MobiK Review V1

GoN MobiK

Review by GL1TCH3D

Review date is December 29th, 2014

Info:
This came built/assembled by GoN
This has the modded GoN ergo mx clears with the lubed cherry stabilizers.
He uses his personal mixture of lubes and the 55g korean springs.
The keyboard is a 40% layout that he designed to be able to fit more standard keycap sets.
There are options for Bluetooth connectivity that you can purchase.
For backlighting there's the side lighting as well as in switch or on pcb lighting. (I got on pcb in case I want to swap out the keys later which I doubt I'll do but will make it easier for that if I decide to).
The keyboard without keycaps or the cable weighs in at about 230g.
It's under 30x10x5cm including the feet and DSA keycaps.
The Mobik's battery while connected to my phone lasted over 24 hours of intermittent use.

Part 1,
Aesthetics and Portability

Why am I reviewing aesthetics for a keyboard? Well considering this is a MobiK (Short for mobile keyboard) I assume you'll be taking it outside like myself! 40% is a lot less effective than 60% or MXMINI since you're forced to move a lot of essentials to other layers. The best thing about it is the insanely small size and the fact that you can impress people being able to type better on a smaller keyboard. (That last part is a joke)
But for portability the smaller size could be highly valued for some people like myself.

What sets this apart from the other keyboards in the 40% group is that GoN is really the only custom Korean board makers that implements Bluetooth into the boards and for a portable keyboard that can make a large difference to some people. Obviously for a desktop that really won't matter as you'll have yourself a nice fancy USB cable but on my tablet with a single USB port that Bluetooth connectivity can really come in handy to keep typing away while inserting USB drives and whatnot (the tablet hasn't had much success using non-powered USB hubs).

It's also really one of two more readily available 40% boards (the other one that I consider readily available is the JD40 which I also owned with ergo clears). 40% really isn't for everyone since it involves using Fn layers even for something basic like numbers but allows for some fun use of the keyboard as well in this respect.

I'll discuss the build of the MobiK in a later section.

On to actual criticisms. The switch stickers were basically all perfectly aligned with no keys misaligned (the switch sticker comment is more in respect to the crystal TKL form GoN which I mentioned in my review that some of the stickers were a bit off).

The keys were perfectly aligned (I mean I'd hope so at this price right?).

The case is really clean and simple. What really struck me most is the way the lines curve around the bolts.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/Qluc56q.jpg[/img]

I thought it was a really nice touch and added some nice aesthetics to it. The curving around doesn't stick out around the corners and it's less than half a millimeter out in the front and back side. Not enough to be a problem for anything really. It won't catch and get in the way.

As for the LEDs, it should be noted that the LEDs only function over USB and not over bluetooth. Pretty sure GoN set this so that you don't drain your entire battery in 15 seconds but I never really asked him about it. The LED lighting is really nice with the crystal casing (light diffusing acrylic) giving off a really nice even lighting for the side lightning (the pictures don't do it justice. It's a lot deeper blue in person and much more vibrant than my computer can seem to reproduce). With the on pcb lighting it makes a really nice transition effect between the vibrant blue to the top side white lighting.

No faults there, the lighting is extremely even, transitions well and is very colorful and vibrant.

The biggest fault that I have with the aesthetics of the board is really in the feet being rubber feet. I realize that rubber will slip a lot less but maybe a low profile acrylic with rubber tipped foot for the back could have been nice.

For portability there's really no fault. It's lightweight with Bluetooth and fairly sturdy but if the loud clicking pisses someone off they could probably snap this in half over their knee.

I owned the JD40 with the custom full stainless steel case that's been going around and that was ridiculously heavy (weighing in at well over 1kg). It also didn't support Bluetooth and was not as low profile even with the DSA Granite set. The skeleton case would have been a lot lighter and maybe a touch lower profile but everything is left out in the open for dust and whatnot which can pose an issue while using it as a mobile keyboard. I doubt you can find a mechanical keyboard that's more portable than the MobiK.

