Adesso wanted a piece of the typewriter-inspired keyboard pie, but others got a fork in before them. In fact, Adesso and AZIO offer near-identical products at near-identical prices, so there is really very little to distinguish between the two. AZIO did get in earlier, and offers another color scheme as well as some more accessories, but at a slightly higher price point. On the flip side, the Adesso version uses better, more consistent switches that are also 10 cN lighter in actuation force. So this ends up being the biggest difference among the two - if you fancy a heavier clicky switch, look at AZIO. If you want a Cherry MX Blue clone and possibly a better-feeling one than the original, Adesso has your back.

If you are at the point where you are solely deciding between the two, you already prefer these particular aesthetics, which means you should just go for it. At the $99.99 mark, the original Datamancer is well out of consideration given their keycap set alone begins at $125. You do get a solid keyboard behind these aesthetics, both inside and out.

But if the aesthetics are not a major selling point, there are better options for the money - be it in terms of build quality, stock keycaps, backlighting, or more productivity features, including dedicated media buttons and key assignment and macro recording. It does not help either that the keycaps on this typewriter-inspired keyboard do not contribute positively to the typing experience, and perhaps it is to the typewriter inspiration where the fault lies - I never was comfortable with a typewriter in the few days I used one out of curiosity anyway. Perhaps this is subjective, but as with most things in a keyboard review, I can only mention what I felt. Overall, the AKB-636UB gets the same score and recommendation as the AZIO MK Retro, with the same caveat that the award is mostly to do with the novel aesthetics than anything else. But if more companies (Nanoxia already has one too) keep doing this, it is going to get really hard for every one of these companies.