Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “We’re fighting over who gets to keep this – KiiBoom Phantom 81”.
Something that’s become very clear to me over the last couple years is that we don’t get as many cool, clear, Electronics anymore. It’S become a bit of a trend lately to kind of release stuff, that’s like special version, maybe, but they don’t do a full line. Like you used to be able to get like everything in a clear cool plastic shell – and you just can’t do that anymore, at least not with everything, but now we’ve got the Kibum Phantom DIY mechanical keyboard kit, and luckily this is not the kit. This is a fully built keyboard because I don’t have time to sit here and build it for you guys, let’s open the box and take a look at this fully assembled clear keyboard. The Phantom 81 is a 75 82 Keys. Hot swappable, mechanical keyboard and they’ve also got the weight on here.
It’S 1.43 kilos. So the cool thing is that, even though this is clear – and I think it’s mostly plastic – it’s not light you’re, not gon na get like a cheap kind of feeling, uh light experience, and, oh, my God, is it ever pretty. Okay, before I check this out I’ll, take the I’ll take what else we got here. We got cable uh, we’ve got a switch and keycap puller comes with a couple extra switches, which is pretty cool.
They’Ve got. These are actually uh. I don’t know if they’re special for this keyboard, particularly but they’ve, got these clear switches. It is Wireless, so part of the weight is actually going to be the batteries that are in this thing. It’S got a 4 000 milliamp hour battery and you can use USBC yep right there. You can use a 5.0 Bluetooth and you can use 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi. It’S not crazy. Heavy I’ve definitely held like much heavier keyboards, but for something that’s Wireless. I yeah this thing’s got some heft to it.
I, like the knob, pretty satisfying you can click yeah, the nice nice little click there, along with our USBC. Here we’ve got a Windows and Mac switch to change, layouts and then we’ve also got a Bluetooth USB and 2.4 gigahertz switch to change it depending on what you want to do, and obviously, if you set it to wireless, it’s going to turn on and look at All this RGB wow – I really like this thing. My only complaint so far is the stabilizers sound and feel a little Hollow and rattly. I think normally this comes as a kit, so you can improve that when you put it together yourself, the rest of it actually sounds and feels pretty good, though we’ll we’ll touch more on that later currently installed. Are there Crystal switches, which are these nice clear switches that match the keyboard perfectly? We can’t find anywhere listed as to what exactly the material for the plate is. We know that the case is acrylic and I haven’t opened this or put it together myself.
So I’m not 100 sure it kind of looks like brass, but this thing is pretty heavy: on top of the battery weight, you’re also just going to have a weight on the bottom here that says key boom on it as much as I’m not crazy about the Kiboom logo itself. I like that this is actually embossed into the plate. It’S just a nice touch, it’s not you know just like painted over or something, and while I’m looking at the bottom I got ta say I think the bottom is just as pretty as the top is. I love this ring of LEDs around the PCB and then you’ve just got these individual lights as well. I think it lights the whole thing up really well and actually really you get some pretty decent diffusion on the bottom of the case and around it on your desk, which you don’t always see a lot of the time. My problem with RGB is that it’s not diffused very nicely, and so it’s like wow, it’s bright lights and everything, but it doesn’t look good.
You can see all the individual LEDs and you kind of can hear too, because it’s not frosted, it’s just clear acrylic, but you know that’s kind of the point here. So I’m a little okay with it when it comes to the switches, though this actually does look really good, it’s south facing RGB, and it really does shine through the switches pretty nicely. I am a really big fan of this.
One thing I’m only just noticing now as well, be probably because of how, like perfectly it’s kind of machined in here and held in place, is the USB dongle they’ve got a really nice slot for it right here and it just kind of sits there without. Oh well, oh it’s magnetized! Oh that’s great! You might lose it still! It’S not in one of those ones that, like it clicks into place or whatever, but this magnet means that you’re, probably not gon na, lose it when you’re, just like moving it from one spot. In your desk to somewhere else, which is actually a pretty nice touch well, it looks pretty nice what I really want to do.
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These cables have a ferrite bead inside here to protect electrical interference. I had no idea I’ve seen them before and never thought about it, but we looked it up and apparently that’s what it’s can do sure eat soups. Oh gee um, so we’re gon na toggle.
This we’re gon na toggle this to USB. Is it working? Oh, okay? So that is a really minor annoyance that I have with a few keyboards that are both Wireless and wired um. Sometimes you have to wake them up, and I don’t like that. If I’m wired, I kind of want my keyboard to just be ready to go like if it’s plugged in I should just have RGB going all the time. I should be able to type whatever I want, and it should just be instantly on it. Shouldn’T have to wake up, uh minor gripe, and I’ve only seen it on a few wireless keyboards.
A lot of them do just work as long as it’s plugged in so to each their own, something to note, but let’s type and see how much I love or hate these switches, [ Applause ]. I just stare at the screen and type things everyone. This is everyone’s favorite part.
Everyone loves to watch these parts. Okay, I screwed up the end a lot because I started talking about things: it’s only 100 words per minute 96, but you know, aside from that space bar. It is a pretty decent typing experience.
I actually like it um, there’s something kind of sticky about these clear keycaps that I am not sure exactly. What’S doing, I felt it before. I know that the angry meow keyboards uh, especially the amafa that I tried it’s also got very similar, uh, clear keycaps. That kind of look and feel like this – I don’t know if it’s the exact same set or what but yeah just uh, something to note I don’t it’s not bad and it’s not sticky in a gross way.
It’S just they’re not like slippery at all like when I tried the ceramic keycaps there’s like a bit of a weird slip to them, and that’s just absolutely not here. I really can’t get over how good the RGB looks, especially on the like per switch RGB on this keyboard. I think it’s just beautiful. It’S got 19 modes built in and you can change those. Let’S try changing a couple of them, so we’re gon na try a couple of these modes.
