Closer Examination

As the name suggests, the Ranked Nova n60 is a fairly standard 60% form factor keyboard. Such smaller form factor keyboards are becoming increasingly popular in today's hybrid workspace, where you simply may not have enough room on your desk for a full-size or even tenkeyless keyboard. It measures in at 290 x 102 x 40 mm accordingly and weighs just over 600 g, making the n60 highly portable too. On the flip side you do end up with only 61 dedicated keys here in the form of the alphanumeric section of your keyboard with the Tilde (~) key replaced by Esc as usual for such keyboards. There is no dedicated arrow key cluster here, but we'll talk more about them soon enough. Expect to get familiar with layers as you need to use Fn layers to get back the various missing functions. This makes for a steep learning curve for those not used to such keyboards, but can also give you a more ergonomic typing experience with less finger travel once you are used to it.

Ranked tries to make this process easier by providing front-facing legends to indicate the layered functions and here we notice they come in two colors to where there are two different Fn layers on board in the form of Fn1 and Fn2 as also indicated on the modifiers at the bottom right corner. This means you have a good visual indicator as to what combination of keys to press to get the desired keystroke! I have the US ANSI layout here which happens to be the only version currently sold as of the date I am writing this review. However, the "Download" page on the Ranked website suggests other languages and layouts will be supported. The keyboard itself comes in all black color with a minimal bezel plastic case where you barely see anything outside of the keycaps here. There are no indicator LEDs nor any branding visible in use to make this a very clean-looking keyboard. The top-facing legends are located in the middle towards to the top of the keycap surface itself, including for both primary and secondary legends alongside, wherever applicable. This suggests the use of north-facing LEDs to allow for more uniform backlighting.


Turning the keyboard around provides a closer look at the ABS plastic case which has Ranked branding present along with the expected certification sticker in the middle. Four rubber pads on the corners help prevent the keyboard from sliding around on your desk. There are no keyboard feet present here with Ranked going with a fixed 5.6° inclination courtesy the case itself.


The expected Type-C port is on the left side of the keyboard and facing away from the user. There is good compatibility with aftermarket cables should you so desire, although the provided cable is plenty functional. It is on the shorter side of average at 1.5 m long making the keyboard more amenable with laptops and, once again, a smaller desk perhaps. The cable is also in black, non-sleeved and with a rubber sheath, and goes to an available USB Type-A port where USB 2.0 will suffice for power and data alike.


A look from the side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which I would classify as medium profile by itself and could benefit from a palm rest. The provided keycaps puller with the Ranked Nova n60 helps remove some of the keycaps for a closer examination, without scratching their sides as with the plastic ring-style cheaper keycap pullers I usually see in the price range of this keyboard. Now we find out that Ranked uses OEM profile keycaps here with the five rows contoured accordingly. The base keycaps are made of thick PBT plastic with doubleshot-injected legends on the top for durability and longevity alike. The front-facing legends appear to be pad-printed however, and are also opaque compared to the backlit legends up top, which makes it harder to identify in a dimly lit environment unless you are already familiar with the pre-programmed functions.


There are six Gateron RGB mechanical switch options on this keyboard allowing you to choose between all three feedback mechanisms. I have the Gateron Red switches on this review sample, present in a north-facing PCB except for the space bar key that goes the other way round. The larger keycaps go with lubed plate-mounted stabilizers that feel nicer than I expected going in—the lubing has a lot to do with this—although some of the stabilizer bars were not as uniformly lubed as others.


The switch remover tool is handy to remove the hot-swappable switches off the PCB where we see the use of 5-pin hot-swap sockets, allowing you to customize the switches on a per-key basis as needed, while also provided increased compatibility with all such Cherry MX-style mechanical switches. Note also the foam sheet placed between the plate and the PCB itself to help dampen keystrokes. Removing a switch also gives a closer look at the Gateron Red switch by itself, which is a linear 3-pin switch modeled after the Cherry MX Red RGB switch.