- Hey guys, this is Austin
and these are the cheapest
keyboards on Amazon.
But the question is,
are they actually any good?
So we take a look at a
lot of expensive things
on the channel, but what
I was really curious about
is whether it actually makes sense
to go extremely cheap.
What better way to start
than with well, a bunch of keyboards
of varying degrees of quality
but all of which are
actually really affordable.
To start out with,
we have the Verbatim
Slimline Corded keyboard.
When we purchased this,
it was only $5.21
on Amazon but now it's available
with a mouse for $10.21.
So you know, quality.
Not only do we have adjustable tilt legs,
a stylish and slim design
as well as advanced tactile keys.
Something I look for in all
of my five dollar keyboards
but importantly,
it supports Windows XP,
2000, Vista, 7 and 8.
So if you need a sweet
Windows XP keyboard,
they've got you covered.
There are tons of
dedicated gaming keyboards,
things like mechanical stuff,
but I think really the question
I want to answer with this video is,
do you really need to spend 30, 40, 50, 60,
or even a hundred dollars plus on a keyboard?
Of course you don't have to
but what's the real difference
you're getting really something like this,
which is only going to cost
you about five dollars.
Well, you get better
packaging on the other ones.
That's for sure.
I'll give them this.
This is about as slim
as a keyboard gets.
It's definitely one of
the most lightweight keyboards
I've ever used.
(laughs)
Shout out to the not a Windows key
that's on the bottom here.
It's not Windows, it's the square key.
You know, the square key.
At first glance, the
layout seems to be fine.
We have basically all
the keys we would expect,
including a slightly
weird looking Enter key
and a smaller Backspace.
We also interestingly have
power, sleep and wake.
Does that actually work?
Oh, it works.
Wait, can I wake up?
Wake up.
I don't think anyone's going to think
that this is a gaming keyboard,
but it doesn't feel too bad,
so one of the things I really noticed
is that it is a little
bit on the springer side
and that's definitely because
this is very much a rubber
dome style keyboard,
but I don't know, I can live with it.
Is it going to last a long time?
Probably not.
Can you use it for a little while
and actually be completely
competent at gaming
and a little bit of typing and basic use?
Absolutely.
Next up we have the Amazon
Basics wired keyboard
at a whopping $13.22.
Now with something like 3600 reviews.
It seems to be one of the
more popular keyboards
on Amazon full stop.
What they've done here
is it's a little bit
more of a slimmer design,
so it does have a sort of built in rest
as opposed to the other one
which did have the feet.
It's also got a lot of
glossy black plastic.
Oh boy, all right.
So yeah, that glossy black plastic,
as you can probably see
with three seconds of usage,
it's going to get a little fingerprinty,
a little dirty, but I guess
you can look past that
when you're spending
13 bucks on a keyboard.
The layout thankfully is a lot nicer.
We have a full size Backspace key.
The Enter key, it's all
as you would expect.
We have a few things like Media keys,
which is a nice little addition
on such a cheap keyboard.
Oh, we can get a little
shortcut to the calculator.
I guess that's useful and
most importantly of all,
we have an actual Windows key,
not a weird square.
I'm sure the licensing cost was tremendous
on such a cheap keyboard.
I can tell this immediately
has a better feel.
Now it is definitely
still a membrane keyboard
it's not going to be anywhere near as nice
as something like a mechanical
keyboard to type on,
but it's a lot less
mushy than the Verbatim
and I really do appreciate
that it does have a standard layout.
We even have the media control keys.
I will say almost immediately
that while I do prefer this for typing,
I actually don't quite
like the feel for gaming.
It just feels like there's
maybe a little bit more latency
or a little bit of input lag.
It just feels a little different.
And a big part of that
actually could be the fact
that the key switches
aren't quite as responsive.
That's a little weird.
Next up we have a Bluetooth keyboard,
or more specifically the
cheapest Bluetooth keyboard
with Amazon Prime that we could find.
So at $15 this...
Well, it's a lot smaller,
I'll say that, it's a whole lot smaller.
Wait is this actually
a full size keyboard?
Okay well that looks exactly
like an Apple keyboard.
It's really weird at
how light it is though.
