Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “I actually like this! – Epomaker RT100”.
You’Ve seen me talk about a lot of keyboards you’ve seen me talk about a lot of displays, but what about the EPO maker rt100? As you can see here, it’s got the optional smart screen and our box is checked off. I swear to God. If we open this thing and it doesn’t have the screen included, I’m going to be so mad. We’Ve also got some switches from impo maker, they’re, Flamingo switches. I’Ve never tried these, but they’re pink and they look cool.
So I’m excited and we’ve got a little card for Maple maker. That says they want to thank us for supporting their Community. I haven’t bought any EPO maker keyboards before, but you know I’ve never heard anything. Bad I’ve never heard anything, particularly good.
So, let’s open the box and give it a shot as we’ve got on the back. Actually I want to look first, it’s got a customizable knob Wireless could driver. I think that’s supposed to be Cloud. Gasket structure, double sound absorption, built-in lithium battery. So this thing is Wireless: it’s got a 5000 milliamp hour battery and Innovative smart screen on top of full Keys, hot swappable, and I don’t know what the refined stabilizer is. I get what they mean by refine to stabilizer, but I don’t really understand the graphic that they’ve chosen. It’S like a little gear Cog and there’s a switch and there’s a circle around it. I don’t get how that is a stabilizer, but whatever it’s supposed to be a retro design, and I can see that it’s pretty apparent with the like brown and gray.
The enter key is upside down for some reason, we’ll fix that if you like an 1800 layout, it’s kind of like that with the navigation cluster in the bottom here, but like it’s compressed, so it’s not a full keyboard, but you’re really only saving like half an Inch to an inch compared to a tkl which can shave off like a couple inches of space. Well, I guess more than that, actually user manual for the smart screen see this. I actually need to know click the sketch pad menu click adjust screen time and then what else we got? We got a cable okay, it’s got this like fake leather, cable tie. So I guess it’s just pleather. Oh, it feels like kind of okay um and then it’s got the absolutely thickest USB cable I have ever had the pleasure of handling.
We’Ve also got our switch and keycap puller and then there’s something in this foam box. It’S the display. Oh my God.
This is our little little mini TV thing that we slip on to the end of the keyboard, I’m guessing because it’s got like what looks to be a USBC connector. It looks pretty cool. It’S like an old CRT monitor it’s not very big.
This is probably like an inch by one inch, uh well an inch by whatever three quarters of an inch is, and then it looks like it’s just plugged in through USBC on the bottom. Here it normally houses the dongle and it’s actually kind of nicely labeled too. 2.4 gigahertz RF transceiver looks pretty good.
I actually like the labeling, and this will house your dongle. However, I don’t want the dongle. I don’t like how flimsy it kind of feels just seated through USBC. I wish there was a better like rail system or some kind of lock, so it’s a little Wiggly, but to be fair once it’s on your desk and you’re not moving like it’s not going to move around anyway. That’S not like you’re constantly touching the monitor or something like that, so whatever it’s a tri-mode keyboard, so you can do windows Mac.
I guess Linux, probably too, and it’ll basically go through. Oh there’s a little on off switch. It’S got south facing RGB. For those of you who care, and then it’s also got you can go between Mac or Windows, which will probably just change your like Windows, key to a command key. If you don’t want to use the dongle, but you also don’t want to keep it wired, it does have Bluetooth 5.0.
So you can connect through Bluetooth. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but you know do whatever you want. It’S got flip up feet adjustable so two stage. Actually, before I do, I’m going to take this monitor off before I start flipping the keyboard around because, like I said it already felt kind of flimsy in there and I went to go, move it and it was leaning up against the table and yeah. Just not good it’s plastic construction, so a lot of you out there who are like metal only it’s it might not be the keyboard. For you, however, honestly I think it’s pretty tasteful, especially with the Retro look. It definitely looks and feels like, like old plastic from back then with a little bit of that, like beige kind of tinge to it and honestly, because it’s wireless, if you do want to travel around with this thing, lighter, is kind of better and so for a Wireless keyboard, I don’t mind at all that it’s not metal personally speaking of weight, let’s see how much it weighs under a kilo, so it’s just over two pounds which means to travel with it yeah. It’S really not that bad if it was a full metal keyboard. Cnc aluminum we’re probably talking at least like three or four or five pounds. At least it doesn’t feel like really cheap. It is pretty flexible, but I don’t know not in a bad way and I personally really kind of dig it, especially the knob one kind of minor thing that I noticed right away, though, is it’s a separate housing on the bottom than it is on the top. So this little play button, or whatever, with the speakers and stuff that all stays perfectly still and it’s just the side – that’s rotating here, which is a really small thing, but I actually really like that and I like the play buttons got RGB on it.
