Closer Examination

The keyboard has a wax paper wrap around it which, when removed, gives us our first good look at the product. Without an internal battery, the CD108 BT looks and feels just like most of iKBC's other keyboards that use removable cables to begin with. Indeed, most of the Bluetooth controls are out of sight from the front and sides, which is generally the case throughout with the clean design used here. There is a single, small iKBC logo that is front-printed on the space bar, and that's about it for branding on the keyboard. One thing that may not be clear from just looking at the images above is that the CD108 BT actually has a light navy blue color to the case and keycaps, especially to the latter, as opposed to the standard black. It is subtle enough to not be distracting, but different enough close-up and in person to be attractive.

Single-legend placement is biased towards the top-left on the keycaps, which I would rather have seen occupy a larger, more central location instead given iKBC does not have to worry about any backlighting here (for the native configuration, at least). Secondary legends are printed above the primary ones in the alphanumerical section with the numbers located underneath as seen in the images above. Interestingly, this is the only place we see secondary legends at all, which does impact some functionality if you do not refer to the manual. The legend font is clean, but this is not a keyboard to be used in the dark or dimly lit situations unless you add LEDs manually. As far as the rest of the keyboard goes, the top and bottom bezels are on the shorter side of average.


Flipping the keyboard around, we see the usual certification sticker in the middle, as well as a "Do not remove" sticker near the top which doesn't really cover anything at all. There are also multiple small rubber pads on the edge to ensure the keyboard does not slide around on your desk while preventing scratches to the underside. There are two feet at the top, which have two steps each for three inclination options to choose from. Both steps have rubber pads on the bottom as well, which is a nice detail to see. Another thing of note on the back are the three cable-routing channels going towards the left, top, and right from the middle, with nibs to keep the cable in place for when you want to use this as a wired keyboard.


There is even more to see on the back with a battery compartment that has a plastic cover on it. The iKBC CD108 BT takes two AAA batteries for power, and you are covered out of the box with the two provided alkaline batteries. There is an inset set of four dip switches that help change the functionality of specific keys as listed in the manual, which is yet another reason to refer to it. By default, all four dip switches are in the "off" position, and toggling one while keeping the others off enables some changes. Dip switch 1, when in the on position, swaps Caps Lock and L Control, while dip switch 2 swaps around L Alt and L Win. Similarly, dip switch 3 switches Fn and Caps Lock, while dip switch 4 enables macOS mode, where the bottom row of keys behaves as you would expect it to on a macOS keyboard.


We see an inset female USB Type-C port on the keyboard, and the provided cable fits in snugly without any issue. There is an on/off slider switch alongside on the back users can use to turn the keyboard off when it is not in use to conserve battery life. The CD108 BT is not backlit out of the box and thus, can be connected to a USB 2.0 port as well in wired mode.


We see iKBC use the OEM profile here, with slanted rows sculpted to provide a sense of familiarity for those used to most other mechanical keyboards. The keyboard uses a two-piece plastic case with a non-floating set of keycaps. From the side, we can also better see the navy blue color in action, and the provided keycap puller works great for when you want to remove keycaps to examine, clean, or replace them. The stock keycaps are made out of thick PBT plastic similar to the ten provided replacement keycaps, with an average wall thickness of 1.38 mm. The legends are not doubleshot injected as with the other iKBC keyboards we saw before, and this is where the budget-friendly CD series shows some of the cost savings. This does mean that the legends will wear out sooner than more durable application methods, but the PBT keycaps will help mitigate this by not absorbing finger oils as much as ABS plastic would. Another thing to note is that the laser-etched legends on these navy blue keycaps look closer to a true white as opposed to a warm yellow-white or cool blue-white that is often the case with laser etching on black-painted ABS keycaps. There is no backlighting support by the stock or provided replacement keycaps, as seen above.


The iKBC CD108 BT uses genuine Cherry MX switches, and this particular sample has MX Red switches. Given the non-backlit nature of the keyboard, iKBC is using the switches with an opaque housing. Note that these switches have an opening for LEDs at the top should you want to add your own. I have mentioned this multiple times thus far for a reason, one we will get to on the next page. The larger keycaps on the switches use Cherry stabilizers as well, which means they are easier to remove, but suffer from a mushier feedback, especially with linear switches on the larger space bar.


Here is an example look at some of the replacement keycaps in action. These add some flair to the keyboard, should you prefer it, and can also help quickly identify specific keys visually. Make sure to check the underside of the keycaps for which row they belong to if you find it difficult to do so by eye.