In 2016, Cherry brought us two new flagship keyboards, of which the 87 key MX Board 8.0 made us shine. It is an 87 key keyboard, and uses an all aluminum alloy shell. Its appearance design is completely different from our impression of Cherry keyboard. Follow us to enjoy this alternative factory style:
First, let's take a look at the hardware parameters of MX Board 8.0:
Unpacking and appearance
The outer package of Cherry MX Board 8.0 looks very low-key. The carton outside is only printed with the brand logo and product model, but in fact it has a lot of potential.
Open the carton outside and there is an exaggerated "arms box" inside. This special package has attracted a lot of attention since the product launch. This is a luxury in the packaging of the keyboard. Some players even say that this is to buy a box to give away the keyboard
There are foot pads at the bottom of the box. The workmanship of the box is quite good. There are sponges in the box for cushioning.
The keyboard itself has a transparent protective film, and there is only a simple description in the package.
The keyboard adopts the 87 key layout, and the body design is very different from Cherry's traditional style. The keyboard panel is made of aluminum alloy, and it is a suspended panel design, which looks more scientific, and the key cap is white, which looks more elegant.
Because of the compact layout of the keyboard and the use of a narrow border design, the brand logo is placed above the direction keys, and the laser carving process is used. It has a strong sense of three-dimensional and texture, and it feels very classy.
The side of the keyboard is made of integrated aluminum alloy, and the metal on the edge is chamfered. Even if you touch it with your hand, you will not feel like knocking your hand. The shell of the whole keyboard is processed by CNC process and anodized. This process is common on mobile phones, but rare on keyboards. It is Cherry's first keyboard designed in this way.
There is a scroll with an exaggerated diameter at the top of the keyboard, which is used for the support foot at the bottom of the keyboard. The whole structure is well made and has a high sense of sophistication. It's a pity that when the scroll is unfolded, there is no anti slip treatment at the support.
When the scroll is folded up, it is fully fitted with the keyboard, and has an excellent sense of integration. Although the whole support volume is large, there is no abrupt feeling. When the scroll is folded, there are four anti-skid pads at the bottom of the keyboard, which can play a good role in stabilizing. The integrated aluminum alloy material is also used at the bottom of the keyboard. From any point of view, the texture of MX Board 8.0 is commendable.
Due to the design of the scroll, the keyboard wire is selected to run from the left, and the wireless version may be introduced later.
The wire is gray and white with the plastic skin. Nylon braided wire is not used. There is an anti magnetic ring on the wire.
The USB port is also full of details. It is also made of aluminum alloy and carved with cherry logo. It can be seen that Cherry is a "detail oriented" company.
MX Board 8.0 uses the height of the original key cap. From this angle, it can be seen that the angle of the key cap is ergonomically designed. In addition, it can be seen that the keyboard also has a certain slope when the scroll is folded, so when in normal use, you will feel that the wrist is lack of support. It is recommended to use it with the palm rest to effectively improve the experience of use.
The design with rounded corners on the outside of the space will feel more pleasing than the general corner design when the fingers touch it.
user's experience
MX Board 8.0 uses the ordinary Cherry MX axis instead of the transparent RGB axis. The common "four heavenly kings" - black axis, green axis, tea axis and red axis are all available. Before the deadline, the price on JD ranged from 1479 yuan to 1579 yuan. This time, we got the most expensive red axis. It is a pity that the silver axis that game players like to see still does not appear on Cherry's original keyboard. The MX Board 8.0 red axis has a smooth overall feel. Compared with the traditional mechanical axis, it is "soft" and light. Although it is straight up and down like the black axis, it has no sense of paragraphs, but it has a smaller number of acrylics, so it is lighter to use. It is a shaft that can give consideration to both games and typing.
