Introduction

Another day, another new company added to our review database! Hexgears is a relatively new company that shares personnel with the mechanical keyboard world's darling Input Club, which impressed us with the Kira keyboard. Hexgears is perhaps most known for their wireless X1 keyboard that was a low profile wireless mechanical keyboard targeting PC and MacOS users alike, but not necessarily with the best execution. Since then, the company has worked on raising brand awareness in the US and elsewhere, with manufacturing still done in Asia, in collaboration with Input Club and Kailh as it comes to switches. We take a look at their Impulse keyboard, and thanks to the company for sending us a review sample.


The Hexgears Impulse was one of the products we saw at their CES 2019 booth, and a keyboard I have wanted to examine for a while now. It is available in two versions—the Impulse monochrome that comes in white backlighting only, and the Impulse RGB which has RGB backlighting. There are also two stock keycap options, including the increasingly popular pudding-style keycaps and a two-tone set that works better with no/white backlighting based on my seeing the keyboards in person. I have here the Impulse RGB with the pudding keycaps, as seen in the image above, but the review should otherwise be a good indicator of the Impulse monochrome as well. We begin the review, as always, with a look at the specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Packaging for the Hexgears Impulse is fairly straightforward with a cardboard box and an aesthetic wrap that only has the Hexgears logo on the front, as well as the back, along with the company name. It is on the sides that we get more product-specific information, with the name, a small render, and contents all marked here. A seal and two flaps on an edge help keep the contents inside in place during transit.


Opening the box, we see the keyboard in a foam wrap all around for further protection. The keyboard cable is non-detachable and contained inside the cardboard compartment to the top. The accessories that come with the Impulse are all found underneath and in the compartment above, which include a warranty card, an instruction manual that goes through all the pre-programmed onboard controls (online copy here), and a keycap puller. The latter is a red plastic ring-style puller and has the potential to scratch the keycaps when used. I would have preferred a metal wire-style puller instead, but let's reserve judgment until we see the price point of the keyboard. At any rate, having it included is better than none at all!