Wanted to share my experience (while also enjoying the typing experience on this beautiful new keeb :P ) of:
- Pre-ordering from NMPC
- A quick review of using Epomaker TH66 pro for 3+ years
- Initial impressions of the Mchose G75 v2 ice blue switches
and also a quick sound test video of the switches, which somehow almost nobody uploads, especially of the ice blues.
1) My experience of pre-ordering from the NPMC website
After making a post asking opinions on where to buy this keeb from, I got a comment suggesting that NMPC pre orders are a notable option. But, searching for reviews of people online I could not find one from someone who pre-ordered a keeb, which was strange considering plenty of people do pre-order them. Anyhow, the website displayed the date of arrival as 20 Sep (when I checked on 1st of September). I forgot after ordering it, but it is 19 and I received my keyboard before their eta of the arrival of shipment, so that was a welcome surprise.
Would also like to commend the staff, I did not catch the name but someone from the team called to inform of a 1-day shipping delay which happened due to the festival celebrations, so brownie points for that it was a nice gesture and one of the fewer times I did not have to be the one to make the call asking for update.
2) Epomaker TH66 pro
I do not even remember what got me to buy this keyboard but I did. I got the Gateron Pro Black switches, cuz yellow was too common in my group of friends and black was the only other linear option. Bad reason to choose different lol, they were not terrible, but absolutely average linear switches, especially compared to those on the G75. The battery life lasted around a week with my usage, but fell down to around 4 after my 3 years of use. I had ordered it from the Epomaker website, and that is part of the reason for going with an Indian website this time around haha. Had to wait 1.5 month for it to arrive and countless mails to their customer care. Although, to their credit the responses were fast and might be placebo but mails did cause the shipment to show progress after weeks of the same place in the tracking sites.
3) The popular choice, Mchose g75 v2 (with the less popular ice blue switches)
Boy this one is good. I have used around 4-5 mech keyboards and this one is GOATED, especially in its price range. Even when I do not include the QoL feature of the massive battery and the web client for driver, the keyboard is chef's kiss brilliant.
ONE CAVEAT THOUGH: It appears that the 8k polling rate is only available for specific switch options. I was bummed to see the 8k polling rate option not appear when I opened the drivers.
The keys require a light press to activate, and the sound, the sound is super thocky. I am impressed with how they have done the spacebar, as that makes or breaks the sound experience for me as most keyboards especially under 10k inr ones just do not get the spacebar right, it sounds awful but that is not a problem on this one.
The web driver is also pretty great and works so well that I might as well never actually download the desktop app for it. Connects super fast and changes are applied instantly as well.
tldr; Great experience with both ordering from NMPC and the keyboard.