Review: YUNZII AL66 CNC aluminium wireless mechanical keyboard

Review sample provided by YUNZII

Yunzii is a company that sells computer accessories and is known for their keyboards. The Yunzii AL66 is a 66-key wireless mechanical keyboard released in late 2023. The price is USD 95 which includes free standard shipping.

Bottom line: This beautiful gasket mounted keyboard is made with CNC machined aluminium and has excellent build quality. My review unit came with Yunzii Milk linear switches and the typing sounds great (not hollow) and typing experience is excellent. This is a 66-key layout so the downside and limitations are from the layout. You'll have to use the Fn key to get the F1 to F12 function keys or media control keys. There's no right Command (Mac) or Control (Win) buttons. Battery life from the 4600 mAh battery is good.

For people who are just typing, It's a great keyboard. As I use graphic design software, I actually need the F1 - F12 and right Control & Command keys so this keyboard isn't really suited for my type of work.

Specs

• Layout: 65% Layout, 66-Key and 1 knob
• RGB: South facing RGB and side lights
• Color choices: White, black, pink, blue
• Switch choices: YUNZII Milk Linear
• Structure: Gasket mounted
• Battery: 4600mAh
• Connection: Wired Type-C/Bluetooth/2.4G Wireless
• Size of product: 322 x 113 x 42mm
• Weight: 1.145kg
• Keycaps: Dye sublimation PBT cherry profile keycaps
• Plate: Slotted PC Plate
• Appearance process: Anodic oxidation
• Production process: CNC aluminum
• Hot swappable: Yes
• NKRO: Yes

Things included

• Keyboard
• User guide
• Extra MacOS Command (2x) and Option (2x) keycaps
• Two extra switches
• Keycap and switch puller
• USB-A to USB-C cable

The PDF user manual is also available for download and has all the keyboard shortcuts listed.

Design

One of the main selling points of this keyboard is the compact size since there are only 66 keys. There are no function keys and no numpad.

This keyboard is smaller than the 70-key Epomaker Shadow X (USD 86) that I reviewed recently. The Epomaker has right Cmd/Alt and Ctrl keys.

There are lights from the sides as well. The body is made with CNC machined aluminium and the build quality is excellent. This keyboard weighs 1.145kg and is considered heavy for a keyboard this size, and it's okay because it will sit on the table and not move. I love the matte textured on the surface.

The back has four rubber feet with good grip. There are eight screws to open the body but I'm not sure what's the screw type needed because the shape looks circular.

The keyboard is gasket mounted and hot swappable.

The keyboard supports 3 Bluetooth, 2.4Hz and cable connection. You can switch between the wireless connection using the Fn + Q, W, E or R keys.

This keyboard is available in silver, black, pink and blue. Mine's the black and it looks even better than the product photos. The keycaps are dye sublimation PBT cherry profile keycaps. The legends are not transparent so the RGB lights do not go through. The keycaps have the same nice matte textured surface as the body.

There's a knob for changing lighting effects and brightness. The knob is supposed to be able to adjust volume but how you can do it is not listed in the manual.

There's only the choice of Yunzii Milk linear switches for the keyboard and these switches feel really good. The tic toc typing sound is dampened and pleasing. Typing sound is not that loud and hence this keyboard can be used in an office environment.

The RGB light looks beautiful. The colours blend well beneath the keycaps.

Driver

Windows driver is available but not for MacOS.

The driver can be used to map keys and change key functionality.

Macros can be programmed.

There are 14 lighting effects to choose from. You can also choose and change lighting effects, brightness and speed using the keyboard shortcuts.

There's the option to have the lights react to audio signals and there are a few effects you can choose from. Enabling this feature will disable the basic lighting effects.

I didn't really test the driver that much. If I want to program macros or remap keys, I will personally with a keyboard with more keys, eg function keys.

Conclusion

This is a beautiful compact well made keyboard with wonderful typing experience. The only thing that I wasn't really able to test conclusively is the battery life. Battery life seems fine as in I did not notice excessive drain. Battery capacity of 4600 mAh is typical of wireless mechanical keyboards.

As to whether it's worth USD 95, you can decide.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Solid build quality
+ Wonderful typing experience
+ Gasket mount foam dampens typing sound well
+ Beautiful RGB keyboard lighting
+ Numerous lighting options to choose from
+ Has Bluetooth, cable, 2.4Ghz connection
+ Bluetooth pairing to three devices
+ Windows and Mac compatibility
- Height not adjustable
- No Mac driver
- No Right Cmd and Ctrl keys

Availability

You can find the Yunzii AL66 from Yunzii online store

#yunziikeyboard