Over the past decade mechanical keyboards have seen a phoenix like revival in their popularity and usage attributable to keyboard enthusiasts and more recently the PC gaming crowd. Mechanical key switches are portrayed as superior to their cheaper membrane type counterparts due to a myriad of reasons which have been detailed here. Early on in the rise of their popularity most mechanical keyboards (abbreviated to mechs henceforth) were generally using key-switches made by the company CHERRY which was one of the original patent holders of the technology, since the lapse of the patent and the introduction of various other players in the field there has been a dramatic increase in the different companies producing key-switches which has led to a drop in the price of the keyboard. Initially the price of a traditional 104-key layout board was ~8,999/- and overtime with the introduction of various competitors the price has come down to ~3,000/- and lower.
The ReDragon Vara is a part of this steady influx of mechanical keyboards that have been introduced into the market. A compact, full size 104-key ANSI standard layout board with a single colour back-light option. So without further ado let us get to the reviewing.
PACKAGE
The Vara comes in a spartan box with the bare minimums to kick-start your experience. The box itself gives us an overview of the keyboard along with a few cursory claims from the marketing department.
The keyboard comes snugly wrapped in a thick layer of bubble wrap. The only extras you get in the box are a Quick Start booklet along with a keycap remover. There is nothing more in there, no software CD because the keyboard is built on the plug-n-play philosophy being a budget oriented peripheral, the USB cable is fixed.
DESIGN
As mentioned in the preface, the Vara is a traditional 104-key full size layout board, the keyboard is a simple design with no extra flourishes or media keys to clutter the layout. The keyboard is a bare-bones open design with no plastic shrouding or top cover. Keys are laid out in the traditional ANSI layout with the omission of the right WINDOWS key in favour of a FN (Function mod) key, there are three status LED’s in the top-right corner to indicate whether CAPS LOCK, SCROLL LOCK or NUM LOCK are activated.
The construction materials used for the keyboard is a combination of aluminium and ABS-plastic. The biggest metal component is the face-plate of the keyboard which comprises the top of the keyboard, this is connected to the outer plastic shell of the keyboard via couple of Phillips screws threaded through the PCB. This simple construction method ensures the rigidity of the keyboard and imparts a premium finish to the most visible aspect of the keyboard. The key-switches are mounted on this plate, with the individual per-key LED shining through a tiny slit. This allows for a good level of illumination, makes the LED’s immune to death via constant keycap hits and affords a modicum of liquid spill resistance. It also makes the keyboard very easy to maintain and keep clean because you can simply remove all the keycaps, take a dry brush and / or compressed air can and go to town.
The plastic used all around is of a decent thickness and quality, you do not get any premium finish or soft-touch like treatment which you can expect in more expensive designs but factoring in the price-point this design is hitting, the quality is more than acceptable. No flexing or warping was noticeable when handling the keyboard. The bottom of the keyboard is composed of four feet, two rubber and a foldable plastic front pair to adjust the height of the keyboard. The bottom also has a couple of cut-outs that are to drain any accidental spills. The keycaps are double-shot injection moulded ABS plastic pieces which means that over-time actively used keycaps will start exhibiting signs of shine, which has already started happening on one end of the spacebar of the keyboard. The font used on the keycaps is not too aggressive but it is easily legible.
Finally we come to the hardware which makes the keyboard as cheap as possible without sacrificing too much on the actual user experience, the key-switches used. The switches used on this board are the OUTEMU Blue variant which are cheap clones of CHERRY MX-Blue. They have a tactile-clicky feedback and take a bit more force to actuate than a linear switch like the MX-Red / MX-Black. My experience with these switches has been rather pleasant, the feedback is more pronounced than my older TVS Gold CHERRY MX-Blue based keyboard but only time will tell if this is placebo or an actual difference. The switch stem design is compatible with all standard CHERRY keycaps.
On the point of keeping costs as close to a minimum as possible, the keyboard has a simple plastic sheathed two metre long cable with a velcro cable manager and gold connector. There is no wrist-rest and this can or cannot be a deal breaker, on the one hand a rest adds to the cost of the hardware but the counter-argument is that it makes typing a much more enjoyable experience along with giving the end-user the choice to use whatever is more comfortable. No extra frills like audio-jacks or USB ports are provided on the keyboard either but that can be forgiven by the price-tag.
USAGE
The Vara is a plug-n-play peripheral requiring a minimal set-up which according to the user manual is compatible with Windows XP / 7 / 8 although I used it on Windows 10. It eschews software based functions and dedicated media keys in favour of tying several standard keys to a FN (Function Mod) key. This allows a user to manipulate media programs like VLC and control the audio levels, open the default mail app et al. The FN key is also necessary to lock the WINDOWS key, a gaming oriented feature and to tweak the back-light brightness and alternate between the three lighting modes offered, on, off and breathing and the speed of the transition.
Due to having no support software to go along with it, the Vara cannot record and assign special or macro function to individual keys which again may or may not be a deal-breaker depending on your requirements. Personally I play mostly tactical and arcade FPS with a couple of RTS, RPG titles for good measure, the keyboard never stumbled and even in marathon sessions I did not notice any fatigue using these keys.
I tested the keyboard for key roll over (nKRO in short, n denoting the number of keys that can be registered at a given time) using Aquakey Test software, a very handy tool. The keyboard is practically capable of registering every key-press combo that can be thrown at it
The keys were also tested for latency and chatter using Elite keyboards switch hitter diagnostic and the results are not too shabby, the lowest recorded latency being ~8ms and no chatter was detected.
P.S. — It was noticed that sometimes during the testing individual keys stop responding on the test software, this was remedied by disconnecting and reconnecting the device.
CONCLUSION
The Vara has set out in a sea of competition with the gaming peripheral market in a constant state of flux but even so the keyboard has put forth a strong showing. Its major deficits being the feature(s) it does not aspire to cover.
The keyboard was purchased for ~3,499/- in an Amazon Lightning Deal @amazon.in. The local distributor has covered it with a years worth of warranty, let us hope (touch wood) that we never have to call upon the same.
PROS
- Good build quality
- Uniform back-light and key-switch performance
- Decent layout and feature set
- Plug-n-play without requirement of drivers
CONS
- No macro support because of no software suite
UGLY
The T3K CURRY 
Bhaiya I need your help, my phone isn’t working, I need suggestions.
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Surprised to see a keycap remover. Was quite surprised when I saw there was no remover in my k95 box 😐
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