Our Verdict
It is laborious to have perfection however this keyboard comes extremely near attaining it. Its unbelievable construct high quality and elegance are joined by real usability and practicality for a keyboard that is a pleasure to make use of and surprisingly fairly priced.
- Beautiful design and construct high quality
- Surprisingly versatile with wired+wi-fi+Bluetooth
- Astonishingly good worth
- Aspect key legends can lack readability
- Very heavy
- Should take away Caps Lock to modify to wi-fi mode
The explosion of high-end customized mechanical keyboards in the previous couple of years has meant that there’s now a wealth of choices on the market for amazing-looking, ruggedly-built keyboards. Nonetheless, usually, the worth of entry is excessive, otherwise you’re compelled to do a lot or a number of the work your self. Self-building may be enjoyable however can go incorrect, and it takes time a few of us simply don’t have out there. That’s the place the Monsgeek M1W SP is available in.
This compact tenkeyless (TKL) 75% keyboard from Monsgeek has a surprising design with an all-metal case, shades of grey keys, and side-illuminated keys, plus it gives wi-fi and Bluetooth connections too. All that and it prices simply $167. That’s not low cost for a keyboard, nevertheless it represents beautiful worth for its high quality, making it a sure-fire contender for our greatest gaming keyboard listing.
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Monsgeek M1W SP specs
Monsgeek M1W SP specs:
Dimensions (mm) | 333 x 146 x 32.6 (W x D x H) |
Weight | 1963g (2.2kg together with field) |
Format | 75% (84 keys) |
Connection | USB-C (USB-C to USB Sort-A cable), 2.4GHz wi-fi, Bluetooth 5 |
Swap kind | Akko V3 Piano Professional (linear) |
Swap life | Not said |
Backlighting | RGB |
Extras | Keycap puller, key swap puller, USB-A to USB-C cable (half coiled), spare stabilizers |
Monsgeek M1W SP design and construct
The Monsgeek M1W SP is, fairly merely, the best-built keyboard I’ve ever used. Regardless of solely having a 75% kind issue – the place the Numpad is eliminated together with the Scroll Lock, Print Display, Insert, and Pause buttons – this keyboard weighs simply shy of 2kg. That compares to simply 1,223g for the whole thing of the Mountain Everest Max, for instance, which drops to simply 881g if you take away its modular numpad and multimedia sections.
A lot of the M1W SP’s weight comes from the massive blocks of thick machined aluminum that make up all the outer casing of the keyboard. Monsgeek doesn’t make any daring claims in regards to the thickness of the fabric, however in locations, it seems to measure over 10mm in depth. It’s so heavy that it’s legitimately tough to choose up the M1W SP with out hooking your fingers into the deep grooves on the edges, that are stylishly accented in gold paint.
What does all that weight imply for day-to-day use? Nicely, it means the keyboard by no means slides round – thanks additionally to a number of slim however safe rubber toes on the bottom. It additionally means you’ll be able to go hell for leather-based in your typing or gaming classes with out concern of your keyboard getting away from you. It additionally makes the M1W SP only a beautiful keyboard to really feel and work together with.
There may be one draw back, although. Okay, two. In the event you drop this keyboard it’s going to make a large number of your foot/flooring/cat and possibly gained’t do the keyboard any good both – lighter-weight boards would possibly go flying extra simply however stand a greater probability of surviving the journey.
The opposite draw back is the dearth of resistance to sure varieties of injury. As with every anodized aluminum end, a slight scratch on this pristine black chassis (additionally out there in silver with pink keys and white with purple keys, although not in ISO structure, solely ANSI) turns into fairly apparent in comparison with a scratch on a uniformly black plastic case.
Additionally, the sharp (wanting) strains of the sides of this keyboard make it vulnerable to such injury. We’ve solely had this keyboard a month or so and have already picked up an admittedly tiny nick within the entrance edge. Nonetheless, loads of different premium keyboards use anodized aluminum so it’s not like Monsgeek is treading new floor with these professionals and cons.
As for the remainder of this keyboard’s design, it’s a lesson in minimalist perfection. The marginally sunken keys, the perfectly-judged gradient of grey coloring on the keycaps, the usage of side-mounted legends on the keys (the tops of the keys are plain), the easy black quantity knob, and naturally the compactness of the 75% structure, all mix to create what I contemplate to be the best-looking keyboard in the marketplace.
Internally, the M1W SP makes use of a gasket mount design, which is the place the PCB and swap plates are mounted on rubber gaskets that match into the body of the keyboard. This basically gives some cushioning and sound absorption between the keys and body. Curiously, although, Monsgeek has opted for a polycarbonate swap mount plate, relatively than metallic, to actively present barely extra cushioning (with keyboard flex usually being seen as undesirable) and much more sound absorption.
Monsgeek has additionally outfitted the M1W SP with two layers of PORON foam to assist additional cushion the important thing plates and deaden sound. These comprise two of the eight layers of fabric that make up the primary keyboard unit, not together with the switches and keycaps.
Monsgeek M1W SP options
Whereas it might appear to be a quite simple machine that’s all about premium construct high quality relatively than options, the M1W SP does have just a few tips up its sleeve. That stated, in relation to bodily options, it’s pretty modest.
You get a single USB-C enter on the left rear, and the digital quantity knob/encoder within the prime proper, however in any other case that’s it. There’s no USB pass-through or different connections, no modular bits, no included wrist relaxation, and never even flip-down toes for top adjustment. It’s only a massive plain block of metallic with keys on prime.
