Got this for my 15yo. Beautiful Keyboard and my 15yo LOVES it!!!

So good. Sounds great comes with foam in the case.

Long story short, this board doesnt compete with custom builds. But its not supposed to. As for out of the box keyboards, this has been my absolute favorite of the almost 100 Ive tried. The keycaps are REALLY nice for the price. Colors are incredibly pleasing and the quality of the caps is really good for the price. Only complaint would be that they arent cherry profile but they have grown on me. There is a BUNCH of extra keycaps included (probably almost 20?) in order to change accent colors. The biggest thing that stood out to me on this board was the stabilizers out of the box. Prebuilt boards are notorious for their terribly rattly stabs but this one is surprisingly good. Not perfect, but very good. Wireless connectivity is great and RGB is bright and vibrant. Ive actually been trying this board out as my daily driver over my custom boards because of easy wireless connectivity to my laptop or wired to my desktop.

For only $90?? Insane

Pros: - tri mode/knob - gasket mount and comes with pre-installed foams - plastic case with nice aluminum look (mine has issues, see comments below) - plate mounted stabs are tight and decent but definitely needs work - switches (budgerigar) are ok, not great, needs to relube for consistency Cons: - keycaps (i understand that this is prebuilt but im not a big fan of OEM profile) - steel plate (this should have come in with PC plate, hello GMK67) - software (just a generic china rehash and im unable to remap knob behavior as of current version) The EK68 and GMK67 (both budget v65s as I call them) were just recently making the waves and piqued my interest. Unfortunately, the GMK67 was not available yet locally, and Amazon had very good deals and free shipping during the holidays. I already purchased a v65 from a local shop 2 months before the holidays and was looking for a new wireless 65% layout which I can bring to the office since the v65 is quite heavy - i finally copped up the EK68. Shipping was great, arrived earlier than the expected date considering it was overseas and during the holidays. Wireless functionality of the board is excellent - never had any issues with 2.4g during gaming and battery health lasts for a couple days as well. I would wish they can update the firmware to remap the knob, since I map it to screen capture instead of mute. Everything was fine until I noticed major aesthetic flaws with my unit. My board has a slight warp on the bottom part of the case causing the bottom center part to almost hit the surface (see 3rd pic). It also has some slight case scratch/blemishes on the part below the Win key and the arrows. It may not be visible right away but when theres a decent amount of light reflecting on those parts, you will notice it. I reached out to Epomaker support and was offered a 10% discount. Returning the board is kind of a hassle on my part, and shipping it back means added expense, so I had to accept the discount. This is my first keyboard from Epomaker and I would say it was generally a good buy and experience, but definitely could have been better. Ive heard about their rebranding issues but still gave this company a try. Final thoughts: The EK68 is a decent budget 65% prebuilt board that wont break the bank. If youre looking for barebones though, Id suggest the GMK67 if you have access to buy it. Its much cheaper and comes with a PC plate. If youre looking for budget wireless aluminum, the v65 r2 is already available.

This keyboard is one of the best keyboards you can get for your money.

I love this keyboard! There are lots of different light settings, and the keys are satisfying to press. After using it for about awhile I have not had any major issues. There is little to no input lag when using it wirelessly, and when it runs out of battery I can just use it wired. The battery life is also surprisingly long. I used it for about a week and a half with the lights on (turned the keyboard off at night) before I got a low battery warning. There are two keyboard heights to choose from, which was very helpful in getting it set up on my desk. I also love how compact it is! I was worried at first about not having function keys or arrow keys, but pressing the fn key with a number has not given me any trouble with gaming, and I just rebound the arrow keys to WASD or held down the fn key with WASD when playing games that needed it. Overall, it is a pretty nice keyboard that I enjoy using on a daily basis!

Keyboard was working fine with no issues for a little bit of time. All of a sudden, keystrokes from the number keys 1-3 and Q,W,E,R are not registering at all. reached out to support, who is now accusing me of tampering. Terrible customer support. Will look elsewhere for better quality

Note* This review is based on the Gateron Pro Yellow. TL;DR at the bottom. I have mainly only used tactile switches in the past (Drop Pandas), though I have tried out Gateron yellow switches and some generic blue clicky switches in the past so here goes! The things I like: The build of this board is quite great! It is made of a nice and solid metal block. Fingerprints won’t be an issue but scratching may occur if you’re not too careful. The board is also much lighter than I was expecting but still has good weight to it. It charges through USB type C, as everything should, but has wireless connections as well (Bluetooth 5.0 & 2.4ghz) ! The connection is very stable whether in wired mode or Bluetooth/wireless mode. There is support for RGB with different color patterns. There seems to be a decent amount of dampening, but more on that later. The keycaps are made of good quality plastic and have a very slight texture to it. I really dig the colors of the keycaps and font they’re using as well. I think that it will hold up over the next few years with very little scratches or signs of use (if any). The font on the keycaps are also really pleasant to look at. Just a simple and elegant design. There is also a metal knob to control volume which I really like and has solid feedback when turning. The switches I chose are the Gateron Pro Yellows. I chose these specific switches to see if they differ from the original Gateron Yellows. These are what I would consider a linear switch but aren’t as smooth as I expected. They have really nice feedback when typing but exhibit minor scratchiness which. Being a linear switch, they are much quieter than any tactile switch and even some other linear switches. The stabilizers (spacebar, backspace, shift keys, etc.) are also good. They have pretty minimal rattle which is excellent! They remind me of the regular Gateron Yellows (duh), but not as smooth to type on. While they don’t have that extra thocc many might look for, they are definitely pleasant to type on and are definitely a great first switch to try out. Now onto the things I don’t really like: Unfortunately there’s no indication whether or not these are factory lubed on their listing or in the packaging/manual (that I noticed). The biggest con for me though, is the is that clacking sound of the keys when they hit the board. Since the board is made of a metal rather than plastic, resin, or any softer material, they are quite clacky as opposed to thocky (which I personally prefer). Though the stabilizers are surprisingly not rattly, the spacebar and tab keys seem to be the weak link. The keys also seem to have a stronger actuation force than other keys I’ve tried. Unless you disassemble the board yourself, there’s no way to tell if there’s any obvious dedicated dampening. Speaking of, I don’t see any screws on the board so modding might be a hassle but still possible. TL;DR The keyboard is nice! It’s definitely a more clacky sound but it is well built and smooth to type on. For under $100 I think it’s a really solid prebuilt keyboard. There’s some minor quirks that seem like they could’ve been avoided but theyre all minor. Modding may become a chore as there’s no obvious screws and is really the biggest con. It’s definitely a solid prebuilt to start off with, but if you’re looking to mod or add additional features (e.g., foam), you may want to look elsewhere.