As for the keycaps, I actually think they’re, okay, they’re PBT, doesn’t look like double shot or shine through or anything like that, but I actually really like the typeface they’ve chosen um, it’s kind of fun. It’S like a more industrial kind of feel to it, with a backspace press to backspace and like need more space, and it’s a big space bar even the. Why are these little running men with the minus and a plus arrow on them? I’M going to try typing on it and take a look at the little included screen turned on, but not before a word from our sponsor Volta thanks to Volta for sponsoring this video.
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It’S not like a like a plug that you plug in and unplug it together and then the USB a is this really crazy metal how housing it sounds like metal and it looks like you can actually take it apart really easily with those triangle tip screwdrivers. So I would love to actually take this apart sometime and check it out, because uh normally the construction on the ends of these isn’t nearly as good as this, let’s plug it in because what I really want to carry. What I really want to see is the screen wow. It’S got a really satisfying like like slot in on a USB, and I’ve never experienced that in my life I got to figure out where they’re getting these connectors, because I actually really want the housing for everything.
Now, to be honest, it’s such a dumb point of the cable to like, but I really really dig. It is this working if you’re confused, like I am just turn it off and then that’s just the wireless mode being turned on or off it’s not the keyboard itself being turned on or off, because now it’s detecting just fine device, rt100 wire to set up and Ready to go, I don’t know why they went with rt 100, because it’s 97 keys and then I guess maybe they’re, adding the knob plus the rotation for another two and then what’s the third one the display, I don’t know if our display is borked, but it’s Currently, just showing like a couple of uh garbage lines here on the outside, let’s see if we can set that up with the driver. This is pretty sick. We’Ve got our driver installed.
It took a little while, but now it’s going through this little like boot, up kind of thing, it’s cycling through some dates, Monday, Tuesday, Saturday Wednesday. I have no idea why it’s doing that it’s got a little temperature gauge and a CPU usage which is pretty sweet. I don’t think they’re working at all um because my CPU is definitely in use and the temp isn’t zero degrees. That’S for sure you can change it in the sketch pad kind of thing.
You can change it between RGB or black and white, and you can do a frame by frame picture. If you want so you can actually make your own animations or you can just upload images. So say you want a static image. You can do that too.
How do I apply? That’S what I really want to know. I’Ve made this really garbage. You know circle plus some lines, and I would love to apply it. Save I’m finding the software a little bit confusing, mostly just to apply like I can’t find a way to actually like take the image that I’m setting and then get it to here.
I’M sure you can, but you know, don’t expect to just open this thing and start scribbling stuff down and then applying it to your little extra display. Still super cool. The display definitely works. The software seems to work just you know fire.
Beware: it’s not as easy as click click you’re done. Let’S try the actual keyboard itself here! That’S what I’m really curious about, because, while the display is super cool – and I kind of I kind of like it and I kind of want one now uh the reality is if the typing experience sucks, then who cares you’ve just wasted all of your money, so We’Re gon na do a quick monkey type on the switches that came with this. Let’S check those actually really quick. I think that they are.
They look like just some kale yellows with a clear housing, and this is hot swap also now you can definitely see that there we go one thing that they’re promoting is that these are kale hot, swap sockets. I don’t know why they’re calling them kale sockets more more people than kale use, five pin switches or sockets, but yeah it’s five pin, which is great, so any switch is going to fit in there and then, like I said before, it’s south facing RGB, which is Preferable for a lot of people – luckily, that’s not like just the case – was that your whole phone Andy, so I’m not crazy about this switch. I don’t know what it is. It’S just a linear with kind of like it feels almost mushy on the very bottom and I’m just I’m not sold on simply the switches alone, and I don’t have time to swap out for these uh flamingos that came with it.
