I am not going to sit here and pretend to have heard of Monstargear before, but am thankful to the company for reaching out. It is also a mark of our work and reach across continents now, and knowing the likes and dislikes of other regions intrigues me a lot. For example, I always had a general idea about the fervor of the South Korean market when it comes to custom keyboards with many of our reviews getting discussed on Quasarzone and DCInside—two extremely popular Korean forums. Then there are the Korean keyboard brands too, of which I still have Leopold on my wishlist. So when Monstargear emailed us, I took the time to go through the company's website and soon knew about there being a parent company which caters to other PC DIY interests too. This subset in particular went down the rabbit hole when it comes to appealing to custom keyboard enthusiasts, including with a fascinating looking DIY kit that I would like to check out in the future depending on timing and availability.

The NINJA87BT is the company's latest iteration to the NINJA87 lineup, which has always been a TKL form factor keyboard. This latest version adds Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity powered by standard AA batteries and has a few other features that makes it quite competitive for the money. There are the likes of Epomaker and Akko in China which come close in having either pre-built keyboards or kits but not both at this price range and feature set. The hot-swappable switches are nice, as is the lineup of choices and keycaps. There are also some other equally nice quality-of-life improvements over your standard pre-built keyboard, including the lubed stabilizers and sound-absorbing foam. I also think that the particular configuration chosen is the best option of the lot, and a heck of a lot of keyboard for $115. The software program was also a pleasant surprise with a good user experience and plenty of customization options. It's not perfect, nor is the backlighting itself, yet more than most of the competition does.

There are certainly venues for improvement, but it's also hard to fault the NINJA87BT given all the things it does get right. I know I have no experience with Keychron keyboards yet, which no doubt will have one the biggest comparisons to the NINJA87BT. As it stands, I am quite happy to recommend this and urge you to go with the Gateron switch options to save the cash, while urging Monstargear to introduce more switch and keycap options, too.