I love mechanical keyboards. And I love that companies have finally caught on that CES is the show to debut their wares. I got to see a PC peripheral maker’s first-ever mechanical keyboard. HYTE launched the aptly named Keeb TKL. It lights up in tandem with other desk accessories and apps; it’s fully customizable with hot-swap capabilities and is just plain fun. HYTE is also debuting its switches, which feel soft but not mushy.
The Keeb TKL is a ten-keyless keyboard, hence the moniker. It is a little bulbous to accommodate the light-up crystal bubble polycarbonate casing, though it’s seriously cool to look at in person. The minute I looked at it, I almost immediately thought about which keycap set would work for a style change.
Of course, you can’t just put any keycaps on. The board comes with a gasket-mounted 5-pin hot swap PCB with north-facing qRGB pixels, so you’ll want a windowed keycap set that lets the light shine through. The HYTE Keeb TKL has Durock V2 screw-in stabilizers and is pre-lubed with Krytox 205g0 and XHT-BDZ, popular enthusiast offerings.
HYTE is working on its switches for the board. The debut is called the Fluffy Lavendar Switches. They are linear switches, which means they’re best for extended typists. I prefer linear or tactile switches, so it was already within my wheelhouse. The switches have an actuation point of 40g and a bottom-out force of 53g.
You can customize all the lights on the HYTE Keeb TKL with its Nexus software. I’ll be curious how this software compares to similar suites from Razer and Corsair, which have historically felt like bloatware rather than the software you want running in the background. At the same time, I’m pleased it’s not another keyboard manufacturer relying on the open-source Via software for customization. I like Via for configuring the Keychron keyboards, but it’s not particularly user-friendly for newcomers to the hobby.