Closer Examination

As we saw before, the Das Keyboard 5Q comes in a foam wrap to keep it pristine and dust-free out of the box. Removing it, we get our first good look at the keyboard, and it is on the heavier side of average as far as full-size keyboards go. For one, there are a few extra keys (and a large volume wheel) here. Secondly, there are also a lot of RGB LEDs, and the case itself is larger than average to accommodate everything. Lastly, there is an aluminium frame on top that adds to the mass as well. The volume wheel at the corner is accommodated via a cutout in the case, and the bezels are average in size. The keyboard only comes in an all-black color scheme, so what you see above is what you get.

The Num Pad has secondary legends below the primary ones, with the alphanumeric section swapping them around in the number-key row. All the legends are biased towards the center of the keycap top, however, and so much so that the legends tend to be small for the caps to be able to fit two legends where necessary. This indicates that the backlighting is from the center as well, and it does result in quite a bit of unused space. There are also some secondary legends on the front of the keycaps, but these are not as common as the others. The legends have a clean typeface, but the small font size hardly has that matter in this context.


Flipping the keyboard around, we see a large company logo etched into the plastic above a metal badge with certification info for the keyboard. There are two small rubber pads on the bottom, and two more are associated with the keyboard feet at the top. The feet themselves are part of a raised section to provide for a built-in elevation to the keyboard, with more options available if you raise the feet in question. Note that a small batch of the Das Keyboard 5Q, including this very review sample, shipped with plastic feet without rubber pads. If you have one, contact the company, and they will ship you replacement feet, which take a few seconds to install. The correct feet also have rubber pads at the bottom when in use, as should be the case for an expensive keyboard in 2018.


Installing the wrist rest is very simple because of magnets in the keyboard body and wrist rest alike. Simply flip over both to figure out where the connection points are, and connect the two. This can easily be done with the right side up as well, and the magnetic connection is strong enough to where the wrist rest will not dislodge during typical use.

The keyboard has a non-removable cable coming out the front center and is braided with black sleeving that makes it look and feel good in use. It terminates in a gold-plated male USB Type-A connector, and USB 3.1 Gen 1 is recommended to ensure there is no power limitation to the RGB lighting even though USB 2.0 will technically suffice as well.


Looking from the side, we see some form of side lighting as well, and we will check it out in more detail in due time. The keycaps themselves have an OEM profile, and the various rows are thus sculpted accordingly. They have a floating design, which allows for easier cleaning, but can cause more light bleed, which may or may not be to your liking. The keycaps themselves are thin ABS plastic with an average wall thickness of 0.94 mm, so expect them to develop a shine due to finger oils with use. The legends are laser etched (top printed) or pad printed (front facing and not translucent), which will have these wear out quicker relative to other application techniques, including dye sublimation and doubleshot injection.

When asked why Das Keyboard went with these on what is marketed as a flagship keyboard, they said that this helps keep prices reasonable, and they will be bringing out a doubleshot injected keycap set for those wanting to go that route. I would have rather seen doubleshot injected keycaps be the stock option out of the box, but that accessory option is still better than nothing. The Das Keyboard 5Q does not use Cherry MX-style mechanical switches, so it does not enjoy the same compatibility as most mechanical keyboards on the market today when it comes to the many aftermarket keycap sets.


Speaking of the switches, here they are. Das Keyboard, as with a growing number of companies in this space today, are opting to go with their own branded switches to get more control on inventory and pricing, as well as attempt to offer something more or different than the usual Cherry MX range of mechanical switches. With the Das Keyboard 5Q, they have gone with their tactile Gamma Zulu switches that are manufactured by Omron to Das Keyboard's design. These resemble the Logitech Romer-G and CREATIVE's PRES switches in that all three are effectively manufactured by Omron and use a similar design, but Das Keyboard says these are different in more ways as well. For one, the tooling used is exclusive to them, and the switch has a higher rated lifetime. They also claim that these have a higher travel distance, but at 3.5 mm, it is the same as the CREATIVE PRES switch. Lighting is indeed via the center of the switch, and the company claims these are up to twice as bright in "enhanced brightness" mode. The larger keys also use a modified version of Cherry stabilizers which work alright here, but the overall typing experience feel is still mushy, especially for the space bar key.