Performance

For testing, I have been using the Retro Classic for a few weeks as my main keyboard. This includes a LOT of writing and at least a little bit of gaming though I wish it was more. I had already used the MK Retro last November so I had a decent idea of what to expect. They do share the same traditional layout with the typewriter style keycaps. This time around the transition wasn’t a bad. Really all I had to get used to was the keys themselves being a little closer together than I am used to. It’s not that the switches are closer together, but the keycaps themselves feel closer and because of that I would bump a second key from time to time. The flat profile wasn’t too bad, especially with past experience.

So once I was up and running I really put the Retro Classic to use because I was worried about the issues I had with the MK Retro. With that board, the legends on the keycaps wore quickly and overall the board felt a little cheap. This time around the board doesn’t have that feel at all. The keycaps are still plastic but the metal used around the board itself gives it a really solid feel. Like always I didn’t really find the function layer stuff to be very helpful with the exception of the calculator key and the lighting controls.

As for the legends, the new keycap design didn’t give me the quick wear that I had with the MK Retro and the backlighting was night and day compared to the MK Retro. The backlighting was bright but more importantly, it was clean. The clear plastic used in the keycaps and the center mounted LED in the switch combined to give perfect backlighting on every single key with no weird lines or dim spots. This is hard to do with the large font that AZIO went with for props to them. The lighting controls did allow me to turn the backlighting down a little to a brightness setting that was still visible without being dominating. While old typewriters didn’t have backlighting, the lighting actually looks really good.