NuPhy Air75 Wireless Review: If Your Mechanical Keyboard Went On a Diet!

@TechHyped
Gus Gonzalez
11:44
24 Dec 2021
Product review
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So my friends, I have to be honest with you guys, I haven't really been using mechanical keyboards as of late, and that's mainly because I feel like it's a waste not to use the screen on my laptop on this setup here in the studio. Same thing goes for my work because I just take the laptop with me, which means I have been using the laptop's own keyboard, which means my mechanical keyboards have only been added some action in my living room gaming setup anyways, because of how much I've been using the keyboard on the MacBook Pros, I have actually gotten back in love with the very low travel and slim form factor of said keyboard, which is precisely when, by sheer luck or serendipity or I don't know, coincidence this showed up. This is the new Fierce 75. It's a mechanical keyboard. Yes, super low profile, and it has a couple of other tricks up its sleeve, like the fact that it's wireless, which I mean, if you think about it, I'm using this in my living room gaming setup. Wireless operation definitely is a bonus now. All right, if you do go into new Fee Zone website, you're going to see at least one image of the R 75 sitting on top of the deck of a MacBook Pro, like covering the MacBook Pro's own keyboard. And I'm not really sure if they're just trying to say that it's a super small form factor thin keyboard, or if they actually want you to be able to use it like that. I mean, I am 100% going to judge anyone who does that, but technically speaking, you can do it makes no sense to me, but you can anyway. It starts actually. No, it doesn't start. It is 100 and $995 $110. And for that you get the excellent build of the Air 75. Pbt keycaps hot swap switches, low profile mechanical switches from Gateron in either Reds Browns or Blues like they are really super small switches. And yeah, Blues are still very clicky plus wireless operation with a couple of options. Rgb Lighting the works. It's a pretty nicely built and complete package if you consider that it comes in such a small form factor. Other stuff that you can buy for your Newfi 75 are different keycap sets. That new Fee sells themselves. The two tone Gray one which is a little bit darker than this one. I actually think it's quite nice anyway, aside from new keycaps, you can get yourself something like this, a little Folio that you can use to carry your new Fee 75 in vegan leather. It's nice quality, nice materials, well constructed for $19. Yes, this is definitely worth it if you plan on taking your NewFoot with you on the go, it's a much more elegant solution than just chugging it in your backpack or something like that. So small form factor, Super Slim 16 mm. I am honestly impressed with the amount of stuff they've been able to cram into this design. The frame itself is aluminum with translucent BBT plastic on the back, which does help show a little bit of the illumination, but it's definitely not meant to spill illumination on your setup anyways. And speaking of illumination, the RGB lighting on this thing completely negligible. It's one thing I think they could just not have. I don't know. This is kind of whimsical looking, so maybe that's why the archive elimination is there, but what is very visible are these little bars. The one on the left indicates both caps lock, it turns white or the connection type that you're using. And on the right you have your little glowy thing battery indication. And if you're on Windows or Mac, but I was supposed to be able to turn these off completely, which is sort of an issue, and apparently I would have been able to by using the console software from New fee then lies another problem, which is it only works on Windows. I mean, guys, that's not the way to do things, especially when you absolutely only use Mac products, Apple products to showcase your Air 75. When you go into newfus website, there are imacs, there are MacBook pros, there are ipads, there are iphones. I mean, everything points to you guys, at least thinking or wishing that Mac users would be your target demographic. But if so, you really need a way for you to control this thing in terms of software available for macOS like you really need it. It's got four rubber bars that access feet underneath, plus these little rubber removable feet that use magnetism with the magnets built into the frame to actually be secured in place on the back side. And I honestly both like the aesthetic of it and the implementation. It's not the most secure thing in the world. So do be careful if you plan on taking this with you not to lose your little feet for the Air 75 on the back, you have USB TypeC for either charging and or connection directly to your system and switches for different modes between wired wireless or completely off. Plus a switch to basically select a different system that you're going to be using either Mac or Windows. And it does come with different key caps specifically for either or in terms of wireless operation, you can go for either low latency two 4 GHz wireless through a little