I’ve always been wondering – what’s the purpose of opting for a much more expensive keyboard when there are other lower-priced ones, yet they’re in the same family of keyboards? The answer is not only because of the aesthetics, but also for comfort. Comfort leads to a more pleasurable typing, and for me who uses the keyboard every minute, it leads to less frustration. This is the Ducky One with PBT Dye-Sub keycaps, also known as the DKON1508 – which is a full-sized Ducky One mechanical keyboard, but this time instead of using ABS doubleshot keycaps, Ducky opted included PBT Dye-Sub keycaps by default. The name is a mouthful, so let’s just call it the DKON1508. In many cases, the DKON1508 will be exactly the same as the Ducky One TKL, which we reviewed here.
The DKON1508 comes with a rather interesting twist to the big logo printed at the front – with a black and silver Ducky Channel logo and a black coloured “ONE”, san-serif. Opening up the box reveals the same as the Ducky One TKL – a user manual (you’re gonna need this!), a warranty guide, a micro USB cable, a plastic cover for the DKON1508, and the DKON1508 itself.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
The DKON1508 has a casing that’s slightly greyish compared to the Ducky One TKL, and of course has the funny coloured PBT Dye-Sub keycaps.
Speaking of the keycaps, although it is a personal choice, I think Ducky should have offered some other colour for the keycaps, as grey and blue is a little of a weird combination. It’s striking for sure, but in some ways is a little too not-my-cup-of-tea choice of colour combination. I do wish that Ducky Channel offers something crazy like orange and violet keycaps or something like that.
Speaking of the keycap colours, there’s another spinoff from the Ducky One family of keyboards, where the case is changed to a fancy coloured-yet-translucent one, and it has LED in it. I wonder if Ducky Channel decides to combine the PBT Dye-Sub keys with translucent case. That would be something that I’ll be really interested in.
Again, the The keyboard although it’s a full-sized keyboard with the number pad, there is still minimal to zero flex on the keyboard itself. Top notch built quality here, Ducky!
At the back of the DKON1508 is the same as the Ducky One TKL, where there’s a Ducky Channel Logo and a DIP switch. The same cable drain can also be found here too.
[nextpage title=”Typing experience”]In its entirety of the typing experience, with the negligence of the number pad, I’d say it’s identical as the Ducky One TKL – except for how the keycaps felt.
The Ducky One TKL again has doubleshot ABS plastic instead of the PBT Dye-Sub keycaps which is found on the DKON1508. The doubleshot ABS keycap has a rougher texture, whereas the DKON1508’s keycaps are really smooth – but just a tad rough enough to minimize the shiny effect caused by oily fingers. That said, the DKON1508 has a really thick keycap to be honest – even thicker than the doubleshot ABS plastic keycaps found on the other Ducky One TKL that I have with me here. And for that, it’s a sign that Ducky Channel really cares about their quality to the finest details. Also, there’s a DIP switch just like the Ducky One TKL, albeit a little less functionality since there’s no LED.
The typing experience is top-notch, again with Ducky’s build quality of a keyboard and the 3-level angle adjustment feels absolutely fantastic. Also, it’s using the Cherry MX Brown switches – which I absolutely love to type on. Still has that Cherry MX stabilizer too.
Theoretically, the PBT Dye-Sub keycaps can last for a very long time before any sort of fading can be seen. Obviously I can’t test that, but I really hope it is the case for sure.
[nextpage title=”Features”]It’s safe to assume that the features are all the same as the Ducky One TKL, and it is! With some shuffling keys, some of the features are either removed because there is no LED backlight, or enhanced the feature because of the number pad. Whichever way it is, I’m glad that Ducky Channel isn’t doing a lazy job and just copy pasted the exact same features on the TKL and full-sized version of their keyboard.
First off it’s the mouse emulation feature. I’ve talked about this on the Ducky One TKL review, and Ducky made me realize what was lacking in that version – the diagonal mouse movement keys. On the DKON1508 with the full-sized keyboard, it was able to make use of all the 9 number keys (except for 5) for directions! Perfect!
The inclusion of the media keys on the DKON1508 however was a weird one – as there are volume control keys and a mute key, but Ducky included a random calculator button instead of going something more media-related like the Play/Pause button. It seems like a weird choice – who would fire up the calculator all of a sudden to do some math? Google can handle that directly on their search engine itself too.
The other features on this keyboard are still the same as the Ducky One TKL, which you can check them out here.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]
The DKON1508 is a very beautiful keyboard – and I mean that quite subjectively. The colour scheme is something to argue about, but as far as I know, Ducky Channel offers them in quite a few colours and combinations, so it’s up to Ducky Malaysia on which version they want to bring in. If you do like a full-sized mechanical keyboard with amazing keycaps on them by default, consider the DKON1508. It has the renowned Ducky Channel build quality, some useful features on the keyboard itself, and maybe just use AutoHotKey to remap the multimedia keys too – that’ll be great.
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