys. If she wants to delete something, she'll highlight it with the mouse and press backspace, whereas I'll do things like Ctrl+Up, then Del, or perhaps Shift+Arrows to highlight the part I want to delete. Similarly, she will use the mouse to click around on Excel whereas I just navigate around with the arrow keys.
I suspect that it's cost, but I can't help but also feel that a bit of it is cultural as well. Feels more "hackery" to have a 60% board, just like you feel more "race car driver" when driving a manual.
The main thing for me was the much smaller size. I don't have a huge amount of room to move it and stepped down from a K95 RGB which is massive.
@RJ021: I agree that full-size to 60% is a massive reduction, but TKL to 60% is actually not that much of a reduction. I have a 60% which I like for casual typing on my iPad or phone, but I just can't get used to the layering to use it as a full-time board.
try the akko on banggood
Akko 3068 is another good one to consider. Similar layout to the one 2 SF. Review:
https://youtu.be/eD5F-VEqLp8
Really wish they had the Red switches as AU stock…
Me too :( Specifically the silent reds.
Have a group buy set up if anyone is interested. Brings it down to 112 instead.
Participants needed!Come group shopping together and save more! https://m.banggood.com/groupshopping-detail-1325208.html
Been using the Anne Pro II with the Gateron brown switches since the start of the year, cannot fault it!
Yeah me too. Been using for about a year or so and it's a great keyboard. They also updated the bluetooth to 5.0 via a firmware update apparently. The Gateron Browns are slightly lesser to Cherry Browns in my opinion but overall a cost effective and good option, if you can do without arrow keys!
I did have to disable the tap feature to stop from missing lightly pressed keys though. It's highly customisable so its not a big issue.
I rely heavily on the tap keys myself hey haha, without that I'd have to move to a 65-70% board
Does anyone have some good recommendations for a decent 75% or TKL wireless mechanical keyboard? My budget is approximately $100-150 AUD. I've been using the Kogan TKL (Brown) and it has been doing the job (my first mechanical keyboard) but I would prefer to go wireless and I've heard that once I try a decent 'real' mechanical keyboard, I won't be able to go back to using cheap ones, the kind of which Kogan offers.
I'm not too fussed about RGB since I'm primarily using it for studying, but the feature would be nice. Thanks!
I'm using the Akko 3084 which I picked up from AliE for about $110 AU. 75% Bluetooth and comes with Cherry switches. Stock keycaps are also really nice, dye sub PBT so very durable and feels nicer than ABS imo. Doesn't have backlighting, but has never been an issue for me. Really really solid for the price,can definately recommend and I can give u full run down if you're interested!
Thanks for your comment! I had a look at a Youtube review and it looks pretty nice, although my preference is for the keyboard to be black in line with the rest of my desk set-up. I didn't know what dye sub PBT and ABS referred to, so I looked it up, something durable like dye sub PBT definitely sounds good for me. Thanks for the run-down! I've definitely got in mind, especially if I could get a version that is completely black. I don't know whether you can help with this, but do you think the transition from TKL to 75% is relatively easy? I also noticed in your comment below about modding one's stabs. Does this refer to adding a stabiliser or something? Cheers again.
Hi mate, happy to help!
The colour is unfortunate, they do have a few other options including dark blue but don't think there's really a black one. Bear in mind its also harder to find replacement keycaps due to the non-standard layout, so trying to get a black replacement set of the same quality would be pretty costly and not really practical.
The transition from TKL was easy enough for me, as you basically only lose 3 keys: insert, scroll lock, and the weird bottom row menu one. One big difference though is that you lose the spacing around the arrow keys, so its much harder to feel where they are without looking. The nav cluster keys are also in a different spot but should be easy enough to adjust to.
Modding the stabilisers is definitely more up the enthusiast path, and takes a bit of effort (you would have to open up the keyboard case and desolder 4 switches). But if you plan on using the keyboard a lot, I would say it is the single biggest upgrade to the feel and sound of the board!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD5Zj-ZgMLA
Let me know if you have any more questions! I can have a look at any other options you find too, see if I have heard anything about them. Would be good to put the dozens of hours I've spent looking at these things to good use :P
@jp1011: I appreciate all the effort and time you're putting into these replies!
Thanks for letting me know. Dark blue doesn't sound too bad, but I want to get a black keyboard if possible. Anything comparable to the Akko 3084 off the top of your head?
