I dare say that if I had received the replacement unit of the Ajazz Zinc to begin with, this review would have ended more positively. Unfortunately, my first review sample had some quality issues that did sour things somewhat. The solder job on an internal connector as well as rusted screws didn't help, but a small piece of the aluminium case having broken off was worse. Based on the sent replacement unit, it was clearly a one-off given there should not have been a permanent placement of the aluminium I/O cover on the zinc case at all. The other thing of note is that if I had not taken the keyboard apart, I would have never found these issues. As such, I am inclined to give Ajazz the benefit of the doubt in saying that this instance should not really affect your purchasing decision. It still needs to be noted here, however.

There are a few question marks still regarding the Ajazz Zinc. The name is merited given the use of a Zinc alloy case; however, there is no mention of how much zinc there even is. Zinc alloys have been used for accents and cases by others before, and it does add a different finish compared to the usual plastic and aluminium, as well as the more exotic wooden/acrylic cases popping up all the more lately. The top plate here is an aluminium alloy. As such, we do have more expensive base materials compared to an average keyboard. The adoption of thick PBT keycaps with doubleshot-injected legends adds to the cost too, as does the fairly rare 65% form factor, which adds to the portability factor in conjunction with the detachable cable. The cable and keyboard both use micro-USB rather than the Type-C we see more often than not these days, however. This and the Bluetooth 3.0 for the wireless connectivity reveal the age of the keyboard. Now, I will mention again that the keyboard has a Bluetooth 5.1 compliant transceiver on board, but the company and its reseller network all mention the use of the older protocol. Not that it matter much since Ajazz has put in a relatively massive 3000 mAh battery capacity for the form factor. This results in battery life measured in weeks at a time under normal use, especially if you don't use the single color white backlighting on offer here. Even when you do, these LEDs consumes less power than the more typical SMD RGB LEDs, and there are fewer LEDs compared to the typical TKL or full-size keyboard, too. Charging does take longer than I'd like as it ends up being an overnight affair typically.

The feature set as a whole is quite good, and the sub-$100 price point is more than decent value for typists who prioritize a smaller form factor keyboard with white backlighting and good build quality. There are four separate Cherry MX switch options as well, and pre-programmed functions for productivity as well as some basic customization add to the user experience. The 65% form factor also addresses one of the major complaints people have with the 60% keyboard and offers dedicated arrow keys as well as some other keys from the Ins-Pd Dn cluster. This ends up being quite similar to an average laptop keyboard, too, which will help cut down the entry barrier further for many. I can definitely see the Ajazz Zinc being carried around and paired wirelessly with multiple devices on the go, and the lower mass here helps this use case further. There are far worse options for the money, and there is enough here to interest many, I reckon.