Hardware Mionix Zibal 60 Review

The Zibal 60 retails for an eye-watering £105. Can any keyboard be worth such a price?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/08/29/mionix-zibal-60-review/1

 

I'll stick with my highly disposable £10~ keyboard I think!

I really don't see why someone would pay so much money for a keyboard.

 

sexy! if i didnt have a 7g id probably go for that

 

I don't have any particular love for this keyboard, but I am not sure if I agree with the way scores are given here.

Features: If a lack of widgets makes this keyboard feel lean and efficient, rather than lacking, why is the features score so far from peak? Can a features score not be high if bells and whistles are not included?

You mention the clacking noise from cherry switches. However, that is especially from cherry blue switches. Cherry brown or especially black switches do not have this any more than membrane keyboards do. You obviously know about the various switch types... so perhaps complaints of nosy keys around the office are from people who do not know of the various keytypes.

Why do you need backlighting in daylight anyway? The entire point of this is to read keys in the dark.

Value: This seems like a bit of a harsh conclusion to me. This is a pretty standard price for mechanical keyboards, and it seems rather unfair to mark them all down because of a high price generic to such products (http://www.keyboardco.com/ ... as you can see, many mehanical keyboards can easily cost twice this price). Much of the advantage of a mechanical keyboard over a rubber dome keyboard is not easy to notice over a short time, so I guess it is rather hard to take the (possible) benefits in to account. Some people would consider mechanical keyboards great value considering the benefits, I understand this is an opinion, but it would be nice to see the main feature of such keyboards considered a bit more in depth when they are reviewed.

 

See explanation here:

http://www.ergocanada.com/ergo/keyboards/mechanical_vs_membrane_keyswitches.html

mostly the benefits are for people who type a lot though.

 

As a touch typist gamer that owns one, I think Cherry keyboards are over rated and not worth the money.

 

I kill more than one keyboard a year-all membrane types. I'm making the move to mechanical for that reason. A keyboard like this should outlast your next 5 machines.

I do believe it's evident that the people writing this one don't care for mechanicals, though.

 

Ive always liked the idea of quality keyboards.

Gaming ones do tend to be rather tacky looking ,plasticky and lit up like christmas trees.

Im trying to find something inbetween and this may be it.

 

just get a microsoft keyboard.. they are spill resistant- I dunno why other manufacturers don't jump on that

have the membrane part under plastic and there's holes at the bottom for the water to drain out.. you could dump a whole glass of water in them

 

I have a Das Keyboard Ultimate but my next keyboard will be a backlit mechanical one.

 

I have an oem cherry black keyboard bought for 65 gbp from the keyboardcompany, it's not backlit . I guess it depends if you think a backlight and palm rest is worth the 40 gbp premium. I don't.

 

Mechanical + lit = win! Why green though?.. and why not bi or tri colour LEDs. All they've done is limit the potential buyers to those that don't care about aesthetics and those with predominantly green lit peripherals.

After having a lit keyboard for a while I couldn't possibly go back now. I usually work in a dim environment, and the subtle lighting of the G110 is brilliant. When I first started reading this I thought I'd found my ideal keyboard, but green? Green LEDs actually make me feel sick. I bet they're not the true green LEDs either, but the more usual yellow/green ones.

 

If you are not using a mechanical keyboard any you don't just use your computer for gaming or one handed internet then you have your priorities wrong!

but there are other options in the market and the choice between clicky/ smooth is important.

personally I have a g7 also (lovely) and an XArmor - but use a ms ergo for work (come on ms please do a mechanical one)

 

@Picarro

backlit das ultimate thats what you need ;-)

 

I am thinking of adding LED's to it.

 

I've been using a Raptor K1 for 4 years now and it's still just as good today as the day I bought it. Absolutely no-frills whatsoever, just solid construction, cherry keys and the most basic of basic designs - and it's tough as anything. It doesn't sport LEDs or any fancy stuff at all.

http://www.raptor-gaming.de/raptor/raptorUK/Produkte/k1.htm

Cost me about £70 at the time....best £70 I ever spent and still can't find any reason to "upgrade".

 

You're complaining because the backlight isn't very noticeable in daylight? Really? I mean really????

It's like they designed it to be useful in the dark or something... you know those times when you don't have daylight around to help you remember which order the function keys are arranged in.

 

Me too a strong keyboard with lit up keys is very nice. But them going usb for the connection so limiting how many keys can be pressed at once is a little odd imo the 7G is crazy (I don't think I'll ever need to press the whole keyboard but it's still a crazy nice feature ), can see it being in use for a very very long time with other types of keyboards I'd out use them within a year so a yearly expense so these tough keyboards work out cheaper in the long run unless you go as cheap as can be & buy 12 keyboards instead of a good long lasting one, the rage proof feature made me lol .

 

Thanks for posting that, (and the company link) that was a good read. I like the idea of a mechanical keyboard, I'm just not keen on the noise associated and I want my next keyboard to be quieter than my current one.

I really do need to update my current board, not that it doesn't work anymore, but it's about ten years old and it's starting to look really dated and a bit grubby, (it's clean, just grubby looking through age). I do a lot of typing and I'm really amazed at how well it's lasted - a Microsoft one, about £30/40 at the time I think. One of the function keys has frozen solid, but all the 'proper' keys are as good as the very first day I bought it. Very, very well made (especially as I'm so heavy handed!).

Agree with Pookeyhead too, not keen on the green, that alone is a deal-breaker for me...

 

By the way, I understood your (ikinone) point re: Cherry Black switches being quieter than other Cherry switches, I'm just basing what I said on the review here - of a group of surrounding people not liking the noise...