Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
The Epomaker MS68 is a simple and straightforward looking keyboard once it is out of the packaging. It has a traditional frame around the border with thick bezels all around. The edges have a 90-degree bend, but the corners are all chamfered, so it is not as sharp on your hands or wrists. This border has a good finish and resists showing marks or smudges. This aluminum top and bottom means the MS68 always feels cool to your hands. The green looks very classy with its dark finish. I am hesitant to put a name descriptor for this color of green, especially since humans can recognize the most distinct shades of green, but the pictures show off its classy yet vibrant look. The side modifier keys are another darker green color, while the Escape, Enter, and arrow keys are a lighter green. The legends are black for the white keys and white for everyone else. Overall, I like the simplicity here with a splash of personality in the colors. In addition to green, there are black, yellow, and blue variants of the Epomaker MS68.
As for dimensions, the Epomaker MS68 measures 328mm in width, 113mm in depth, and 40mm in height. This keyboard might have a small footprint, but its weight is contrasting at 1.2kg. The heft clearly comes from the aluminum shell as well as the packed interior and thick keycaps. Altogether, I can appreciate the heft, as it means we have premium materials here. The shell does not show any signs of flexing, but there is a bit of deck flex when pushing down on the keyboard. This is due to internal gasket mounting, as you will see later. Unfortunately, we do not have any palm rest included with the MS68, although I am not too surprised given the travel-friendly size.
The layout of the Epomaker MS68 is near-standard for North America with its QWERTY ANSI layout. There is a total of sixty-five keys, which is one less than what is normally this size. This is due to the LCD screen on the top right corner taking up the spot of a key. Compared to a traditional full-size keyboard, there are a few things to adjust to. The majority of the keys are in the same place, but we no longer have a top row for the function keys. Furthermore, the cut-down right side means the arrow key cluster sits close to the smaller right Shift and bottom right modifier keys. As such, the right Alt, Fn, and Ctrl keys are just 1U in size, while the left ones are the standard 1.25U. As I mentioned already, the LCD screen takes up a spot where you would normally find one of the keys to the right of Backspace. Underneath, we have a Home and Delete key. There are no dedicated LED indicator lights, but the LCD screen can serve this purpose. There is a small capital A and a W to show when the respective Caps Lock or Windows Lock are active.
All the keys do not show secondary functions, but the user manual contains the explanations. To access these functions, start by pressing the Fn key on the bottom right side before pressing the specified key. For Windows mode, the number row acts as the function row. Home and Delete function as Page Up and Page Down, while Insert, End, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause are on K, L, I, O, and P, respectively. Pressing Fn + Windows will toggle the Windows key from activating or not. As for Mac users, the primary difference is that the top number row aligns with the top row on a Mac keyboard. However, there are also a few notable omissions, including the lack of a tilde character or any media functions.
The other set of functions are for keyboard specific items, including Q, W, and E, for pairing and connecting to three different Bluetooth devices. Right Shift cycles between the three different screens that you can show on the LCD screen, while X toggles the screen on and off. Finally, you can reset the keyboard by long pressing Fn + Backspace for three seconds. There are secondary functions for lighting controls, but we will explore these later in the review.
The keycaps of the Epomaker MS68 are PBT or polybutylene terephthalate plastic. I really like this material, as it is more durable and does not shine or fade easily. The thicker plastic also usually adds a deeper sound. The legends are dye sublimated, which is a heat dye print that permeates the surface. Unlike cheaper laser-etched legends, dye sublimation is quite resilient over time and should not fade or wear. This process is still cheaper than doubleshot, but it stands as a good middle ground. The choice of font is clear and legible without looking too much like OEM printing. The keycaps use standard MX stems and have a Cherry profile, with a slight concavity in the middle of the 1U-sized keys to help your fingers rest comfortably in place. The Epomaker MS68 offers full NKRO over USB. NKRO stands for N-key rollover, which refers to the number of keys scanned independently by the hardware.
