Disassembly

Given the single-piece case design, there are no annoying interlocking plastic tabs to worry about for the disassembly of the Mistel Q75. Instead, the trick is to figure out where all the screws keeping the keyboard together are placed, and which keycaps need to be removed to access them. Good thing I am here then, and I can tell you that there are a total of eight Phillips-head screws to take out. These are placed nearly symmetrically in sets of four screws as seen above, and you then need to carefully lift the plate/PCB piece off the case by using outward pressure. Do so carefully since the most obvious spot is the larger gap under the space bar key, and you can potentially bend the plate here. With the plate/PCB piece off, an internal USB cable needs to be unplugged to fully separate the two primary pieces.


At this point, you will notice Mistel placed noise-dampening foam between the PCB and case. This nicely mitigates reverberations off downstrokes in an otherwise empty ABS case and generally makes for a more pleasant sound signature when typing. The foam sheet is also cut to fit the case of the Q75, including holes to cater to the screws and even internal USB cable. This cable comes off a daughter PCB in the case, which hosts the Type-C port we saw before. The battery compartment is also placed here, which has the contacts going to those on the PCB itself.


The PCB is a deep blue with a matte finish and the Mistel name to confirm it is not a random OEM job. The switches are soldered through the plate onto the PCB, so there is no hot-swap. Solder quality is quite good, but keep your hands off the PCB since the solder points are still sharper than you would expect. Powering the Mistel Q75 is a "HFD48KP500" USB microcontroller I have not yet obtained useful information about, but have seen used in other keyboards, especially those without a lot of programming and customization options. Wireless connectivity is handled through a Beken BK2425 2.4 GHz transceiver. All the components, including the switches, LEDs, and capacitors, are soldered to a multi-layered PCB.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.