Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
The Epomaker x AULA F108 is a standard full-sized keyboard when it comes to appearance. It is important to note this keyboard comes in five different variations, being Black, White Blue, Black Blue, Grey Yellow, and Gradient Pink. In terms of finish, all models are made out of ABS plastic and feels as such. Our particular model is the Black Blue variant. Epomaker and AULA opt to use PBT keycaps, something that I personally appreciate as they are a little more durable. The keycap design fits well with the case, being a simple three tone keyboard for the most part. I will note that on the Black Blue model, the legending is done in teal rather that the expected blue. According to the images online, the Black and Gradient Pink models will have the legend on the side of the keycap. The F108 features a standard high-bezel design, keeping the keycaps almost level with the frame of the keyboard. Epomaker chose to place standard branding on this keyboard with it being above the arrow cluster, on the dongle, and underneath the keyboard. I personally appreciate this as someone who likes minimal branding. The F108 comes with a wrist rest or adjustable feet, so you will be able to adjust the typing angle to your own personal preference. I found no issues with typing on this keyboard, but your experience may vary.
The Epomaker x AULA F108 measures in at about 443mm length, 136mm width, and 43mm height including the keycaps. Given this design, this is quite standard for a full-sized design. This size also makes sense, given the layout. In terms of mass, this weighs in at 1143g, not including the detachable cord. This weight makes sense given the plastic build of the keyboard and size. Going into the build quality, the top deck shows some flex when pushing between the small gaps of the keyboard. When pushing into the keys, there is a good amount of flex provided from the gasket structure. We will expand more on this on the next page. Upon twisting the keyboard, there was some flex as expected from the plastic build. I was quite satisfied with the build quality, despite the fact that this is still a plastic keyboard.
The Epomaker x AULA F108 comes in a full-sized QWERTY ANSI layout. The standard full-sized layout typically has one hundred and eight keys depending on what features the keyboard has. The ANSI layout is the standard American layout, which uses a single row Enter key, as seen in some of the earlier images. The keyboard uses a standard bottom row for its key spacing. For those who do not know, 1U is standard for a single unit, meaning a 1.25U keycap is 1.25 times wider than a regular one. As such, all of the bottom row keys aside from the spacebar and arrow keys are 1.25U. For the average user, the typing experience will feel relatively the same, as Epomaker and AULA choose to use the standard design in its entirety.
The Epomaker x AULA F108 has full N-key rollover, meaning every single key pressed will register even if they are all pressed simultaneously. This means there will be no ghosting issues, where some keys may not be registered. Gamers and fast typists who have fast actions per minute or words per minute will benefit from this, as it will allow more keys to be recognized at the same time. In reality, people usually only need 6-key rollover, so the addition of N-key rollover is nice for extremely fast typists who can reach about 250 words per minute. The inclusion of N-key rollover has become quite standard among keyboards, so this should not come as a surprise the F108 has it as well.
The secondary functions can be accessed by holding down the Fn key on the bottom right side before pressing the indicated key. To make this simple, I will separate the different keys by functionality. In this case, we have full access to the entire keyboard, thus there should be no issues in regard to functionality unlike some previously reviewed keyboards, but I will double check as key combination pages are often copied and pasted from previous products.
Starting with the F-row, we have multiple shortcuts. F1 to F4 will control Homepage, Mail, Toggle Window, and Explorer in respective order. F5 controls keyboard backlighting brightness down, while F6 will make it go up. F7 to F12 control Previous Track, Play and Pause, Next Track, Mute, Volume Down, and Volume Up. In my testing, all of these shortcuts do indeed work, but you will have to memorize them as they are unmarked on the keyboard.
Some functional combinations were made for user convenience. The Windows key will lock the Windows key itself to prevent accidental presses when gaming. 1, 2, and 3 will switch between Bluetooth connections. B will check the battery level. Apostrophe will connect to 2.4GHz. Esc will factory reset the keyboard when held for 3 seconds. Q will swap to Android Mode. W will activate Windows Mode. E will activate Mac Mode. Lastly, R will change to iOS Mode. In terms of functionality here, only Windows Lock, battery check, factory reset, and Bluetooth swapping will be useful, as the back of the keyboard can toggle between different connection interfaces, and the different keyboard settings typically adjust automatically. This is coming from someone who does not own Apple devices, so your experience may vary in regard to Mac and iOS Mode.
Moving on to lighting, Tab controls the backlighting color. Backslash will take care of the lighting effects. The Up and Down arrow keys are a redundant function, but also control the brightness likewise to F5 and F6. Left and Right arrow keys will change the speed of the effects. Focusing on the light bar above the Arrow cluster, Right Shift will control the effect, while Question Mark will change the color. Right Ctrl and Alt will change the speed and brightness in respective order. Moving to the side light, all of the controls are the same as the light bar, except you will be using the left counterpart keys. For the color, you will use Z instead of Question Mark. There are sixteen different effects and eight colors in total.
