Thoughts on 8BitDo’s Retro Mechanical Keyboard

8BitDo has made a name for themselves as a gaming peripherals manufacturer. I have one of their wired controllers and have enjoyed it but when I saw this keyboard, I was curious. It comes in two colorways with one based on the Famicom and the other the Nintendo Entertainment System. I’ve always had a soft spot for the pale beige and rusty reds of the Famicom, and for Japanese sub-legends, so I opted for that one. It’s an interesting keyboard, with some odd quirks to go along with it.

First to basics, it’s a standard form tenkeyless design with larger bezels than most modern keyboards, making it larger on the desk than many competing products. It’s also deeper because beyond the F-key row is are additional switches and configuration buttons. Beyond that, it’s got a slight incline and features higher profile keycaps with a very subtle contour to them. They look somewhat more retro, fitting with the theme, but aren’t cupped like, say, MT3 profile. They’re described as MDA-like on the website for the keyboard and the closest I have to them is a set of ASA keycaps. They are listed as dye-sublimated PBT which should help them wear well over time. The caps are subtly textured, again reminiscent of the Akko ASA keycaps I have. They’re clean, feature crisp legends, and the caps that are colored red on five sides are done well but their faces are clearly the most thoroughly dyed. Their sides aren’t as heavily colored, especially on the corner edges. It’s subtle and gives the appearance that they are slightly glowing or reflecting on the edges because they are lightest there. The black keycaps, with reverse dye-sublimation, on the other hand are sublime. They carry even color across the entire cap exterior and are crisper than the red caps. The white caps are centered well and have clear, clean legends. Ultimately, the red caps are the poorest of the board, but they still look clean, and I think would only annoy the deepest sticklers used to the pure colors of double-shot keycaps.

The most controversial choice for the board is likely the choice of switches. The board itself uses Kailh Box White switches, a lightly tactile clicky switch featuring Kailh’s clickbar design. In the board, stock, they are much louder than the boards and switches I’m accustomed to now. The clickbars mean they have a very snappy and metallic click paired with the deeper resonance of the plastic keyboard and higher profile keycaps. And, yes, I can verify that I am still no longer a fan of clicky switches. They’re simply too loud for my tastes. However, they are nicely weighted and while the tactile bump is subtle, it is noticeable in typing, something that is lost with many of the lighter tactile switches.

However, even as that is, one of the features of the board is that it is hotswap compatible. And that’s the real reason why I was willing to purchase it in spite of the clicky switches. I’d been looking at getting a set of more clickbar switches for testing and I love the aesthetic of this keyboard. So, the option to pull those and put in my own choice of switches worked out well for me. It also gave me a slightly larger keyboard than my others to work with and is dual-mode wireless with Bluetooth and 2.4GHz via the included dongle. It also includes a fascinating accessory in the form of a two button macropad. It includes the ability to attach up to four of those pads at once should you buy three additional pads. They’re hefty, have large buttons, and most intriguingly are also hotswap. In the case of the pad, however, it uses two Gateron Green switches, so heavily plasticky sounding and less clear tactility compared to the Box White switches on the board itself. I think that two Box Jade or Box Navy switches would pair nicely with it, giving more sound and feel versus the Green switches. Another nice aspect there is that even the sockets on the macropad are five pin, something that I was surprised to see.

For those of you looking for RGB, look elsewhere. There are only 6 LEDs and they are all indicator lights. One each for wireless connectivity, programming macros, and changing profiles. There are then caps lock and scroll lock indicator lights and finally a red power indicator in the upper right corner of the board. The lack of RGB makes for much longer battery life and for a board that is focused on its wireless capabilities that makes sense. It also makes sense to dramatically reduce complexity and the total bill of materials cost to get the entire kit down to the $100 price point. It certainly feels substantial, with a listed weight of 1050g for the board itself and 270g for the pad. That weight coupled with the four corner foot pads has the board hold fast to the desk and require decent force to move. The entire bottom of the macropad is soft rubber making it hold in place extremely well while still being comfortable to hold in hand or on my leg because of that softness.

When it comes to connectivity it has native Bluetooth, 2.4GHz via dongle, and wired via USB-C. Bluetooth is easily set up on PC or whatever device you need to set it up with. The dongle is stored in the rear of the keyboard and is held in place via magnets. It’s color matched to the red of the board and looks like its made of little bricks, akin to those found in Super Mario Bros making a cute pairing. In wired mode it is indistinguishable from any other wired keyboard. Also, on the rear of the board are 4 2.5mm jacks used for the macropads. The ports are labelled A, B, X, and Y, again alluding controllers. It’s very fast to resume from being turned off, by the time my hands are back on the home row it’s ready to use.

