no one will accuse angry miao to make boring keyboards (or headphones). The company’s previous releases, The cyber dashboardI’m Hatsu and general AFA, they are as overdesigned as they are unique. When the company started showing off its new 60% board, it almost seemed too conventional to be an Angry Miao product, but in keeping with tradition, here’s a twist.
See, the AM 65 Less: AM Compact Touch is a 60% wired and Bluetooth-enabled keyboard with a design by HHKB – meaning no function keys, numpad, and as is standard for this layout, no arrow keys. Usually keyboard enthusiasts put those arrow keys on a separate layer, accessed via a hotkey. As you can imagine, that can be a bit tricky, especially if you do a lot of typing. But with their hearts set on this design, the Angry Miao designers decided that instead of keyboard shortcuts, they could place a small touchpad on the front of the case. The argument here is that this offers the advantages of a 60% small keyboard and a symmetrical HHKB layout, while also introducing arrow key functions. Did I mention that Angry Miao really likes to over-design their products?
Image Credits: TechCrunch
The company had originally called the board ‘AM 65 Less’, but that caused a bit of confusion in the community, since it’s not really a 65% keyboard either. The official name is now AM 65 Less: Am Compact Touch.
Angry Miao sent me a review unit in the Famicon-inspired ‘8-Bit’ colorway last month (there are seven variants in all) and I’ve been using it almost exclusively ever since.
Despite the trackpad, this is the company’s most conventional keyboard yet. It features a hot-swap PCB so you can easily swap out the switches if you want, south-facing RGB lighting, and with the exception of the high front, it looks pretty normal for a small keyboard.
Image Credits: TechCrunch
Let’s talk about the touchpad first, as it’s surely the most controversial aspect of the board. It works as described and does what it does well, but the arrow keys are still infinitely more convenient. The promise here is that you won’t have to move your wrists as much because your thumbs can handle the movement of the cursor, since it’s already aligned with the trackpad. In reality, you’ll probably be moving your hands more because you’ll be using the mouse more. To correct the kinds of typos you catch when typing a word, it’s fairly easy to move back a few letters. For anything else, which you can do by holding your finger on the trackpad, it becomes a guessing game if you’ll be able to time things correctly to stop the cursor where you need it to. I ended up putting the cursor keys on one layer, but that defeats the purpose of the trackpad of course. Your experience may be different.
The fact that the touchpad is on the front of the board also means you can’t really use a palm rest, something that is exasperated by the fact that the board sits at a non-changeable 10 degree angle. I ended up placing a wrist rest a few inches from the dash, leaving just enough room to still use the trackpad, though I never found the high angle to be an issue. The company recommends a split wrist rest for users who want to use one.
Like all Angry Miao products, this one is not for everyone, no apologies. The fact that it feels and sounds fantastic makes up for its quirks, but I can’t help but wonder what an Angry Miao 65% board with arrow keys would look like.
One of Angry Miao’s latest innovations is its adjustable leaf spring that allows you to change the flex of the PCT and therefore the writing experience from very strong to soft. Currently, most other keyboards use a highly flexible PCB and board design to allow for a smoother typing experience. Done right, it usually works, but on many of the keyboards I’ve tested recently, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Here, you can really feel the difference between the various setups (although it does take a bit of work to open up the board and make those changes to the springs).
In addition to the different springs, the board also comes with all the necessary tools to change them, as well as a very good screwdriver, an extra bottom foam mat, a cleaning cloth, spare cables, and screws. There is no carrying case. Instead, Angry Miao opted for a soft carry bag.
The build quality here is impeccable. The company says that just the CNC milling of the aluminum case takes almost 6 hours, and then the case is sandblasted and painted (with all color combinations using two colors: one for the case part up to the top of the first row of braces and one for the rest). Fans of mechanical keyboards are nothing if not picky, but I think you’ll have a hard time finding fault with the execution here, whether it’s the rounded corners, the paint, or even the finish on the inside of the board.
The dash opens from the top, which is a bit unusual, but also makes it fairly easy to take apart. Once inside, there are a few more connectors than you’re probably used to, partly due to the battery and Bluetooth module. It’s also easy to see why the board sounds good. There’s not only plenty of foam, but also a nice copper weight (the entire keyboard weighs around 3.3 pounds). Add in the drums and the result is a board with very little room to sound hollow. There’s also no rattling from the bolt-on stabilizers.
If you have one of Angry Miao cybermat charging mats, you will also be able to wirelessly charge the AM 65 Less with that.
The switches that come with the bundle version are Angry Miao’s Icy Silver switches. These are premium transparent linear switches, manufactured by TTC, with two-stage springs and an initial force of 45 grams. There’s very little stem wobble here and they’re very smooth, though one thing worth noting is that when I removed the keycaps, the switches often came off the PCB with them. That hasn’t been a problem in everyday use, but it’s worth mentioning.
The result of all this is a keyboard that is a joy to type on. Each key press sounds like two billiard balls hitting each other, which is what I personally go for.
Like all Angry Miao products, the 65 Less doesn’t come cheap, although while it’s high, the price isn’t entirely outrageous in the world of high-end mechanical keyboards. The standard starter kit, without switches and keys, will cost $398, the package with switches and keys to match the variant you choose will cost $498.
With the likes of Keychron barely charging $20 more to go from a basic kit to a fully assembled one, that’s a big difference, but many of these are custom designs and the company sells its switches for around $1 each.
We’re also talking about some thick, high-quality keys, at least on the 8-bit version I tested. For this version, the company is using the Cherry JTK Classic FC profile keys, inspired by the 1980s Nintendo Famicom, which, as far as I can tell, were first available. in a group purchase in 2020 and now available from stock with various suppliers. These are triple shot ABS keycaps with Latin and hiragana legends that feature a combination of the original base kit and what’s new. Other variants feature keys that the company created in collaboration with the likes of domikey and others.
Image Credits: angry miao
While I haven’t tried them, there are also two special editions. At $450 for the base kit and $550 for the package, the laser kit features front-left and right-hand LED light elements (inspired by Tesla’s Cybertruck, the company says). The Mech Love version, at $515 and $615, includes customizable LED elements in the open spaces next to the first row and customizable engravings on the back. It looks like the company may also make these additional LED modules available later as add-ons.
Whether these boards are worth the money depends on the eye of the beholder. The fact that Angry Miao is releasing all these variations must mean that the company thinks it will see a fair amount of orders. It’s definitely the company’s most affordable product yet, and while the prices may seem eye-popping, they’re well within the ball game for high-end custom keyboards, where the keys themselves can often cost $150 or more. . As with so many “hobbies”, at some point, you are paying a lot more for incremental improvements. Whether you want to have a keyboard that costs as much as a laptop is something you have to decide for yourself. It’s definitely the closest we’ve seen Angry Miao to building a simple everyday keyboard.
The pre-release of all these variants will go live on Indiegogo on February 2.
Image Credits: TechCrunch
Cousin: HyperX today launches its first handcrafted keycap, Coco the cozy cat. The gaming brand’s 3D printed Crafter is available today (starting at 9am EST) and tomorrow and is priced at $19.99. This is apparently the first in a series of limited-time skins the company plans to release every month.
