Review: KiiBOOM Phantom 81 crystal mechanical keyboard

Review unit provided by KiiBOOM

The KiiBOOM Phantom 81 is a 75% mechanical keyboard that's gasket mounted and hot-swappable.

The main selling point is the transparent design with see-through keys and so called Crystal Switches. The only things not transparent are the printed circuit board (PCB), the knob at the corner and the huge back place with Kiiboom logo on it.

The other selling point is the RGB lighting which looks amazing.

The price is USD 159 and the shipping cost will vary depending on the country.

Specs

• Number of keys: 82
• Battery: 4000 mAh
• Lighting effects: 19 styles
• RGB: South facing LEDs
• Keycaps: PBT
• Anti-ghosting: NKRO anti-ghosting
• Connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0, 2.4Ghz
• Hot-swappable: Yes
• OS support: MacOS, Windows, Linux
• Size: 330 ×150 × 35mm
• Weight: 1.43kg

Things included

• Keyboard
• Huge cleaning cloth
• Switch puller
• Two spare switches
• Key cap puller
• Two spare screws
• User manual
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable

Design

My first impressive as I lift the keyboard out is "Wow, this is HEAVY!". The weight is 1.43kg.

The front part is quite thick and I'm fine with that. Some people may want to have a wrist rest in front.

The build quality is extremely solid. If your home has an intruder, this is what you should grab to protect yourself.

The transparent acrylic case is so transparent I could see through to my desk.

The keyboard is available in four colours: clear, clear black, clear yellow and clear purple. The review sample I received is the clear version.

This is clear black.

This design is eye-catching and attention grabbing. This is definitely a polarising design. Those who love the flashy look will love it and those who don't, won't.

Here's an image showing how this gasket mounted keyboard is put together.

For the function key shortcuts, you will have to refer to the user guide or from the online manual.

It will take some time to remember all the shortcuts but generally speaking, the shortcuts to change the lights are FN key together with the keys located on the outer edges, e.g. Z, X, C, V, Del, \, arrows, etc.

Pairing with Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz is straightforward. It's possible to pair the keyboard with 3 devices using Bluetooth, and you can switch between the devices (total 5) easily with the FN shortcut buttons. Wireless mode still works while keyboard is charging.

The knob looks like it's made with metal. The knob's used for adjusting the volume and while in MacOS mode, pressing the knob will launch Apple Music app.

The KiiBOOM Crystal Switches are linear-style switches and they are pre-lubbed. The keys make nice tick-tock sounds and is not too noisy and should blend together with office ambient noise. Two spare ones are included.

The customised keycaps are fully transparent and you can see through to the switches to the LED lights beneath.

Typing experience is good. The keys have good travel and feedback. The surface of the glossy keys can feel sticky when brand new but they become less sticky after hours of usage. Most keyboards I've used are matte textured so it takes some time to get use to the glossy key surface.

There's LED lighting for individual keys as well as light on the back of the keyboard to provide that under glow. The lights from the front and back can be control by function shortcuts.

There's a little slot for storing the USB-A 2.4Ghz receiver. The receiver is held in place by magnets and the magnetic strength doesn't feel that strong so be careful not to lose that receiver.

There are 19 lighting effects to choose from and you can change the direction of the light movement and speed. Certain lighting effects, such as the moving rainbow, can actually make you feel like the keys are moving physically due to optical illusion.

The lights are really bright. There's no information on battery life from the company other than the 4000 mAh battery capacity. To check the battery life, you can hit FN + \ and the keyboard will light up showing how many % battery life is left.

Driver

There are Windows and MacOS drivers included for shortcut customisation.

The categories on the left are

• Main - Customising keyboard shortcuts and assigning macros
• Lighting - Customise the LED light effects
• Macro - Create your own macros
• Share - Find macros created by others
• Personal
• Support

The default function key shortcuts can be customised.

Under Lighting, you can choose from the 19 lighting effects, direction, brightness and speed of the effects.

You can also program macros as function key shortcuts. Programming the macros is intimidating and will take some time to learn, but this can make improve your productivity if you have sequences of keyboard shortcuts that you need to use often.

This driver looks very similar to the one from the Epomaker RT100 that I have received and tested extensively with the macro programming and that works fine. I did not test the macro programming for this KiiBOOM driver though since it I don't really use macros.

Glitch

The only one I discovered is when in MacOS mode, the Ctrl + ] and Ctrl + [ keyboard shortcuts to trim video in Final Cut Pro do not work.

Conclusion

I'm not sure if the design of this keyboard is unique but it certainly looks unique to me. If you use this in your office with the RGB lights on, people will see you from across the far end of the office. The build quality of this keyboard is so solid. Typing experience is satisfying. And if you like this design, go for it.

Availability

You can buy the KiiBOOM Phantom 81 keyboard from the KiiBOOM online store and from Amazon (US | CA | DE | FR)