KUL ES-87 Tenkeyless Mechanical Keyboard (Cherry MX Red)

First things first: this thing is built like a tank. Things on it are just so well thought out. There are 8 rubber pads on the back of the keyboard. There's set of 4 that all lay flat when the keyboard is used with the legs in. There are two (beefy) rubber pads on the feet, and then two more on a slightly beveled area at the bottom of the case, that sit flat when the feet are out. With this board, you will never have to worry about your keyboard traveling. It tries to move the desk when pushed.Now the not-so-good: I'd always read that Cherry stabilizers were mushy, but they barely registered as different on the two other keyboards we have with them (Vortex Poker II and Leopold FC750R). It wasn't until I got my hands on this board that I understood the Cherry stab hate. The feel is considerably different, and the sound is considerably different. I don't know what's different between the boards (or maybe the installation of the stabilizers), but it was not a good difference.Luckily, this board is for my husband, who likes o-rings. I popped o-rings on all the non-stabilized keycaps and now the sound across the board is more consistent, at least. He still prefers his Leopold, but this is good enough to keep.Last note: This board comes with ABS keycaps, which I swapped out for a thick PBT set nearly immediately, but not before noting that they're nicer than any ABS keycaps I've ever laid my hands on. If you dislike the texture of PBT keycaps, the stock keycaps on the KUL may make you quite happy.

The KUL-87 is one of the best made/feeling keyboards I have ever used. Build quality slightly exceeds my Realforce 87U. Where the Realforce has a slight movement of the body halves, this KUL is solid as a rock. Case is a very heavy textured ABS material. Keys are a slightly textured finished ABS with lasered legends and feel great. It would be nice if they were PBT, but for the price I can see why they were not included. Cable is a detachable A to Mini-B USB which is nice.Typing on the board is very solid, with zero pinging or rattling. Everything has a nice thunk while bottoming out the keystrokes.I bought the board to revisit Cherry MX Red switches. My first mechanical keyboard was a Cherry MX Red and I hated the feel. I got rid of it and bought one with MX Browns because of many internet recommendations. Reds are hated by many so called people in the know. But I wonder if many just do not give them a try and just assume they are not very good. Well, I will admit that I was wrong and find them a pleasure to type on. Once you get used to the lack of tactile feedback, you realize how smooth and how non fatiguing they are to type with. Plus they are probably the quietest mechanical switches I have ever used.I will say that the feel of the Cherry MX Reds are also enhanced by the quality of the KUL-87. MX Reds needs a firm sound deadening base to feel properly and the KUL has it.I will say, I am sold on the quality of this board and if I could add one thing, it would be some type of back lighting. I game in the dark at times and some back lighting would help.If i was looking for another keyboard to try another switch or to recommend to someone, KUL would definitely be at the top of my list.

Well, I have now used this for over 6 months now, and I notice the following issues with this keyboard. This keyboard just doesn't do away with the numeric keypad (awesome; that's why I bought this product), but I think the rest of the keys are squished in too. I think the ergonomic of the keyboard is OK. I have a very good typing rate, but on this keyboard I get a lot of mistakes. I thought this would go away with practice, but for some reason, practice doesn't seem to cut it for this keyboard.On the other build quality side, some keys appears like they are already fading. Perhaps this is just dirt depositing on the key.

I own several cherry MX based boards, but have been searching for a tenkeyless KB to use in my home office. This really is one of the nicest of the bunch. I would rate it about the same as the Das Keyboard (quiet version) in terms of build quality. The keycaps are very pleasant, all the keys have a nice uniform action (unlike the CM Storm board, which feel harder somehow).Initially I ordered this liner KB for my home office, since I also use it for gaming, to replace the above mentioned CM Storm which I felt was somehow too "hard" (which is odd because it has the same switches as the Das?). The combination of the key cap texture and activation force is amazing. I think this is the most comfortable and accurate keyboard I've typed on in my 25 years of typing.The dip switches on the bottom are nice, though I'm not sure how useful they really are. It is nice to see a Mac mode, and a way to move the escape key for us vi users, but if you've solved that problem already with your OS, it seems redundant.Supposedly you can also control how the KB deals with USB NKRO, but i'm not clear on how that works. As far as I know, true USB NKRO requires that the device show up as a high speed device. I'm not seeing that when I inspect the device using USB Viewer; It shows as 'low speed'. Still, I can mash a goodly number of keys and have them all be transmitted, so perhaps they've come up with some magic hack.The build is solid as it gets. Very similar to the CM Storm, but the plastics are nicer (both density and texture).

This keyboard is built like a brick. As much as that's a positive I believe that it's also it's downfall. I don't know if I received a defective board but the stabilizer keys are very stiff. It takes 20-30 more grams to accentuate the switch on the left shift, right shift, enter, and backspace keys. After using this board for the weekend I've noticed a metal sound starting to happen when the stabilizer keys are pressed on and released quickly. I'm going to have to return the board due to this as this is just not acceptable for such a high quality board.