Introduction

Mistel Keyboards, or simply Mistel as will be henceforth referred to for convenience, made a debut in the TechPowerUp review vault with their new MD870 SLEEKER keyboard late last year. It was a 87-key TKL form factor keyboard that was a reference for good build quality with its thick two-piece aluminium case and PBT plastic keycaps that promised longevity in addition to form and function. The Mistel brand was before otherwise known mostly for their Barocco series of keyboards that offered a fairly unique take on keyboards at release and still do so in 2018. Today, we get to take a close look at the MD600 Barocco keyboard, and thanks again to Mistel for providing a review sample.


If pictures say a thousand words, this one says it all. The specific review sample sent is part of the newer Barocco RGB series which, as you might have guessed, adds RGB backlighting to the non-backlit Barocco series keyboards. The series presently consists of the MD600, which comes in white or black color options. As we saw with the MD870, an 87-key keyboard, the number in the model name here also tells us more with the MD600 being a 60% form factor keyboard. Notice the missing Fn row, Num pad and even arrow-key column. On top of this, the MD600 Barocco is also a split keyboard with the left and right half separated as seen above. We are not strangers to 60% or split keyboards, but keyboards that combine both are not very common. This is an intriguing start to the review then, and we proceed with a look at the specifications below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

I have handled over a hundred different keyboards so far, and this is the first time a keyboard's product box has been anything but flat. I do like the cuboid shape here, and it is quite small as well. To give the North Americans an idea, this packaging fits into a medium USPS flat rate box well, which incidentally was what it also arrived in. Mistel gave it a shiny silver layer on most sides to where it is extremely reflective, which made taking photos a tad difficult. But we can see that a combination of matte black and glossy silver adds to the unusual unboxing experience here. The company and product name, as well as the specifications and an illustration of the keyboard, are found on the sides. There are also four seals (two per side) keeping the box shut. You will have to at least tear up two on a side to open it for a better look at the contents inside.


The interesting packaging continues with plain cardboard boxes inside the outer cardboard packaging, including one set of two that are connected and house the two pieces of the keyboard itself. A neat detail here is the use of spacers inside to make sure the smaller of the two pieces does not move around inside the box, which in turn was made to fit the larger piece snugly. The other box houses the accessories, and I am always a fan of such separate packaging to ensure the keyboard does not get dinged or scratched by the accessories in transit. Mistel provides a decent set of accessories here, including a very useful manual (online copy here) I strongly recommend going through and keeping close for when you need to know more about the on-board controls present here.


The next set of accessories includes the same excellent keycap puller we saw with their MD870 SLEEKER keyboard. It comes in a plastic wrap and is a wire-type puller with 301 stainless steel for the metal wires and a dual-composition base (orange ABS plastic and black TPR rubber). Such keycap pullers minimize the potential to scratch the sides of keycaps as compared to the less expensive plastic ring ones, so I am all for it. Following this, in another plastic wrap, is a replacement orange PBT plastic keycap that is intended to be used in lieu of another R2 x 2.25u keycap, say for the Enter key. There is no legend on it, which means there is no backlighting support either, and it is meant to merely add some flair with Mistel's love for orange showing up here as well. We also get two sets of four hemispherical rubber pads, presumably to be attached to the keyboard's underside.


The final set of accessories consists of two cables that will be used to connect the keyboard's two pieces, and those to the computer itself. Both cables are braided in white to match the variant in white here, with Mistel-branded cable wraps on them to complete the branding. The smaller of the two connects the keyboard pieces, and we see gold-plated right-angled male micro-USB connectors here. The longer cable goes with mini-USB instead on one end and a standard male USB Type-A connector on the other, both of which are gold-plated as well for some resistance against metal oxidation. It would have been nice to see USB Type-C, but it is also likely that the MD600 design was finalized well before that became more popular. Note that some older versions used a shorter but coiled cable, and I personally feel this stretched version is better.