Packaging and Accessories

I had to go back to the equivalent page of my Ducky One 2 SF review to make sure the same packaging wasn't used for the Ducky One 3 SF, and that's a testament to Ducky's packaging designer doing an excellent job with the continually consistent design language of the brand. As we saw before, the One 3 SF comes in different color options, but they all ship in this same box that's on the smaller side of average owing to the smaller form factor keyboard inside. The base color is now black, and the various geometrical patterns are tweaked from before. The company logo and product name are on the front, with the latter employing an artistic rendition of One 3. This continues on the back, and those glossy letters don't make it easy to photograph, with specifications for the keyboard and contact information for Ducky itself. Some of the salient features are covered here and on the sides, where two double flaps keep the contents inside in place on their way to you.


Opening the box, we see the keyboard snugly wrapped in cardboard all around for protection. It comes underneath a molded plastic cover, which does double duty as a dust cover when the keyboard is not used, as well as a wax paper wrap to keep it free of dust out of the box. Underneath the keyboard is the first set of accessories consisting of a warranty card and quick start guide folded into one, as well as some stickers. You may want to look at the detailed online multi-language user manual available under the downloads tab of the product page though, especially as it goes over the onboard functionality of the One 3 SF very well, cutting down the entry barrier to smaller keyboards such as this one. Some neat illustrations on the bottom of the cardboard also go over mechanical switches, and the two types available with the One 3 SF. The other accessories are found in a separate compartment to the top.


In what is a clear sign of things to come, Ducky includes a branded metal switch remover. This one uses much thicker steel, making other such tools seem like a toy. On the flip side, it's not as easy to use given you will need to press in hard to get the prongs close enough to remove the switches from a hot-swap socket. I'd like Ducky to have these bent further at the factory to assist in this regard. All these accessories come individually bagged in plastic, which is another venue for improvement if Ducky wants to cut down on plastic consumption. This also goes for the separate keycap puller, which is of the metal-wire type with a large rubberized base to hold onto that is branded as well as colored to match the keyboard, at least on this particular version.


The final set of accessories includes the expected detachable keyboard USB Type-A to Type-C cable. Once again there is some customization, with the plastic housing and cable tie somewhat matching the keyboard, although it would be more fitting for the all-yellow versions of the One 3 SF. Nothing is generic about the replacement keycaps, though. These are specific to the DayBreak colorway, and Ducky includes 11 of these. It does seem to be an accessory set that does not account for the form factor since we see a numpad Enter keycap that is obviously useless for the One 3 SF. These are also predominantly in that off-yellow color scheme, which comes off similar to a lime yellow, and doubleshot injected PBT keycaps without any backlighting support. There are three novelty keycaps as well, including one with a rarely seen circular geometry.