Thoughts on NovelKeys NK65 Entry Edition

The NK65 Entry Edition is NovelKeys’ in stock 65% keyboard set. It’s sometimes offered with unique sets, such as the Mictlan board which includes recolored NK Silk Yellow switches in a matching color set to the board. There are multiple colors offered but right now they only have the Blumen set in stock which is a lovely translucent blue that also glows under black light in a bright green.

I chose to pair it with NovelKeys Silk Emerald switches and their Milkshake Weirdo keycaps. So far, I’m quite enjoying the feel and sound of this setup. I really like the sound and appearance of their dye sublimated PBT keycaps. I chose to go with the Weirdo base rather than the standard because I have wanted some more quirky keycap sets that aren’t necessarily practical simply because I do touch type rather than ‘hunt and peck’. Because of that legends aren’t nearly as important for me as for someone who does use the legends on their keyboard to type. Having said that, these caps are still readable, if less easily than more standard sets. 

In conjunction with the Silk Emerald switches, which are also a recolor of Silk Yellow, it’s a great build with little fiddling to make it fun. The blue housing for the switches also has the added benefit of coloring the backlighting to further blend together with the case housing. It looks very cohesive all together and I love blues in the range of the Emerald switches and of the Blumen housing for the NK65. Something that I do see with this set is that the backlighting on this keyboard is bright enough to have some pretty noticeable light bleeding through some of the keycaps in this set, particularly the stabilized keys aside from the spacebar which is thicker than the rest. Turning down the backlight fixes this but it is something to keep in mind with single-shot keycaps as they will be more prone to light passing through them than with darker caps or caps with multiple layers of plastic.

Something that I do like about this board is that it has three LED lights on the right side of the board that light up under different circumstances. The top light is blue and lights when the caps lock is toggled. The middle light is purple and lights when layer one is activated via the Function key and red for layer two is activated. While some boards do visually represent caps lock with a color change to the caps lock LED it is nice to have a separate LED dedicated to it without increasing the dimensions of the bezels surrounding the keyboard.

As for the layout, I do love 65% keyboards. It’s nice retaining the arrow keys and, by default, page up, page down, home, and end as I use those most regularly when I’m writing or reading online. Of course, being fully programmable with Via means that you can change those keys to being whatever you want them to be but I find the default layout serves my usage quite well. As I have been using 60%-65% boards for several years now I’m so trained to use Fn+number key for F-keys that this fits right in for me perfectly well too. If you do want a cheaper board like this but want a few more command keys (such as dedicated delete, insert, or print screen) as well as the F-key row the NK87 Entry Edition would be right up your alley as it’s a similar board design but in a ten-keyless design rather than a 65%.

Back to the NK65, the stock dampening gives it a clean sound with little reverberation. There’s a silicone pad in the bottom under the PCB and a second silicone layer between the top housing that acts as the plate and the PCB. It’s a well-dampened board design and provides that distinct sound of polycarbonate case and silicone dampening. I personally like that kind of sound profile, it’s poppy and thocky but not hollow by any means. It is particularly well suited to linear and tactile switches as it gives a distinct bottom out sound that is deeper and masks more of the higher pitched sounds that can occur in keyboards. Some people really do not like that kind of sound profile and if you’re one of those people you may be able to modify this board by changing the dampening, or removing it entirely, but I would personally suggest you look elsewhere. If you want more reverberation or to not mask as much you could opt for an aluminum board as that would have stronger resonance.

For weight, I find the board is surprisingly heavy for an all-plastic board. Certainly, a portion of that is due to the silicone dampeners which are denser and heavier than the plastic. The weight combined with the long and flat rubber feet that cover the entirety of the bottom of the board keep the board well-planted to the desk and make it surprisingly secure. I will compare this to my TKC Portico when I do an actual review as I feel both found themselves in a very similar position in the custom board market but with distinctly different designs both aesthetically and practically. I think that both are excellent options with different approaches to being entry custom keyboards at the same price bracket with the NK65 being cheaper and easily available at $95 while the Portico requires more assembly and came in at a steeper $135 price.

So far, I’m really enjoying the ride with this keyboard. I think it will prove itself to be a solid entry board option and I hope the other colors will be more readily available in the future as they’ve had primarily the Blumen available for months now while other colors that I like even more, particularly the NK65 Purple which brings back great memories of the Atomic Purple Gameboy Color. Ultimately, I’m intrigued by the design and will definitely have more thoughts to share, along with pictures, for the review.