Gadgetory

ever since I started working with hurricane axe every single keyboard I've looked at has been targeted towards gamers I mean that's what we cover right gaming great peripherals are typically at the leading edge of peripheral design and you know you can use them to pull double duties for both typing and fragging within online battles but today we're taking a look at something different and I'm loving it so far Toshiba now offering OCC products that are awesome and affordable like the RD 400 TR 150 and Vitti 180 that are backed by advanced warranty program now stronger than ever under Toshiba what you're looking at is the white fox keyboard from input Club now why is it different well that's because unlike many other keyboards the white fox is designed to be customized to your specifications rather than offering in one-size-fits-all solution the approach here is much more personalized but it also drives the cost up I've seen the price vary from as low as $180 to $300 and while that is expensive for a keyboard the first batch has already sold out which is astonishing considering the company is only a year old but there must be something behind such a successful launch and I intend to find out what it is input clubs white fox represents the end result of a collaboration project between mateos Bellini who is one of the industry's most knowledgeable keyboard addicts master op and input Club it almost took a year to finalize the design of this beauty and it looks freakin awesome in person so what exactly is the white box it is a keyboard designed from ground up to be compact but infinitely customizable to suit whoever's buying it you can buy either a pre-configured option or buy separate kits to make it truly your own there's the option to have cherry MX blue brown clear green red and white switches along with Gator on red blue brown green and clear options yes you will need to know which switches are best suited for your needs before buying but that's the fun part if you're planning to build this keyboard there are six different plate layouts to pick from but they only require one PC here's a comparison to my Nexus 6p so hopefully you can get a rough idea as to how compact this thing is the keyboard screams premium build quality since it's made from a cnc anodized aluminum body and features die sublimated PBT keys I have never felt any keyboard like this in my life and it's surprisingly heavy for such a compact form factor plastic keyboards now feel a bit cheap to me now I love the simple and elegant design - once again considering the compact layout this cannot be considered a fully fledged gaming keyboard but rather something that fits in an office space or if you'd like to carry a mechanical keyboard around this can easily fit in a backpack or airplay carry on but that doesn't mean it isn't highly adaptable though since even input clubs pre-configured layouts allow for plenty of added functionality through secondary function keys the cable is detachable and braided both connectors are gold-plated and I appreciate its design which complements the white and blue color scheme I just wish the cable was a bit longer especially if it's being connected to the rear i/o of your PC a quick fix to this will be to route the cable through a USB hub and that should clear up the clutter fairly well there are a few extra goodies that come along with the keyboard - and that's above and beyond customizability that input Club offers before you buy for example if you prefer to adjust the keyboard height you can install the included front feet by removing the 8 top mounted screws by using the included allen key notice the attention to detail on this custom feet they are rock-solid given the metal construction but if you prefer to lay the keyboard down completely flat without them you can use the included 3m rubber feet to prevent it from moving only have I was only able to find three of them in the Box the white fox feels like a keyboard placed on top of a pure aluminium slab the integrated white PCB features basic LED lighting but you won't find any fancy lighting effects the keys aren't transparent so light can't shine through them but the effect still looks really good but here comes the best part I swapped out the key caps from my old rush g1 gaming keyboard and it looked great with the LEDs on this alone opens the whitefox offer a variety custom keycaps elections but for now let's just take a moment to admire this beautiful keyboard if you'd like to build a ski board from scratch you can purchase the DIY kit there are a variety of key switch options like I mentioned before and once you've chosen it's just a matter of installing the switches onto the frame and soldering the pins of the switches to the PCB there's a whole video guide on input clubs YouTube channel so I highly suggest referring to that before you begin like I said before this isn't meant for novices and customizing the whitefox outside the pre-configured options could be a daunting challenge for some folks this is a plug-and-play keyboard so technically it doesn't need any driver software to operate but if you want to take things to the next level you've gotta manually program commands to the keys the steps are quite simple you plug in the keyboard and press the flash button behind the keyboard using the allen key this enables flashing mode and you'll notice the LEDs on the keyboard turned off download the first program according to the online instructions this is called Sadiq I might be saying this wrong once the software detects the whitefox install the driver once that's done open up the online configurator tool this is the best part for me personally as you can see there's a physical layout of the keyboard followed by a different set of commands that you can program to the keys you'll notice that there are seven different command layers that can be added on top of the whitefox I didn't use all of them what I needed we're the basics like media playback commands and function keys if you decide to use multiple layers just remember to assign the small F keys to any key by default the Fox key or f1 enables layer 1 so that's where I have most of my commands programmed just remember f2 to f7 are directly linked with layers 2 to 7 respectively there are also other special keys like lock and latch when you enable lock 1 the keyboard permanently locks to layer 1 the same story applies from lock 2 to lock 7 it won't go back to the main keyboard layout until the lock key is pressed again meanwhile latch is similar to lock the main difference is that as soon as you press any key whether that's assigned or not all latched function layers will be removed it takes some time to play around with these functions and the possibilities of programming commands are endless once you download the farmer flash the keyboard according to the instructions on the website and that's it now you may ask why didn't input club include a genuine driver software that could have done all of this within just a few steps and I totally agree with you but think of it this way people who have invested into this ecosystem can start sharing layouts within the community and this opens a huge opportunity for game developers so they can start including or adding special commands that you can program onto the white fox or any other keyboard that supports this process my experience using the white fox for the first day was tough you have to consider I'm coming from a fully sized gaming keyboard armed with a wrist rest so it took me a full day to actually get used to the more condensed design but after a few days I was up and running given the compact form factor pretty much all the keys were easily accessible by my fingertips for quick typing the slightly inclined shape also takes a whole lot of stress from your arm I'll admit I did miss the numpad and the f9 keys that I pretty much use all the time for After Effects but for general typing experience the white fox is simply awesome it may not be great for folks with larger hands though I received a model with cherry MX blue switches which is definitely a change for me coming from MX Reds take good notes though these switches are loud the actuations are a lot smoother giving you a little bit of resistance but I prefer using these for typing let's take a listen the lack of USB ports is a disadvantage here and there were two of them on the g1 rush it was a nice addition for charging my phone plugging in a thumb drive etc perhaps we could expect to come back in the next revision also don't confuse yourself thinking the Fox key acting as a Windows button at first I thought it was but I realized that it was set as the f1 key in order to access layer 1 for windows keyless users this is an option but for those needing the windows key L GUI is the right code and as you can see I have it set to the left Alt key so if I need to access this function I would have to press the f1 key and then the left Alt key whitefox configurator could label better you see these are some of the quirks that you will have to work around with but think about it if someone jumps into a new ecosystem it takes time to get used to and personally I don't consider any of these as deal breaking features but what about you I want to start an open discussion would you consider a mechanical keyboard of this calibre given the price personally I'm glad I jumped into this bandwagon because my love for keyboards has just become stronger and it makes me realize that customizations for keyboard are endless and there's an entire community of keyboard enthusiasts out there looking to build or create the ultimate simple and the most comfortable keyboard the whitefox is just the beginning well those have been my thoughts on the whitefox from input Club whitefox man I love that name I still can't get over it so cool anyway guys thank you so much for watching and you know let me know what you guys think about this keyboard I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts I'm you bored with how it connects we'll see you in the next one