The Wet 75 is a standard sight on the r/MechanicalKeyboards subreddit, a neighborhood that nerds out concerning the thock of a keyboard and, naturally, enjoyable keycaps. It looks like each week or so, somebody posts about their new buy from WobKey, and each time, the consensus revolves round how good of a funds possibility it’s. That is as a result of, for underneath $150, the Wet 75 has each characteristic you can need in a mechanical keyboard right now. There are just a few unusual design decisions, however I lastly bought my fingers on one, and I’m impressed by this keyboard.
The Wet 75 is offered in three flavors: Lite, Commonplace, and Professional. The Lite retails for $129 and contains HMX Violet linear switches, a polypropylene plate, and a 3,500-mAh battery. The Professional—the mannequin I examined—contains Kailh Cocoa linear switches, an FR4 plate, RGB lighting, and two batteries totaling 7,000 mAh for $159. The Commonplace is in between and prices $139.
Poppy, Crisp, and Clean
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
Typing on the Wet 75 feels and sounds unbelievable. It has that poppy, crisp typing sound you see in movies on-line, and typing feels each bit as energetic and gratifying. I assume the “Wet 75” identify comes from the typing sound, since its softer and rounded sound profile seems like rain falling.
The linear “Cocoa” switches are manufactured by Kailh for the Wet 75. These switches have a comparatively gentle working drive of 45 grams, which is akin to a Cherry MX Pink, and use a polyoxymethylene stem (POM) and Nylon housing, which helps to create a marbly typing sound and a clean typing really feel. The switches are responsive, popping again up shortly after being pressed, and have hardly any scratch, even when pressed down slowly. The stems of those switches have little wobble backward and forward or entrance to again, making keypresses really feel sturdy.
The stabilizers on this keyboard come pre-lubed and, regardless of being plate-mounted as a substitute of printed-circuit-board–mounted, they really feel unbelievable. Whereas I might discuss how clean and quiet they’re, it’s simpler to say that I didn’t even discover they have been there when typing. These stabilizers are tuned completely and don’t require any work out of the field. That mentioned, I think about that, like most plate-mounted stabilizers, they may require a reapplication of lube after some time.
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
The gasket-mount system holding the keyboard collectively is admittedly spectacular. It feels bouncy and smooth with out seeming too muted or mushy. The dampening from the gaskets is constant throughout all the keys, solely changing into considerably stiffer across the edges.
Finicky Performance
This keyboard has some quirks that, whereas not enormous, may be annoying. Generally, when urgent Alt+Tab on this keyboard, or every other key combos involving the Tab key, I’ve to press the mixture twice for it to work. I’ve resolved these oddities by turning the keyboard on and off.
Usually, certainly one of my favourite options on a mechanical keyboard is assist for QMK and VIA. QMK, brief for Quantum Mechanical Keyboard, is an open supply firmware that enables for nearly limitless customization of a keyboard’s structure. VIA is a system for customizing particular QMK-compatible keyboards utilizing an in-browser interface. These permit for easy and environment friendly customization of mechanical keyboards, which means a QMK-enabled keyboard could have long-term assist with out reliance on proprietary software program that will cease being up to date after just a few years.