As for the keycaps, these are made out of PBT plastic or polybutylene terephthalate, as previously mentioned. I personally prefer PBT, as the material is harder and resists shining better. The lettering is printed out on the front of the keycaps using a double shot process, which is created by injecting plastic into two different molds and pressing them together. Double shot offers the same or better quality of printing compared to dye sublimation, offering great quality in the case of the Epomaker x AULA F108. The coloring and legending are sharp. In terms of warp and shine, PBT is an excellent material, as it is decently resistant to both of these qualities. The font used is quite sharp and consistent with the rest of the board, which is something I find nice. Underneath the keycaps, you can see the typical MX stem. This means you can replace the keycaps with another set. This keyboard uses south-facing lights, which is good, as there will be no interference problems using Cherry profile keycaps. In regard to thickness, they are about 1.3mm thick, which is quite good. The significance of the thickness of a keycap is important for the feel and pitch. To keep things simple, thicker ones have more depth and produce a deeper thock, while thinner ones produce a higher pitch sound.
The Epomaker x AULA F108 features either the LEOBOG Graywood V3, Nimbus Switch V3, Volcano Switch, or Dream Sakura Switch, depending on what color you get. In terms of information about the switch on the F108 page, there seems to be switch specifications for another switch that is not an option and the Nimbus Switch V3. Our particular mode has the Graywood V3 switches, so I will be commenting directly on those. The Graywood V3 switches have a travel of 3.6mm due to it having a longer pole on the stem. This is a large alteration to the standard travel specifications for many mechanical switches opting for a slightly shorter total travel. The total force required to actuate is roughly 40g for operating. These switches have a rated lifespan of 60 million keystrokes, which is quite long. The F108 is also hot-swappable, meaning you can swap these at any time if they start failing.
Even with these specifications, it is quite hard to picture what these switches actually feel like, so I will try my best to explain. For a stock switch, the LEOBOG Graywood V3 switches are more than acceptable. The linear characteristic gives a very smooth travel, as they are factory lubed. If you have used a standard linear mechanical keyboard before, it will feel quite normal. With that said, the Graywood V3 switches are good and offer a good value.
Moving on to stabilizers, we have plate-mount Cherry stabilizers. If you are unfamiliar, there are two main designs of stabilizers, which are Cherry and Costar. In both cases, these are used to maintain balance in the longer keys and stabilize them, as the name implies. Cherry ones will have stems matching the bottom of most keycaps, while Costar has a wire hooked into a hoop on the keycaps. The main issue with Costar stabilizers is how they are a rattly mess, and there is practically nothing you can do about it. Cherry stabilizers also rattle, but there are ways to reduce the sound, making it the superior choice.
There is also a large difference between plate mount and PCB mount stabilizers. Generally, there are three types of mounting method, including plate mounting, screw-in, and clip-in. The latter two are PCB-mounted. I personally prefer screw-in stabilizers, as they stay in place the best out of the three options, followed by clip-in. Given the keyboard’s design, plate mount stabilizers make a lot of sense, as they are the easiest to maintain and remove. The ease has a caveat that can also easily fall out. With a small bit of knowledge, anyone should be able to fit them back into place rather easily. With that being said, the included stabilizers are tuned quite well with no apparent rattle.
Taking a peek at the bottom of the keyboard, we have four rubber feet on each of the corners. The feet on the bottom side are average in size and keep the keyboard in place. There should be no noticeable unintentional sliding. There is no cable raceway to manage cables, as the Epomaker x AULA F108 uses a detachable cable design. This is my personal preference, as it makes swapping between keyboards easier. The included 1.8m USB Type-C cable is greatly appreciated, but I did wish it was braided. Not being braided is fine, as I can easily connect the F108 with the 2.4GHz dongle instead. The 2.4GHz connectivity is quite good, showing no signs of delay. As for the battery, we have a 4000mAh battery, which should last for about 15 hours with lights on and over a week with lights off. Do note your mileage may vary based on how active your keyboard usage is, as the F108 has implemented an automatic sleep function, which will turn off all lights until any key is actuated. The implementation of automatic sleep is quite good, as I personally would not have noticed the keyboard went to sleep if it was not for the lights.
After doing my thorough inspection, I put the Epomaker x AULA F108 to use. As these Graywood V3 switches are linear in nature, I made sure to account for this in the typing test. My first observation was a nice medium pitch bottoming out sound with no ping. I should note I am typing on top of a desk mat, which dampens higher pitched sounds. However, the lack of pinging is more due to the dampening within the keyboard. Epomaker has provided a good use of silicone to prevent unwanted noise. The smooth linear feel was consistent throughout all the keys, which was nice. As someone who generally enjoys linear switches, I had a great experience with these pre-lubricated linear switches. The travel distance and actuation point were both good, and I had no issues whatsoever. A sound test of the Epomaker x AULA F108 can be found above. I found the sound profile to be quite clacky.
I would say the Epomaker x AULA F108 has great lighting effects as the switches are translucent. The lights are incredibly noticeable despite the keycaps not being shine through. The backlighting effects are still nice to have. I had no issue with configuring it using keyboard shortcuts, and the translucent switches and shine through keycaps accentuate. I do not think any users will have any issues in regard to this, despite there being no software. If you want to change the look, changing the lights or the keycaps is quite easy, as the F108 utilizes the standard Cherry stem. Fifteen different lighting variations can be toggled through by using the software I will talk about in a moment.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. A Closer Look - Disassembly and Internals
4. Conclusion
