Melgeek popped into my inbox recently with a new keyboard due to hit the virtual shelves later this month. Our contact provided some key details about the Made68, but other than that, I wanted to go into this blind, so I did not do any further research and waited until I had the thing in my hands. As always, all findings and thoughts are my own and Melgeek have not received any advanced preview of this review, fair is fair.
This is the first TKL/60% style keyboard I have laid fingers on, which made me audibly go "ooh." The sound and feel of the keystrokes, as well as the material and subtle softness of the rounding of each keycap, the fully linear stroke of the hall-effect Green Hornet Kailh switches and then the light bar to finish it off.
Hell, even the USB cable that comes with it is super lightweight and wrapped in paracord-type material and terminated with high quality rubberised ends, everything is excellent fit and finish as an overall package.
The Made68 comes with some spare keycaps that contain different text indicators for whatever OS you are using it on, a cap puller tool, some stickers and a shortcut key cheat sheet. The sheet is also available online via the digital manual.
Specifications
| Key layout | ANSI (US), 68 keys |
| Switch options | Kailh Green Hornet Magnetic, Gateron Magnetic Jade, Gateron Magnetic White |
| Switch force | 30±10gf |
| Switch longevity | 100 million cycles minimum |
| Controller (hardware) | Nordic dual-chip |
| Controller (software) | Melgeek Hive (in-house suite) |
| Lighting | RGB key surrounds, RGB light bar |
| Connection | USB Type-C |
| Polling rate | 1000Hz |
| Sensitivity | 0.04mm |
| Actuation adjustment | 0.1-4.0mm |
| Dynamic keystrokes | 4-in-1 action keys |
| Material | ABS keycaps |
| Dimensions | 319x117x40mm (LxWxH) |
| Weight | 850g |
| Special features | N-key rollover, Rapid Trigger, |
| Price | $119 / £99 |
Hefty boi
At 850g, the Made68 isn"t exactly lightweight for a 60% keyboard, but it feels like a quality bit of kit all the same. Keystrokes have smooth travel and weight to them when each cap buttons out.
Melgeek does not state what the materials on the inside are, but it"s obvious that there is a lot of metal by how rigid the keyboard is and how it feels/sounds on each keypress, regardless of how light or heavy you tap those keys.
Melgeek labels this as a "DIY" keyboard, and by that, they mean you can remove the side Aluminium panels and the light bar plastic piece to then customise with printed text and other designs as you see fit. These components come plain by default.
No screwdriver is included in order to remove these side panels, though, so be sure to have a precision set to hand in order to do that.
The spacebar is damped with rubber stoppers when the bar bottoms out, adding a nice feel to hitting the spacebar, and no matter what end you press, the distance and actuation are the same, with the spacebar remaining flat at all times:
The Green Hornet magnetic switches can be swapped out, too. Melgeek says that when better switches are out in the future, you can just install those, although a switch puller tool is not included in the box, so I was unable to see how easy the removal process is with these switches.
Melgeek"s Hive software is useful not only for the Made68 and other Melgeek products, but any mouse or keyboard, too. This is because it contains a pair of tools to measure mice and keyboards and see things like latency and polling rates. On top of that, the keyboard testing section plays a piano/musical instrument chime on every keypress, which you could use to compose music. It is genuinely a fun novelty of sorts.
I"ve not seen other supporting software offer this kind of scope. For example, the mouse tool allows you to track the sensor tracking over a period of time and plot out in what polling range the sensor is mostly focused on:
But aside from that, Hive offers the Made68 the ability to customise the magnetic hall switches exactly how you want, so if you wanted the WASD keys to be more sensitive than the others for gaming, you could set a low actuation point for just those, as well as set up 4-in-1 functions for any key.
Aesthetics
I"m not an RGB kind of guy, but when done right, it can look tasteful. I think Melgeek has done it the right way here, but there is room for improvement for sure. In the dark, there is no light passing through the keycaps; it only surrounds them at the base.
Ducky, Corsair and others have the Doubleshot style keycaps that allow light from the PCB to pass through, illuminating the letter/number on each key, but not so here:
As long as there is some ambient light in the room, then I can still make out the keys, though I work in the dark like I usually do, and this becomes an issue on an unfamiliar keyboard layout where I need to glance at the keys room from time to time.
This is only available in ANSI only, not ISO. There is no word on whether ISO will be available at any point.
The light bar offers some customisation, too, though only preset modes are available onboard, just like with the main keyboard RGB lighting. The Hive software must be used to set custom colours.
The bar is only shining forwards, though, so whatever colour and brightness you set will only be lighting up that"s in front of you on the desk to some degree.
I don"t mind this as it provides ambient lighting which relaxes any potential eye strain depending on what it on the screen, it also doesn"t glare or cause distraction whilst sat at the desk working on productivity or gaming in a dark horror title.
Performance
The Made68 is USB only with a 1000Hz polling rate, so naturally, the performance is excellent. I wish there were a wireless option too for multi-device usage, especially in a world of working from home at the same desktop, as I find nothing more tedious than having to disconnect and reconnect cables when switching between computers at my desk.
Ducky and Logitech have a super seamless button press to switch between paired computers, for example.
The typing experience on this is probably one of the best I have seen so far, even nicer than the new Ducky Zero 6108, which has in for review thanks to how premium the keycaps and keypresses feel, along with the ability to tweak the actuation distance of any key.
Here is a video of how the keys sound during normal typing:
The Rapid Trigger feature is very interesting, it"s an advanced feature that some new Razer keyboards now support too and it means you can rapid tap in games, something not possible on any other mechanical keyboard.
Optimum Tech covers this feature in detail in his video here. Combined with adjustable actuation distance, these two features offer a compelling benefit to hardcore gamers.
Conclusion
It"s a simple keyboard that offers quite a lot of customisations aimed at both gaming and productivity. It"s a shame that the Made68 is only available in ANSI layout, but it may not be a deal breaker for those who can touch type and know the sub-character layout on ISO anyway, so they don"t need to look at the keys.
For the price, it"s also a high-quality piece of kit. I liken it to picking up an Apple computer product it feels like a premium piece of hardware with heft, there are keyboards that cost more but don"t quite feel as good quality as this does.
The exclusive Green Hornet default switches are excellent, with the option to choose the Gateron magnetic versions, too.
It is style and substance, I would say, but it is just a shame about a couple of missing features, like no wireless profiles or keycap print illumination for use in the dark.
If there was a full-size version instead of only a 60% format, then something like this could easily find a permanent place on my desk.