Anidees Prismatic Mechanical Keyboard Review

The Anidees Prismatic Mechanical Keyboard is a tiny little low-profile board that has full RGB lighting, and flat keycaps. Read on for photos!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Anidees Prismatic Mechanical Keyboard product page.

Versions

There’s just one version of this board for now.

Price

Amazon shows the price as $69.90, and that’s pretty consistent around the internet.  This is a very feature-rich board for that price.

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Short Review

I like this keyboard as much as I expected to.  It has the comfort of a laptop board (if you find that comfortable; at the very least for me, it’s my usual board).  The caps are appropriately labeled with useful labels.  I don’t love the very clicky switches, but that’s personal preference.  I found the Bluetooth to be not quite as reliable as the Anne Pro (which for me works perfectly).  Overall though, I’m quite impressed with the board!

Long Review

What’s Included

• Anidees Prismatic Mechanical Keyboard
• Cable (Micro-USB to USB)
• Manual

Package and Manual

The package is a box in a nice slipcover.  Very simple packaging, but still pretty.

The keyboard is under a protective clear cover, and once the sleeve is removed, the keyboard is very visible through that.

Here’s a pdf of the manual, which is unfortunately over 40mb.  Still it’s a very thorough manual, and I’d recommend you having a look!  Also, last time I checked, Anidees had the old version of the manual on their website; this might be your only place to get the new one.

Size

Officially

293mm Long x  103mm Wide x 17mm High

Net Weight: 290g

This is a 67 key keyboard, mostly a “60%” but maybe not specifically (I think there are technically a couple of extra keys to call it strictly a 60% board, but whatever; close enough).

Build Quality and Disassembly

With these flat keycaps, and an overall very thin design, the first thing I thought when I touched this board was that it’s just a novelty.

But it’s actually nicely built.

There are rubber feet (which don’t angle up for any height adjustments).

There’s an on/off switch (which is something the Anne Pro original version could have used! (and has been added in Anne Pro 2)).

Separating the parts required at least some of the keycaps to be removed.  In the photo below, that’s not nearly all that has to be removed.

Here’s a side view with a cap removed.

Still not every cap that has to be removed!  It’s not unreasonable to just go ahead and remove them all.

The parts are held together by small pointed Philips screws.  When they’re all out, the parts are separated as follows:

Note that the cable does kind of confuse things…  I didn’t separate the cable from the pcb, and it’s still possible to remove that translucent case sandwiched piece.

Here’s the battery.  It’s a tiny 400mAh LiPo battery.

Of course, it has to be tiny; this keyboard is thin!!

Plate and Case

Here’s a good look at how these switches allow for such low profiles.  Yes, less is visible over the plate, but under the plate, the switches are even shorter still.

As a result, the keyboard is very low profile!

The case is plastic and has standoffs for catching the screws.  They aren’t metal sleeved but work just fine.

PCB / Controller

Here are some PCB shots.  You probably know more about PCBs than I do, so mostly these shots will do the talking.

I can say that the soldering is very clean, and overall the PCB looks great.

Below, see the PCB name.  It’s “CK8839-67KEY RGB 20171023 VER:01” – which means my keyboard will be celebrating it’s first birthday very soon!

The cable connecting the PCB to the case isn’t a battery connection.  It seems to be the controller connection.  (And now I wish I’d removed those screws too, to have a look at the controller!  Apologies!)

It’s possible to detach this cable, but I didn’t take the board down that far.

Layout and Keycaps

The layout in general is a “67 Key” keyboard, but most likely defined as a “60%” board.  It’s not a true 60% board though (if there actually is such?) because it actually has proper arrow keys, and a few other random switches.

Above, note how the keycaps are….not “clean”.  Before this photoshoot, I’d used the keyboard lightly, and with generally clean hands, but they are already showing a bit of grime.  Which is to say, they’re fairly sensitive to cleanliness.

Below, have a look at some of these low-profile keycaps.  These caps are one big fly in the ointment for me about this board, with an asterisk.  IF you never plan to change them, then they should be fine.  IF you ever intend to change them, be aware that those stems which go into the switches are fragile.  I broke …. more than one.  And it’s not even like they “broke” it’s more like they just pulled off.  I was using a cap puller, too.  So definitely be careful if you try to remove the caps (and also be careful in general, because I think they can break sometimes just by being looked at.)

One massive complaint about this board is the logo on the space bar.  It does not bother me personally, but when the keyboard is lit, the logo is very visible.

Life ain’t nothing but Switches and money

The switches are Kailh Low Profile Choc White Switches.  Here’s a link for more info.  They claim to be Clicky, with 50g of actuation force.  I can certainly say they’re clicky, but I’m not sure about the actuation force.

