Monsgeek M1W SP review: a near-perfect mechanical keyboard

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. Nevertheless, usually, the value of entry is excessive, otherwise you’re compelled to do a lot or among the work your self. Self-building could be enjoyable however can go mistaken, and it takes time a few of us simply don’t have obtainable. That’s the place the Monsgeek M1W SP is available in.

This compact tenkeyless (TKL) 75% keyboard from Monsgeek has a shocking design with an all-metal case, shades of grey keys, and side-illuminated keys, plus it presents wi-fi and Bluetooth connections too. All that and it prices simply $167. That’s not low cost for a keyboard, but it surely represents gorgeous worth for its high quality, making it a sure-fire contender for our greatest gaming keyboard listing.

Monsgeek M1W SP specs

Monsgeek M1W SP specs:

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 screen, Insert, and Pause buttons – this keyboard weighs simply shy of 2kg. That compares to only 1,223g for the whole thing of the Mountain Everest Max, for instance, which drops to only 881g while you take away its modular numpad and multimedia sections.

Many of the M1W SP’s weight comes from the large blocks of thick machined aluminum that make up your complete outer casing of the keyboard. Monsgeek doesn’t make any daring claims concerning the thickness of the fabric, however in locations, it seems to measure over 10mm in depth. It’s so heavy that it’s legitimately troublesome to select up the M1W SP with out hooking your fingers into the deep grooves on the perimeters, that are stylishly accented in gold paint.

What does all that weight imply for day-to-day use? Effectively, 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 may go hell for leather-based in your typing or gaming classes with out worry of your keyboard getting away from you. It additionally makes the M1W SP only a pretty keyboard to really feel and work together with.

There’s one draw back, although. Okay, two. Should you drop this keyboard it’s going to make a multitude of your foot/flooring/cat and doubtless received’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 kinds of harm. As with all anodized aluminum end, a slight scratch on this pristine black chassis (additionally obtainable in silver with pink keys and white with purple keys, although not in ISO format, solely ANSI) turns into fairly apparent in comparison with a scratch on a uniformly black plastic case.

Additionally, the sharp (trying) traces of the sides of this keyboard make it vulnerable to such harm. 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 execs 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 straightforward black quantity knob, and naturally the compactness of the 75% format, all mix to create what I take into account 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 primarily offers some cushioning and sound absorption between the keys and body. Curiously, although, Monsgeek has opted for a polycarbonate swap mount plate, reasonably than steel, 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 principle keyboard unit, not together with the switches and keycaps.

Monsgeek M1W SP options

Whereas it could appear to be a quite simple machine that’s all about premium construct high quality reasonably than options, the M1W SP does have a couple of methods 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 peak adjustment. It’s only a huge plain block of steel with keys on prime.

Nevertheless, 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 capable of talk with its included 2.4GHz dongle or by way of 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 charge of 1kHz, but it surely’s solely 125Hz in Bluetooth mode.

What’s extra, with the swap in wi-fi mode you may mix the Fn key with the E/R/T/Y/U keys to modify between three Bluetooth gadgets, wi-fi and wired modes. The Fn key can carry out a load of different methods too.

Together with the Home windows key it might disable the Home windows key for gaming classes, with the spacebar it is going to present battery standing, with the cursor and Residence/PgUp/PgDn/Finish keys it is going to alter RGB backlighting, and it’ll management multimedia playback with different keys too. Then there’s the quantity knob you can faucet to manage the backlighting brightness (4 ranges).

It’s a complete choice of controls, a lot of which is able to both take a very long time to be taught or by no means develop into acquainted, however the core capabilities rapidly turned second nature to me. Included within the field alongside the keycap detachable instrument and wi-fi dongle are a swap removing instrument, part-coiled USB-A to USB-C cable, and spare stabilizers.

Monsgeek M1W SP switches and keycaps

The M1W SP is just obtainable with Akko V3 Piano Professional switches, although you should buy the barebones model with out switches and slide in your personal alternative of switches, due to this keyboard having hot-swappable swap mounts. Akko is the mother or father model of Monsgeek, and it produces a wider vary of keyboard components, with Monsgeek concentrating on the premium aluminum keyboard vary.

In use, the V3 Piano Professional switches really feel nice, regardless of my basic desire 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 should swap them out.

As for all that sound-deadening effort, these keys aren’t all that quiet. There’s no increase 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 (overview incoming) and simply crushed 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 colour choices – is only a stroke of styling genius. They’re additionally high quality items constructed from double shot (two layers of plastic) PBT plastic, so shouldn’t put on to a shine or have the legends put on away, although after all having the legends on the perimeters of the keys ensures this received’t occur anyway. Notably, some PBT keycaps can really feel somewhat tough and grainy however these are tremendous {smooth}.

Nevertheless, these keycaps have an issue, which is the legibility of the legends. Doubleshot keycaps typically undergo from a scarcity of legend sharpness and that is seemingly exacerbated right here by the side-positioning of the legends. In vibrant situations, the legends on the lighter-colored keys could be very tough 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 drawback.

Switching from coloured backlighting to plain vibrant white helped – and it’s a lot much less of an issue in darker lighting situations – however there’s room for enchancment right here. It’s good that Akko presents a great deal of appropriate different keycaps on its web site. They might not match the candy gradient colour 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 might not look like a lot, the simply accessible USB-C port, offered coiled cable, and fast charging meant {that a} weekly top-up was no nice chore.

That stated, we’d be inclined to simply accept the slight mess of a cable and swap the keyboard right into a wired-only mode for basic 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 worth

The Monsgeek M1W SP worth is $167 for the absolutely 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 you could find some Akko fashions which have an analogous design on Amazon.

Monsgeek M1W SP overview conclusion

The Monsgeek M1W SP has completely blown me away with its mixture of fantastic construct high quality, placing design, helpful connection choices, and, most of all, astonishing worth. For this worth, I completely wouldn’t count on to get wi-fi assist with a keyboard made to this excessive a regular.

Is it excellent? Not fairly. The readability of the facet labels on among the keys just isn’t nice, making the lighting look untidy, whereas additionally typically including a contact of frustration when utilizing the quantity keys. Should you’re not a usually assured contact typer, chances are you’ll discover this keyboard only a contact irritating, although you may after all swap the keycaps for a lot of different choices obtainable 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 perfect 75% keyboard I’ve ever used. In the meantime, if you happen to do fancy having a go at constructing your personal absolutely customized typing instrument, try our Tips on how to make a customized keyboard information.