Marvo DIY Re-Defined 68 Review: A New Standard For Entry Barebones Mechanical Keyboard Kits?

Okay, my friends today we've got more mechanical keyboard. Goodness to take a look at two in a row. Yes, this is the Marvel DIY Redefine 68 wireless kit. Now ignore the keycaps because I would just I mean, I just finished filming stuff with the keycaps on. I couldn't be bothered to take them off. Ignore this. This is a bare bones kit that has actually impressed me quite a bit in some respects. So let's take a look at it right after this. It doesn't matter if you're gaming on your couch, a fully RDB flooded setup on your desk, or taking part in online business meetings. What you hear and what others hear from you are equally important. So ditch the shackles of headsets, be a gamer or otherwise, and enjoy the freedom to use your own preferred headphones with the convenience portability and incredible sound of the Mod Mic Wireless from Antlion, a fully wireless mic with two modes for optimal pickup and isolation, best in class audio quality with super low latency crossplatform compatibility, easy to install and versatile enough to take with you anywhere, easy to control with the push of a button and easy to charge while sporting extensive battery life. Check out the Mod Mike wireless in the links below. So bare Bones this is a much more enthusiastic approach to getting into mechanical keyboards rather than comparing to anything that would be ready out of the box that you just take out of the box, plug in or switch on, and just start using. This thing actually needs you to put more effort in. And usually that tends to get some people at least novices to think it's either too expensive of a way to get into mechanical keyboards or flat out just too much of a hassle, which I mean, honestly speaking, it's mostly both of those things at the same time, and I can definitely relate to both sides of each of these arguments when anyone says it's too expensive. I mean, I get it. Something like this kit specifically is now being sold for $67 discounted, but normal price is $79. Plus you need to factor in switches and key caps, and you're easily looking at at the very least like $110. Actually, you're probably going to spend 110 hundred and $20 just for the kit, plus key caps depending on where you get them. And let's be real. If this is your first DIY kit, you probably don't have extra switches lying around just as much as you're probably not going to have an extra set of keycaps that you can just pick up and use on it without stripping one of your other keyboards to actually put this one together and outfit everything that you need and know there isn't much to be done to mitigate each of these points aside, maybe from what Marvel is trying to do, at least despite being a barebones kit, it does support two four GHz low latency wireless connection. Bluetooth connectivity and USB TypeC. It comes with both the dongle and the USB type C cable in the box, which is rubberized and kind of normal looking, plus a switchkeycap puller and no case or extra anything in the box. It's got a 2000 milliamp hour battery inside that can keep this thing up and running for quite a while. And Marvel actually claims 168 hours of usage without RGB lighting, and I haven't tested this thing for long enough to say if that claim is true or not, but it does last for a long time because I haven't actually charged this since I started using it. I've been using this for almost three weeks and it's still going strong without the lighting. It does have RGB lighting, but again, just as I said in the previous video, it's a situation where I kind of feel it's like negligible. It's got height adjustment built into the frame directly, plus a space underneath for you to stick either Marvel's own Redefined 68 metal nameplate or a custom one, and the build is really strong, made out of an aluminum alloy and really solid plastic on the undershelf. This thing does not creak, it does not bend, and overall it is a very slim design, at least in terms of bezels. And then to get things a couple of steps even further, the Redefined 60 actually, let's call it the Rd 68. In the pursuit of making everything easier for anyone, getting into this whole mechanical keyboard realm, puts these wild cards on the table, dip switch controls to customize directly to the board, several different options modes, and even switching between target systems like Windows or Mac OS. The PCB is hotspot ready, which cuts the work of getting it ready for primetime by a very large sum of hours, since you won't be needing to solder anything, not counting the time that you would have to use to learn how to solder stuff. And perhaps my favorite feature that also cuts down in the assembly time quite a bit. Trd 68 comes out of the box with a cotton foam sheet under the PCB like between the PCB and the case, plus a thick silicone mold pad between the PCB and the upper plate to help with acoustics. And I mean, if you are getting yourself into a barebones kit, you're probably into either customizing your board or you're the kind of person who likes to tweak and tinker with stuff. And both acoustics and soldering switches are the two most time consuming processes, so not having to bother with either or having greatly diminished effort put into either can be actually really huge. Now to the points that are not actually that great. The design is as basic as they come to the point of being uninspired. If you're not rocking a killer keycap set like this GMK laser from Drop, you are definitely going to have a board that honestly looks like plain and boring. The RGB illumination is quite strong, but not amazing. And depending on the keycap set that you're using, you're not really going to enjoy it all that much. And as I said in the beginning, it's negligible at least to me, switch support does account for five pin switches, but all of them are north facing, which can pose a problem to some keycap sets. But let's be honest, those keycap sets tend to be more on the expensive side, which I don't think is going to happen all that often for the target demographic of this kit, at least. But that is the thing. The stabilizers aren't class leading. They're plate mounted for one, but at least very flat on the underneath, and I just couldn't not loop them. But even after that and Band ain't modding the PCB as well. The stabilizer action is and feels great, but just doesn't sound as good as I had hoped. And despite making a pretty big difference when compared to anything that doesn't have all these other things to help with acoustics on the inside. Truth be told, all the dampening in the world going on within this case is not going to help you if you really want, like a dead silent keyboard that is going to depend 100% on you tweaking and prodding and looping your own switches. There's just no substitution for that. Plus the more you get to the sides and closer to the edges of the board, because there's less and less area for dampening material around each switch. You basically get louder and louder steps and louder and louder keystrokes, which I mean, it's a physical thing. There's nothing you can do about it. There's just like less physical material absorbing the strokes that you're hitting closer and closer to the edge anyway. But even without any looping to the switches whatsoever, just considering what comes like stuck out of the box on the Rd 68, I already think that it kind of sounds quite all right. And to showcase this, here's a quick sample with Catarom Blacks, which are linear and kind of silent switches to begin with. Take a listen, discounting potential differences different keycap sets would have made to how this thing sounds. I like what I'm hearing already. Now look, let's be real here for a moment. This isn't a board for everyone, but it's probably one of the most complete and well put together entry level kits that I have seen so far. Yes, there are cheaper ones out there, but personally, I wouldn't really trust them to actually hold on and keep working properly for too long. There is definitely a premium to be paid for certain brands, certain hyptastic wording, some shenanigans going around, but all in all in an overall manner, this enthusiast market tends to kind of almost selfregulate up to a point and stuff that's expensive just because it is not bringing anything different in terms of features, functionality, not bringing extra quality, or even at the very least, some exclusivity in any terms usually doesn't last. And all the sort of staple brands, the bigger ones that have a bigger and nicer track record of actually delivering on what they promise or delivering at least higher quality stuff. They are more expensive than the RJ 68. Does this mean that I would personally pick an Rd 68 over, say an Iky Aurora, or maybe a KBD 67, AGK 68 XS or even a GMK Pro? No, that's not the point. But honestly, that's because I have been in the hobby and I have quite a bit of time under my belt with mechanical keyboards for beginners. I honestly haven't seen such a complete offering that isn't held together with prize stick in a while, and I can't stress this enough. Going for a cheaper option as an entry is probably a smart move, but you need to at least know if what you're getting has enough quality, if it delivers enough on the money because there is cheap stuff that's just like, really dirt cheap. That's just not good. This I can totally see being your first bare bones kit. Just be careful not to let this also work as sort of a gateway drug to, you know, stronger stuff, at least for a while. Your wallet is definitely going to appreciate that. And that's been it. Hope you guys enjoyed the video. Thanks a lot for watching and I'll catch you guys later.