If you can’t stand to type on a Macbook’s scissor switch keyboard, let alone a butterfly model, and you don’t fancy lugging around one of the small number of laptops with a full-on mechanical keyboard built in, then Epomaker’s new wireless keyboard might be one for you. The NT68 is designed to sit on top of a MacBook or other laptop’s existing keyboard so your fingers don’t have to put up with their rubbery key switches for a single second longer than they need to.
It’s not an entirely new idea (Nuphy’s NuType F1 keyboard is another recent example) but the quality and specs of Epomaker’s previous keyboards make the NT68 worthy of attention. It can be hardwired over USB-C, connected via Bluetooth to up to three devices, and its switches are hot-swappable so you can modify the keyboard’s typing feel without having to get a soldering iron out. It uses what’s known as a 65 percent layout, which means you only get five rows of keys and no dedicated function row. It’s compact, but at the cost of some extra keys.
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Oh, and there’s also RGB backlighting if you care about that sort of thing. The NT68 features what Epomaker is calling an “invisible stand,” and its magnetic case can prop up any phones or tablets you want to pair it to. Its 1,900 mAh battery is rated for between two and five weeks of wireless use.
If I was ever going to go to the effort of carrying around a little mechanical keyboard to use on top of a laptop, then I’d be giving the NT68 serious consideration. But that’s a big “if.” For starters, even as someone who owns around half a dozen different keyboards, it still seems straight up inconvenient to carry around an extra keyboard to replace the perfectly functional one built into my laptop. Even then, I couldn’t see myself bothering to put the keyboard directly on top of a laptop’s keyboard when it’s much more ergonomic and comfortable to sit it on the desk in front of you.
But hey, I’m not going to tell you how to live your life. Epomaker is yet to announce a release date or pricing for the NT68, but it’s inviting people to sign up for updates over on its website.
