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Z20 First thoughts

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Hoggle
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2021/02/17 18:00:11 (permalink)
I just got my Z20 and wanted to share my first thoughts having came from the Z10 RGB this is coming from having bought the keyboard at the Elite price which I really think is a great deal.
 
First thing I noticed is the size of the keyboard compared to the Z10. It's smaller then the old keyboard thanks to not having the screen. The aluminum body of the keyboard also felt nice and cold to the touch thanks to having just been brought by the delivery driver when I opened it up. It gives the keyboard more of a premium look and feel. The EVGA logo was something that I really kind of wasn't that much of a fan of at first but using the keyboard I really don't notice it. Guess it depends on how much you touch type vs. look down at the keyboard as to how annoying it might be but I don't think that many people would really have a problem with it. The lightbars on the side which really do look nice and give cool lighting effect that really is great looking. The lighting in general is pretty bright and shines through the keys really well. The keycaps themselves look exactly like what we saw on the Z10 RGB with the same font used. While different from the standard font of keyboards I find it easy to read and not a problem but again I am not really one to really look at the keyboard much when typing. I also haven't noticed any rattling in the keyboard but I did go with the clicky keys and the keyboard is kind of loud while typing as a result but for me personally it reminds me of the keyboards I learned to type on in school in the 80's and I don't really mind it.
 
The E1-E5 macro keys and the WASD keys do have the slash that kind of looks like a V and have a texture to them. At first when I ordered this keyboard I planned to pull that off since I do a lot of typing on the keyboard. After using the keyboard though I really didn't mind at all. It's easier to find my home on the keyboard with it then it is with the bump on the F and J keys. It really don't feel at all bad or annoying to type with. The other really area of custom keys is the media area which is nicely lit but not standard keycaps and I don't know if they are removable but if I had to guess I would say they are not since the tool doesn't look to get under them to pull them off. The wheel works a lot better then the slider on the Z10 RGB and I have no problem adjusting the volume but I do wish that it lowered/raised the volume quicker but it looks like it adjusts it at 2% when it does change the volume at least on my computer. It feels firmer then I expected it to be to turn which really isn't a problem since it's easy to sent the volume to 68% or what ever volume you want to listen to but you would be better off using the mute button then the wheel if you need to quickly lower the volume.
 
After I was using it for a while I did remember the adjustable feet on the bottom. Laying flat was ok for me then I went all the way up with both stages which I felt for me lifted the keyboard up a bit too much but at first stage it felt really nice and made the wrist wrest very comfortable to use. The wrist wrest does have some padding in it but you kind of wish it was firmer since your hands do kind of sink down a little bit until you can notice the firm bottom but it's not that bad after years of using a keyboard with no wrist wrest at all.
 
The software that EVGA has is really pretty good. When I first installed it I was told that a firmware update existed and after downloading that it opened up and really was pretty easy to navigate and figure out. It's a lot like the X1 software and other recent EVGA software and I like that the keyboard picture will update to show you what you are adjusting instead of just being static. It's really cool to see the RGB lighting on the screen as you adjust it. Which brings us to the Time of Flight sensor which I really have just started to play with but in the software it's first set to just light up the keyboard as you approach. To me I like having the keyboard go dark and seeing it light up as I got closer really was welcoming in a kind of cool way. I did adjust this so now it should wake the computer from sleep when it notices me which is a nice feature and my girlfriend liked the fact that it can lock the computer if she leaves the area since she is working from home and dealing with personal files that she doesn't want anyone seeing including me because of privacy laws. It's a good feature for people who really care about privacy but to me it's not that important I mostly care about the RGB going dark and the computer going into sleep a few minutes after I am no longer around it. The sensor itself isn't something you would notice while typing or anything as your right hand should stay well away from it since it rests about under the ring finger so even if you put your thumbs below the space key you won't notice it.
 
Let me know if you have any questions since I would be happy to answer them. I personally am happy with the keyboard and it feels really good especially for the Elite members since I couldn't think that anyone would find a more feature rich keyboard at near this price point. In fact you wouldn't find anything near as good even if you replaced the wrist wrest with a memory foam one. Oh yeah one final note it does look like the headphone port for the back of the computer is gold plated but on the keyboard itself it doesn't look to be gold plated and instead is just black metal. If you have like the NU audio I would plug into the audio card directly for the best audio quality. If you have on board audio though I don't think you would notice any difference and it would probably take pretty good quality headphones also to notice any quality difference. 

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