Closer Examination

The FiiO KB3 happens to be the third 75% form factor keyboard I have reviewed in a row which is perhaps a testament to the growing popularity of this keyboard size. You get not only the dedicated arrows keys that 65% keyboards give you but also an extra row up top for the Fn keys and some more room on the right of the keyboard that companies choose to fill with keys or other features such as OLED screens and rotary wheels. In this case, FiiO has chosen to have a dedicated volume control wheel jutting out the side such that you can rotate it from the top or side courtesy the nicely knurled aluminium cover. There are 81 keys in total here with Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Menu, Home, and End missing from a standard 87-key TKL form factor. In return, you have a keyboard that takes up less room on your desk and allows you to have more room for the mouse as well as naturally position your hands in line with your shoulder width for improved typing ergonomics. There was room for a 82nd key here at the top but FiiO decided to have the brand logo there instead. We still get indicator LEDs though, so I can't complain too much. The color scheme of the keyboard is interesting with the aluminium-magnesium alloy frame given a black anodized finish, the ABS plastic case going for a darker black, and the keycaps having a black/gray color scheme in addition to being translucent. FiiO had showcased prototypes of the KB3 at trade shows with a second, opaque two-tone keycap set which seems to no longer be an option. Instead, expect to have plenty of lighting on offer with these keycaps, but the legends themselves are going to remain opaque since they are pad printed on top. General secondary legends are alongside the primary ones at the top with keyboard-specific functions displayed below. There is decent contrast for the legends to be easily visible without the LEDs on, but things get worse when you have any RGB lighting effects active.


Turning the keyboard around, we see the ABS plastic case given patterned lines during the injection molding process. There is the expected plastic sticker here but positioned at an angle to match the design and here we get the Jade Audio logo to complete the branding exercise. There are four rubber pads on the top and bottom to help add friction, and we also get two sets of keyboard feet for added elevation angles. These feet have rubber pads on the bottom for additional grip too.


The wired version of the KB3 logically only supports wired connectivity and there is a large cutout in the middle on the side facing away from the user, where you will find the Type-C port used for this purpose. FiiO also provides two USB Type-A ports thanks to the use of a USB hub inside the keyboard, these are USB 2.0 ports, and you will need to ideally use a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port directly on your motherboard to ensure no power or data bottlenecks anywhere here. The Type-C input feeds these two ports, the keyboard, and the USB DAC/amp in the keyboard too. The provided cable fits in easily, and we see there is obviously room for aftermarket cables if you wish to jazz things up. The cable is fairly simple with a plastic sleeve in black to match this black cased keyboard and is the usual 6' in length.


On the left side of the keyboard is where we find a 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm output from the DAC/amp inside. The 3.5 mm port is a TRRS combo jack allowing you to plug in headphones and earphones with a 3.5 mm TRS single-ended cable or headsets with a 3.5 mm TRRS cable that also allows for microphone input in addition to headphone output. The 4.4 mm connector is a balanced TRRS output only which can provide more power compared to the 3.5 mm port. In fact, the KB3 uses a modified version of the FiiO KA13 portable DAC/amp we saw separately before. This is permanently placed in desktop mode, which makes sense given the wired-only use case here, and can provide at least 290/500 mW at 16 Ω off the 3.5/4.4 mm outputs, respectively, which scales well enough to 170/550 mW at 32 Ω and 19.5/78 mW at 300 Ω off the same outputs. This is plenty of power for even some more demanding IEMs and high impedance headphones and, I dare say, the vast majority of end users will find it enough for their personal audio needs. I had no problems using the keyboard with IEMs such as the FiiO FH5s as well as planar magnetic headphones such as the FiiO FT5. There is no line out or preamp feature here in case you were wondering.


A wider look from the same side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which I would classify as medium profile and could benefit from a wrist rest if you are not used to touch typing with hands hovering over the keys at all times. The keycaps are floating in nature owing to use of the lower profile frame on top, although the keycaps themselves go for a modified OEM profile with some rows being shorter than usual to where the provided metal wire keycap puller is easier to use to remove the keycaps for replacement and/or cleaning the keyboard. The keycaps are made of thick ABS plastic (average wall thickness 1.22 mm) with what appear to be pad printed legends that may show signs of wear sooner than later as well as being opaque as seen above. The keycap material itself is translucent and will allow a lot of light through from the LEDs underneath the switch.


The FiiO KB3 only comes with a single switch option in the form of the Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellow switch. These are installed in a north-facing configuration, meaning some lower profile aftermarket keycap sets may not work out as well as most others. Note also the steel plate used here but with a thick foam sheet and a thinner IXPE foam switch sheet used between the plate and the PCB. These will reduce the typical pinging sound off a steel plate in addition to dampening the bottoming out sound signature as a whole. The larger keycaps use plate mounted stabilizers which are lightly lubed to help mitigate the mushy feeling they could otherwise have. I like the yellow and gray colors used on the stabilizers to match the switches and keycaps on the keyboard.


The switch remover tool is handy to remove the hot-swappable switches off the PCB where we see a foam pad on the space bar key spacing as well as the use of a 5-pin mechanical switch socket with the aforementioned IXPE switch foam sheet. There is also an SMD RGB LED associated with each switch although, as we saw above, these will result in accent lighting only with the opaque keycap legends used here. The Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellow switch is a 3-pin linear switch characterized by its yellow cross-point stem. It also has a clear top housing to aid with lighting and an opaque white bottom housing.