Before continuing, one of the key selling points of the Epomaker MS68 is its key switches. Mechanical switches consist of a housing base, stem, and spring, with varying degrees of tactile and audible feedback. Our unit of the Epomaker MS68 comes with its own brand of Sea Salt Silent switches. These are linear switches, and gamers often like linear options for a fast typing experience. However, these switches are not necessarily for gamers either, as they require a slightly greater 60g of force for actuation, as opposed to the more typical 45g or less. Other specifications include a sixty million keystroke lifespan, actuation distance of 2.0mm, and a full travel of 4.0mm. A normal, non-silent switch is also available under the same Sea Salt name. Underneath, we have south-facing RGB LED lights mounted on the PCB. Furthermore, these switches are hot-swappable, with sockets underneath that support both three-pin and five-pin switches. It is important to be careful when swapping these switches in and out, as the pins must be straight before installation.
Longer keys, such as the space bar and Enter, have Cherry stabilizers on the sides to prevent wobbling. Epomaker has factory-lubricated these stabilizers for smoother and quieter action. They are plate-mount stabilizers rather than screwed in. This is usually a cheaper choice, as plate-mounted stabilizers often have a bit more rattling noise, which is only slightly audible with the MS68's space bar. If you do want to swap out the stabilizers, this keyboard also supports screw-in stabilizers on the PCB. The plate is a frosted, flex-cut polycarbonate, which displays a slight amount of flex. However, this flex also cushions each keystroke when bottoming out.
On the back left side, we have three items here. Starting on the far edge, we have a USB Type-C port to connect or charge the keyboard. Next, we have a two-position switch to choose between Windows and Mac layouts. One annoyance I did notice was that my layout always seemed to revert to Mac when connected wirelessly after a system reboot. I was able to fix it by toggling the switch, but it was still a bit annoying. Next, we have a three-position switch to change the connection mode. In the middle, the MS68 can function over a direct wired connection. Pulling the switch towards the USB port changes to Bluetooth mode, where you can connect to three different devices. This reports at a polling rate of 125Hz, which is typical for Bluetooth and keeping the battery draw low. On the other side, we can connect wirelessly with the USB transmitter. One omission we have here is a place for the USB transmitter, as there is no slot or spot to keep there when it is not in use. Over wired or the USB transmission, the Epomaker MS68 reports at a 500Hz rate, which is lower than what I usually see from the competition. I did not notice any discernible lag when using the MS68 over USB, whether wired or wireless, but there was some perceived lag over Bluetooth. Even so, I would have liked to see the faster 1000Hz report rate.
Flipping the Epomaker MS68 over, we have a clean underside. The bottom body is like a wedge and provides some incline. Each corner has a pill-like strip of white rubber padding. This, along with the keyboard's weight, keeps the whole unit in place. There are five holes on the bottom, which hides the hex screws to take apart the MS68. We will explore this later in our review.
Internally, we have a 3000mAh battery inside to power the Epomaker MS68. To extend the battery life, Epomaker has included automatic sleep options, which you can change in the software utility. When the keyboard is sleeping, its lights will turn off. Once you press any key, it will automatically wake back up from sleeping. In our testing, we found its lifespan to be a bit below average. Epomaker does not provide any estimates, but with the RGB LED lights fully on, the keyboard only lasted for around twenty hours of use, which is low. Without any lights, this extended to around a week of use before needing a recharge, which is still low. I will say in both tests, the LCD screen stayed on. If you turn off the screen, you should get a longer battery life.
When placed on my desk, the Epomaker MS68 is both flashy and clean, offering a nice contrast of color to my otherwise plain palette of peripherals. The cool touch on the borders of the MS68 is much appreciated. It might not fill up my table with its small space, but its premium weight makes its presence noticeable. In terms of layout, the most notable difference is the removal of the top function row, which is the primary thing that holds me back from a keyboard this small. The shorter right Shift key might also be a point of contention for some, especially if you have long enough fingers that hit the Up arrow instead. However, my smaller hands do not run into this issue.
