Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
The MechLands Vibe99 is a streamlined 1800 layout keyboard when it comes to appearance. This layout is one of the stranger layouts that chooses to minimize the homing keys while maintaining the number pad. The layout itself is based on the Cherry G80-1800, hence the name. It is important to note this keyboard comes in two different variations, Blue and Black. In terms of the finishing, both models are ABS plastic builds. Our particular model will be the Black variant. MechLands opted to use a plastic case with double shot PBT keycaps, which has a good consistent appearance across the board. The keycap design fits well with the case, matching the black and gray aesthetic, while adding a pop of red as an accent. The Vibe99 features a standard high-bezel design, keeping the keycaps almost level with the frame of the keyboard. MechLands chose to place branding in some typical spots, being the front right of the case, on the edge. As someone who prefers less branding, this is quite good. The screen is quite nice to use to keep track of battery life, but is also customizable with software, which we will talk about later in the review. The Vibe99 does not come with a wrist rest, but does have adjustable feet. I found no issues with typing on this keyboard, but your experience may vary.
The MechLands Vibe99 measures in at 418mm length, 150mm width, and 42mm height according to MechLands’ manufacturer page. This measurement seems to factor all parts of the keyboard. Given this design, this is quite standard, if not ever so slightly wider for an 1800 design. This size makes sense given the layout. In terms of mass, this weighs in at 1121g, not including the detachable cord. This weight is quite normal, given the plastic build of the keyboard. Going into the build quality, the top deck shows very little flex when pushing between the small gaps of the keyboard, as you may expect from the plastic build. 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. There was only a reasonable amount of bending when attempting to twist the keyboard, being nothing to worry about. The case is quite sturdy for a plastic housing. As someone who has used aluminum keyboards for quite some time, I was still satisfied with the plastic build of the Vibe99.
The MechLands Vibe99 comes in an exploded 1800 QWERTY ANSI layout. The standard 1800 layout typically has about ninety-eight or ninety-nine keys, depending on how tightly the F row is clustered. You might think the Vibe99 will have less keys due to it having a screen, but you would be mistaken as there are actually one hundred keys on this keyboard. This is because for MechLands to add the screen to the Vibe99, they actually had to expand the keyboard slightly, which enabled them to add the page up and down keys. The ANSI layout is the standard American layout, which uses the single row Enter key, as seen in some of the earlier images. The keyboard does not use a standard bottom row. For those who do not know, 1U 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 space bar and arrow keys are 1.25U for a standard bottom row. In the case of the Vibe99, the right Alt, Fn, and Ctrl keys are 1U to maintain space for the arrow cluster. I personally would have preferred to shrink the number pads 0 key in favor of a wider Shift key, but this is a moot point as this is a personal preference. For the average user, the typing experience will feel relatively the same, as the only difference is the smaller right shift and some missing right modifier keys.
The MechLands Vibe99 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 that the Vibe99 has it as well.
Taking a look at the secondary functions on the F row, arrow, and a few extra keys, the user will have some memorizing to do. None of the secondary functions are labeled on the keycaps, thus the manual will be of use. These can be accessed by holding down the Fn key on the bottom right side before pressing the indicated key. We will break this down into shortcuts, media, extraneous keys, connectivity, and keyboard controls. I will only be testing the Windows functions, as I am on a Windows device.
Starting with the shortcuts, we have the F1 and F2 keys, controlling Brightness Down and Brightness Up, respectively. To be clear, this controls the screen brightness and not the keyboard. F3 to F6 control Task View, Explorer, Search, and Screenshot. Out of all of these functions, I personally would only make use of Explorer to find files and Search if I did not want to navigate to the search bar with my mouse. As for task view and screenshot, I would rather use Alt + Tab and Windows + Shift + S, as I have already been accustomed to those functions, and they serve the same purpose.
Next we have the media keys being F7 through F12. F7 to F9 acts as general track controls, including Previous Track, Pause/Play, and Next Track. Moving to the volume controls, F10 controls Mute/Unmute, while F11 and F12 take care of Volume Down and Volume Up. As someone who generally listens to music in the background of whatever I am doing, I will generally always use these functions on a daily basis.
We have some extraneous keys that have very minimal use cases. Before wasting your time, I will say that all of these keys are either redundant or simply do not function. First off, we have P, which will act as PrtSc. This is not very important, as there is a function that accomplishes the goal of PrtSc on the keyboard and Windows itself. The Left Square Bracket key will function as ScrLk, but unless you are an Excel enthusiast, you will probably never use this. The Right Square Bracket will act as the Pause key, which I personally have found never actually does anything. According to the manual, the L, Colon, and Right Square Bracket again control Insert, Home, and End respectively, which is redundant as they already exist on the keyboard. Just to be upfront, none of these keys actually did anything in my testing in Windows 11. I personally just find it weird that they included this in the manual, but this is a small nitpick.
