HUO JI E-Yooso Z-88 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard USB Wired, Programmable RGB Backlit, Brown Switch, Metal Panel, 104 Keys for Windows, Mac, PC, Silver and White

I have been using this keyboard for a couple of weeks now and yeah, I love this keyboard. I just love it. First of all, I have come to a general conclusion about mechanical keyboards and that is "gaming brands are over-priced". If they provided the quality worth they money, I wouldn't mind paying some extra bucks for the quality but the problem is it's honestly hard to find decent quality from some of the biggest gaming brands. I'm not sure if I am allowed to name brands so I just won't not get my review banned.:) I haven't tried hundreds of mechanical keyboards but I have tried enough to be sure about my conclusion. I just want to say that I bought a mechanical keyboard from one of the top 5 gaming brands in the world and it was almost in every way inferior to this keyboard. So, I'm really happy that I returned that one and got this master piece. I'll start with some negative sides of this keyboard because there aren't that many---------------------- -Appearance: this keyboard, without the lights off is kind of boring, especially the black (which I have). There are small things like the silver line all around the keyboard which I really don't like and it would have been so much better without it. *The white looks really beautiful but my laptop, mouse and everything is black so I needed a black keyboard. -Software: there is no software so there is no macro recording whatsoever, at least not yet which is definitely acceptable for this price and such a physically great keyboard with so many features. *I'm really thinking to find other downsides. -the RGB profiles reset every time you unplug the keyboard. This is going be totally fine if you have a PC but I use this keyboard with my laptop and I unplug it almost every day and I decided to let go of making my own custom lighting effect which is really not a big deal for me. That's it, I really can't think of anything else. Now, let's talk about what this bad boy has to offer ++++++++++++++++++++++ +Price: It's just so stupid cheap for such good quality and all the features. Do not waste your money on gaming brands. +keycaps: The keycaps feel really decent. I have tried better keycaps but honestly the ones on this keyboard feel 8.5 or 9 out of 10. They don’ feel cheap or too thin at all. You can guess how they should feel like by looking at the picture of the numpad I have included. +Switches: they just feel great. I can’t see why one should pay more for Cherry MX switches. Maybe they would last longer but for this price, it’s again totally fine. +Hot Swappable switches (it means you can change the switches without having to desolder them from the board.) this is important because 1. You can change the switches to other varieties 2. If a switch dies, you can change it instantly without having to take it to a service provider. +Extra Switches: there are five extra switches included in the package. +Switch and key puller: there is a switch puller and a key puller in the package as well. However, be very careful while using the key puller because it is not the best. (make sure it has gripped both sides of the key before even trying to pull up) +Detachable cable: at this price, this is the only full-size keyboard that I found that has a detachable keyboard. +You can change the lighting effect without any software. While having a software is great, I think it is really convenient to be able to change RGB effects without having to use a software (that doesn’t exist). +build: this keyboard is really sturdy. It’s not too heavy or anything. It’s just perfect. +water proof???: this is the only thing I am really not sure is true or not. There are drain holes on the bottom of the board where the water is supposed to leave but I’m not convinced if this keyboard is really water proof/water resistant. +RGB effects: There are so many cool effects. The colors could have been chosen a bit more wisely but it’s really more than enough. That’s it! what else do you want? If you want something better, of course there are better ones but to get anything even close to this, you need to spend at least 50 USD more. That means one more Huo Ji keybaord. :D So, I really think if your budget is anything bellow 150, you should only get this keyboard. Trust me, I have looked really hard. If you want anything better, try to look at really really high-end brands. Honestly, I think there is only one situation where this keyboard might not be for you: You NEED a software for macro. But really, do you?

