I recently bought a wireless mechanical keyboard from a brand I had just heard of - Cosmic Byte. It can connect to 3 bluetooth devices, selectable using 3 buttons, and it also can connect using a Micro-USB cable which also charges the keyboard's battery. It has brown switches, manufactured by outemu. The layout is TKL, so it has no numpad, but otherwise the layout is close to standard. It has RGB backlighting.
TL;DR, overall verdict : 4 stars out of 5, recommended. Details follow.
Keys "travel" is more than most membrane keyboards I have tried i.e. the height of vertical motion a key makes when pressed is more. This makes the angle of the wrist a bit weird, and it had some discomfort after 1 day of usage. I planned to get a wrist rest which should fix this problem, but there is not much space on my desk in the current configuration. While I was still thinking about getting a wrist rest, my wrist got used to this height of the keyboard, so I might drop the plan of getting a wrist rest.
Bluetooth does disconnect after a timeout of a few minutes - maybe 10 minutes, I cannot be sure. This kind of disconnection always gets reconnected quite reliably after pressing a key.
BUT when changing from USB to bluetooth by pressing the bluetooth1, bluetooth2 or bluetooth3 buttons : it is quite unreliable. Frequently I need to try multiple times. I've also needed to restart bluetooth on the other device (laptop, desktop etc.) and then occasionally it works. I don't switch devices very often, but I do switch sometimes, and when this problem happens it is always a pain. Note that all the devices I connect this keyboard to run Linux, somewhat latest kernel and bluetooth stack, and hence the experience might be different with other kinds of devices.
Working on this keyboard when bluetooth connection has been established is smooth, though one can perceive the latency of the bluetooth connection. The key takes a noticeable while to take effect, but it takes effect without fail, so I don't see it as a problem.
There is a keycap puller included, and keycaps of the + variety can be used to replace the included keycaps. The switches are not hot-swappable.
TL;DR, overall verdict : 4 stars out of 5, recommended. Details follow.
1. Why this review ?
Generally I don't review hardware products because I think experts can do a better job, but user-facing hardware like keyboards also need a layman perspective. I also note that most of the mechanical keyboard reviews on the internet are by keyboard nerds who talk about terms and features a layman truly doesn't care about. After some research, I came to the conclusion that even if the laymen came to know about the meanings of those terms, they would still not care. The only reason I bought a mechanical keyboard, and also write this review, is that in the last 10 years or so, popular brands of keyboards are producing horrible products. Most of them are membrane keyboards, but that didn't use to matter, and I have happily used membrane keyboards bought in the period 1999-2007 for 5+ years, without any problem. But the keyboards bought after 2007, develop irritating hardness in certain keys within 6-10 months of using them, especially when not pressed with a perfectly vertical force at the centre of the key. So, the real utility of this keyboard for me will be known only in 10 months.2. Initial feeling
Typing on this keyboard is a great experience. At least in the first few weeks, there are no missed key presses, nor any double key presses. But it should be noted that typing on any new keyboard is a great experience for me, even the Rs 250 keyboards that I bought every 6 months, and which developed hard keys very soon.Keys "travel" is more than most membrane keyboards I have tried i.e. the height of vertical motion a key makes when pressed is more. This makes the angle of the wrist a bit weird, and it had some discomfort after 1 day of usage. I planned to get a wrist rest which should fix this problem, but there is not much space on my desk in the current configuration. While I was still thinking about getting a wrist rest, my wrist got used to this height of the keyboard, so I might drop the plan of getting a wrist rest.
3. Layout
It is important for a keyboard to have a standard layout, because I don't feel like retraining my muscle memory for each new keyboard. I've used 30 different keyboards in office, home and laptop combined over last 14 years due to the unreliability of most keyboards, so it is important for keyboards to retain the same layout. I don't like the "Indian" layout (as found in TVS gold keyboards) which has a tall and wide "Enter" key, moving the pipe and backslash key (|\) elsewhere, and which also has a small backspace key. This keyboard, and most Cosmic Byte keyboards have the "standard" keyboard (I think the US layout), and it is a plus point in its favour.4. Battery life
I have not checked, and I might not check it for a long time because I plan to leave it connected to my desktop always being charged with the Micro USB cable. I needed a wireless keyboard only because I want to be able to connect to one of my laptops without rewiring everything, and also occasionally step away from the desktop with the keyboard to watch a movie on my desktop. But it is an important metric for most people buying a wireless keyboard, so I am mentioning the lack of this information up top here.5. Bluetooth connection
Even though it is an older Bluetooth 3.0 keyboard, once made a connection remains solid. After pressing the key to connect to a new device over bluetooth, there is a slight delay of 1-5 seconds before the keys start registering on the new device, but this delay could be the fault of the other device or of this keyboard. When pressing on the "USB" button to start talking to the device connected through micro-USB, the connection seems to be made instantaneously.Bluetooth does disconnect after a timeout of a few minutes - maybe 10 minutes, I cannot be sure. This kind of disconnection always gets reconnected quite reliably after pressing a key.
BUT when changing from USB to bluetooth by pressing the bluetooth1, bluetooth2 or bluetooth3 buttons : it is quite unreliable. Frequently I need to try multiple times. I've also needed to restart bluetooth on the other device (laptop, desktop etc.) and then occasionally it works. I don't switch devices very often, but I do switch sometimes, and when this problem happens it is always a pain. Note that all the devices I connect this keyboard to run Linux, somewhat latest kernel and bluetooth stack, and hence the experience might be different with other kinds of devices.
Working on this keyboard when bluetooth connection has been established is smooth, though one can perceive the latency of the bluetooth connection. The key takes a noticeable while to take effect, but it takes effect without fail, so I don't see it as a problem.
6. The included user manual
There are spelling and grammatical mistakes in the user manual. Not so huge that you cannot understand the sentence. Even ignoring the errors, it does not instruct very clearly. E.g. connecting a device with bluetooth, should I press the "Bluetooth" button ? Or press the associated "Bluetooth1", "Bluetooth2", or "Bluetooth3" button ? The manual asks us to do both, in different sections. And it is not clear in which order we should press those buttons. Actually what works best for me, when I am connected via USB to some device, if I press the "USB" button again, the keyboard somewhat reliably switches back to the last bluetooth device it was connected to. This is not written in the manual.7. Keycaps
The quality of keycap plastic material seems good to me. It doesn't look like it would break, or my fingers would slip on the keys in the near future. Other aspects of keycaps are in later sections.8. Price, contents, buying experience, other options
Getting this from the seller's website is typically cheaper, though it is at times listed at Amazon and other online stores too. I chose the free delivery, yet it was super fast - came from Pune to Chennai in less than 72 hours, and used an expensive service like BlueDart for its last mile delivery. I got it for Rs 4499 shipped from https://www.thecosmicbyte.com/gamin...-with-per-key-rgb-outemu-brown-switches-black. There are red and blue switch options too, presumably the other details would remain same as those of this keyboard.There is a keycap puller included, and keycaps of the + variety can be used to replace the included keycaps. The switches are not hot-swappable.