NuPhy’s Air96 Brings Type and Performance to Any Setup | Digital Noch

NuPhy’s Air96 could possibly be the one and solely mechanical keyboard you will want for work and play, wherever you do these issues. Its low-profile design makes it tremendous straightforward to pack away, and its sturdy aluminum body offers you peace of thoughts understanding it may survive a bumpy morning commute. This keyboard’s minimalistic design suits in all places out of your work-from-home setup to your workplace desk to a restaurant desk with a pill. 

The mannequin I examined got here with NuPhy’s Aloe linear switches that present a easy typing expertise paired with NuPhy’s Ionic White keycaps. I swapped the unique keycaps with the corporate’s shine-through keycaps to extend the visibility of the letters in low gentle; they had been arduous to see at occasions when gaming at evening. This additionally created a pleasant distinction between the white base and black keycaps and grabbed the eye of quite a lot of individuals who noticed it and requested in regards to the keyboard with curiosity. 

NuPhy presents a variety of different keycap units that I can see including a contact of colour whereas sustaining its easy aesthetic. The keyboard’s switches are hot-swappable, too, and NuPhy has quite a lot of swap choices to combine and match with the keycaps to customise the Air96 to your liking.

However in case you are seeking to customise this keyboard with different keycaps, that is the place issues get difficult. Technically, the keyboard is appropriate with any keycap that makes use of a cherry stem, however it is a low-profile keyboard, which is why it is so travel-friendly, and relying on the profile and peak of the keycaps you select, they may not be capable to press the important thing down far sufficient for the keystroke to register. 

In relation to switches, the identical low-profile hitch applies, and your choices get even slimmer with solely NuPhy’s collection of their very own 4 switches, eight from Gateron and one other six from Kailh. That is a good quantity, however nonetheless extra limiting than full-height swap choices. Just like normal switches, although, the slim collection of low-profile switches vary from $26 to $54 to finish the 100-key Air96. Proper now low-profile mechanical keyboards aren’t as in style — or plentiful — as standard-profile mechanical keyboards, so the variability in them continues to be very restricted.

The keyboard is wi-fi by way of Bluetooth or 2.4GHz with the included USB dongle, and is powered by a 4,000mAh battery. It is sufficiently big that you will sort a very long time between prices. Once you’re not actively utilizing it, the Air96 disconnects after a couple of minutes of no use and reconnects rapidly to mean you can resume no matter you are doing. 

I primarily used it wirelessly by way of Bluetooth for work, however it may be used wired with the supplied USB-C-to-USB-A braided cable. Connecting wirelessly and switching from my MacBook for work to my Home windows pc for gaming was straightforward with a key command and a flick of a swap.

One of the satisfying options of the Air96 is its devoted MacOS shortcut keys. Most mechanical keyboards supply solely a swappable Home windows and Command key, so having devoted keys like a screenshot and Launchpad key helped improve productiveness. Certain you possibly can customise macros with Nuphy’s Console software program, however right here it is already given to you. 

For $120, the Air96 is effectively value it for its sturdy, low-profile design, battery life and options which can be usually discovered in lots of different full-sized mechanical keyboards that begin at $200.