By Qwertykeys
Oct 30, 2023
The QK75 was the sweet spot for Qwertykeys: good design, good sound, great value. And even with all the new releases today, it’s held up as an incredible budget option, and very versatile first build for new hobbyists. Today, Qwertykeys builds upon this legacy with the QK75N, a compact version of the same 75% layout, but with a little bit more under the hood as well.
Pretty standard QK formula with the unboxing here. Inside the included carrying case is Owlstabs, and I have a polycarbonate plate, carbon fiber plate, and flex cut aluminum plate. I also have a 1.2mm hotswap PCB, and in here is plate foam, and PE foam. Here we can see the knob daughterboard. In this first box is a coiled cable, And the second one has some branded tools, gaskets and replacement feet, and extra ribbon cables and screws. Lastly is the board itself, which has a weight protector. We also have a bottom PCB foam sheet inside.
The QK75N is a dumbbell gasket mounted compact 75%. We have 3 PCBs - flex cut ANSI, non flex cut ANSI, and ISO. All of these have wired, bluetooth, and 2.4g wireless support, and all are also hotswap. The ANSI PCBs support stepped caps and split backspace, and the ISO PCB additionally supports a split left shift. All of these have daughterboards, and utilize QK config software. As for plates, we have FR4, aluminum, POM, PC, and carbon fiber, with FR4 and aluminum having flex cuts. Carbon fiber is a new option that wasn’t offered with the QK75. We have 14 top colorways with many more combinations, including anodized silver, black, first light, purple, and navy, and electrophoresis cream, red, blue, pink, green, yellow, gray, and white, just for top cases. Finally, the QK75N will run for between 180 and 200 dollars, which means it starts quite a bit higher than the QK75 which was at $135.
I want the first build to have similarity to my QK75 build so we can compare their profiles. Of course, owlstabs and the POM plate, and in here go stock Banshees. These are nicely high pitched linear switches by Bosla Supply. Next, we can add on these dumbbell gaskets, which have the addition of a little bottom alignment pin. With the inner assembly done, we can open the case, And the PCB simply magnetizes to the bottom. I can install the top case, Close the case up, And on top goes GMK Dualshot 2.
I must have gotten really unlucky with the owlstab wires because this might as well be the worst set of stabilizers I’ve ever tuned. Really weird, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the board itself. Besides that, the sound profile is very similar to the QK75 - a tiny bit plasticky, but definitely not dull. The only way the build differs is the switch choice, which is relatively similar anyway, and the updated gaskets. It seems like every round of QK boards has a different kind of gasket, and I’m not entirely sure why because they don’t seem any different besides the alignment pin. There’s a decent volume, but quiet builds aren’t really an issue with the QK75 either. I definitely want to try the carbon fiber plate at some point, as it’s a new offering this time around and I think fully embracing clack would work really well in this board, especially with foamless builds. Overall, I think the board is more suited to high pitched sound profiles rather than lower pitched sound profiles, but you definitely can achieve a lower pitch using the various foams provided.
The flex is decent. The thing is that the PCB is technically always touching the bottom for the daugherboard connection, which naturally inhibits the flex a bit. The connector itself has some wiggle room, but the board is obviously not going to be as flexible as a similar spec configuration with a JST daughterboard connection. Since I also don’t have a flex cut PCB, this config really isn’t going to move a ton during daily typing, so if you’re looking for a board on the flexier side, the QK75N is probably not the one.
The design is quite a bit different from the QK75. On top is a small screen and knob, which are both slightly inlaid. I would like a bit more alignment with the size of the board rows and columns, as it looks a tiny bit out of place in terms of sizing. Taking a look at the side, we can see how there are 3 primary case pieces this time. The top case also has a little bit of extra dimension to it, with this line all around the edge. The back has our usual centered USBC port. The bottom has our large weight piece, which has this gap towards the bottom. We have a very similar magnetic badge to the QK80, which hides the dongle under it. This strange accent piece under it got a ton of negative feedback, because it’s kinda random, so this will have a different design in retail units. I’m surprised the sound profile is as similar to the QK75 as it is, despite the internals and case structure being so different. There’s no weight on the inside, neither an internal weight nor the bottom weight being accessible from here, and the bottom case section also doesn’t have sides. Of course, we also have the magnetic daughterboard connection for the PCB and upper screen assembly, which is extremely convenient. We no longer have the rougher speckled finishes from the QK75, so I’m assuming they weren’t as popular as expected. But the anodization here is very smooth and high quality.
So for what would typically be a very minimal upgrade, or really no upgrade at all, Qwertykeys not only improved a good existing design, they added something nobody was really expecting - this magnetic daughterboard. It really goes to show that even after this many boards, Qwertykeys is still innovating within the budget keyboard space and continuously finding new ways to make the custom keyboard experience easier for everyone. While we definitely need more testing to understand how it really affects sound and feel, the QK75N ends up being an extremely convenient build process, further reinforcing the QK lineup as an excellent beginner option.