Wai Hon's Blog

Niz Micro 82 Keyboard Review

2021-12-04

I have been using full-size keyboards for many years, and some problems annoyed me occasionally:

  1. The mouse is too far away from the typing position
  2. When moving the mouse to the left, it hits the keyboard and cannot move further

Maybe I should use a smaller keyboard. I have heard of the legendary HHKB but I am not sure if I can live without the arrow keys or navigate with hjkl.

The Research

After some research, I concluded my two requirements:

  1. 75% layout, and
  2. silent switch.

75% is a fairly new keyboard layout. There are not many choices in the market (which might be a good thing).

Finally, I picked Niz Micro 82 (35g) because:

  1. It comes with electrostatic capacitance (EC) switches. I would like to try them.
  2. It provides the option to have no RGB lighting, which is a negative feature to me, even if I can turn it off.
  3. It has good reviews on the Internet.

The 75% Layout

The 75% layout does give more room to the mouse and solved my original headache. I can reach the arrow keys at a shorter distance and get rid of the INS that I don’t use but mishit occasionally.

However, there were issues in the first week,

  1. I could not locate the arrow keys accurately.
  2. I could not hit the right shift key accurately.
  3. I missed the Numpad.

I had wondered if I should get a less aggressive keyboard like TKL. Fortunately, issues 1 and 2 had gone after a month. My muscle memory has been adjusted for the new keyboard.

The EC Switches

The 35g EC switches are incredibly silent and comfortable to type. The “silent red” is the closest cherry MX switch to it, IMO.

I sometimes misfired a key while “placing” my finger on it in the first two weeks. The problem disappeared gradually with time. It had not happened in the last two weeks!

Conclusion

Overall, I like this keyboard (75%, EC) much better than the old Filco Ninja Majestouch-2 (100%, Brown Switch).

The only downside is the ability to touch-type numbers with one hand using the Numpad. This is not easy to fix.