The key cap uses ABS two-color transparent key cap, with clear font and uniform light transmission. The characters are processed by two-color injection molding process, without color fading, and the flatness is also high. As this is Cherry's first two-color molded key cap, its touch is different from Cherry's previous products, and it is also different from the coated ABS key cap of MX Board 9.0. The surface of this set of keycaps is a little "astringent", and the surface treatment is exquisite, close to the skin like treatment. However, this set of white keycaps is difficult to handle, as the saying goes, it is not resistant to dirt.
The long keys use the structure of satellite axis, which makes them feel crisp and smooth. The consistency of the overall feel shows Cherry's solid foundation.
In the last evaluation, we mentioned that Cherry's other flagship game keyboard, MX Board 9.0, has a lot of functions, but there is no matching driver. MX Board 8.0, as an 87 layout, is equipped with a PC version driver. The driver interface is simple and clear, and the functions are not complicated. The top bar is equipped with six light effects, and the lower left corner is equipped with "key change scheme", macro settings and USB report rate settings. The first five of the six light modes are "just as the name implies". Only the last one is a special customized backlight. We can select some buttons to turn on or off the backlight, and of course, we can also set the brightness of the backlight.
The word "key change scheme" may be a little strange, but it can be said at a glance after clicking in. In the scheme, a key can be simulated as other single keys, macro settings can also be made, and multimedia or function keys can be pointed to, which is convenient to use. P.S： The rendering of the keyboard in the figure is a silver panel with black keys and a red backlight. Compared with the silver and white models on the market, it seems more "fighting". I don't know whether it will go on the market.
As a game keyboard (although its shape is not very game like), MX Board 8.0 also undoubtedly supports full key non impact, and there is no pressure when pressing 20 or 30 keys at the same time.
Light effects
As a 1500 yuan keyboard, MX Board 8.0 does not use the RGB axis and backlight, but uses traditional monochrome LED beads. The backlight is only white. Although the color is monotonous, it still has six dynamic light modes, which is satisfactory in terms of effect.
The overall backlight of the keyboard is uniform and the maximum brightness is relatively high. Due to the compact layout of the keyboard, there is no indicator light. The lights of the Scroll lock and Capslock keys change according to the status. In addition, the lights of the WIN key and menu key on the keyboard remain at the highest brightness. In the game mode (namely, FN+"Cherry key"), these two keys will go out, and the keys will be locked to avoid accidental touch during the game.
The keyboard adopts a floating structure, so the backlight will overflow on the panel, and the overall color matching is very harmonious. Compared with the general keyboard, this is a work with high beauty and differentiation.
The drawback is that the top half of the download key cap will leak light slightly when the keys are in high brightness backlight. If you mind, you can lower the brightness of the keys slightly.
The way to change the backlight is simple. You can switch different light modes through the FN+F12 of the keyboard itself. There are six modes: wave, radiation, breath, single light, constant light and custom. With the FN function key, we can also make the following settings for the backlight:
FN+F4： Turn off backlight
FN+F5： Increase backlight brightness
FN+F6： Decrease backlight brightness
FN+F7： Slow down backlight change speed
FN+F7： Speed up backlight change
With the above settings, we can basically realize other lighting functions except for customized lighting effects through the keyboard assembly itself.
The following is a demonstration of four backlight modes:
wave
Single point
breathing
radiation
summary
Cherry MX Board 8.0 is a special keyboard, especially a special Cherry keyboard. Apart from the "feelings" of the original factory, it also has exquisite appearance design, all aluminum alloy shell, reel type support feet with excellent structure and texture and other characteristics. We can not ignore its irresistible metal box packaging; In terms of use, there are also rich FN combination function keys, macro keys and supporting drivers. At the same time, it is a compact 87 key layout product, which can save more desktop space and create a "literary style" more easily. If MX Board 9.0 pursues big and comprehensive, then MX Board 8.0 pursues small and refined, which is very suitable for some users who have high requirements for keyboard texture and appearance (of course, it is not bad to add an attribute, after all, it is also a product with a unit price of 1500 yuan). MX Board 8.0 is Cherry's new breakthrough in product appearance and style. We also look forward to Cherry's more attempts in this line of products.
