HiGround’s Base 65 Keyboard Is Extra Hype Than Substance

What impressed me, although, is the Base 65’s RGB lighting—between the clear case, white silicone dampening, clear switches and keycaps, and the reflective aluminum plate, the RGB completely shines, making this keyboard a vivid centerpiece on any desk. Sadly, programming the RGB is a little bit of a chore, and a lot of the manufacturing facility presets have extremely restricted customization.

Paying for Appears

The saving grace is HiGround’s popular culture collaborations. You may get a keyboard made in collaboration with Minecraft, and beforehand there have been tie-ins with recreation and anime collection, together with Naruto, Pokémon, Assault on Titan, Gundam, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Nonetheless, this normally comes with a tradeoff: Would you moderately have a high-quality keyboard or one designed after your favourite media franchise? This keyboard is flashy, colourful, and an announcement piece. However moreover visuals, the Base 65 keyboard doesn’t do something new, or something that justifies the value.

I additionally need to word the “all sales are final” line in a lot of the firm’s product descriptions. Mix this with huge model tie-ins and an emphasis on “limited” drops, and I’m reminded of the collab-based hypebeast sneaker tradition of the 2010s; a advertising technique that emphasizes exclusivity and makes folks bounce at “rare” (i.e., artificially scarce) merchandise and assume they’re extra worthwhile/higher-quality than they’re. I do know it is a lot of promoting rhetoric that sits outdoors the standard of the tip product, however I feel it’s necessary to contemplate why the keyboards are the best way they’re, and why they promote nicely regardless of a number of the points they might have. (As a facet word, a number of keyboard collaborations from HiGround are at present being scalped on StockX.)

I additionally discovered some frustration when making an attempt to assessment this keyboard as a result of, when HiGround had a launch developing, each single web page on its web site would redirect to a password-protected countdown. This meant that the keyboard’s documentation, drivers, and even fundamental product data have been unavailable for the whole time whereas ready on a restricted launch (on this case, the Minecraft keyboard assortment).

In the end, it is laborious for me to advocate HiGround’s keyboards until you actually need a branded keyboard for a sure media franchise and are OK with the sacrifices to the construct high quality and typing expertise.