Sweet, thanks for the clarification. I started off with the full-size Kogan Mechanical Keyboard (Brown) but didn't like how big it was and I didn't use the number pad. The switch to TKL has been great in terms of the size of the keyboard and being able to bring my mouse closer in line with the keyboard. I use the arrow keys to navigate quite a bit, but I'm sure I'll get adjusted to it.
Oh wow, I can see why people mod the stabilisers! I'm not on that enthusiast path (yet) but thanks for letting me know about the process, I can credit you for helping me start the journey if I ever get into it.
Hahaha, thank you so much again. P1 ama recommended the Keychron K2 so I'm gonna go ahead and check out, it looks pretty cool.
@Zenyth: Hm, 75% is definitely light on alternatives around this price range.
I've seen a lot of hype around the Keychron K2, but also some less favourable reviews from good sources. Most of the complaints revolve around the thick case of the K2, which puts more strain on your wrists when typing. The keycaps also look good, but are on the very low end in terms of durability. Mac support is great though, if you need that.
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1sK0BrCaqM&t=282s
There's also the Ajaz AK33 which is a lot cheaper than the others, however I doubt it would be much of a quality upgrade over the Kogan board. It does come in black, but it also has a really weird (still 75%) layout so replacing worn out keycaps would be basically impossible.
The Vortex Race 3 is a higher end option, but quite a bit more expensive and definitely would not fit your colour scheme, so I can't really recommend that either.
Unfortunately, I can't really think of any other 75% options around a reasonable price range that I have come across. If the colour scheme is a real priority (which is definitely fair enough), you might have to stick with TKL :( . There are heaps more options at that size, and having used both recently I would say the size difference is noticeable, but by no means unbearable. I think you feel the difference between full size and TKL much more.
Hope this helps, don't hesitate to drop any more questions!
@jp1011: Hey mate. I've done a bunch more research (thank you very much for providing me with a solid foundation for my research) and I've stumbled upon a few things.
I've also come across the same issues with the Keychron K2 and the strain it would place on my wrists definitely rules out for me. I haven't looked too closely yet at the Ajaz AK33 and the Vortex AK33, but I definitely want to go somewhere in the middle ground of those two products, so thanks for pointing out those problems.
What I stumbled upon that has interested me, in particular, is this keyboard known as the Royal Kludge 71 or RK71: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADyTcqa6hUI&t=313s. They've updated the model since that video to include those more durable keycaps I think and you can connect up to five Bluetooth devices. It's appealing to me, especially in terms of the colourway, but I would appreciate your take on it.
There was also this Akko 3087 model that I found, but I think it lacked Bluetooth connectivity, which I would really like. I don't mind ultimately between TKL or 75% etc, both form factors are appealing for me (although of course there's something extra magical about 75%). Coming from full size and TKL, I get what you mean by the noticeable size difference.
Your insight has helped a great deal, it's great how this lowkey-esque bargain has generated some of the most useful information for me during my time on OzBargain!
@Zenyth: No worries, great to hear these comments have been useful for you!
Argh that's a shame to hear about the 3087, had always just assumed it would have bluetooth the same as the 3084.
The RK71 definitely looks interesting, their smaller RK61 was one of the more highly recommended 60% boards in the price range (though many youtubers have at least some kind of brand affiliation, so take it with a pinch of salt). The layout is more of a 65% (no F-keys), and keep in mind it is only 1 column narrower than a TKL. Also, keycaps will be super easy to replace if you use blanks or uniform height ones (DSA or XDA), but hard to replace if you use sculpted ones (each row different height). This is because while the keycaps are all the standard size, the right nav cluster keys are in different rows than usual. This means if you use a standard sculpted set, the heights won't line up. A small thing, but one to consider.
I actually do have one Royal Kludge board myself lol, the RK Sink 87G, but I have a feeling its more of a rebranded generic (as I have seen it sold under other names), so not sure how indicative it is of their other KBs. Not sure if my unit was especially bad, but really can't recommend the one I got. The stabilisers were super super rattly and the ping (a ringing sound made by the keys hitting the metal plate) was ridiculously bad. These are at least fixable, and there was nothing wrong with the other stuff like connectivity, battery etc.
Bad switches, keycaps, stabilisers, and (to an extent) ping can all be fixed with mods if you are willing to go that far, so if you like the look of the features and layout of the RK71, I would say give it a shot, worst case scenario it would take a few mods to get up to scratch.
However, if you don't really like the idea of opening up and modding your KB, I would probably steer you towards something slightly more expensive (Durgod, Akko, Ducky, [others]) for a safer bet at a good out of the box experience.