Best keyboard for the price. I do not understand why people spend $100+ for keyboards when this one has all of the features those have, and more! This keyboard is the most reliable keyboard out there due to it's ease of maintainence. Let me preface this by saying that I have ruined nice keyboards before by spilling some nasty, sugary drink on them before. I had the misfortune of having an accident with this keyboard before as well. However, a great feature that I fell ALL keyboards should include, ESPECIALLY if they are charging $100+ is FULLY REMOVABLE KEY SWITCHES! Most mechanical keyboards have the switches that are soldered to the main board. Which means when a liquid is spilled on the keyboard, there is no way of removing the dirt or replacing dead keyswitches. You are forced to live with a partially functioning keyboard that smells and has an ant colony living in it (I know, it happened to me before. It was GROSS) or you have to throw that expensive fancy keyboard in the trash. This keyboard allows for the removal of the key switches which means that every single component can be cleaned and repaired/replaced, including the main board itself! An added bonus to the removable switches is the fact that they can be swapped in for any other type of key switch made from other brands. You are not stuck with the Otemu Blue switches included with the keyboard in case you want to try out other styles(They are however very quality switches which are rated for long term use and are better feeling than Cherry MX Blue switches in my opinion). Another quality feature is the fact that the cable can be removed from the keyboard. The cord that comes with the keyboard is decent in quality and length, but it can be swapped out for a high quality Micro-USB cable you use to charge your phone with if desired. Build quality is also another very notable attribute of this keyboard. For $50 one would expect the build quality to be rather cheap, however, this is not the case. The back plate itself is made of aluminum, which gives the keyboard a quality look and feel. However, while the back plate may be made of aluminum, the body of the keyboard is made of plastic. I would have preferred if the housing was aluminum as well, however that would likely be much more expensive to manufacture and this keyboard would no longer cost $50 The plastic itself however seems to be a rather sturdy and thick type of plastic that preserves rigidity while conserving weight, unlike an all aluminum housing. Rubber feet were placed on the bottom of the keyboard which helps with stabilization and prevents the keyboard from moving when typing. It also includes small stands that fold out which also have rubber on the bottom to prevent movement. While these stands are reliable, they seem loose and tend to fold back into the keyboard when the unit is pushed with a decent force. The RGB lighting itself is very beautiful and can be toggled to 10 different lighting modes, Brightness and speed. The lighting is not the best on the market however due to the color being limited 7 different colors, as opposed to others which can display the full color spectrum. While this may be a bother to some, I am completely satisfied with the lighting as it still looks great. One gripe I had with this keyboard was the fact that the cord can be unplugged rather easily, leading to accidentally unplugging your motherboard. However, I remedied this be fitting the wire through the included grooves at the bottom of the keyboard. Very nice feature. Also included in the box is a small bag containing 5 new key switches, a keycap and keyswitch removal tools. Very nice touch!!! Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this keyboard to anyone looking for a high quality keyboard for a very reasonable price. While I bought this keyboard with the intention of using it for gaming, being a college student who has to type many papers, this keyboard is parsecs ahead of normal membrane dome keyboards or laptop chiclet keyboards and is pleasant to type on due to its mechanical nature.

This keyboard is amazing. The blue switch keys make it comfortable and have that clicky sound all gamers love. On top of that, the RGB shines brighy and looks great. I used this keyboard for months and loved it, but what makes it even better is the customer service from this seller. While gaming, I spilled a drink on my keyboard (clumsy, I know), and the keyboard stopped working for a bit (after it had time to dry out, it started working again). I immediately emailed them, explained the situation and how I knew it was entirely my fault, and they responded quickly and sent me a new keyboard! Both of the keyboards I had from them were amazing, and the customer service was unbelievably great. Also, the keyboards come with a key puller and spare blue switches (which I found out after getting my second one since they're kinda hidden under a cardboard flap in the box). Overall, this keyboard is amazing! Great price, great RGB, responsive, and amazing feel. On top of that, the customer service is some of the best I've ever seen!

I just got my keyboard a couple of days ago. And I gotta say, I was definitely taken in by the flashy colors. If I had to get a keyboard again, I would probably go with a more basic mechanical keyboard with quieter switches and either very basic white LED backlighting, or none at all. (Turns out you don't actually stare at your keyboard when using your computer) The Outemu blue switches are loud, and after just 2 days, I'm looking into how much it would be to replace my switches with cherry browns or reds (looks like it would be close to the price of the keyboard itself...) And the cord is a little bit thicker than I'd like. It's just a little stiff and doesn't go behind my desk without putting up a little fight. That said, I think this is a very good keyboard. I do really like the clickiness of the buttons with the blue switches (and I think brown switches keep that while not making as much noise), and I am enjoying the color settings, it's just kind of gimmicky. The overall quality of the keyboard seems pretty impressive. It's sturdy, has a nice heavy feel, and takes up SO MUCH LESS SPACE than my previous keyboard (though that's to be expected when you cut a wrist rest and like 12 macro buttons). I'm also really happy with the keycaps themselves; because this is an RGB keyboard, for the lights to shine through on the keys, the letters are not printed on the keys, but actually part of the key. That means I won't be rubbing them off after repeated use (managed to wipe away the w, z, x, n, k, and tab keys on my last keyboard). My suggestion: look at the Velocifire VM01 keyboard. It's $40, still back-lit (though not RGB, it's all 1 solid color, and seriously, that's fine.), and that one has brown switches (quieter, still tactile, my honest preference here). The cord on that one seems kind of rigid too, and doesn't come out the middle, but offset in the back, so watch that. If you don't need the number pad, or you just prefer a tenkeyless board, the Velocifire TK01 is the one for you, and it's $30, 10 less than the bigger one, and just above half the price of this one. I don't regret buying this keyboard, but a little more research and I probably would've gone with the VM01. It's the switches, man.

