Not everyone needs a mechanical keyboard. Most people, in fact, are probably content with membrane keyboards and whatever comes standard on their laptops, which is fine.
But some people know you can't beat a mechanical keyboard when it comes to putting words to a screen, or playing video games, or just genuinely enjoying your computer more than people with cheap $10 Best Buy brand keyboards. No judgment, but once you're in the mechanical keyboard boat, you can't go back.
That's not to say that mechanical keyboards don't have their issues. They're generally kind of big, which can be a problem for someone trying to carry something around to do some work outside of your gaming rig setup. Vissles, a company we've had mixed experiences with in the past, wants to solve this with the LP85, which they're touting as the world's thinnest mechanical keyboard. It delivers that tactile feedback while staying about as small as a laptop keyboard, which sounds great on paper. Does it work out in the real world, though? Let's find out.
World's thinnest design
Vissles says this is the world's thinnest mechanical keyboard. I think they're telling the truth here, too; the LP85 comes in at 0.31 inches at its slimmest, while the only other contenders I can find are roughly twice as thick. That's still thin for a mechanical keyboard, obviously, but Vissles really does have them beat.
While a third of an inch really doesn't make a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, it does highlight just how compact this keyboard is. It's roughly the size of what you'd get on your bog standard 13-inch laptop, which is not common for mechanical keyboards in the first place. Vissles officially lists it as a 75% size keyboard.
But that smaller footprint doesn't take away from how premium the keyboard feels as a whole. If we're being very candid, some other Vissles products we've reviewed have been pretty bad, so it's a pleasant surprise to see them move into something this high quality. The keyboard itself is made out of a solid aluminum frame that just feels nice.
The keys themselves feel equally as nice, with high quality printing and a soft, fingerprint resistant coating on concave keycaps. There's also full RGB lighting under each key, in case you needed to match this keyboard with your setup or just want some soft white lighting while you're typing in the dark. It's also exceptionally rare to see RGB on wireless mechanical keyboards, and doubly so in this price point.
Excellent typing experience
Vissles has a lot to say about their keyboard as far as specs go. This part can get a little dry, but if you're into the nitty gritty about how this keyboard feels, we'll go into it.
The switches that Vissles is using are custom optical switches (no old school switches here!) with an actuation distance of 1.2mm of pre-travel and a total of 2.5mm of travel. What this means, compared to standard mechanical keyboards that typically have around 4mm of travel, is that you'll feel the “click” of the keyboard faster and with generally less force to press the key. You're still getting the tactile feedback and the sound of a mechanical keyboard, albeit with a much lower profile design that's more in line with your standard laptop typing experience.
This is partly made possible because of those optical switches. Instead of a standard mechanical switch that triggers the keypress, there's an actual light beam in the keys that registers inputs quicker. Not only does this have design advantages, but it should theoretically increase the lifespan of the keyboard, as Vissles claims those optical switches wear out slower than regular mechanical contacts.
If you don't care about the technical details of why the LP85 feels the way it does, no worries. It's a great typing keyboard, and a good gaming board.
For reference, I do a lot of typing on a Corsair keyboard with Cherry MX blue switches, plus an HP Spectre and MacBook Pro that have similar slim laptop keyboard designs. I like all of them in different ways, but I've always been a very big fan of blue switches. However, if you've used blue switches before, you know that they're incredibly loud, extremely clicky, and there's a lot of travel to deal with; they're deliberate switches, not fast switches. I can generally hammer out an article a little quicker on my laptop than I can with my full keyboard because of the lower travel, but I vastly prefer how the blue switches feel. Make sense?
For how picky I am with mechanical switches, I genuinely really like how the LP85 types. It brings a lot of (but not all) the click and sound from blue switches into that streamlined, fast laptop design. It's not quite as loud, but there's enough click there to sound like an old school typewriter when you pick up speed, and the key presses need enough extra push that you're not accidentally tapping on keys mid-sentence. In no time at all I was typing faster on the Vissles keyboard than anything else I have laying around, which I was not expecting.
It's not perfect, and the louder sounds can be a turn off for late night sessions. Gaming on it still lags just a bit behind a real mechanical keyboard, partly because of its smaller size and partly because it's easier to make some accidental presses when you're panicking for your grenade hotkey, but overall this thing delivers on both the productivity and recreational sides without breaking a sweat.
Worth it?
I'm a little worried that Vissles has created a product that's too much for a casual typist and not enough for an enthusiast, but if you're looking for something that sits perfectly in the middle, the LP85 is an absolutely fantastic keyboard. As someone that prefers to game on a (loud) keyboard and mouse but still needs a somewhat professional and more discrete setup for working, Vissles has delivered.
I don't think I'd ever replace my full keyboards with something like this, but as a complement or something to toss in a bag for use on a laptop or tablet? It's a fantastic little device that's worth every penny. The RGB is just a bonus.
You can also pick between Mac and Windows layouts in both white and black, giving you a lot of flexibility no matter what device you're trying to use this with. It'll pair up to three of your devices and remember all three in separate profiles, so you really can use it with your desktop, laptop, and phone without much hassle, which is really cool.
For just $99 on Kickstarter, it should definitely make your list next time you're looking at keyboards, no matter how you're planning on using it.
Vissles LP85 mechanical keyboard | $99 | Vissles, Kickstarter
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