We don't have a battery in, do we?
No, we need a ...
Is that AA you think?
Oh wait, they're AAAs, I lied.
Yeah, those are...be right back.
One of the advantages of going
with the Bluetooth keyboard
is it does support multiple devices
including Macs as well as iOS devices,
which is especially evident when you look
at the keyboard layout,
which I just realized is the Mac layout
with the Command and the
Option and the Control.
So, we do have a Windows
key and a Windows mode
if we switch over to it.
If I can figure out how to do that.
Due to a slight oversight
in that the PC we're testing
with doesn't have Bluetooth,
we're going to use my phone.
Oh boy I love being prepared
for videos like this.
(clears throat)
Anyway, let's give this a try.
So thankfully it is full size.
One thing I do immediately notice though,
is that it's kind of flimsy.
If you look, I can barely bend it
and there's a lot of flexing.
It shouldn't be a big deal
unless you're very aggressive typer.
Are there aggressive typers?
Oh yeah, dude look at that.
If you really press down
the whole thing flexes.
It should be okay though but...
No, I disconnected it.
Why does...
Okay, so maybe super cheap
Bluetooth keyboards: not the move.
I actually will say the
keyboard doesn't feel too bad.
Actually know what it feels like?
It kind of feels like the original version
of this Apple keyboard,
which is like what, 80 bucks or something?
It's not quite as nice to be fair.
It's all made of plastic, but
it doesn't feel bad at all.
Look at that, I can change the brightness.
What?
That's actually kind of cool.
For 15 bucks this isn't too bad.
Yes, you should plan ahead
and make sure your computer
supports Bluetooth,
but even if you are syncing
it to something like your iPad
or iPhone or something,
this really is surprisingly
decent for $15.
I'm kind of impressed.
Last but not least,
we have the Rii RK100+.
The cheapest RGB keyboard on Amazon,
which we picked up for about $15.
However right now it's
actually available for $10
and seventy three cents.
So yeah, this is actually
the cheapest keyboard here
technically as of this very second.
This is another one of
the options that we chose
not only just because it was the cheapest,
but also it has a fairly
decent amount of reviews.
It's got 492 on Amazon right now
and that looks like a
much more beefy keyboard
even though it's still
incredibly lightweight.
Plug this guy in and holy RGB Batman.
That is actually kind of a cool look.
Now, unlike most RGB keyboards
that do have a much more
comprehensive set of software
that kind of allow you
to customize the zones
with this guy, we can either
turn on or turn it off,
which conveniently replaces
our right Windows key,
but regardless we have RGB.
So let's give this guy a try.
All right yeah.
This is actually a lot better
than that Amazon keyboard.
One of the things that
I immediately noticed
is that where that one
felt a little bit sticky.
The keys actually pop
up a lot quicker here.
Now I'm sure if you open it up
it's still going to be
a membrane keyboard,
but between that and the RGB,
I've got to say this is
actually totally a decent
looking keyboard.
Now no, the key caps
themselves aren't RGB
and it is of course all made of plastic,
but I kind of like the look
of sort of illuminating
the backside with the RGB
as opposed to doing the individual keys.
It's not customizable but it
looks legitimately different
than pretty much any other
gaming keyboard out there.
Something I immediately noticed
is that there's a nice
little bit of texture
on the keys themselves.
It doesn't make a big difference,
but it does give you
a little bit more grip
with your fingers.
It's not something huge or anything
that sort of blows me away,
but it is a nice little
bit of an addition.
Importantly, it feels good for gaming.
It is not as good as a
mechanical keyboard for example,
but realistically, unless
you're actually really skilled
unlike me,
it's probably not going to
notice a huge difference.
I know I'm not any better with this
than a Mechanical keyboard or vice versa.
Here we go.
Yeah, there we go.
Well that was worth it.
(laughs)
So should you buy the
cheapest keyboard on Amazon?
It's actually not a totally crazy idea.
Now the Rii is definitely my favorite.
I like the RGB for gaming,
it has a good feel and
it's got a decent layout
and realistically if you're spending less
than say $30, $40,
this really should be
the keyboard you pick up.
I'm very, very impressed.
