Home Tech The Das Keyboard 5QS Mark II is a mechanical keyboard lost in time

The Das Keyboard 5QS Mark II is a mechanical keyboard lost in time

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Close-up of the Das Keyboard 5QS Mark Two showing a key without the cap and the red switch below

The 5QS Mark 2 can be equipped with Cherry MX2A Brown, Red, and Silent Red switches. Das sent me a review unit with their most popular option, the MX2A Silent Reds. The bottom mounting system, copious amounts of silicone cushioning, and quiet red switches combine to create an incredibly dull typing feel. The switches, muted by internal silicone strips, are naturally soft and a little squishy, ​​and the bottom support makes this squishiness even more pronounced when typing. The sound dampening inside the case absorbs any other vibration and typing feel elements that would otherwise be present. Stabilizers are generic plate-mounted units that, despite being factory lubricated, still vibrate, even immediately after being taken out of the box. This was also made more evident by the keyboard muting.

In the end, typing on this keyboard feels smooth and sounds almost silent, while maintaining some subtle, high-pitched, rattling tones that are unpleasant, but quiet enough to be covered by headphones, earbuds, or even speakers.

Photography: Henri Robbins

Unlike many current keyboards, the 5QS does not have hot-swappable plugs. This means that unless you’re handy with a soldering iron and don’t like having a manufacturer’s warranty, you’ll be limited to whatever switch the keyboard comes with from the factory. The Lego-like customization offered by hot-swappable plugs has gone from a novelty luxury to an industry standard in modern keyboards, so being absent from this model, at this price, is somewhat disappointing. However, this does mean that the 5QS will be slightly more reliable than a hot-swappable board, as hot-swappable sockets can occasionally fail with prolonged use.

Q functionality

Das’s big selling point with this keyboard is its “Q” software, which is used to customize the RGB lighting and other functions. This can be used to apply animations and patterns to the RGB, as well as modify the individual function of each key.

RGB can also be configured through individual “applets” that you install within the main application. These can connect to external applications and website logins to display information such as unread messages, alerts, and system information. Some of the most interesting include a four-day weather forecast, value trackers for stocks and cryptocurrencies, and price trackers for flights and video games. On top of that, there are some timed reminder apps for small tasks like drinking water and standing reminders if you’ve been sitting too long.

While these are all interesting concepts, even the best ones are held back by one major flaw: RGB lights are simply not an efficient way to communicate complex information. For example, the weather forecast applet has multiple color options for different predictions, but only a few of them make sense at a glance: white for snow, yellow for sun, and blue for rain. Other options (pink for cloudy skies and red for thunderstorms) are not very intuitive. Unless you spend a lot of time with this keyboard and adjust your daily routines to acclimate to the new system, I doubt the average person will find it useful to play a memory game with information that would otherwise be two clicks away on their computer. While other keyboards (like Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75% Pro) integrate secondary displays, this solution seems overly complicated and disappointing.

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