Closer Examination

The keyboard sleeve is a perfect fit for the MD870 SLEEKER as far as length and height go, leaving just enough room to fit it in and take it out without it being loose inside. A drawstring on the other side secures it, and what room remains allows for the storage of the keyboard cable as well. Taking it out, the first thing you notice is just how hefty this is at over three pounds (1.4 Kg) because of its thick two-piece aluminum case. It is also cool to the touch, acting as a heat sink due to the metal, and is definitely one of the best built keyboard cases I have ever used. This is an 87-key TKL form factor ANSI layout keyboard with bezels of average size. The subtle white and silver color scheme means the bezels are not as noticeable against lighter backgrounds and contrast well on darker ones. There are no indicator LEDs, and the only branding we see is the Mistel logo above the arrow-key cluster, which melds into the case and has a plastic sticker over it out of the box.

The legends on the keycaps are applied very tastefully in a professional-looking font, and the keyboard will fit into any environment well - gaming or office alike. Primary legends are located in the center of the top for smaller keycaps, and at the bottom left/right for the larger keycaps on the left/right of the keyboard, which provides a novel aesthetic, but I would rather have all the legends in the middle instead. Secondary legends, be they layout standard ones or specific to this keyboard, are located above the primary legends in this case. Note also the different colors used to distinguish the various legends, partly due to the limitation of the application process, which could have gone very wrong; however, Mistel did somehow find the right balance for everything to suit my particular aesthetic tastes.

Lastly, in case you have not yet noticed it, the modifier keys here are for both Windows and macOS, which explains the Mac-specific legends. The keyboard supports both operating systems as mentioned before, and this explains the provided replacement keycaps which are for Windows only. For the purpose of the review, the MD870 SLEEKER has only been tested on a Windows PC.


A closer look from the side shows just how substantial the aluminum case is, as well as the brushed finish given throughout. The case is also fairly resistant to showing fingerprints and scratches, which is unlike a more matte finish as we saw with the Wooting One recently. On the back is where a plastic certification label would be, except this is a metal badge with laser engraved writing instead. Indeed, short of using impractical metal keycaps, Mistel has sought to replace plastic with metal wherever visible on the MD870 SLEEKER. There are four small hemispherical rubber pieces on the corner similar to the Vortex keyboards we saw, and ditto for the two case feet that are provided, which are screwed into place with a rubber pad applied on top to prevent scratches and add friction against your desk. The former is good, but with such a solid keyboard, you won't have to worry about it moving around much. When asked about the similarity of case feet, Mistel got back to me saying that they source the feet from a factory that supplies it to others, with some options available in diameter and height. As such, it was just a coincidence here, and the Mistel keyboards are manufactured in a different factory entirely compared to the Vortex keyboards.


The female USB Type-C port is in a small inset at the top-left corner as seen from front, and the provided cable fits without any issues, as did my phone cables. The stock cable is not braided, and the rubber insulation over the wires inside allows for a lot of flexibility and quick turns if need be. It is on the shorter side of average at 5' in length and terminates in a male USB Type-C port. For most of us, the provided accessory will be handy as it adapts the male USB Type-C to a male USB Type-A connector, which can then be used with any available female USB Type-A port on your computer. USB 2.0 will suffice here to power and connect to the keyboard.


Mistel says the keycaps are "Cherry low profile", which made me think they employ the Cherry profile; however, they are in between the Cherry and OEM profiles in terms of height. Regardless, with the case as it is, the height of the keycap profile does not add much to the keyboard's overall height. The provided keycap puller works great for all keycaps, and of course, you have to take turns with larger keycaps, such as working on a side at a time with the space bar. The stock keycaps, as with the replacement ones provided, are made of thick PBT plastic (average wall thickness 1.41 mm) with dye sublimated legends. The drawback is the lack of backlighting here too, and that Mistel had to use a lighter background with darker legends, so if you prefer black keycaps, you won't find them here. On the plus side, these keycaps will last a very, very long time and go well with the build quality of the rest of the keyboard. Just in case you wanted to swap them, a standard spacing throughout means the MD870 SLEEKER is compatible with the vast majority of aftermarket keycap sets which will also offer backlighting support for the legends.


This sample came with Cherry MX Brown switches, and the single LEDs used here mean the switches are of the non-RGB variant using the black housing. The white color LEDs are also placed on top of the switches, but this matters little with the stock keycaps since they will allow accent lighting on the sides only. The larger keycaps use Cherry stabilizers, which helps with disassembly, and the thicker plastic combined with the thick metal gives a solid bottoming-out sound signature with minimal pinging, albeit the space bar still has a mushy feeling.


I do appreciate the provided replacement keycaps since I have no intentions of using this with macOS, so I swapped out the keycaps, and now, the MD870 SLEEKER is a PC keyboard except for the F13-F15 keys that are supposed to be Prt SCR, SCR LK, and Pause/Break instead. Omitting these keycaps is disappointing, and we will be sure to test the functionality of each key in due time.