Closer Examination

As we saw before, the Thermaltake W1 Wireless comes inside a plastic wrap to help keep it dust-free and pristine out of the box. Removing it, we get our first good look at the keyboard, and it is easily on the larger side of average. A lot of this has to do with the integrated wrist rest which can not be removed, so you best be sure you want one. It's also a different color from the rest of the keyboard, which is more of a dark navy (called Titanium Grey by the company) as opposed to the black wrist rest. There is a lot of plastic here, which does mean that the keyboard is deceptively lighter than you would think. Bezels are about average on the keyboard, with Thermaltake including some extra keys and a volume wheel in the top-right corner, which are black instead of the dark navy elsewhere.

Indicator LEDs are below the volume wheel, and there is a Tt logo in the top-left corner in addition to the Tt keycaps replacing the Win and Menu keys on the bottom row. The keyboard is mostly matte in finish; that is, for all but the sides which get a glossy finish and can be dust magnets, unfortunately. The keyboard comes with plastic covers on the glossy sections and logo, so you do get the satisfaction of peeling these off at least. The W1 Wireless is a fairly basic keyboard functionally, which means we do not see any keyboard-specific secondary/tertiary legends aside from some front-facing legends for Bluetooth pairing. Instead, we have the usual suspects printed on this 104-key US ANSI layout, with secondary legends under primary ones on the numpad and swapping places around in the alphanumeric section. There is no backlighting, so it does not matter where the legends themselves are placed. In general, however, we see a clean typeface with a good font size. If you have the room for it, this keyboard will fit into a variety of work environments well.


Flipping the keyboard around, we see the usual certification sticker in the middle, but in a trapezoidal shape. This also matches the patterned finish given to the plastic case here. Five long rubber pads add friction against the resting surface, as do two large feet in the top corners which can be used to further elevate the keyboard. The feet have rubber pads on the bottom to go with the rubber pads on the case, which prevents slippage as well as scratches to the case and feet.


There is also a cutout compartment with a removable cover in the back, which is how we access the battery tray the provided batteries or any of your own AA batteries go into. We see engraved markings to denote battery polarities for installation, and next to this is a storage compartment for the 2.4 GHz dongle to fit into snugly if taking the keyboard with you, or simply for storage purposes if using the keyboard in USB or Bluetooth mode.


There is a dedicated power button on the right side, which I do appreciate for a wireless keyboard. We saw the detachable cable on the previous page, and now see that it plugs into a recessed USB Type-C port in the middle of the side facing away from the user, most likely towards the USB source. The cable is one of the better ones I have seen as far as build quality goes, is the usual 6' long, black to match the keyboard itself, and fits into a USB Type-A port on your computer, where USB 2.0 suffices for power and data alike. The connectors on the cable are gold-plated for corrosion resistance.


As with your average mechanical keyboard, Thermaltake uses an OEM keycap profile with six sculpted and angled rows. The included keycap puller works great even on the longer keycaps, where you have to go at it in the corners separately. The stock keycaps are quite good with walls that are an average of 1.35 mm thick and made out of PBT plastic to resist shine from finger oils over time. Unfortunately, the legends themselves are not as durable, with laser etching for both the top and front-facing legends, which will wear out sooner rather than later. The etching is in parts not deep enough to allow for backlighting support, although the keyboard as a whole does not have any backlighting anyway, so this is a moot point. The keyboard has excellent third-party keycap compatibility should you want to customize it, for which it is also a decent candidate because of the absence of keyboard-specific programming or extra keycap legends.


There are two switch options with the Thermaltake W1 Wireless, and both are classic Cherry switches. You can go with the MX Red or MX Blue, which are the older style with the opaque housing in the absence of any lighting here. I have the MX Red switches on this sample, characterized by the red stem/sliders. The larger keycaps use Cherry stabilizers, not factory lubed, and end up somewhat rattly and mushy unfortunately, especially on the space bar key. On the plus side, this does make removing the keycaps simpler compared to, say, costar stabilizers should you want to replace them or just clean the keyboard.


Oh look, we have both versions of the W1 Wireless keyboard here. There is no difference between them except for the switches, with the second sample using the Cherry MX Blue switches which, as with the MX Reds in the other sample, use opaque housings and have the expected blue stems.


Disassembly is not trivial and got to where I was doing more damage than actually taking the keyboard apart. I did see some screws holding the steel plate/PCB piece in with the bottom case panel; however, removing the top panel was not proving easy with the fixed wrist rest and what seemed to be glued-on panels. I am not sure if there is some trick here, especially as it pertains to RMAs, but I had to stop in the absence of a non-destructive disassembly method.