Introduction

darkFlash—yes, that's how it is spelled—is a Taiwanese PC brand established in 2016. It may be unfamiliar to most of our readers, as it was for me too, but I understand the brand has been getting popular in Asia to the point where it is now targeting a more global audience with its lineup of high value products. This is also why darkFlash representatives reached out to us for product reviews including a case and CPU cooler already. Today is the turn of one of its keyboards and thanks to darkFlash for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp.


darkFlash has quite a few keyboards in its lineup at this time although one immediately struck me when choosing what to review. The GD100 is a welcome change from all the smaller form factor keyboards I've been reviewing lately and still manages to be not just another typical keyboard in terms of form factor and design. As seen in the preview photo above, the darkFlash GD100 is a full-size keyboard but in the 95% form factor in that you have a single bank of keys together to save some space on your desk and help with some ergonomic typing. The GD100 also comes in different color schemes including a traditional all black, the "Starry Blue" seen above, a "Milk & Brown" going for a more vintage white and gray two-tone colorway, and the so-called "Brown Sugar" that I went with for this review sample. This is a budget-friendly keyboard which looks fancy enough to come off more expensive in the look and feel, which is always a good thing. Let's see what features we end up with for the GD100 in this review which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

For whatever reason, the darkFlash GD100 was sent my way with the shipping labels directly attached to the product box itself. Thankfully the darkFlash representative was helpful in taking some photos of a spare unit on hand which shows the brand logo and product name on the front along with a render of the keyboard in two of the colors it comes in. The keyboard specs are listed on the back along with salient features and then we see the use of a two-piece packaging with an inner box that can be removed from either side as seen above.


The inner box is all white cardboard with more branding. A double flap on the side helps keep the contents in place during transit and inside we see the keyboard underneath a hard plastic dust cover with the various accessories to the side or underneath. darkFlash includes a user manual going over the setup and pre-programmed functions on the GD100 which is useful to see since there is no software support or any other 1st-party customization. The QR code leads to the company website only and there is no online copy for me to link to. We also get two spare switches of the same type that is used on the keyboard, a set of four replacement keycaps, a USB Type-C to Type-A cable as well as a metal wire style keycap puller and switch remover combo tool to finish this unboxing experience.