Epomaker markets the Sea Salt Silent switches for its quieter output, so it is no surprise the MS68 is quiet. With a slightly heavier actuation force and feel, we have a linear travel with a deeper feel and a slightly mushy bottoming out. Keystroke travel is smooth and does not feel scratchy, but I am not a huge fan of the heavier force needed to push each key. I also generally like more audible feedback on my keyboards. Otherwise, the spongy floor comes from the flex in the backplate, which is again up to preference. I personally would want a more rigid back, but this goes hand in hand with a quieter typing experience. From the audio clip above, I had to increase the gain on my microphone quite a bit before I could capture the typing. Again, these aspects are all based on preference, so you should judge based on what you want. The deeper 2.0mm actuation distance was also another factor that made the typing feel a bit slower, even if my measured typing speed was quite comparable to other keyboards.
With the lack of any shine through legends and thick PBT keycaps, the Epomaker MS68's RGB experience is quite muted. The lights act as an under glow rather than illuminating each key. In the dark, you will not be able to see your keys, unlike most gaming keyboards. The south-facing lights do shine out the bottom edge of the keycap, making the glow a bit more visible to the user. As for effects, we have all the standard options, such as rainbow mode and various static and reactive options. You can adjust the lights with secondary functions on the Epomaker MS68. The up and down arrows control brightness, while the left and right arrows cycle through backlight colors for effects that apply. The square brackets decrease and increase backlight speeds, while the semicolon and quote keys change the saturation of the colors. The backslash, or "\", cycles through lighting effects. Finally, you can turn the lights off by turning the brightness to zero or using Fn+Enter. You can also change these effects in the software.
The neat aspect of the Epomaker MS68 is the 0.86" screen at the top right corner. Out of the box, the primary screen is a menu that shows the date and time primarily in the middle. At the bottom of this screen, we have indicators for the current layout, the current connection mode, and the Caps and Windows lock. Finally, a small battery icon shows you the current battery life of the MS68. It will change colors if it is low on battery, and it will show a thunderbolt while charging. Otherwise, you can also cycle through two other screens of different graphics that you upload to the keyboard using Epomaker's utility.
There are two software utilities for the Epomaker MS68, as one is for keyboard functionality and the other is for the screen specifically. The first is well known in the keyboard enthusiast world, because it is the primary open-source option. This is VIA, which we have looked at in our review of the Epomaker Shadow-S. It seems like VIA support is not very consistent across Epomaker keyboards. Otherwise, for this software to recognize the MS68, you will need to download the JSON file from Epomaker's website. There are separate files for both wired and wireless operation, so be sure to choose the one you want. Once you have access, you will see four different tabs at the top, as well as more menus on the left side.
First, we have the Configure tab, with submenus of Keymap, Macros, Lighting, and Save + Load. These are self-explanatory from the titles. Under the Key Tester tab, you can evaluate all the keys to figure out if any switches are not behaving properly. Under Design, this is where you can upload the JSON file to get VIA to recognize the MS68. Lastly, there is a Settings tab for adjusting the utility. Personally, while VIA is free and open-source, I encountered a few issues with it recognizing the keyboard. However, since Epomaker did not directly make VIA, I will not fault the manufacturer for these issues. I am still glad to see the MS68 work with VIA, and I hope Epomaker remains committed to this support for all their keyboards.
For adjusting the screen, Epomaker has the Image Custom Tool. I was able to install and launch the software, which is available as an executable from Epomaker's website. You can upload up to two different graphics, whether they are static images or GIFs. However, as you can tell from the screenshot above, it does not crop or zoom in, and squishes any graphics to fit the square aspect ratio. I wish Epomaker would let users adjust the image within the utility, and the only option is to crop images before uploading it to MS68. Other than some grammatical issues on the software, the Image Custom Tool worked as expected.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. A Closer Look - Disassembly and Internals
4. Conclusion