dongle that doesn't have anything written on it and that I have already lost. I mean, it's somewhere, but since I can't find it going to consider it lost forever. Or Bluetooth 50 with up to three different devices connected simultaneously, well paired simultaneously. At least the cable is nice, flexible, well braided, and it's not too long because I mean, that's sort of the point for you guys not to use this plugged into your setup. And speaking of wireless operation, 2000, 500 million power battery inside, which is like 39% 40% bigger than the previous keyboard that Newfie used to make. I haven't tested that one. Matter of fact, I haven't actually heard of Newfie until the R 95 showed up at the studio, but it was supposed to last for about 48 hours of continuous usage. This has been running on green for over a week. Green means over 80% of the charge from 80% to 20%. It's Orange, below Orange, it's red, like below 20%. It's still on green. The battery management, at least on this thing, is really good. I mean, for wireless operation, that's basically all you want, right? And it doesn't necessarily support fast charging, but it does charge rather quickly. And I haven't really had any issues with the operation of the R 75 so far. Now the key caps are again PBT not shine through at all, but really well constructed. There are a couple of inconsistencies in terms of where the lettering is positioned on each of the keys, and it's sometimes a little bit jarring, but not too much. There's nothing too drastic. But the main thing here is that it's. I mean, they are so thin, they are Super Super thin key caps, the perfect combo not to take too much space on your keyboard. I mean, this is super low profile now in terms of sound and the actual typing experience of the new Fierce 75. The switches are basically Gateron, so I mean, they're low profile, but they're not too different from normal switches. And the excellent, absolutely excellent factory loop jobs they've done in the stabilizers makes typing on this thing actually a joy. Sometimes I get sort of a scratchy feeling on some keys. Not really sure why, and it doesn't happen all the time. Maybe it's just the angle that I'm typing on. But overall, despite the typing experience of the R 75, getting a thumbs up from me, listen to it for yourselves. Now, I would have said I had some concerns regarding quality assurance issues because many people have been reporting issues with stuff like the magnets not being properly secured inside of the frame or creaking noises or rattling noises or the switches coming off together with the Geicaps because they weren't properly secured to the actual board or to the frame. And I wouldn't have been able to say that. Yeah, mine doesn't have any of those issues, but it's just another one from the line. These haven't been hand picked to be delivered to me. So I reached out to newfus Studios to know what they had to say about that, and they replied saying, One, this hasn't been hand picked at all, just came out of the assembly line like everyone else's, which is at least nice to know. And two, they have already gone back and tried to tweak and are tweaking their processes to mitigate these sorts of issues moving forward. And that's the kind of feedback that I like to hear or the kind of response to feedback that I like hearing and seeing from brands. I love this kind of thing because it means that at least the commitment to actually improving on top of these little issues is there, and they're making an effort. It's just a matter of time for us to see more of these things in the wild and people actually reporting that they're not having these types of problems. But again, I'm happy, at least with the commitment that new fee is showing into making these things more reliable and less prone to problems like that. Thumbs up, guys. So in conclusion, yeah. Hot damn. Yeah, I'm down for it. The honeymoon period with the 75 has come and gone, and I'm still in love with it. Excellent build quality, excellent typing experience, the versatility, the overall package that it delivers for $110. I think it's definitely worth it. I would have loved actually, to see not only a 60 or 65% version of this, but an entirely blacked out, matte black, everything version of the Air 75 retaining only this colored space bar because this mustard yellow. I think it would look really cool with everything else, and with these things, like being able to be turned off through software on Mac. But yes, even if you guys have never heard of NewFoot before and you were on the fence not knowing if it was worth it or not, I'd say, don't hold back if you can find one, because sometimes it is out of stock. But if you can find one and you're wanting a small, slim form factor keyboard that's still mechanical wireless like Bluetooth with hotspot and everything else, that this thing delivers excellent build quality, I would definitely go for it. I'm not saying that I would substitute all my other keyboards for it, but almost maybe. And that's about it. Hope you guys enjoy the video. Thanks a lot for watching. And I'll catch you guys later.

Gus Gonzalez

Making videos on tech and audio.