The Wet 75 is a typical sight on the r/MechanicalKeyboards subreddita neighborhood that nerds out concerning the thock of a keyboard and, naturally, enjoyable keycaps. It looks as if each week or so, somebody posts about their new buy from WobKey, and each time, the consensus revolves round how good of a price range possibility it’s. That is as a result of, for below $150, the Wet 75 has each function you may need in a mechanical keyboard at the moment. There are a couple of unusual design selections, however I lastly acquired my palms on one, and I’m impressed by this keyboard.
The Wet 75 is offered in three flavors: Lite, Commonplace, and Professional. The Lite retails for $129 and contains HMX Violet linear switches, a polypropylene plate, and a 3,500-mAh battery. The Professional—the mannequin I examined—contains Kailh Cocoa linear switches, an FR4 plate, RGB lighting, and two batteries totaling 7,000 mAh for $159. The Commonplace is in between and prices $139.
Poppy, Crisp, and Clean
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
Typing on the Wet 75 feels and sounds improbable. It has that poppy, crisp typing sound you see in movies on-line, and typing feels each bit as energetic and fulfilling. I assume the “Wet 75” identify comes from the typing sound, since its softer and rounded sound profile seems like rain falling.
The linear “Cocoa” switches are manufactured by Kailh for the Wet 75. These switches have a comparatively gentle working pressure of 45 grams, which is similar to a Cherry MX Pinkand use a polyoxymethylene stem (POM) and Nylon housing, which helps to create a marbly typing sound and a clean typing really feel. The switches are responsive, popping again up rapidly after being pressed, and have hardly any scratch, even when pressed down slowly. The stems of those switches have little wobble back and forth or entrance to again, making keypresses really feel sturdy.
The stabilizers on this keyboard come pre-lubed and, regardless of being plate-mounted as an alternative of printed-circuit-board–mounted, they really feel improbable. Whereas I might speak about how clean and quiet they’re, it’s simpler to say that I didn’t even discover they had been there when typing. These stabilizers are tuned completely and don’t require any work out of the field. That stated, I think about that, like most plate-mounted stabilizers, they are going to require a reapplication of lube after some time.
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
The gasket-mount system holding the keyboard collectively is basically spectacular. It feels bouncy and gentle with out seeming too muted or mushy. The dampening from the gaskets is constant throughout the entire keys, solely turning into considerably stiffer across the edges.
Finicky Performance
This keyboard has some quirks that, whereas not big, may be annoying. Typically, when urgent Alt+Tab on this keyboard, or some other key mixtures involving the Tab key, I’ve to press the mix twice for it to work. I’ve resolved these oddities by turning the keyboard on and off.
Usually, considered one of my favourite options on a mechanical keyboard is help for QMK and VIA. QMK, quick for Quantum Mechanical Keyboard, is an open supply firmware that permits for nearly limitless customization of a keyboard’s structure. VIA is a system for customizing particular QMK-compatible keyboards utilizing an in-browser interface. These enable for easy and environment friendly customization of mechanical keyboards, that means a QMK-enabled keyboard may have long-term help with out reliance on proprietary software program that will cease being up to date after a couple of years.