You can install software and change stuff as well, but there’s a bunch of hotkeys that are available thanks to this handy. Actually, I will be honest. I like this manual. I don’t like when you get a single card with all the hotkeys and stuff on it. It’S a really minor thing that it’s like an open leaflet, but I actually really like it everything’s big.
All the text is huge because they’re not trying to fit it on a single little card, so it’s actually really easy to read. Just like all of this stuff, uh and like like all of this is just I know it’s a little small on screen for you guys, probably but in person this is actually a really large font and it’s just easy to read. I can quickly see everything that I’m looking for here, so we’re gon na go function and backslash. Oh, it’s like pulsing around the side.
Only so if you don’t want the switch illumination – and you just want this – oh they are, oh, my God, brilliant David, brilliant! That’S why we keep you around here genius. This is actually really nice. Okay, I’ll quickly cycle through all these, I won’t get too hung up on them, but they’re okay.
So it’s just like a rainbow like clockwise kind of thing uh. This is like an all-over rainbow. It’S like raining or something going across, and then I think that’s pretty much it oh and then just pulses, probably through the different colors.
You can probably set it to like one static color. I kind of like this one too um yeah. As you can see, it’s got like a lot of different RGB modes and I think that you’re, probably gon na, be able to find something that you like uh within the 19.
I think they say modes is this as bright as it can go too. Let’S follow the brightness, this is really dumb, uh, FN function and down is brightness up and then function up as brightness down this yeah. This is doing something else entirely. This is like functioning down is like changing modes or something. Oh, no, it is brightness and it’s the guide.
That is wrong because function up is backlight brightness up yeah. So this has got to be a typo, I’m not crazy. It absolutely says: brightness down function up. You probably can’t see that whatever svensa David saw it and then so backlight speed is also left and right. So if there’s a pattern going, you can upper lower the speed which is actually pretty sweet. Oh yeah, look at it go then we turn it way down. Then yeah it’s Lou, oh that’s great toggle, the backlight color function and this cool, oh okay, so on top of all the different like breathing modes and whatever you can just cycle through individual colors as well, which is oh man, this thing’s really good. There’S a lot of keyboards that can do this.
A lot of keyboards have different RGB modes and software that can change it. However, you want um. However, I got ta say in this clear case with this: like beautiful PCB, they went with something really pretty. This is not a super common PCB color and it really matches everything that they’ve done with all of these accents everywhere, like the knob, the plate, um the little patch, where you’ve got your connectors and uh yeah, even just the PCB. Is this really cool color? And I’m very sold by this thing.
One minor thing to note that I didn’t even notice Sven had to point it out actually is uh. The brightness only seems to affect the switch RGB and not the bottom LEDs. So take that as you will, regardless, you can probably just turn all your RGB off.
If you don’t like it, so the question becomes: do you want to buy one they’re, not that bad? Actually, this thing is fully hot, swap, let’s take a switch out just to prove that, with their handy, dandy switch and keycap pullers yeah. I hate getting these fresh keycap pullers, because they’re always like right, tied up against each other. So the first time you got ta use them.
You really got ta, get your fingernail in there to kind of help them take a sweat. Take a take a cap out to take our sweatpower. We take the Swatch out. One thing I kind of forgot to mention earlier is that, on top of this, just being like pretty well constructed, honestly they’ve actually got a pour on layer in between the PCB and the plate as well.
So if you’re, a fan of a bunch of Foams and stuff, then you’ll like that, I personally do because I think that you can take a cheap keyboard and make it sound really good by just slapping in some silicone or some foam. But that is something to consider. Some people are purists and they don’t want anything in there, but I mean hey, you can just disassemble this thing and take it out or if it comes as a kit, then you just don’t install it and you do whatever you want. You could tape the bottom of this, but I personally would not tape mod this keyboard at all. I think it looks way too sick to do that and you’re going to cover up a ton of LEDs.
So add that into your consideration when deciding if you want to purchase this, otherwise it looks like a pretty normal, like pretty easy to take apart. You just have like a bunch of screws around the edges, pull the case. Apart, pull the whole thing apart, it’s not as expensive as you guys might think. How much? How much do you guys think this keyboard costs 400 son 150 you’re pretty close, but you probably have the card open and you can see you can see the price Spence cheating.
I thought that this thing a little more expensive. I originally saw the Canadian price and it’s like 212 Canadian, it’s only 159 USD it’s pretty good eh and especially for something that’s Wireless uh is a very nice acrylic feel to it. The clear is a super cool style choice. If you’re into that sort of thing, I think a lot of people are right now and it comes with a knob. You know, knobs are always great, I don’t know I’m pretty sold, especially because it’s not only Bluetooth, you do get a dongle which I just I usually prefer, and I kind of want this thing.
So it comes in a couple different colors as well. If you don’t like this perfectly clear look, there is a clear yellow which actually might look really good with all this, like brass ish, material, whatever it might be, and a clear black. So if you want something, that’s kind of just clear but tinted um, then you can go for either of those options.
I you know I got ta say I think I kind of recommend it. I think that if you’re looking for something that’s Wireless but doesn’t feel small and flimsy, like a lot of smaller wireless keyboards, do and you’re not tied to something being metal, I’m personally totally fine with acrylic cases. I think that they often sound and look pretty good but you’re.
Looking for something that’s, you know gon na stand out really well on your desk and just look super pretty. Ah yeah. I think I’m really into this thing.
Oh there you have it guys. It’S a kiboom phantom 81. I think it’s pretty decent. Overall, I don’t think it’s a bad price. I recommend it if you like this video check out the Lord of the Rings, drop control. Keyboards we checked out.
We’Ve got some really cool keycaps cooler than these ones. .