EpicGear DeFiant Mechanical Keyboard Set Review

Like most mechanical keyboards the EpicGear DeFiant has a flat base allowing you to see the keyswitch under the keycap.  I’ve always found this to be a little weird but does reaffirm that you are using a mechanical keyboard over a common membrane style. 

The keys appear to be using a standard spacing and feature the standard mechanical switch stem (the plus) allowing you to switch them to any style you prefer.  The 26 letter keys are using a custom EpicGear font with much larger letters than you might expect.

One of the features of the EpicGear DeFiant is the accessory hooks that are normally hidden unless you view the keyboard from the side.  There are basically two hooks and the accessory contains a spring clip to hold them in place.  Simply hook one side and snap the other in place.  It takes a few tries but once you figure out how it works they clip on rather easily.

You can see one of the hooks along the corner of the Rear-Bumper.

The one thing that makes the EpicGear DeFiant special is the keyswitch.  The EG MMS keyswitch is a hot-swappable mechanical switch that can be physically removed from the keyboard.  This is done to allow easy cleaning but moreso because they can be changed.

Yes that’s right you can now have different keyswitches assigned to different keys.  This may not benefit professional writers but for a gamer it can offer a new level of tuning where directional keys can be tactile and clicky while inventory keys can be quiet and linear.

The EG MMS keyswitch comes in three styles. 

EG Grey: Linear (quiet key presses)
EG Orange: Tactile (has some resistance)
EG Purple: Tactile and Clicky (Orange with clicks)

The DeFiant comes with EG Purple keyswitches and as I have demonstrated they can be swapped out for a different color provided you buy the accessory pack.  As the photo shows I have replaced the purple WASD keys with orange and made one other customization.

EpicGear has made the DeFiant Mechanical keyboard LED backlit and while it comes with 9 different lighting modes, including 4 that are completely programmable, unfortunately the lights are only a single color, White.

To handle changing the color of the light you have to use an old photographer’s trick and apply a filter.  In this case replace the clear color bar with one from the included color pack.  To begin the process you must first remove the keycap using the included tool.  Then turn the tool around and pull the keyswitch.  The two prong tool will compress the locking tab(s) so give it a squeeze and lift the switch out.

The light bars are removed and replaced from the bottom of the switch and you need to make sure the rounded part is facing down.  When done, replace the switch and away you go.  While an actual RGB LED seems like the right way to go I find the color bar approach to be acceptable considering the level of customization this keyboard already has.