Review: Ducky's upcoming One 3 Pro Nazca Line sports 8K polling, looks and feels superb

On the heels of my Ducky 6108 review, today I bring you a new model variant that is due soon, an exclusive look at the Nazca Line colourway of the new One 3 Pro, a series first announced in May 2024.

This review sample is a retail sample kindly sent by our friends at Overclockers UK (available Wednesday 18th September to order) for me to take an early look at and share my honest feedback with our readers here. Ducky also lists where you can buy, wherever you are in the world.

This time round, Ducky has opted for a wired only approach to connectivity, no more multi-device profiles for Bluetooth, or 2.4GHz dongles. The One 3 Pro comes only as a USB wired keyboard, which makes sense since it supports 8000Hz polling, though this is not enabled by default, more on this later, spoiler alert, it's not just a gimmick!

I like Ducky boards for this reason, no need to install a piece of software to customise the keyboard, everything is an on-board keystroke away. This also brings me onto an immediate observation after plugging the Nazca Line in and getting things set up.

Ducky, once again, has updated some of the key combos, the same buttons used to customise the RGB lighting on the 6108 are not carried over to the One 3 Pro, this time, you need to hold an additional button, so instead of FN+SPACE to set a fixed RGB colour across the whole board, you need to press FN+ALT+SPACE, a light annoyance, since FN+SPACE serves no other function here, so why the change? It's not a major issue, but is something new to get used to again, so it would have been nice if button combos remained consistent across the range of models for the same features especially.

Specifications

Design & construction

At 1250g, it is slightly heavier than the 6108, this is rather impressive heft considering the One 3 pro has no wireless gubbins inside requiring a large battery.

I guess the weight comes down to the Webby Mat and Poron Film tech being used, as well as acoustically engineered layers for the internals that are inherently heavy to deliver a great typing and gaming experience.

The exterior is entirely plastic, though compared to the 6108, the quality of the plastic here feels more premium. I like how the side rails are shaped, for example, the smooth plastic has no signs of cheapness about it, and the triple-tone colourway is aesthetically pleasing to look at.

The top fascia panel is slightly more course in texture than the rest of the keyboard, a nice touch that once again feels great under the fingers.

I like what Ducky has done with the printing quality in conjunction with the triple-toned colour theme, whether in dim lighting, like my workstation area set to pure blue show above, or ambient normal lighting, the keycaps are perfectly legible without having to use the RGB lighting, something I tend to turn off as am not a fan of distracting RGB.

Speaking of which, the lighting does not shine through the keycaps, instead all lighting emits from around the keys bouncing light off the visible white layer of the keyboard under the caps:

The underside of the One 3 Pro retains the classic Ducky approach of giving you routing trenches for the stock cable to feed through depending on the direction your cable connects to the computer. For me, centre is perfect: I still don't like that the USB port i still deeply recessed into the back here, this means that you must lift the keyboard up in order to connect the cable from another computer which can be annoying for those who work from home and have two machines on one workstation.

Not an issue when using a third-party coiled cable that attaches with Aviator connectors in the middle for quick swapping, but Ducky do not include such cables in the box.

Three levels of height adjustments are also available, and here the rubber backed feet are still slightly loose like on the 6108, though not as loose.

The DIP switches that can be seen above controls a few functions, switch number 2 enables or disables N-key rollover, in this case there is a 6-key rollover function for those that do want to make use of this. The remaining switches are for other functions such as disabling the Windows key, switching the right Windows key to be the right click menu, and enabling the vendor ID mode.

Switches

Cherry's new MX2A come as standard once again. I have used both Cherry and Kailh switches for years in other keyboards, and whilst the MX2A remain mechanical still, there are more advanced switch technologies out now fast becoming the norm such as hall-effect magnetic switches as found on Razer boards, and even smaller brands like Melgeek.

I've found no fault with the MX2A having now had long use of both Speed Silver and the MX Red. Speed Silver has a much higher actuation point, so light-touch gamers/typistswill prefer those, just keep in mind they are linear and smooth, whilst the MX Red offers additional feedback and a mid-range actuation point which I prefer for mixed usage.

For those wanting to know how the acoustics on the One 3 Pro sound, here's a video just for you:

Performance

8K polling is the headline feature with the One 3 Pro, but does it deliver, or is it mostly diminishing returns like on 8K gaming mice (for the most part at least anyway, I talked about this before and referenced Optimum Tech's objective analysis, for those interested).

To understand why 8000Hz may be useful, we first need to understand what it is, and why scan rate must also be factored into the mix.

Polling rate is how often a keyboard sends input information to the computer, at 8000Hz that's 8000 times per second, whilst scan rate is how often a keyboard scans for inputs per second before sending at the polling rate speed, the two go hand-in-hand, and as Games Rader point out:

A 4,000Hz scan rate / 8,000Hz polling rate keyboard will be checking for new inputs 4,000 times per second, and sending any inputs it finds to your PC 8,000 times per second. Latency can still occur despite those ludicrously high speeds, therefore, should your input fall in between the scan rate’s checks or the polling rate’s checks.

That’s why 8,000Hz rates were introduced. They’re not necessarily being used for their additional speed - after all, nobody needs to mash a key 8,000 times per second. Rather, it’s the peace of mind that more checks means less accidents - your inputs are more likely to be picked up straight away rather than having to wait for the next poll or scan.