Unfortunately, I’m not a clicky switch lover, though I did find them to be quite pleasant on this particular board.  (And that’s not generic “I like this because I got it free for review” – I have other clicky boards which I in fact do not like.)

Here’s a typing sample, so you can get an idea just how these sound:

And here’s another, with the recorder much closer to the keyboard:

Connectivity

There are two means of connecting this board to a device.  First is the micro-USB port in the center of the back of the board.  Back? Top?  Either way…

Connections on the PCB look good

When connected via micro-USB, the board spins right up and works great.  There are some specifics about connecting with micro-USB, but they’re more pertinent in the RGB section, so I’ll cover them there.

Noteworthy regarding connection is the On/Off switch on the back of the board.  This isn’t strictly on/off to save battery life.  What it seems to do is turn Bluetooth off and on.  To wit: the switch must be in the “off” position in order to use it as a wired board.  (That’s not intuitive, but once you know it…)

The other option is Bluetooth, of course, which is probably one of the main attractions of this board.  In order to use Bluetooth, flip the switch on the back of the board to “On.”  The board should show up in the Bluetooth menu of your device.  On my iPhone, it shows as “CD8893 BT 4.0 Keyboard2” but it could be different on yours.  Once Bluetooth is on, the ESC key will begin to flash, and the Win key will be lit, too.  It’ll flash for a while, giving the user the opportunity to connect.

On your device, click the keyboard.  It’ll probably ask you if you want to pair.  Affirm that wish, and you should be good to go.  It’s possible to save up to three devices.

That bit is all very straightforward.  It becomes a little hairier when trying to reconnect the board to some device you’ve connected to already, particularly if you have connected to multiple devices.  If you have just one device saved, then turning Bluetooth on will cause the board to connect automatically.  If you’ve connected (and saved!) multiple devices, then you get the option to pick which device (which is done by clicking one of three predefined couples of switches).  Fortunately, these combos are well labeled on the board, and all involve the left Fn key.  For example, Fn + Shift codes position 1 of the Bluetooth memory.  Fn + Ctrl is 2, and Fn + Alt is 3.  But that’s just for coding the devices the first time (or recoding them at a later time)!  For selecting them for use later, it’s Fn Q, Fn E, Fn R, 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

That’s really all there is to it.  The board is nicely labeled for all those scenarios (maybe a little over the top, especially once you’ve got these things memorized).

There are some specifics about connecting with Bluetooth, but they’re more pertinent in the RGB section, so I’ll cover them there.

Programmability

The Anidees Prismatic doesn’t support any programming.

RGB

Every key has full RGB.  Not only that, the board has a full RGB surround, too.

First of all, a control shot, for all the below photos and videos:

In the video below, I run through the modes available.  There are 13 possible modes, and some of those modes can have multiple colors.  The RGB is controlled by pressing Fn + Tab (including cycling to the “off” option.)

There’s a weird thing where the Windows key lights some different color in most scenarios.  Below, it’s red when everything else is off.  I don’t believe this can be changed (though the switch can be different colors in different scenarios).

There’s a thing in the flashlight (etc) world called pulse width modulation (PWM).  It’s when a light is turned on and off very quickly.  If the output is desired to be high, then the light is on more than off.  If the output is desired to be low, then the light is off more than on.  Very often, keyboards have “bad PWM” and so when some color is wanted (say, pink) where R G and B must be mixed in some way, or when the user selects the dimmest output option, I can pick up the PWM on the switches.  And it’s incredibly annoying.  I don’t have that problem on this board.  The controller cycles the emitters fast enough that it’s never a problem.

The led strip along the edges of the board is similarly programmable, with 8 possibilities, and many color options.

All in all, this is good RGB, and quite fun to play around with.  I particularly like the strip on the edge!

The caveat I mentioned with cabled/Bluetooth connection is this:  When using Bluetooth, only red is available.  Yes.  Only red with Bluetooth.  With the wired connection, everything’s available.

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options….

Likely the most comparable board is the Obins Anne Pro, and the newer Anne Pro 2.  I have the Anne Pro and to be honest, absolutely love it.  The Anidees board is good, but I’ve had less luck with the Bluetooth.

Conclusion

What I like

• Size and shape
• Really, the low profile is worth mentioning again
• I like how thoroughly labeled the keycaps are
• Bluetooth works
• I’m glad there’s an actual switch for on/off on the board

What I don’t like

• The keycaps seem fairly low quality
• I wish all RGB options were available for Bluetooth
• An expandable battery would be nice (the board didn’t seem to like being connected to a powerbank and being used wirelessly)

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Notes

• This keyboard was provided by Anidees for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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