SKYLOONG GK980 Dye-Sub PBT - BluePink(Mechanical & Hot Swappable)

This is the first time I've bought what I might consider to be a prebuilt keyboard on a little more of the budget side, and I am rather impressed. Right out of the box, the thing is ready to go. Initially I was a little bit iffy on purchasing w/ the Skyloong brand switches, as there was very little talk about them online. In fact, I intended to most likely swap the switches out immediately. I went with the Skyloong Chocolate Rose Switches, though, and am actually very happy with them. They are nice, thunky, tactile switches that end up being very accurate for both typing, as well as gaming. The general build quality, despite being all plastic, is honestly very good. Everything has a nice weight to it, and it honestly feels relatively luxurious. The form factor of these keyboards is also by far one of my favorite I've ever seen, sticking near 100% in a 12 inch form, factor.

My one complaint, though, is the software and drivers. I did purchase an RGB keyboard, meaning if I wanted to control the lighting, I needed the proprietary software. The software is, unfortunately, just not very good. As far as changing key layouts and even applying macros I think it works fine, and is self explanatory enough. But getting lighting to work, especially with 0 actual documentation or help, was a bit of a nightmare. Setting up your own lighting effects is even worse. After many attempts, studying the multitude of examples they provide, I still don't have the slightest idea on how to actually make these effects work. On top of that, despite the software launching on boot, you still need to open your task drawer and open the software window proper to get your lighting to come back on after a reboot. And since the keyboard does not integrate into any other lighting solution at all, I ended up just selecting solid white, and decided I might revisit the software in the future. It is a shame because it is possibly the only blemish on this otherwise amazing product. If you forgo the RGB variant, you can honestly just use the keyboard just fine without the software, even the knob works, as long as you do not want to change any layout settings or the knob function, and I might actually suggest that. I know they have at least a couple, but if there was a drive to make all of their RGB keyboards QMK, it might make the entire ecosystem at least slightly better. At the absolute minimum it allows for more services to potentially use/sync it, and has a lot of documentation and help online, something the skyloong software lacks.

I've had the keyboard for three weeks and overall I'm very happy with it. Here's my review:

Good:

1. Great value, the keyboard is on-par with others that cost well over $200. The build quality is truly excellent. Everything sits flush and feels perfect. Money well spent.

2. This keycap set is beautiful and I like it so much that I’d use it on a different keyboard if I ever decide to swap them out of this one. There’s extra keycaps in the box, and there’s a dark replacement for every pink keycap. These keycaps are double-shot, thick, and the legends are crisp and centered. My only nag is that there’s no blue variant of the split spacebars, but there is a blue variant for the normal spacebar.

3. Switches and stabilizers come pre-lubed. The switches have a box design and they have very little wobble and are very smooth. I was really surprised with the quality of the switches and how well-lubed they were. They are comparable to Gateron Box Inks V2 in feel. I got the Glacier Silvers which actuate a little higher, much like the Gateron Optical Silver or Yellow. It’s nice having actuation comparable to optical keyboards on mechanical ones. These are a joy to type / game on.

4. The Split spacebar module has lubed stabilizers pre-installed, and comes with the required extra switches (also lubed) and is very easy to install. It sits flush with the rest of the board and feels normal.

5. It includes a black braided USB-C cable that is very firm. The keyboard allows you to route it so that it comes out the left, right, or center. It’s also used for charging if you use the keyboard wirelessly. On the back it also has legs to raise the angle of the keyboard. The legs are super firm and sturdy which was a pleasant surprise. You can adjust it to three different angles.

6. Bluetooth and wireless work really well. I used it for two days on wireless and the keyboard seems to sleep on its own to save battery. Can’t speak for battery life since I went back to USB after that.

7. The RGBs, despite being north-facing, are very bright and there’s lots of customization options. Probably the most extensive RGB customization available on any keyboard, though I’m not a fan of how difficult the software is to use when it comes to assigning RGB colors to specific keys. However, it does work.

8. Really kind and attentive customer support, reaching out via What’sApp message to provide assistance and confirm delivery in a very attentive way.

9. Super fast shipping. From China to US in about a week, delivered by USPS since DHL handed over the package to them for delivery.

10. Despite being plastic, it’s very firm, sturdy, has no flex, the legs are also firm, and absolutely everything is installed properly.

Bad:

1. Has a soldered microphone for one sound-reactive lighting effect, as is custom with their keyboards. It can easily be snipped off without affecting any other functionality if that’s a privacy concern.

2. While the software is extremely useful and has robust customization options, it’s a little complicated to navigate and use, particularly when it comes to adjusting RGB effects. And sadly you can’t reassign the FN key in the software. The squares where you assign knob functions are super tiny and uncomfortable to work with, but they work. This keyboard doesn’t have traditional layers like some of their other keyboards do, but you have the FN layer and you can definitely take the Mac mode as another layer and fully customize it. In that sense, you can say it has two layers plus an FN layer on each of them.

3. Can only reassign keys and such over USB, not over wireless or Bluetooth. However, once the changes are applied, they are present in USB and wireless modes.

4. The knob / encoder breaks easily when pulling it. Thankfully they included a spare knob module in the box, which is great. I also ordered a spare dark-blue one so I’m fine. Sadly I think they should revise this design because it’s just too fragile when it comes to removing them from the board. So consider ordering a couple more knobs with the keyboard, or maybe leaving the one that came with the keyboard stay where it is. They do sell a knob that comes with the dark blue silicone piece, but somehow it wasn’t on the website. I talked to customer support and they told me they had it, so I was able to order another color and they swapped it out for the blue one. It’s almost indistinguishable from the rest of the black keyboard which is nice if you want the color of the silicone cover to not clash with a different keycap set.

5. The included switch puller has sharp edges, and can scratch the keyboard or cut you. Be careful or avoid it entirely.

6. The switches on the back of the keyboard that you use to change it into wireless or Mac mode feel very wobbly and give me the impression that they are very fragile. I hope they revise it in the future because I really don’t like how it feels.

Let me start this by saying this keyboard exceeded my expectations as soon as I took it out of the box. It’s weighty and the Glacier Rose switches are perfect for me, huge tactile bump without a click and they come out of the hotswap sockets super cleanly. The knobs are incredibly easy to pop in, you don’t even need to take the cover off. I did have one issue where the left shift stabilizer is a bit overlubed, so it sticks down sometimes, but that’s easy to fix. My biggest gripe with this board is the software.

The software is just on the verge of what I want from it. It has a ton of options, per key lighting, several different mappable layers, and macros. The biggest downside for me is that the knobs cannot be mapped to the Mouse Scroll Wheel. They CAN be mapped to scroll click, but I was hoping I could map it to the scroll wheel, as I wanted to be able to scrub the timeline in premiere with it. My other gripe is with the macros. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but they are far from consistent. I had a macro to rapid fire E presses and it only pressed maybe once every 2 seconds, but also kept pressing after I released the key (which is not the setting I set the macro to).

Overall, the keyboard is actually incredible, it’s amazing and I cannot recommend it enough. If you need knobs and incredible customization options on a budget, get this keyboard. You won’t regret it.