TL;DR: AMAZING Alice keyboard for the price! Even with barebones it comes with clip-in stabs! I've been looking for a wireless Alice layout keyboard and I don't have to search anymore after this one.
Full Review!
I'm a huge fan of Alice layout keyboards so I'm biased, however, I love this specific layout because it has the 3 side buttons on the left and arrow keys on the right. The arrow keys also do not split up the shift because I don't like it when the right shift is to the right of the up arrow.
As for the keyboard itself, it's great!
- Simple to just pop in switches and keycaps. Because of the foam on the pcb, you can't see the holes, but the switch will fit snug before you press it in. The switches will be south-facing.
- I use this on the 2.4g wireless setting and wired when charging and it's great. I don't use bluetooth since my PC doesn't have a wifi card.
- It's also easy to configure it on VIA which is great. It has layers, macros, rgb control, etc. You might need to get the via json file to get VIA to work like I did. You can find it here: https://epomaker.com/blogs/qmk-via/cidoo-abm066-via-usb-json-file
- I think the battery life is pretty good for having some rgb lights on. I can go for at least a week of constant use before I have to charge it.
- The auto-sleep on this keyboard is amazing and definitely saves on battery life.
*** Below is if you're interested in opening and customizing your keyboard. If you don't, then you can ignore the rest.
My only critique is customizing the keyboard, but I still give it 5 stars because this keyboard doesn't need to be customized.
- Opening it is incredibly hard. You have to pry it open since the top case uses clips to attach to the bottom case. The only way I figured it out is turn it over and start where the space bars are, then work where the on/off switch is, then either short side. I've opened this about 5 times and none of the clips have broken (miracle). I definitely recommend having some plastic jimmys to do this.
- Removing the ribbon cable from the daughter board was really difficult. At first I just unscrewed the daughterboard, but then I tried disconnecting the ribbon cable very carefully and it did come off. It was very stressful though so I recommend just unscrewing the daughterboard.
- The PCB has this weird plastic on it that I ripped off because I didn't like it.
- Screw in stabilizers are NOT possible other than the Backspace key. Usually, the backspace stabilizer is the only one reversed, but ALL stabilizer holes are the same orientation as backspace. With how the plate works, any screw in stabs other than backspace will not work properly. Maybe it was just mine, but this is still worth a mention.
- You can put some kind of foam under the pcb to dampen the sound. I personally use poly fill (stuffing for stuffed toys) and made it sound less hollow.
- I lubed and Holee modded the clip-in stabs it comes with and they're pretty good! Not bad for a $60 keyboard.