Nonetheless, pop off the Caps Lock key with the included keycap remover and there’s a thriller swap. Slide this down from its default center place and the keyboard switches from a wired mode to wi-fi mode, with which it’s in a position to talk with its included 2.4GHz dongle or through Bluetooth 5. Slide up the swap and it strikes to a Mac wi-fi mode too. Working in wired mode and a pair of.4GHz wi-fi, the keyboard has a polling fee of 1kHz, nevertheless it’s solely 125Hz in Bluetooth mode.
What’s extra, with the swap in wi-fi mode you’ll be able to mix the Fn key with the E/R/T/Y/U keys to modify between three Bluetooth units, wi-fi and wired modes. The Fn key can carry out a load of different tips too.
Together with the Home windows key it might disable the Home windows key for gaming classes, with the spacebar it’s going to present battery standing, with the cursor and Residence/PgUp/PgDn/Finish keys it’s going to alter RGB backlighting, and it’ll management multimedia playback with different keys too. Then there’s the quantity knob that you could faucet to manage the backlighting brightness (4 ranges).
It’s a complete choice of controls, a lot of which can both take a very long time to be taught or by no means turn into acquainted, however the core capabilities rapidly grew to become second nature to me. Included within the field alongside the keycap detachable device and wi-fi dongle are a swap elimination device, part-coiled USB-A to USB-C cable, and spare stabilizers.
Monsgeek M1W SP switches and keycaps
The M1W SP is just out there with Akko V3 Piano Professional switches, although you should buy the barebones model with out switches and slide in your individual alternative of switches, due to this keyboard having hot-swappable swap mounts. Akko is the mum or dad model of Monsgeek, and it produces a wider vary of keyboard elements, with Monsgeek concentrating on the premium aluminum keyboard vary.
In use, the V3 Piano Professional switches really feel nice, regardless of my normal choice for tactile keyswitches. They’re ultra-smooth and secure. Notably, although, there’s no adjustable actuation or different fancy swap skills right here – to regulate the texture and response of the keys you’ll simply must swap them out.
As for all that sound-deadening effort, these keys aren’t all that quiet. There’s no growth and echo from the casing amplifying the important thing sound or passing your faucets on to the desk beneath, however there’s nonetheless a definite high-pitched click on from the keys bottoming and topping out.
Measuring with a decibel meter from 20cm away I recorded a stage of 62dB throughout common typing. This was matched by the Cherry MX 3.0S (evaluation incoming) and simply overwhelmed by the Corsair K70 Max which measured 61dB, with that keyboard having a noticeably lower-pitched thud to its sound. In the meantime, the Razer Huntsman V2 stays far and away the quietest mechanical keyboard I’ve examined at simply 46 dB.
As for the keycaps, I feel they appear superb, particularly once they’re not illuminated. The grey gradient – or the white-to-purple and white-to-pink gradients of these coloration choices – is only a stroke of styling genius. They’re additionally high quality models made out of double shot (two layers of plastic) PBT plastic, so shouldn’t put on to a shine or have the legends put on away, although in fact having the legends on the edges of the keys ensures this gained’t occur anyway. Notably, some PBT keycaps can really feel a bit tough and grainy however these are tremendous {smooth}.
Nonetheless, these keycaps have an issue, which is the legibility of the legends. Doubleshot keycaps usually undergo from an absence of legend sharpness and that is seemingly exacerbated right here by the side-positioning of the legends. In vivid circumstances, the legends on the lighter-colored keys may be very difficult to make out. This notably tripped me up when utilizing the quantity keys, with the dearth of a numpad making it an much more acute downside.
Switching from coloured backlighting to plain vivid white helped – and it’s a lot much less of an issue in darker lighting circumstances – however there’s room for enchancment right here. It’s good that Akko gives a great deal of suitable different keycaps on its web site. They might not match the candy gradient coloration scheme however they might add some essential ease of use.
Monsgeek M1W SP battery life
The M1W SP homes a 6000mAh battery that Monsgeek claims can last as long as 24 days with no backlighting or as much as 9 days with backlighting. This tallied with our expertise, and whereas 9 days could not seem to be a lot, the simply accessible USB-C port, supplied coiled cable, and fast charging meant {that a} weekly top-up was no nice chore.
That stated, we’d be inclined to just accept the slight mess of a cable and swap the keyboard right into a wired-only mode for normal desktop use, saving the wi-fi operate solely when wanted. Although admittedly having to take away the Caps Lock to activate wi-fi makes occasional use inconvenient.
Monsgeek M1W SP value
The Monsgeek M1W SP value is $167 for the totally pre-assembled model, together with switches and keycaps. The barebones model with out switches or keycaps is $144.
Monsgeek sells the M1W SP straight on its web site however yow will discover some Akko fashions which have an analogous design on Amazon.
Monsgeek M1W SP evaluation conclusion
The Monsgeek M1W SP has completely blown me away with its mixture of fantastic construct high quality, putting design, helpful connection choices, and, most of all, astonishing worth. For this value, I completely wouldn’t anticipate to get wi-fi help with a keyboard made to this excessive a typical.
Is it excellent? Not fairly. The readability of the facet labels on a number of the keys isn’t nice, making the lighting look untidy, whereas additionally generally including a contact of frustration when utilizing the quantity keys. In the event you’re not a usually assured contact typer, it’s possible you’ll discover this keyboard only a contact irritating, although you’ll be able to in fact swap the keycaps for a lot of different choices out there on Akko’s web site.
Even with these caveats, although, the M1W SP does sufficient to leap straight on our greatest gaming keyboard listing as the most effective 75% keyboard I’ve ever used. In the meantime, for those who do fancy having a go at constructing your individual totally customized typing device, take a look at our The way to make a customized keyboard information.