I am really impressed with this keyboard. This is my 4th mechanical keyboard. It's replacing a Corsair K70 keyboard with cherry red switches that my dog spilled coffee on. I also have a Ducky keyboard with cherry brown switches that still works, mostly. I also have a still working smallish Corsair keyboard with cherry blue switches. So I have experience with cherry brown, red and blue switches. The Outemu brown switches that come on the motherboard are very comparable to the cherry brown I have on my ducky keyboard. They do seem to require a bit more activation force but I don't have anything readily available to measure the force so that's my subjective opinion. The two things I really miss on my corsair keyboard are a pass-through USB as well as a dedicated volume control. Of course, the Corsair cost more than $100 more than this keyboard, and the extras provided don't necessarily justify the cost. Things I like about this keyboard: 1. It is relatively inexpensive. 2. Replaceable switches. If I want to go for some Gateron black switches with clear tops, it's easy to swap them out. If my dog spills coffee on my keyboard again, maybe I can just replace a few switches. 3. Programmable keyboard lights. I have my keyboard with mostly red lighted keys with amber colored WASD and arrow keys. 4. Removable USB cable. 5. USB cable management. 6. Slightly heavier switch activation pressure. A lot of folks will see this as a negative, however, the cherry MX reds on my corsair would sometimes engage with my fingers just resting on the keyboard. Things I don't like: 1. Build quality is not perfect. There are some rough edges around the sides of the keyboard where the top mounts to the bottom of the casing. 2. Plastic deck. My corsair has an aluminum deck that feels more sturdy than my Z-88. 3. No USB pass-through. 4. USB cable is not braided. 5. Not water resistant. Despite what is said in the description of this product, this keyboard is not waterproof. If you go to Corsair's site and look at their K68 keyboard when they show the graphic of the switches you can see that the keyboard is covered in some kind of plastic or rubber film that makes it water resistant. You will find no such film on the Z-88. 4 drain holes in the bottom of the keyboard is not going to make your keyboard waterproof. I did a search to see if I could find a video of someone testing this keyboards claim of being water resistant and could not find one. 6. Lack of dedicated volume control. Despite the properties of this keyboard I see as negative, I think it's probably the best keyboard you can get for this kind of money. When I'm looking at my screen and typing, it feels as good as any of my other mechanical keyboards, most of which cost more than double the price of this keyboard.I would definitely purchase this keyboard again and easily recommend it to my friends.

Unnecessary update: I found out how to make the leds orange on this keyboard! I was pretty disappointed that orange wasn't a color you can select, but today I stumbled on a way to do it. You can't have it solid, or as a selected color for custom combos, but you can have it. *Cycle through the lighting effects until you reach the single color wave mode. *Pick yellow as your color. *Turn the brightness all the way down. Boom, orange! (Looks great with grey keycaps.) For some reason orange only appears in this mode, using yellow in any other mode is still yellow at the lowest brightness setting. ---Real review--- I picked up this board because I was tired of the ultra loud blue switches on my other mech. The brown switches on this are simply amazing. They're quite and smooth, and after removing the caps I noticed that they were also already lubed. A+++. I may get a set of o-rings for it to make it even more quiet than it already is. I've only been using it for a day and I'm already highly impressed with these switches. There's almost no negative aspects to this board. It's cheap, and appears to be of high build quality. Hot swap switches are a huge plus, and it comes with five replacement switches. I'll admit I wasn't a fan of the caps that came with it, hence the replaced keys in the pictures (crystal acrylic round caps and pudding caps, both can be found on this site). The only real negative thing I can think of is the lighting. Being completely based on the board with no software, you're fairly limited on what you can do with it. It has plenty of modes already on it, and you can also customize it per key, but that's a downside as well. While it does have true RGB, you don't have full control over the colors. You're limited to a set amount of pre-programmed colors, with no option to blend your own together. The other downside is how you select the colors per-key, you have to manually cycle through the colors on each key. A bit of a pain, but honestly it isn't that bad. Oh, I'd recommend not using the keycap puller that comes with the board. It's fairly low quality and can quite easily scratch your caps. Edit for a potential con: This keyboard ships in what amounts to a retail box, with zero padding other than a single layer bubble wrap sleeve over the keyboard inside the box. No foam, zero protection to speak of. This is something that needs to be addressed, as even the slightest amount of mishandling from shipping could severely damage the keyboard. *Fixed typos*

