Performance

There is full N-key rollover USB here out of the box, as Aqua's test confirms. Similarly, no key chatter was detected on any of the keys using Switch Hitter.

As mentioned previously, the HV-KB390L has a wave lighting effect out of the box, and there is single-color backlighting here on the keyboard which HAVIT calls an ice blue in color. The flickering here is a camera artifact because the transition's animation does not correspond to any of my camera's frame-rate options, so it is more a limitation on my end than the keyboard itself.


To see how uniform the backlighting is, I set the lighting effect to static, which can be done via onboard controls (Fn + F11) or the software driver. Similarly, brightness was first set to 100% and then lowered (onboard options are via Fn + -/_ and Fn + =/+) to see where any discrepancies occur. At 100% brightness, all legends are uniformly backlit wherever applicable - we see that in the absence of dedicated indicator lights, HAVIT has integrated them with the respective switches such that they simply do not light up when off. This will not go well with those suffering from OCD, but the main thing to notice here is the light bleed that occurs to where you can still see the Caps Lock legend because of lighting from neighboring keys. When brightness is reduced to 70%, the secondary and tertiary legends start to get affected, and this only gets worse the lower you go.






Here are a few more videos to demonstrate some of the available lighting effects, including the curious "Running Mold" and "Shade Mold", with their speed and travel direction also changed around and mentioned as such. I am not convinced that this ice blue color is the best choice for a single-color-backlit keyboard, although the built-in lighting effects are better than I expected, going by the driver's options. Again, take a look at the manual if you want to see how to control these onboard, but I will reiterate that the driver is the more convenient route here.


The switches used are one of the most interesting things about this keyboard, with the Kailh Choc PG1350 helping HAVIT net a 7 mm reduction in height relative to other switches in combination with the lower profile keycaps. Looking at the force-travel diagram, we see that these Choc PG1350 Blue switches are rated for an actuation force of 55 g (54 cN) +/- 10 g, pre-travel of 1.5 mm +/- 0.5 mm, and tactile force of 60 g (59 cN) +/- 10 g with a total travel distance of 3.0 mm. I ended up loving these switches a lot, and they were incredibly consistent with an average measured actuation force of 55.04 g across twenty randomly chosen switched. The switches are also lubed out of the factory, which helps with their smooth travel, and the tactile feedback on both the upstroke and downstroke is nice when typing very fast.


As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the HAVIT HV-KB390L sample at ~115 WPM. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile and clicky switches. I did bottom out here, even with the relatively heavy switches employed. I tend to prefer switches that actuate at around 55-60 cN, so these were right up my alley. The sound profile is of a higher pitch than MX Blue switches or similar, and while I personally liked it, I can definitely see where others may not, so hopefully the clip above helps.