Gadgetory

so about a week ago the kind folks over at mass drop offered to send me this vermelho VA 87 M mechanical keyboard and I was like whoa whoa whoa whoa mint chip key caps ship it but there were a number of other factors apart from the flashy key caps that drew me to this board like the fact that it uses genuine Cherry MX switches in your choice of black brown red clear white green click gray and linear gray I also admired the front printed legends on each of the key caps which keeps them from wearing out over time while offering up a look of stealthiness you do have the option of top printed legends along with gray or white key caps if the color scheme you see before you makes you want to varmint the ballpark price of a hundred and eighteen dollars seems fair for a decent mechanical keyboard these days although there's a pretty good chance you can find it for much cheaper on mass drop when it becomes available there and I've put a direct link to the keyboards product page on mass drop in the video description below so go ahead and check that out but assuming you were going to pay top dollar is the VA 87m a worthy contender among the ever-growing competition I suppose that all depends on what you're looking for perhaps the thing that surprised me most about this keyboard right off the bat was the solid weight and build quality as intriguing as the pictures were online they really couldn't do the keyboard justice when it came to showing off its sturdy construction it's the same reason you can't tell how chiseled my ABS are from merely watching this video everything from the plastic body to the etched key caps indicate a high level of craftsmanship on par with some of the top tier mechanical keyboards of today the ten coolest design keeps the board nice and narrow while the super thin bezel of the plastic frame makes for a fairly small footprint which is great for users with limited desk space yet despite its portability I can't fully recommend this keyboard for travel due to its unforgiving weight AirAsia was supposed to deliver a shipment of these keyboards last month let's hope they make it although it looks like a chump in size when standing against my k70 they seemed away about the same at around four pounds give or take a few ounces which means you'll definitely feel the added weight when tossing this into your back there's something to say about a heavy keyboard though this one in particular feels entirely cemented to my desk when typing sure most keyboards I come by don't have a problem with sliding around but the disproportional size to weight ratio of this thing gives me a new feeling of stability from a board sighs I wasn't expecting and I have to say it's quite nice fortunately this characteristic holds true whether the keyboard lays flat or is elevated for an ergonomic incline by the two weber fold-out feet on bottom these serve alongside five additional rubber pads to keep the board anchored at all times also on the bottom facing the rear side is a mini B USB port to supply power to this keyboard with an included five foot rubber cable now I'm typically not a fan of removable cables with my keyboards due to the risks of wearing out that USB connection over time but I was pleased to see left right and rear cable canals to minimize potentially detrimental cord movement taking a closer look at the key caps each of them is laser etched in grey using a nice simple font that really way wait okay what is that is that Comic Sans so for some reason the space bar which carries the branding on this board is the only key cap using a different font from the rest which happens to be Comic Sans I'm not sure which nine-year-old decided that was a good idea but I do think someone at more mellow needs a timeout I will concede this time around on the count of it being a minor aesthetic quirk I should also mention here that the included key cap remover does not work on space bars you had one job because this keyboard only sports 108 keys it does make use of secondary key functions for things like volume mute up-and-down multimedia playback right mouse click and windows lock key oddly enough both lock keys have a glossy indent on top that's most likely where the windows logo sits for top edge key caps very happy to see when lock on here though this makes the keyboard all the more gaming friendly although I do wish there was some sort of LED indicator to reveal its on/off state speaking of which this keyboard does feature white LED backlighting which can be adjusted to four varying levels of brightness or turned off completely with the function in arrow keys you can also choose to have this keyboard shipped without LED backlighting if you prefer less features I found myself perfectly happy at level 2 brightness when typing in the dark and felt like Gandalf the Grey was busting into my room at level 4 okay so it's not that bright but certainly bright enough and I think Gandalf would approve unlike most mechanical keyboards the LEDs rest beneath the switches as opposed to being on top and here you can see that the lower half of each key cap is semi-transparent in order to allow light to illuminate those laser-etched engravings at level 3 and 4 brightness the contrast between the light and the underlying key caps becomes much more apparent creates a sort of jarring aesthetic I'm not a huge fan of but like I said level 2 is the highest I need to go in any scenario so this is personally a drawback I can look past here we get a good look at the switch itself and as you can see I've been sent the sweet spot offering of Cherry MX browns and typing on the VA 87m is more or less what you'd expect from a board with this type of switch the tactile bump is subtle yet detectable and low force properties of the switch mean keystrokes are registered with minimal effort I did do a quick sound test against my k70 with cherry MX Reds which are essentially brown switches minus the tactile bump so go ahead have a listen and finally I can't overlook the fresh minty keycaps themselves they're comfortable to the touch and incredibly smooth so smooth to the point that I noticed my fingers slipping around ever so slightly when typing of a storm it's very possible this can be attributed to the keyboard not being fully broken in yet with all of my natural skin oils that provide that extra bit of friction over time there's a terrible joke in there somewhere so where does this leave my overall opinion of the VA 87 m from ver Miller well for starters it comes in pretty much every Cherry MX which available to suit your needs as well as a variety of key cap and etching options avid desktop users without the need for a numpad or macro Keys will also appreciate the heavy duty weight and feel finally if you can look past a few minor aesthetic choices the build quality and performance fall right in line with other mechanical keyboards at this price point and the fact that you're likely to find a killer deal of it on mass drop is all the more reason for my firm recommendation before you guys go toss me a like on this video if you found it helpful and check out the links in the description below for more info on this keyboard as well as other ways you can help support the channel I'm Kyle with awesomesauce Network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see you guys in the next video you