I am awaiting confirmation on what the scan rate is for the One 3 Pro, since no official documentation specifies this figure, as soon as this detail comes in, an update will be provided here.

To switch the One 3 Pro between 1000Hz, 2000Ha, 4000Hz and 8000Hz at any time, press and hold FN+ALT+7/8/9 or 0 respectively for three seconds, the lighting will blink three times to indicate mode switch complete:

I tested at both 1000Hz and 8000Hz in games to determine if I could measure any framerate loss in the first instance, I ran a fixed benchmark for a controlled test first, then ran through some live gameplay and logged an RTSS bench during these runs. I expected to see a definitive drop in performance as comments online suggested much higher CPU usage when enabling 8000Hz polling, but for me this was not the case with my Intel Core i7 12700KF.

For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 (4K DLSS, Path Tracing, Ultra settings, various mods) I measured the following:

These results are all within what I would label under run-variance. I replicated the same findings across a wide range of games, too, so on a modern system, 8K polling on a keyboard doesn't really affect gaming performance, which means any additional CPU time required to process 8000Hz data isn't really an issue.

Where I was able to measure a difference was visually recording high framerate footage in the same manner that I have been doing for my game controller reviews. This method did highlight the benefit of 8000Hz, even if it's only a small gain over 1000Hz, in games like Wukong, this small gain can be the difference between a precise dodge, or being hit by a boss where milliseconds count.

The following clips were recorded with a 240fps camera on a 240Hz OLED monitor, processed to 1/8 speed and exported to 60fps to show the difference:

1000Hz:

8000Hz:

And for reference, here is the same test via the Logitech MX Keys S which polls to its 1000Hz USB receiver at around 160Hz:

What does all this mean for casual gaming, then? Well, in my opinion it's not something to fret over, unless you are into timing-based games exclusively, or a competitive shooter player where every millisecond counts, or are trying to beat that boss on Wukong who always manages to pummel you somehow.... Maybe, a big maybe, 8000Hz could help, though I would not lose sleep over it, 1000Hz has bags of performance still. Having the option to enable it is the key thing here, and it does not seem that it affects framerates in any way, so there really isn't much to lose by having it.

It is worth noting that if you're gaming on a more modern display with 240Hz or greater, especially on OLED, then these differences, however small, may make more sense thanks to the near 0ms pixel response time afforded by these newer panels resulting in more obvious and measurable differences as shown above.

Customisation

The Nazca Line comes with a selection of orange keycaps in the box, too, allowing you to customise the look of the board. These spare caps are the same material as the pre-installed ones, so no different in quality as is sometimes the case.

I opted to use just the orange return keycaps to add a little flavour to the otherwise minimal styling, as well as use the Ducky branded escape key:

Further customisation is possible using the RGB controls by means of enabling lighting zones, so individual keys or groups of keys can be a certain colour, which gamers may find useful. Along with this is customisation for advanced macro recording capabilities. I didn't really delve too much into either of these as I have no use for them, they do work as advertised, though.

A switch puller is also in the box, allowing you to swap out any of the Cherry MX2A switches with others which can be bought separately. Worth a mention too is that unlike on the 6108, where the MX2A switches were on so tight that I needed to use brute force to pull them out, they are much better seated on the One 3 Pro, only requiring a gentle pull to extract.

Lastly, I appreciate being able to dim or brighten the accessory LEDs on the right of the keyboard. I'm one of those people who always have numlock enabled, so having a bright LED indicator being a distraction that some keyboards force upon you is annoying, not here, as this can be dimmed nicely by pressing FN, ALT and one of the arrow keys up or down accordingly.

Other than polling rate performance, typing and general use of the One 3 Pro is an excellent experience. Typing is comfortable, the height and key travel of the board and its layout seem well judged, with typing feedback from the MX Reds being exactly what we expect from Cherry's offerings.

Conclusion

The Nazca Line One 3 Pro has been a welcome surprise, for the most part it's all positive, but there are a few quirks that I need to talk about, though whether this only affects the review sample and not retail is yet unknown until stores get their stock in late September through October. I found that the backspace key can sometimes get stuck if I slowly press it on the lower centre. I sometimes do this when carefully writing and deleting a typo, so this issue became obvious to me early on, here's what I mean:

A verdict score point must be deducted due to this, and Ducky are investigating if this is a one-off, or something that needs attention before new stock arrives in retail channels. The same issue happens with the orange keycap for backspace, too.

I wish the keycap print let through some lighting, but then again this is a south facing RGB setup, it would have enticed me to enable an all-white RGB layout which is what I am familiar with on the Logitech MX Keys, but it's no problem since this board looks perfectly legible without any lighting enabled anyway.

Given the price, I wish that Ducky included a proper coiled cable with Aviator connectors in the middle. I ended up using a third-party cable from Mambasnake which works perfectly:

These also look so much nicer than a single long cable which I must feed around the desk which even then still ends up looking annoying to my OCD eyes.

The final word is that the Nazca Line is a great keyboard and only losing a point or two overall due to a couple of faults which may or may not be isolated to my sample, and is currently being looked into by Ducky.

Update - 2024.09.18

Whilst the issue with the sticking backspace key is still under investigation by Ducky Taiwan, Overclocker UK tested a number of units in-house and cannot replicate the issue. It appears I have been unlucky in getting a Friday build. At least this offers some peace of mind that buyers should not see the same issue. As a result of this, the verdict score has been updated.