After my Corsair K70 finally died, I needed something new but cheap, and with Blue switches. Since most keyboards with MAX Cherry switches are usually $100 plus, I found this. So first off, I want to say this arrived semi-broken. Edge of the keyboard is bent up and the Num-Pad key for 9 and - aren't working. I'll try replacing the switch and update review after that. But as for the keyboard itself, I think I can safely say I love this more than my old K70. The keycaps feel nice and not cheap, the switches sound and feel incredible. Better than Cherry, I like to think. And the build quality, aside from the bent edge at the corner, is solid and feels sturdier than my old K70. The LEDs are also beautiful. Clear, bright, and the customization options are quite nice. Would like to do custom profiles like certain bigger brands allow, but it's nice as is. Overall, I'm very happy with this keyboard, but I did have to take off a star for the broken keys and bent corner. Edit: After posting this review, the keys starting working. So only problem now is the bent corned.

Overall it's a decent keyboard that is fine out of the box for the price. It is not however, hot swap friendly to other switches or even the ones that came with. I guess in theory it's possible but It's the most unfriendly keyboard that makes that claim I've ever tried to put switches into or take them out of for that matter. To start with it, it was very difficult to try to pull a switch out. At first I thought it was not actually swappable, and that they were soldered and glued into place but once I forced and wiggled it enough it eventually popped out. I'm sure I looks like the sword in the stone trying to pull that thing out. Then I attempted to put a 5-pin in realizing pretty quickly that it was not friendly to 5 pin switches. No problem... I went and got another alternative to switch that I compared the ones that came with against and they looked almost identical. I tried every single angle to put those pins into place properly and pop that switch in but it just refused and the keyboard just wouldn't take it for some reason. After several minutes of trying I thought I got it in but then It turned out I had just bent the switch pins until it felt like they we're actually in place. I was sad but the one it had in beforehand which slid in just fine. Then I got curious and pulled out another which was again as difficult as the first, And then couldn't understand why I still couldn't get the switches that it had came with as spares to pop into place. Keep in mind I'm a total Keyboard nerd constantly swapping switches in and out of them daily. I tried for an hour probably over several attempts to try to switch out just one, And I had broken the one that I had pulled out the second time because of how much force it took and just wanted the replacement to actually slip into place which eventually after a miracle it happened. I was completely ecstatic before realizing that I had just spent an hour and a half to put a switch that it had come with into a place where one had broken from trying to pull it out based on the fact that it said it was hot swappable. Honestly would have been easier to just resolder the whole thing myself than it would be trying to switch out the allegedly "hot swappable" switches. There's no way I was going to try another one and just decided to live with it the way it is out of the box. That being said there's nothing wrong with it and I don't mind using it as far as a typing experience but I will say that the white switches are not necessarily probably as quiet as they advertise. I like noisy keyboards though so it wasn't a problem for me and it still mostly quiet but definitely not silent. It's pretty durable for the price and the materials aren't bad at all. Decent mated and I don't see any connectivity or software issues when I'm using it. It's wired which isn't my favorite but also cheaper for that reason. I do recommend those who want something like this right out of the box without any intention to change out the switches but if you have even the slightest curiosity to do so, be brave and ready for what you're about to get yourself into. To reiterate difficult to pull out the switch... only works with two pin not five... Nearly impossible to put one that wasn't already in it back in place. Good luck lol. The lighting does look great and I enjoy the aesthetic of it as well and this white switches are decent. It would have gotten four stars if they hadn't claimed that it was hot swappable which in my opinion it's just frankly not even though technically I suppose it is in theory possible.