SPECIFICATIONS
Model
Zifriend KY400
Layout
TKL
Frame color
White
Frame swap
—
Plate type
Zinc
PCB type
North Facing, Per Row fixed Lighting, Per Key Addressable
Mounting style
Integrated Plate, Floating Switch Design
Switches
Drinkey Red [Linear]
Keycaps
OEM Profile, Doubleshot ABS
Keycap set
Zifriend KY400 Stock Keys
Connection type
Wired
Battery size
—
Hotswap
No
Special features
Fixed Cable
Formerly known as
—
This KY400 is my cheapest TKL Keyboard. I intended to get this as a cheaper way to experience what the Zifriend/Furycube G87.. It's not a gasket mount, But it's a TKL and has Linear Switches.
Gallery
Description
Zifriend TKL with Rainbow Backlighting. The Site says it's swappable but when I tested it, the keyboard is not Hot-Swappable, Or maybe it's too hard for me to pull out
Build timeline
Originally planned to be the keyboard themed after Zero Two, This board had the right keycap colors already, but the fixed rainbow backlight cannot be adjusted to Zero Two's colors.
Personal review
So this is my first mechanical keyboard with a fixed cable (and probaly my last, i prefer the ones with the Type-C cable) and I like the way it looks, The TKL with the floating keycap design is really cool, and the switches are somewhat exposed. The keycaps seem to be the absolute cheapest bargain bin keycaps, they probably bought the keycaps separate from the manufacturing process in the keyboard and just slapped them on, Instead of printing sub-legends for the fn layer.
The layout and the lighting modes are fine, And the keyboard is responsive and has NKRO, for the price of 500 Pesos, It's really worth it for the price. I like how it offers around 80% of the Zifriend G87, the higher-end Gasket Mounted TKL, Linears, TKL and NKRO, Although the plate mounting on the KY400 is rather really stiff compared to the Gasket Mounted G87. Overalll this board could be my linear muscle memory teacher because of how often I used the beater Zeus Z-G61 to the point that my muscle memory has been used to the clicky switches and their feedback, so that leaves me making more than my usual level of typos on linear switches.
As for the layout, the TKL layout is still my favorite layout because it has all regular keys that fit a 104-key set. My second most favorite layout is tied between the 60% and 65%, because the 65% has the arrow keys like the TKL.
I would wanna keep using this keyboard until the keycaps shine and maybe once the switches break, But this is still a cool board from Zifriend and I like the brand as a whole because they still give more bang for buck compared to the Aula keyboards, which still has a great bang for buck compared to the mainstream bigger gaming brands
The layout and the lighting modes are fine, And the keyboard is responsive and has NKRO, for the price of 500 Pesos, It's really worth it for the price. I like how it offers around 80% of the Zifriend G87, the higher-end Gasket Mounted TKL, Linears, TKL and NKRO, Although the plate mounting on the KY400 is rather really stiff compared to the Gasket Mounted G87. Overalll this board could be my linear muscle memory teacher because of how often I used the beater Zeus Z-G61 to the point that my muscle memory has been used to the clicky switches and their feedback, so that leaves me making more than my usual level of typos on linear switches.
As for the layout, the TKL layout is still my favorite layout because it has all regular keys that fit a 104-key set. My second most favorite layout is tied between the 60% and 65%, because the 65% has the arrow keys like the TKL.
I would wanna keep using this keyboard until the keycaps shine and maybe once the switches break, But this is still a cool board from Zifriend and I like the brand as a whole because they still give more bang for buck compared to the Aula keyboards, which still has a great bang for buck compared to the mainstream bigger gaming brands
Future build plans
Might Replace the keycaps with PBT with Japanese Sub-legends once the Stock ABS keycaps start shining again