I might regret making this review after only using the keyboard for a few hours, but Im really impressed. I got an iPad Pro recently and couldnt justify spending $300 on their magic keyboard. Ive used a 2013 Razer Blackwidow ultimate for nearly a decade, so Im a home-grown clicky switch fan, but I never knew any different. I was raised in another time, and times have changed. So I started looking at alternatives that could replace my old faithful. Cue dozens of hours watching keyboard keyboard youtubers, comparing layouts, switches, keycaps, and learning the unfortunate reality of groupbuys and the vast quantity of out-of-stock options, not to mention the insane prices of some of these keyboards! I understand its a niche hobby, but I was looking for my entry. I wanted a white keyboard (to later upgrade to a vintage 80s look) with a numpad that wasnt absolutely enormous, and it had to be wireless so I could use it for both my desktop and iPad. Let me tell you about the trials and tribulations I endured trying to whack all of those moles at once. Then I found it - a compact, white, wireless, budget-friendly 98-key! Right out of the box, to my untrained ears, the keys sounded perfect. I almost didnt lube them at all! I typed around on it fresh out of the box and noticed a little rattle from the modifiers, so I decided to just go ahead and lube all the switches since I had already bought the kit. Im here to tell you, lube the switches. It takes forever (nearly 4 hours for me as a complete noob), but not only does it sound nicer, but the typing experience is so buttery smooth and satisfying. There was a stark difference comparing the sound of the the lubed switches to unlubed even without the keycaps - the unlubed switches were almost plastic-y sounding while the lubed switches were much smoother, quieter, and lower-pitched. Just do it while you watch a show or something. Its a super repetitive process so you wont be too distracted. The stabilizers appear to come pre-lubed, so I decided not to lube them myself, though after using the keyboard for a while, I do think they could use more or a better quality lubricant as they dont rattle but are a bit sharper than the rest. I admit that the reason I didnt go ahead and do it is because the stabilizer bar runs under the plate, and I was intimidated to take them out and attempt it lmao. The spacebar is surprisingly the best-sounding of all the stabilized keys, so its really not a huge deal to me anyway. I had settled on pinks, but I will say my only regret is not trying out the whites. I was recommended to get pinks because they have the same activation force as Razer greens, but pinks feel heavier to press while typing. This may be because of the lubricant (some of the keys felt a little slow to return once I pressed them, but this quickly passed) but may go away with time. Nevertheless, I make fewer typing errors and my WPM has gone up about 20% immediately after swapping to this keyboard. You cant argue with that. My only major gripe so far is the software/firmware. I downloaded the Cloud driver software from the Akko website and installed it, no issues. Running it? It would refresh every second or two and never recognized my keyboard. I thought, ok whatever, Ill try the wireless manager software for this specific keyboard model. It spammed my computer with popups and also failed to recognize my keyboard! At some point, I tried to show my husband how the software was acting, and it showed up fine. I tried to update it, assuming it would fix future issues, but when it restarted the same issues repeated. Now, I open it and it never recognizes the keyboard. Id recommend not trying to update the software to 11.1.18. You can get 11.1.17 from the Akko website right now, or 11.1.11 from the Epomaker website. 11.1.11 runs better and I havent had an issue with it so far other than its font is worse. If I can figure out how to make this software work, Ill update the review with a note to detail how I fixed it. A small, related note that isnt a huge deal personally is that I really dont care for the RGB on this keyboard. Maybe its because I never had an RGB before and the hype has died down around it, maybe its the pink aesthetic taking away from the RGB experience, idk, but it just doesnt work to me. I love that its RGB-compatible so you can choose whatever colors you like, and I did change my lights to white when the software did allow me to, but I wish effort had been made to create white or pink presets that work with this keyboards aesthetic rather than a dozen or more generic RGB effects that only work (imo) with a black keyboard. The keycaps also cast a pink glow when using white light, which is what I wanted rather than RGB. Maybe my pink switches contribute somewhat to this, but no doubt most of it is due to the hot pink interior of the keycaps, making it even more confusing why they wouldnt just go with white/pink lighting presets. Even the lettering is translucent hot pink. Why are they running RGB stock on this pink af keyboard?? On a more positive note, the wireless USB works flawlessly, and its super easy to pair and use with bluetooth for my iPad. Theres no apparent latency on either, and swapping is immediate and seamless with function shortcuts. I dont yet know how easy it is to open, but I plan to do that soon to tape mod it. I also dont know yet how long the battery lasts. Ill update the review after I do both of those as well as any other notes I have from extended use. This keyboard is pretty cheap, but you would absolutely never know it. Its a nice quality material, the keycaps feel great, its hefty in the best way, and the rubber feet are perfection. Im thrilled with this purchase, and aside from a completely scratch custom build, this is the best intro to the hobby that I could imagine.