Let me know how you go!
@jp1011: I'm still doing my research to figure out whether or not I'm going to be too impacted by the loss of the function keys, I usually use my headphones to play/stop, forward/rewind and adjust the volume for music.
Thanks for the insight about the keycaps, I haven't yet looked too deeply at that. I'd definitely prefer for them to be easily replaceable, especially if I become more of an enthusiast… down the rabbit hole I go!
Hmm, that's not great. I'll have a look into that and see how it actually compares with their other offerings because I've stumbled upon generally positive things about their positive products, much like you've seen with the RK61.
Another thing that I think I'm interested in is the keyboard being hot-swappable, as I would like to try out different switches. Apparently, that's a feature of the new on one of the models with the new iteration of the Keychron, the Keychron K6.
Cheers mate! At this stage, it looks like that, by the time I figure out what I want, commenting will be closed on this post hahaha. I'll make sure to send you a direct message with what I end up getting and follow it up with my actual experience.
@Zenyth: Sounds great! Happy to help.
Hot swap is definitely nice to have, you will save hours not having to de-solder and solder switches, especially if you want to try a few different switches out first. Just bear in mind that it really does cut down on your number of options, and generally will bump the price as well. Therefore I would treat it as more of a luxury than a real necessity.
Great to know this thread has been of use to you, definitely drop any more questions you've got in pm!
The Keychron K2 is in your budget and is wireless, it's probably as small as I would be willing to go for a full time desk-based board.
As with most things, it's diminishing returns. The most important thing is to figure out what switches you like. If you're going for a TKL, then the layout is pretty standard and the software implementation is not important because you're not going to be remapping keys like you would have to with a 60% board.
Some people are fussy about things like keycaps, but I wouldn't worry too much. You can always replace them later. A good board will last much longer than the set of caps it comes with anyway. If you're a touch-typist and you're using TKL (i.e. you don't need layering), then I would suggest using a blank keycap set. Something about that look has always allured me. Then you don't have to worry about how the letters are etched onto the keys.
Hows your experience been with the K2? I've seen some really mixed reviews (some complain the front is uncomfortably high) so would be great to get your take!
Hey mate, thanks for your comment. I did a bit of research on the Keychron K2 and there are a few features that have made it a no for me, including the height of the keyboard, as I get wrist strain pretty easily and apparently it's quite problematic even with a palm rest.
I have stumbled upon a few other keyboards and I will be discussing them in my reply to jdoa00's comment up above. Thanks for the insight, I definitely know that a 60% keyboard is not right for me, TKL, 75% etc are the kinds of variations that will work for me.
Yes, black set of blank keycaps definitely is quite alluring, I had a look at a few videos on Youtube with blank keycap set-ups and they looked amazing. Are you able to please clarify what you meant by 'layering'? Thanks for all the insight once again.
Should join the 🇦🇺 Mechanical Keyboards Australia (AUMK) group on facebook! There are plenty of people that will help ya.
Thanks for the recommendation, I've joined up! Never would have envisioned I'd be passionate about mechanical keyboards a few years ago, how life changes haha!
Anything similar and full size? I need muh numpad
For anyone looking to pick one up, always remember to mod your stabs 😊 makes the biggest difference to feel on any mechanical board.
Got a guide to that? I haven't done any modding on my keyboard but I think it uses cherry mx switches
https://youtu.be/cD5Zj-ZgMLA
This vid is the go to. However it doesn't show you how to get your stabilisers off if once they are already installed. Can be quite easy or difficult depending on how they are installed. For plate mounted ones (which seem to be the most common ones on retail boards) you just need to desolder the switches with stabilisers (4 for the Anne Pro or any TKL). For PCB mount stabs (more premium type) you need to desolder the whole KB which can really be a pain.
Thanks OP - bought
Anyone want to start a group buy?
I'm keen if you are after more people
I'm seeing different versions of Bluetooth being sold with the Anne pro 2. Official Online site is listing Anne pro 2 with Bluetooth 5, I've also seen sellers on AliExpress noting the updated versions with Bluetooth 5.
Is the Banggood model being sold with Bluetooth 4 only?
RJ021 commented that the Bluetooth 4 has been updated to 5 via firmware. I'm unfamiliar with the hardware, is Bluetooth technology able to be updated via firmware or is this the chip totally new on the Bluetooth 5 version?
Does anyone know where to get the cheapest 60% keyboards?