Portability is a solid 10/10
Aesthetics will be a solid 9.75/10
Honestly with the feet a transparent rubber/plastic the side lighting bleeds through it and make sit glow so it's really not that bad and is just more nitpicking than a flaw.

Part 2,
The Build

This section will cover the actual construction of the keyboard.

The first thing that I'd like to address is the flimsiness of the keyboard. Anybody that read the review I posted on the TKL will probably remember that there was significant bend in the case that people with heavier hands would easily notice the keyboard bending especially in the middle while typing. I have really light hands when I type so I never experienced this issue myself and my light typing is also one of the reasons I bought the Realforce 89s a few years back. GoN mentioned that the bending was intentional because some people apparently want that in their board. Bending isn't for me but it wasn't an issue with how lightly I type.

But in regards to the MobiK, there's so little bend when putting pressure on the middle of the keyboard due to it being much smaller. And to be realistic, that's while putting a significant amount of pressure right on the middle of the board. Using a single finger to push down on the board it doesn't bend.

The switches feel identical as if they all came out of the same factory. There's absolutely no issue with the switches for me and they feel phenomenal. I'm really sensitive to having switches that are different weights and that includes stabilizers adding resistance so for me it's really important for the modded switches to be realistically identical and they are in this board. The stabilizers don't even feel like they're there for the smaller modifiers though it's noticeable for the spacebar stabilizer that there's more resistance (not an issue since it's a thumb press. It really becomes an issue for me when I have costar stabilizers in my backspace key).

I'll be knocking off the points for the feet in this section that I mentioned before. With other Korean customs the feet usually match the board (including the GoN MXMini that's also sitting on my desk as I type out this review).

The anodized bolts fall nicely in the casing and don't stick out.

Overall built quality is 9.25/10 when accounting for the rubber feet.


Part 3

Usability

This section covers usability choices of the MobiK

What is usability?
This refers to the actual nuances and whatnot that make up the actual use of the keyboard and not just visual or physical properties. This includes the software changes and whatnot.

The Nerdy GUI is really easy and simple to use. Though do remember that even if you set the LEDs to function while connected to Bluetooth and on battery, it won't work. The GUI is really fast to use as well when making adjustments to the keyboard. No need to draw up a layout like for the JD40 then use the teensy tool to flash it on. It's a much more streamlined process on the MobiK using the Nerd GUI.

Please note that the GUI is made for Windows use and while there's a tool made for other systems I've never used that tool and I don't think it's as nicely made, though, at least it's there.

The documentation for the tools can be a bit lacking for some aspects but GoN does run a help thread in his subforum where you can ask him questions and he generally replies very quickly.

The acrylic plate does not have the cutouts for the on plate modding without the need to desolder the switches. Since this only comes as a build it yourself kit at the moment the lack of such a plate might be really annoying for someone looking to mod their keyboard a lot (specifically the switches). The lack of the cutouts however makes the keyboard look cleaner so it's not an issue for me but something that I feel should be mentioned. I don't think any of GoN's boards have the cutouts in them but I'll verify that with him.

The last thing to mention is referring to the layout.

I find the layout of the MobiK more comfortable than the JD40. It's a bit longer than the JD40 to accommodate more normal modifiers. The spacebar and the caps lock is off centered so depending on the keyset it won't fit (the Christmas keyset I received couldn't fit on the keyboard). Also since I wanted to copy the HHKB layout more or less it would have been nice to put a regular sized cap in that place instead of the stepped caps lock key but honestly it hasn't been an issue for me while using it as the ctrl key.

Usability is a solid 10/10 but really keep in mind that I believe it's easiest to mod the layout using the tool on Windows. The off centered caps and spacebar have no impact on me and most modern sets have spacebars that fit both and come with stepped caps lock.

Part 4

The Finale.

This places the overall score at 39/40 which averages out to...

9.75/10

Amazing keyboard. Unique due to the size, layout and functionality as a mobile keyboard.
Besides the feet there's nothing that I would change about this keyboard.