Closer Examination

The LUMINKEY Magger68 comes in two versions, each with three colors/finishes. The Performance version has a more straightforward design with flat edges to the aluminium alloy chassis, whereas this Professional version adds a chamfer bar at the top and some more design elements on the back. There's really not a lot between the two visually when the keyboard is on your desk thus, so go with what works better for you in terms of the switch and cost knowing that the Pro version costs more. This Pro version is in the anodized black color finish, with anodized champagne gold and electroplated milky white being the other two options. They come with specific keycap sets too, including the five translucent green keycaps on Esc and the arrow keys. LUMINKEY says this, combined with the other colors, is for a "cool and steady visual appeal," whereas I would personally like to see the brand include replacement keycaps for these five switches in case you don't want this see-through effect that can be quite distracting with the LEDs on. The keycap legends are opaque throughout to make this difference more obvious. The other keycaps here go for a mix of black, gray, and white colors, with relatively large keycap legends positioned on the top left and secondary legends taking this place where applicable. There are some keyboard-specific legends we see diagonally across in the bottom right corner too. Bezels are uniformly sized, and there is no branding visible in use. This 65% form factor keyboard has 68 keys in total, meaning there is no room for a volume knob or integrated display. Instead, we get Tilde (~), Delete, Page Up, and Page Down in the right-most column to add to the user experience, with some other keys being shorter than standard as expected for a small form factor implementation.


Turning the keyboard around, we see more of the specific design tweaks given to the Pro version. I like the middle element in particular, it's slightly wavy to the touch but feels more so visually. The Performance version gets a small oval cutout where these elements are placed here, as seen on the product page. A sticker on the back has the product name too and power draw rating, with the chassis going for four rubber strips on the corners to help add friction against the resting surface in addition to preventing the case from being scratched. Note how there are no keyboard feet here though, so you better hope the fixed keyboard elevation from the case design works for you.


The LUMINKEY Magger68 only has wired connectivity, so we see fairly simple I/O with a single inset Type-C port on the top left side facing away from the user. There is enough space here to accommodate most aftermarket cables in case you wanted something that better matches the colorway employed by the keyboard. The stock cable is black with a durable sleeve, the usual 6' in length, and goes to an available USB Type-A port on your PC where USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1) will suffice for power and data alike.


A look from the side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which is more aggressive than usual going from ~30 mm at the top to 16.5 mm at the bottom. This does help compensate for the absence of keyboard feet for those who prefer to have a more angled keyboard, although I would still say a low profile wrist/palm rest can be handy here if you are not used to touch typing with hands hovering over the keys at all times. The provided keycap puller helps remove some of the keycaps for a closer examination, without scratching their sides as with the plastic ring-style cheaper keycap pullers that are thankfully going out of style. LUMINKEY is using the Cherry keycap profile here with these lower height keycaps also being non-floating owing to the use of the thicker, taller metal case. They are made of thick PBT plastic (average wall thickness 1.35 mm) with dye-sublimed (and reverse dye-sublimed) legends on the top for durability and longevity alike. These are opaque and thus the LEDs present on the keyboard will be for accent lighting only, although we will see soon how some LED colors can help view the keycap legends far better than others.


The Magger68 Pro HE is a Hall effect keyboard using magnetic switches, so naturally there are far fewer switch options here than for mechanical keyboards. In this case, we get a grand total of one switch per version, with the Magger68 Performance using Gateron Magnetic White Pro and the Professional version using Gateron Magnetic Jade Pro switches—arguably the best full-size magnetic switch on the market today. Both are linear switches anyway, with tactile/clicky magnetic switches only just coming out, and this could be a dealbreaker for some. The switches are installed in a north-facing configuration and larger keycaps use plate mounted stabilizers which seem lubed almost excessively out of the box. There is no dampening/support between the switches and the aluminium plate, although we do see a silicone sheet sandwiched between the plate and the PCB.


The switch remover tool is handy to remove the hot-swappable switches off the PCB where we see an SMD RGB LED firing upwards. The Hall effect sensor used is on the other side of the PCB as usual. The switches can be easily removed thus, but note that you can't use standard mechanical switches here, and are restricted to compatible magnetic switches only. At this point, we get a closer look at the Gateron Magnetic Jade Pro magnetic switch by itself, which uses Gateron's newer dual-rail design and also has two pins for support. The top housing is a translucent green, the bottom housing is sealed and solid jade green in color, and it uses a milky white cross-point stem without any columns/walls that can add dust and spill protection.