HiGround Opal Base 65 Keyboard Review: More Hype Than Substance

What impressed me, although, is the Base 65’s RGB lighting—between the clear case, white silicone dampening, clear switches and keycaps, and the reflective aluminum plate, the RGB completely shines, making this keyboard a vibrant centerpiece on any desk. Sadly, programming the RGB is a little bit of a chore, and many of the manufacturing facility presets have extremely restricted customization.

Paying for Appears

The saving grace is HiGround’s popular culture collaborations. You will get a keyboard made in collaboration with Minecraft, and beforehand there have been tie-ins with sport and anime collection, together with Naruto, Pokémon, Assault on Titan, Gundam, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Nonetheless, this often comes with a tradeoff: Would you fairly have a high-quality keyboard or one designed after your favourite media franchise? This keyboard is flashy, colourful, and a press release piece. However apart from visuals, the Base 65 keyboard doesn’t do something new, or something that justifies the worth.

I additionally need to be aware the “all gross sales are remaining” line in many of the firm’s product descriptions. Mix this with large model tie-ins and an emphasis on “restricted” drops, and I’m reminded of the collab-based hypebeast sneaker tradition of the 2010s; a advertising technique that emphasizes exclusivity and makes folks bounce at “uncommon” (i.e., artificially scarce) merchandise and assume they’re extra priceless/higher-quality than they’re. I do know this can be a lot of promoting rhetoric that sits exterior the standard of the tip product, however I believe it’s vital to contemplate why the keyboards are the best way they’re, and why they promote effectively regardless of a few of the points they could have. (As a facet be aware, a number of keyboard collaborations from HiGround are presently being scalped on StockX.)

I additionally discovered some frustration when attempting to evaluate this keyboard as a result of, when HiGround had a launch arising, each single web page on its web site would redirect to a password-protected countdown. This meant that the keyboard’s documentation, drivers, and even fundamental product info have been unavailable for the whole time whereas ready on a restricted launch (on this case, the Minecraft keyboard assortment).

In the end, it is arduous for me to suggest HiGround’s keyboards until you actually need a branded keyboard for a sure media franchise and are OK with the sacrifices to the construct high quality and typing expertise.