If you told me last year that my fancy and expensive rapid trigger gaming keyboard would be replaced by a retro-style (and significantly cheaper) wireless board from 8BitDo, I'd be surprised. And yet, the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard has been the pride of my desk space ever since the moment it arrived.
If you want to pick one up for yourself, it has just dropped down to $78 at Amazon, its lowest ever price.
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I should clarify that the N edition on sale is actually slightly different to the one I use every day. Mine is the C64-themed keyboard, which feels and sounds very similar, except the C64 version has highly curved keycaps (to mimic the Commodore 64), and it comes with a Super Stick.
Effectively, both keyboards come with Super Buttons, which plug into the keyboard and can be reprogrammed to perform a manual action. In my case, the left one starts and stops recording, and the right one takes a video of the last thirty seconds of whatever game I've been playing.
The Super Stick, however, gives you access to four more controls via a joystick. For the most part, I haven't really used this, and I'd pick the N edition for its aesthetic anyway.
It's always lucky when the cheaper of two options is the one I'd pick regardless.
The 8BitDo Retro is a neat keyboard in more than just its aesthetic. The switches are hot swappable, it comes with great sounding keys, has hundreds of hours of battery life from a single charge, and it's wireless, both via Bluetooth and a 2.4 GHz connector that can snugly fit into the back of the keyboard when not in use.
I did find, in my time with the 8BitDo Retro, that the keys are very loud. The loudest I've used in a gaming keyboard in the last year, at least. As well as this, 8BitDo's software is mediocre at best. Customizing keys via the software is a bit more complicated than I would like. Luckily, you don't actually need to touch it at all once set up and ready to go.
It's become my daily driver, partly down to how pretty it looks on a desk but also how reliable it is to use and how handy its little extra functions are.
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1. Best overall:
Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless
2. Best budget:
Gamakay x Naughshark NS68
3. Best mid-range:
Ducky Zero 6108
4. Best rapid trigger:
Wooting 80HE
5. Best wireless rapid trigger:
Keychron K2 HE
6. Best silent:
Be Quiet! Light Mount
7. Best tenkeyless:
Keychron Q3 Max
8. Best low profile:
NuPhy Air60 HE
9. Best ergonomic:
Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB
10. Best membrane:
Roccat Magma
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