Switching over to different switches, specifically my ever-present Leobog Graywood switches, obviously dramatically changes the sound and feeling of this keyboard. It’s still quite loud compared to my other keyboards but in more of a resonant way. I’m pleasantly surprised by the stabilizers as well. It’s difficult to hear them with clicky switches but swapping to the linear switches I’m able to test the stabilized keys out and find that they are decently lubricated from the factory. They are somewhat floppy when the keycaps are removed, more so than most other stabilizers I’ve used, but they’re not horrendous by any means. I think the only one that I will end up tweaking will be the ever-problematic spacebar. It’s the most difficult to tune and to remove ticking in any keyboard and it’s not a surprise that it has the poorest showing here. That said, the ticking fairly well managed from the factory, and I think that, unless you know what you’re listening for, you’d likely never find issue with it. I think other stabilizers could help improve the sound and feel of the keyboard but they’re hardly a necessary upgrade. For the vast majority of users, I’d recommend leaving them in and maybe tweaking the lubrication on the stabilizer stems if anything. And as they’ve done before, the Graywood switches are a joy to type on and sound pleasant, if loud.

That loudness is from the hollowness of the case. There is foam between the plate and PCB but below the PCB is a hollow cavity. Unfortunately, opening the case is a bit of a task. There are only 4 screws, which is good, but they’re under the feet. You’ll also need a long and thin Philips screwdriver for the rear screws. After the screws you’ll need to pry the plastic housing apart from each other. I used the metal spudger tool and one of the plastic picks from my iFixit kit and they worked well but it was still more annoying than most keyboards. I understand it from the construction of two different plastic halves, but I think it could have been implemented in a more repair friendly way. Opening it up revealed that it is, as I expected, completely hollow inside. I used some of my spare foam in a couple layers under the board to help reduce that hollowness. It does help but I think different foam, or even something like a layer of silicone would provide a better solution overall. I’m pleased with what I have so far, but I think I’ll eventually try something else in the future. In the end, I’m just thankful that they didn’t fuse the layers together, especially given that the board has a 2000mAh battery that will eventually go bad. I think for many users having replaceable switches helps make this more repairable than most keyboards, but I think it’s important to always improve that capability as well.

The keyboard is also fairly stiff in spite of how hollow it is. That’s almost entirely down to the choice of the heavy steel plate. If you like a softer typing experience, you will not find that here as this is an extremely sturdy base. I still want to try the complete opposite with one of the newer boards that features flex cuts. I’m watching the market as there are some newer, and much cheaper, options coming out. Hopefully next year I can get back into the hobby more but right now this is my newest board to try out as a gift from the holidays. I think it may even appeal to more enthusiastic keyboard modders specifically because of how open the inside of the keyboard is. I’ve already skimmed through a video where someone put a small computer board (akin to a Raspberry Pi) into the board as a Linux box. I think doing that and using it as an emulation box all built within the keyboard could be a lot of fun and a really neat system to see. It has great potential as a platform for doing things to it and that also drew me to it. Again, I’m going to keep it (mostly) stock for now outside of swapping switches and doing the basic foam mod but I’m keeping it in mind for the future. The idea of putting a whole Linux system in it sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Overall, it’s a fun keyboard and is good out of the box. It’s spartan in some ways, such as the basic black, rubber cables, no included keycap or switch puller tools and the all-plastic construction. But it’s also clearly made to hit the $100 price point. The included Super Pad, the macropad, is sold exclusively on their website for $20. That’s pretty reasonable for a programmable macropad with two hotswap switches. Having up to 8 buttons, via 4 pads, is an interesting prospect. I don’t think I have a use for such a thing today, but perhaps in the future I could see using it. They also have a matching wireless mouse for $25, $30 on Amazon, but I see it more as a showpiece rather than a practical mouse. The very NES-styled design makes it rather angular and the tiny left and right click buttons mean you have to hold the mouse in a specific position for it to be functional. It’s cute with the D-pad for the side navigation though. Overall, it’s a cute keyboard. It’s fun and it definitely scratches that “retro nostalgia itch” even if it is a bit ham-fisted at times, such as the bold “RETRO KEYBOARD” text on the keyboard’s forehead. I’ll have to see how I like it after using it for a longer period of time but for initial impressions, it is a fun and cute addition to my keyboard repertoire.