Let’S take a quick look at them before I actually do our typing test uh, they look pretty they’re pink if you’re into pink and yeah. These are much more my speed. Okay, we looked it up and we’re pretty sure these are the sea salt silence that come with the board, there’s four different options: one of them. I can’t pronounce at all I’m not crazy about silent switches because there’s something about them to get them to be quiet that feels like almost mushy or like it’s dampened in a way that I’m not fond of so overall, I’m probably going to be a little disappointed By the typing test, but that is, I want to be very clear that that’s definitely the switch this time and I don’t think it’s the keyboard.
This thing seems relatively well constructed and I’m actually pretty happy with the PCB itself. So we’ll do a little test and uh yeah you’ll hear right away. You can’t you can barely hear this thing and away. We go type, pretty quick on them. Ah, no okay! I screwed it up right at the end there, but I was actually going pretty quick. I actually really like the keyboard itself overall uh, the switches and stuff there’s something else and I’m not fond of them, but that’s the style.
Those are that’s just kind of silence for you. I’Ve never tried a silent switch that I’m a big fan of, and I’m sure, if I swapped it with these guys. I’D like the whole experience a lot more Honestly, though, the layout itself is something I’m a big fan of, because I like relatively full keyboards, but I want to save that just a little bit of extra space, because I don’t like giving up my numpad so um. If you like a full keyboard, but you want something a little smaller and you can’t give up the F keys in your numpad.
Maybe a layout like this is the layout for you, it’s definitely the layout. For me, this is basically the same as my Odin that I have at home. I think that’s a little bit bigger, actually, but not much. The keycaps themselves are PBT and they’re an MDA profile which isn’t super pronounced, but it’s also not flat either and with something that can have up to this much of an angle, I’m actually pretty fond of that, but I like sa keycaps, call me a heathen if You want, I just I like those big sculpted keycaps, so I’m actually pretty fond of these ones, and I definitely like the style Choice as well. So I think what it comes down to at the end of the day is. Is this thing worth any money and I’ve got to say it’s actually really feature Rich. The keyboard itself goes from anywhere between 105 to 120 dollars, depending on which switch you want to have included with it and honestly for a 5, 000 milliamp hour, wireless keyboard with a window and Mac switch, so that you can actually just have a command key, and It just works like a command key, both options for a dongle or Bluetooth wireless and then a full keyboard with adjustable feet and like hot Swap and apparently there’s some yeah. I can see some layer, some there’s some foam above the switches here and there’s probably a silicone pad on the very bottom, or something like that honestly overall, for like 120 bucks at the top end, that’s pretty good and the only way that you’re going to beat It is by going with something: that’s gone a lot I mean I forgot about the screen 120 bucks and you get an additional screen like I don’t know, I’m pretty sold. I also really like the quality of this cable. It’S not something that I actually focus on too much, because most of the time like a cable is just a cable, and I mean I’ll be honest, the USBC end could be well. No, it’s pretty good. Actually um.
These connectors are just really impressive. I’M having a really hard time, I I think that if you don’t want the silent switches – and you want something more normal, like these flamingos – that we have here – that I unfortunately don’t really have time to try. I think you’d actually get a pretty good experience out of this thing, because, even with the silence I can kind of, I can kind of Judge how good it would be anyway. I don’t know what they’ve done to the stabilizers, but they’re, not bad honestly, so I am going to recommend this thing not to everyone. There’S. Definitely a subset of people. Uh myself included that just don’t really care about Wireless. Personally, I’m never taking my keyboards anywhere. I don’t mind the cable because I like having like a nice coiled, cable attached, but frankly I think you’re getting something pretty decent, but other than that. I I think, you’re actually getting quite a few features for 120 at the absolute top end for a full keyboard, because that’s coming with switches and yeah, I I just. I can’t think of something else that I would recommend more than this. If you want all of those features, or at least most of them, thanks for watching it’s the EPO maker rt100, if you want to see another keyboard with a gimmick check out the 65 less, that was pretty cool.
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