works as expected. quality is better than expected. as good as units costing 5x as much!

Heavy, sturdy, no slip mechanical keyboard with brown switches. Quiet typing (not silent, but not clicky). Each key press feels sturdy. The space bar a tiny bit clunky, but that's common on many keyboards. It's really not bad.

This doesn't compare with my $150 Razor Huntsman Elite opto-mechanical keyboard, but it does make a great keyboard for the office and for the price. I would definitely buy again and recommend to my gamer friends that want a similar feel in the office without breaking the bank.

This is the non back lit version. I'm in a fairly dark office and can't see any of the text on any of the keys. I personally don't look at keys, so this isn't an issue for me. If you need to look at the keyboard at all, get the back lit version for roughly $5 more, also available on Monoprice.

Media buttons are FN keys, just like my expensive Razor keyboard. In fact, the functions are even on the same keys as my Razor. I know some people prefer media buttons to be separate, but I'm used to it this way.

This is an excellent keyboard. Outemu switches are great. Pretty compact. Media functions are a plus. Keycaps are so-so. Good quality, but hard to read. Seem to be the same keycaps as for the backlit model, where they're probably better because the LEDs will shine through. But keycaps are easy to replace with whatever you like.

Only other drawback is the hard-wired USB cable, but it's a nice cloth-wrapped cable, so no big deal.

Overall an excellent value. I like this better than my WASD keyboard that cost 3-4x the price.

The writing on the key caps are very hard to read in low light conditions. Did they use the same ones as the lighted version?