Software

There is no dedicated software driver support for the 1STPLAYER Black Sir Lite K7 keyboard—all functionality is hardware based. As such, I have chosen to combine the Driver and Performance pages into one.

Performance

The keyboard supports N-key rollover USB out of the box wirelessly, which tested successfully using Aqua's test. Switch Hitter also confirmed no chatter with these keys.

Functionality is a piece of cake in that all you have to do is plug in the USB dongle and turn on the keyboard. The two come paired out of the box, and Windows 10 nearly recognized the keyboard immediately once native setup was complete. The TKL form factor is useful for gaming, where you may want to have a mouse closer, or simply for ergonomics to have your hands at a more natural angle when typing. The choice of the Outemu Blue switches does make it harder for quick responses and doubletaps, however, especially since clicky switches have different reset and actuation points and the tactile point is between the two. Losing the numpad means it won't work as well for number crunching, but surely, you knew this before making the purchasing decision! 1STPLAYER also has some pre-programmed functions tied to the Fn row, including media and program shortcuts, which come in handy by using Fn and the respective key.

The CIY switch socket design is a claimed feature here but, as mentioned before, it pretty much failed on my sample. So that is a big negative, and the remaining big feature is the wireless connectivity which, I am happy to report, worked great. There are definite challenges to having a peripheral on a 2.4 GHz network, especially if you have a WiFi signal in the spectrum and other microwave devices nearby. Many "smart" devices can be configured to switch to the channel of least overlap, but there will still be issues if you are not doing so manually and setting each device to stick to a different channel. As it turned out, even with some smart bulbs nearby on the 2.4 GHz WiFi network connected to my router, the keyboard worked flawlessly not only within line-of-sight to the PC ~8 meters away, but also in a different room with a wall in between.

Battery life was okay, but not as good as I would have liked. From a full charge, I was able to get an average of 20 hours of typical use with the keyboard connected at all times and intermittent typing and gaming alike. A lot of this comes with the lack of any backlighting and only two indicator LEDs instead of the usual four for such wireless keyboards. The 200 mAh battery is disappointing, however, as I still have to charge the keyboard every 3-4 days, which makes this a hard sell for office goers who may be used to membrane keyboards or chiclet keyboards that last over a month on a single charge.


As we saw before, 1STPLAYER uses the Outemu Blue (from Gaote Corporation) mechanical switches with the Black Sir Lite K7 keyboard. The force-travel diagram above shows that these are as close to a Cherry MX Clone as any other. Both are medium-actuation force tactile and clicky switches and have similar designs throughout (note that the updated version of the switch with the walls around the stem is functionally the same as far as this section is concerned). The Outemu Blue is rated at a 50 +/-5 gf actuation point with a peak force of 60 gf, and a standard 2/4 mm for tactile feedback and total travel distance respectively as well. Actuation ends up closer to 2.5 mm, and actuation force is harder to quantify because the tactile event occurs before it. For what it is worth, the average actuation force was estimated to be 49.50 cN across twenty random switches I tested, and bottoming out felt just fine as well since nothing in particular stood out. The space bar switch here with the weirdly different switch had a heavier spring coming in at closer to 60 cN than 50 cN.


As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the 1STPLAYER Black Sir Lite K7
sample at ~105 WPM as it comes out of the box. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile and clicky switches. I did bottom out, which is not hard to do given the relatively light spring, but touch typing is definitely possible via the tactile and clicky feedback in these switches.