Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware
The last product 1STPLAYER sent me was the Bullet Hunter MK6, which gave me a pleasant surprise. The difference between the Bullet Hunter MK6 and Fire Dancing K8 is very evident at first glance. Starting with the key layout, the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 keyboard has an ISO layout Enter key as stated previously, while the Bullet Hunter MK6 has an ANSI Enter key. The Fire Dancing K8 keyboard also has its dedicated media keys spanning across the top of the keyboard rather than leaving them all in the top right corner. This is a good choice as it would overcrowd the corner of the keyboard otherwise with the inclusion of the additional media keys. The frame is made entirely out of plastic. The frame is larger at the bottom, which seems to be intended to act as a wrist wrest. Unfortunately, this wrist wrest is too small and in actual use does not seem to benefit the user very minimally, if at all. I personally think my hand is on the smaller to medium size. The inclusion of a wrist wrest is a nice thought, but the implementation was lacking.
Looking at the measurements, the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 keyboard is approximately 461mm in width, 198mm in depth, and 37mm in height. The keyboard is a lightweight keyboard. This is because of the plastic build as well as being a membrane keyboard. The keyboard feels flimsy with a lot of flex. Whether its just putting a little pressure into the keyboard or twisting the keyboard a bit, there is a lot of noticeable flex. I twisted and pressed into a standard keyboard that came with the prebuilt PC my parents bought and it was more rigid compared to the Fire Dancing K8 keyboard. Something the Fire Dancing K8 keyboard does have going for it is it is water and dust resistant. This is a nice feature as office workers will not have an issue with any accidental spills. The site also states it is wear resistant and cut proof. I am not too sure what it means by cut proof, but I would assume they mean it resists scratches well.
Unexpectedly, the keyboard layout of the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 keyboard is a standard 104-key QWERTY ISO layout. The indicator lights for the different locks can be found above the number pad labeled as N, C, and S for number, caps, and scroll, in that order. There is a dedicated key to toggle the backlighting on and off. This keyboard does not actual have an Fn key to use functions, rather it has dedicated media keys. Spanning across the top of the keyboard from left to right are buttons for Documents, Browser, Email, Search, Calculator, Play/Pause, Previous track, Next track, Volume up, and Volume down. Fn key combinations would be a welcome feature to control the backlighting likewise to the 1STPLAYER Bullet Hunter MK6.
The 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 is a 6-key rollover keyboard. This means the keyboard is capable of able to recognize up to six keys, even if they are pressed simultaneously. This should be sufficient for most users, but for the more hardcore ones among us, it is no NKRO keyboard for those who need to press more than six keys at once. These keycaps are laser printed with a silver bottom coating to help clearly display the backlighting.
Moving forward to the switches, the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 keyboard features regular membrane switches. These are the same kind of switches that come with most prebuilt PCs. Although these switches are membrane, they do feel more tactile than most regular keyboards. This is due to the design of the keycap stem. The design of the stem allows for more resistance prior to bottoming out, giving a more tactical feel to actuating the switch. The tactile feel does not nearly match a mechanical keyboard, but is close to the feel of a mem-chanical or mechanical feeling membrane switch. This keyboard is marketed as a gaming and office keyboard, but when I think of gaming keyboards, I think of mechanical switches. In our current time, there are very few membrane gaming keyboards, while there is a vast array of mechanical gaming keyboards. Sadly, the word “gaming” is merely a word used for marketing and does not actually mean anything, so I guess 1STPLAYER is not wrong in this regard. Membrane switches can technically play games.
Flipping over the keyboard, there is some information about the keyboard as well as the serial number to identify your 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8. There are two rubber feet on the two bottom corners of the keyboard to help keep it in place. There are also some extending feet that do not have rubber tips. With only two rubber feet, this keyboard seems to be slide easily. It would be nice to have addition rubber feet, especially because it is so light, it is very easy to move. There is nothing special about the bottom.
Moving to 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8’s mouse. The shell of the mouse is quite rigid and smooth, which is pretty standard for allowing for the user to get a good grip. This mouse does not have any rubber grips, but is shaped with indents to have the user’s thumb fit easily. Unfortunately having a symmetrical design with a smaller mouse with this shape causes a bit of discomfort in the user’s grip. For me, there was not a comfortable way for me to rest my ring and pinky fingers on the right side. Rounding out the sides of the mouse like the Gigabyte AORUS M2 would sacrifice a more comfortable thumb position, but in the end would create a more comfortable grip. The only way I could use this mouse was to use a fingertip grip.
Measuring in at about 126mm depth, 66.5mm width 40.5mm height, the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 is on the smaller side in terms of dimensions. It is fairly lightweight, but it is not adjustable, which is quite common nowadays. The cable is not braided, but keep in mind this bundle purchase is on the value side of things.
As for buttons, there is no information about which switch type the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 is using. What I can tell you is the primary left and right click buttons does have a solid feeling when you click. The two mouse buttons are a little harder to click then most mice, but it surprisingly feels good. A DPI button is placed in the middle under the scroll wheel, but out of the way so it will not be pressed accidentally. The site states the DPI levels are preset to 500, 100, 1500, and 2000 DPI. In the middle, the scroll wheel can be found sandwiched between the two primary buttons. The design of this scroll wheel is very generic with a rubber build. There is no texturing done to this scroll wheel. Generally, the scrolling functionality worked as well as any other mouse. The scroll was rigid enough that there would be no room to accidentally scroll. The middle click was also as standard as any other mouse, as there is a small resistance, allowing you to use the middle click without accidentally scrolling. The functionality of the Fire Dancing K8 matches that of any other basic mouse with an improvement in the primary button switches and the addition of DPI settings.
At the bottom of the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 mouse, there are three pads that are likely Teflon pads, which is the standard across mice in general. There is one bigger pad at the front and two smaller ones at the back of the mouse. In the middle, we have the optical sensor. I could not find any information regarding what sensor it has, but I could find some specifications of the sensor being used. This sensor is capable of up to 2,400 DPI sensitivity. Specifications show a speed of 30 IPS and an acceleration of up to 8g. The Polling rate of the mouse has the ability to reach up to 125Hz. The DPI on this mouse is preset as previously stated, meaning the customizability of the user’s DPI is limited. The use of this sensor makes sense as a budget-friendly and lightweight option. We will investigate its performance in this mouse on the next page.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
