I'll give Varmilo its due in that it made me a fan of the early tactile bump switches finally, and this time purely because of the combination of the typing feel and sound signature as a part of this solidly built keyboard. Knowing the Varmilo brand, I was half expecting to see this be a $150+ keyboard and was pleasantly surprised at the $109-119 cost for the two different mode options available right now. I imagine the triple mode with RGB lighting might come in at $129 or higher, but given the opaque nature of the keycaps and not many going the Varmilo route for gaming keyboards when they can get something more specific for less, I am not sure the extra there is worth it—especially when you realize this dual mode option is the only one that comes with the, quite frankly, excellent Varmilo EC V2 switches. I have become a fan of all four switches I've tried so far to where I don't mind these being soldered at all; I am not going to change them out anyway. There is a switch keycap set covering the first six—those that are offered with the Minilo, there are now nine EC V2 switches in total—you may want to try before committing either way.

On the flip side, going down to the $109 tier is not as simple as simply giving up Bluetooth connectivity. In fact, if you only care about wired connections, this might attract you further in two separate ways. First, you get hot-swappable switches and easy per-key customization to where, say, you could have fast linear switches on WASD and then tactile switches elsewhere. Second, there are more switch options here including from three manufacturers (Cherry, Gateron, Kailh) including some exciting Gateron G Pro switches as well as new Varmilo x Kailh BOX Prestige switches based off Kailh's fantastic BOX switch design we have covered multiple times already. As it stands, there's a lot of variables already even before the third option comes in that is a direct upgrade to the wired-only, hot-swap option in also adding Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz wireless, and RGB lighting if those attract you.

I realize that the second paragraph contradicts the first one to an extent, but my goal is to present all the facts and then let you decide. The Varmilo Minilo series is a family of products both present and upcoming, with the Eucalyptus theme being the first colorway being released. For now they are all adhering to the 65% layout, but perhaps Varmilo might see a market to make this a scalable platform as with Shurikey Gear that debuted with the 65% Hanzo and then introduced the 75% Saizo. There's certainly a lot to like here, and yet I want to see more before I am able to fully embrace it as my personal choice. Regardless, I am happy enough to recommend it to anyone looking for a new small form factor keyboard at a reasonable price for what you get.