Numeow AM 65 Less keyboard experience: from tools, to toys, to props

People who play mechanical keyboards can be roughly divided into three realms: tools, toys, and finally props.

Tools are easy to understand. For example, as a code-word migrant worker, I often input more than 5,000 words on the keyboard on an average working day. Therefore, a handy tool can make my work more efficient. At this stage, finding your favorite switch bodies, keycaps, and keycap arrangement is just getting started.

At the toy stage, many players began to toss about DIY, but practicality can be left behind. Customized bases, special keycaps, niche switches, and even mix-and-match switches began to appear. Players at this stage began to pursue building a Make the unique keyboard your own.

The so-called props are toys that have evolved and can be used to show off. Whether it is posted on Moments, Xiaohongshu, or Station B, it can attract the admiration and envy of others.

From a practical point of view, there is almost no difference between an entry-level mechanical keyboard of three or four hundred yuan and a customized keyboard of three or four thousand yuan. The ten-fold price difference often lies in its value as a toy and prop.

Nu Meow brand did not intend to serve most users to produce cheap and high-quality tool-type products from the beginning, but relied on design and craftsmanship to generate premiums, attracting a small number of enthusiasts with strong spending power, and can often sell out of stock, and The booming secondary market proves that there are indeed many people who are willing to spend money for this brand and pay the premium for toys and props.

AM 65 Less keyboard is the latest product launched by Numiao, which also unifies the three attributes of tools, toys and props.

tool

If you browse Taobao or Jingdong, you will find that the key positions of mainstream mechanical keyboards are 87 keys and 104 keys, but the number of keys of AM 65 Less is 59 keys, and there are no up, down, left, right direction keys, which is a bit deviant. .

But the naming secret of AM 65 Less is also here. The 65% arrangement is the mainstream of compact mechanical keyboards. 65 Less means that it is more streamlined than the 65% arrangement. The streamlined ones are the arrow keys and some function keys (Page Up and Page Up). Down). But AM 65 Less is not the first manufacturer to do this. Prior to this, keyboard manufacturers such as HHKB have already done so.

HHKB is a legend in the compact keyboard industry. It is famous in programmer circles for its electrostatic capacitance keyboard. The function of its arrow keys is realized through the Fn function key + other symbol keys, which is somewhat troublesome.

The solution of AM 65 Less is to add a small touch area on the front side of the keyboard, and slide the thumb up, down, left, and right to replace the arrow keys, and then the keyboard can be designed symmetrically.

This is the biggest innovation on this keyboard, but it requires a little learning and adaptation cost, but I have to say that after less than half a day of adaptation, the benefits of sliding touch for direction key control began to appear: typing fingers Without leaving the central keyboard area, the thumb can directly perform touch and slide operations. Although the typing process will be interrupted, the advantage is that the moving area of ​​​​the hand is much smaller, and the overall typing fluency is improved.

In terms of other usage levels, the AM 65 Less is similar to an ordinary compact keyboard. It is perfectly capable for typing and some games. Of course, some occupations may use a large number of 104-key numeric keypad areas, as well as function keys, and Some games do use the arrow keys heavily, so this keyboard is a bit reluctant.

AM 65 Less provides two product options: one is only the base kit, the user chooses the switch body and keycap by himself, and the other is the finished keyboard, which provides the ice silver switch (customized by Numiao and TTC) and keycap (I have a glacier transparent keycap black transparent version).

Therefore, the description of the feel part is based on the ice silver switch and the glacier transparent keycap, and the feel provided by other switches and keycaps is not the same.

As a user who is used to cherry red and silver switches, and has been using SteelSeries’ self-developed OmniPoint switches recently, the first time I used the ice silver switches, I felt very heavy, even a bit like cherry black switches.

Then I went to check the parameters of this ice silver switch: 1.08mm quick trigger, pressure of 45gf, bottoming pressure of 58gf; TTC double-segment long spring structure is adopted to increase the initial pressure (39gf) to prevent accidental touch.

Under the condition that the pressure in grams is the same as that of the red shaft, the reason why this ice silver shaft makes me feel heavy is because of the double-segment long spring structure that increases the initial pressure. The initial pressure is 39gf, which is higher than other shafts such as the cherry red shaft. The body is a bit bigger, so it feels a little more laborious, and the overall feel is very solid and neat.

In addition, due to the 1.08mm quick trigger stroke and the short total stroke of 3.4±0.4mm, this keyboard is more suitable for gaming scenarios rather than heavy typing scenarios.

The feel and aesthetics are matters of opinion, but some things are objective. For example, this glacier transparent keycap is really cool and shiny with the light, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, it is very stained with fingerprints, and it will feel greasy after a long time.

Therefore, the combination of ice silver switch + glacier transparent keycap is really not suitable for workers to use as tools. If you are a heavy typing user, it is recommended to choose a lighter shaft body and a keycap that does not stick to oil and fingerprints.

Toy

For players, the unique appearance and feel is the joy of playing keyboard.

Therefore, AM 65 Less provides a lot of customization options, including shell color, keyboard area lighting effect, decoration area lighting effect, lettering, etc., and there is also a Leaf-Spring structure with 2 adjustable rebound ranges inside the keyboard. Angry Miao's patented structure is combined with an upgraded under-axle pad and two types of shrapnel made of different materials (phosphor bronze and stainless steel), and 8 different feel can be adjusted without changing the shaft body and positioning plate.

Then the full keys of AM 65 Less can be hot-swappable. As mentioned earlier, the combination of the shaft body and the keycap, there are tens of millions of possibilities for appearance and feel.

It can be said that AM 65 Less has a lot of room for both official customization and player choice. There is even a Mech Love version inspired by "Love Dead Machine" that can choose the old style of Mech Battle deal with.

In my opinion, the positioning of AM 65 Less must not be the user's first keyboard, but it can be the first keyboard for keyboard users to advance to keyboard players. If the previous CyberBoard has the possibility of stepping on mine, then AM 65 Less has a very high base, and it is difficult for players to build a ridiculous keyboard.

props

Tools are used for work, toys are used for self-entertainment, and props are used for display.

For many users, with such a keyboard, if they don’t post Moments and Xiaohongshu, it’s like traveling at night in brocade clothes.

Compared with the finished keyboards in the range of 300-2000 on the market, AM 65 Less can be said to be a blow to dimensionality reduction in terms of design and craftsmanship, and it has also achieved the first level of appearance in the market.

Take this model in my hand as an example. The white and powder blue spray paint on the aluminum alloy body cost a lot of money. Whether it is color, texture, or uniformity and fineness, it is first-class in the industry.

Although the glacier transparent keycap does not match this body very well, but with the lighting effect, the overall visual effect is quite good.

Of course, there is also the unique temperament that the Nu Meow brand currently presents: some people angrily criticize it as an IQ tax, some people are envious but feel that the price is too high, and some people who are not bad for money can naturally get it in their pockets.

Controversy is never a bad thing for a brand, and there is no brand that can be liked by everyone. You can say that it is not worth the money for the somewhat controversial Numeow product, but you still have to admit that its appearance and The workmanship is really good in the circle.

This is similar to luxury goods. A 10-dollar cloth bag can hold more things than a 100,000-yuan Hermes, but obviously, Hermes is a prop to show status, but the cloth bag is not.

Therefore, if the price of this AM 65 Less is less than 1,000 yuan, which is very cost-effective, it will not be able to be used as a prop. Firstly, the scarcity will be greatly reduced, and secondly, there will be insufficient controversy. The shortcoming of "is quite cool.

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