Closer Examination

I mentioned before how the new Varmilo Minilo series takes cues from Giorgio Morandi, whose art style is known for his characteristic use of subtle and mellow colors, and this Minilo "Eucalyptus" theme keyboard uses a consistent high-grade gray tone (gray-green, gray-purple, and cream) colors to match the Eucalyptus plant. This lighter color theme has been implemented in a few different ways over the years, be it in the form of RGB lighting on the Mionix Wei or using even being a direct competitor in the form of Akko's Silent series that also uses Morandi's art for inspiration. I have to say the Varmilo Minilo series seems to be the best take on this design mindset though, with a mix of subtle colors but implemented in a bold manner throughout. There are multiple colors on the keycaps as well as the case itself, and somehow these come together to give you memories of a time from yesteryear while also clearly looking like a product made in 2022. I am curious how other themes in the Minilo series would come out to be, but the Eucalyptus theme is a good start already.

This is otherwise a fairly typical 65% keyboard but with 67 keys on this modified US ANSI layout rather than the usual 68 we get. Varmilo is going with 1.25u keys on the right of the space bar rather than 1u, which results in not enough room for three keys there while cleverly using the small space left over to host indicator LEDs. There is no R.Ctrl or Menu key here thus, which by themselves are not a deal breaker. That said, I would have rather seen Home or End instead of Insert getting a dedicated key here. The keycaps themselves have the standard legends up top, with secondary legends placed above the primary ones and all of these biased towards the left, and then we also get some front-facing legends on certain specific keycaps to indicate layered functions tied to the Fn layer. Bezels are slightly larger than average but do not appear so owing to the different colors in play, and we see Varmilo branding on the side facing the user on the bottom right corner.


Turning the keyboard around, we see the customary metal Varmilo badge with the product serial number and additional information engraved on it. The case is made of ABS plastic and this allows for two sets of keyboard feet added at the top for a total of three elevation options. These have rubber pads on the bottom to prevent them from slipping down and there are four additional long rubber pads at the corners to keep the keyboard firmly in place when in use. That said, this is a dense unit at nearly 1.5 Kg so it's not like this is sliding around on your desk anytime soon.


There is an inset Type-C port on the side facing away from the user, and this side view also shows the three-tone case with two different shades of green and the cream between them. The cutout is large enough to accommodate most aftermarket cables too should you want to pair the keyboard with a replacement coiled/split cable in a matching color too. Otherwise the provided cable in white does a decent job—at least it's not black—and is shorter than average at 5' in length. It goes to an available USB Type-A port on your PC where USB 2.0 will suffice for power and data alike. There is no dedicated Bluetooth on/off switch or buttons to go between connected devices as with the Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro we saw recently, and Varmilo instead relies on key combinations to do the same.


A look from the side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which I would classify as a medium to high profile and can benefit from a wrist rest if you are not used to touch typing with hands hovering over the keys at all times. The side view also confirms the use of a Cherry keycap profile with the five rows sculpted and contoured accordingly, and making the keyboard feel shorter in height compared to those employing the OEM profile. The keycaps are non-floating in design courtesy the two-piece case design, and the provided keycap puller works very well and doesn't scratch the sides of keycaps as with the likes of plastic ring-style keycap pullers. Removing some keycaps shows these are thick ABS plastic (average wall thickness 1.5 mm) with doubleshot injected legends throughout, which is good for longevity and also appears glossier than equivalent PBT keycaps at the risk of developing a shine from finger oils over time. There is no backlighting support from the keycaps, so the LEDs will mostly be for accent lighting only. The legends are well applied throughout for uniformity and sharpness.


The Varmilo Minilo Eucalyptus in the dual mode connectivity option is the only one with hot-swappable switches and instead relies on first-party Varmilo EC V2 switches that are soldered in place. We took a look at some of them before in the previous Varmilo and Shurikey Gear keyboard reviews and I am a big fan overall. There are six switch options here (Sakura, Rose, Daisy, Ivy, Jasmine, Iris) covering all three feedback mechanisms, and I have the EC Iris V2 switch here characterized by its dark blue stem aiming to resemble the Iris flowering plant. The housing is milky and translucent to aid with diffusion of any LEDs underneath, of which this version has white SMD LEDs below. The Varmilo branding confirms whose switches these are, and we get north-facing switches here which don't interfere with the Cherry profile keycaps if you were wondering. The larger keycaps use plate-mounted stabilizers, with the stabilizer bars pre-lubed out of the factory. This dampens the mushy feedback when typing on the larger keys, especially the space bar key.


Here is a look at the four replacement keycaps added. In reality, the Tilde (~) keycap replaces the Esc key on the Fn layer, but I have added it on the Ins key instead to show you how it would look to also allow for the replacement Esc keycap to be on. There is thus an option to go with just the cream and gray-purple keycaps should you wish, although I think the green keycaps work as accents to better match the keycaps with the case itself.