Moving on, we have the connectivity functions. These functions are connected to Q, W, E, and R for all you MOBA players out there. The Q key is to change to the 2.4GHz wireless mode. This is a strange option that also does not work. In this case, it makes sense not to work as there is a manual toggle on the back of the keyboard to go between Bluetooth, Wired, and 2.4 GHz. W, E, and R will allow you to switch between three different Bluetooth connections. This section further emphasizes the need for change in the user manual, as it is quite flawed.
Finally, we have the keyboard controls. This is mainly to do with screen controls and general troubleshooting. To start, we have the Esc key to do a reset on the keyboard. Backspace will turn on and off the backlighting, which you may want to turn off if you are using the Vibe99 wirelessly to save on battery. Backslash will turn on and off the screen, which would also be handy for saving a minimal amount of battery life, but would defeat the purpose of having it. The Left and Right Arrow keys will iterate through screen functions, while Enter will select them. This is how you will swap to the image or GIF you put on the screen via software or change your lighting settings. These functions are quite well done.
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 top 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 MechLands. 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. A small detail is noticed is that the Alpha keys font thicknesses are quite consistent, but when it comes to the modifiers, there is some variation.
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. I should note the space bar is oddly north facing, but this should not affect any popular profile of keycaps. In regard to thickness, they are about 1.5mm thick, which is really good, being quite even across the keycap. 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 MechLands Vibe99 features their own MechLands Cream Mint switches. These switches are linear by nature, having a smooth travel from beginning to end. The Cream Mint switches have a travel of 3.6mm, being quite standard. This is a slight 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 45g for operating. These switches have a rated lifespan of 50 million keystrokes, which is quite long. The Vibe99 is also hot-swappable, meaning you can swap these at any time if they begin to fail.
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 MechLands Cream Mint switches are more than acceptable. The linear characteristic gives a very smooth travel. If you have used a standard mechanical keyboard before, it will feel quite normal aside from the early bottom out. With that said, the Cream Mint switches are good if you are looking for a long pole switch. These are also the same switches we received with our MechLands Vibe75.
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. The feet on the bottom side are average in size, doing a great job of keeping the keyboard in place. There should be no noticeable unintentional sliding. There is no cable raceway to manage cables, as the MechLands Vibe99 uses a detachable cable design. This is my personal preference, as it makes swapping between keyboards easier. The included braided 1.8m USB Type-C cable is greatly appreciated. As for the battery, we have a 4000mAh battery, which should last a plenty of time as long as you keep the LEDs off. In my testing, I found the battery life only lasted about two days with LEDs on, but just under two weeks with LEDs off. Given these results, I recommend using this keyboard wired if you plan on keeping the lights on.
After doing my thorough inspection, I put the MechLands Vibe99 to use. As these MechLands Cream Mint switches are linear in nature, I made sure to account for this in the typing test. My first observation was a nice higher pitch clack upon bottoming out 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. MechLands has provided a good use of foam 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, as these switches are pre-lubricated, making for a smoother experience. The travel distance and actuation point were both good, and I had no issues whatsoever. A sound test of the MechLands Vibe99 can be found above. I found the sound profile to be quite clacky.
I would say the MechLands Vibe99 definitely has good lighting effect potential for a keyboard with no shine through keycaps. I believe this is due to the lighter tone foam used between the PC plate and PCB. Having a partially transparent plate, combined with the brighter foam allows for light to better reflect around the keyboard. With everything put together, the keyboard quite literally glows. I appreciate how evenly distributed the lighting appears. I personally found the lighting to be fine, as I had no problem with configuring it using software or the screen. I do not think any users will have any issues in regard to lighting. Nineteen lighting variations can be toggled through by using the software I will talk about in a moment.
The software utility to control the MechLands Vibe99 is a standalone application available through MechLands’ website. It is a 7.74MB compressed ZIP file that can be extracted and installed onto your system. I should note that I did get a warning before downloading, as my system was unsure if it could trust the file or not. I did a scan of my computer and did not find anything. That being said, the application in its current state is quite unpolished with small errors here and there.
As for the functionality of the software, it does exactly what you would want it to do. All the menus can be found on the left side. These tabs allow you to set up profiles, macros, lighting effects, customize the screen, and other global settings. Interestingly, there were multiple tabs dedicated for lighting modes, as this included setting up the lighting to react to music as well as other things. I do not understand why this cannot be kept on one page, but it does help keep it tidy. You can also update the firmware of the keyboard, but I did not have to do so. Generally speaking, the software is sufficient despite feeling unfinished. Unless you have a very specific thing you want to customize such as the screen, you can get away with not installing it.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. A Closer Look - Disassembly and Internals
4. Conclusion
