EVGA Z10 Keyboard Review

To put the EVGA Z10 to the test I simply replaced the keyboard on my test bench.  This afforded me a chance to use it in an overclocking situation and with some mild typing as I saved benchmarks, launched benchmarks and access the system BIOS.  The keyboard itself had great typing feel with the Kailh Brown switching offering a solid response throughout the key travel. 

One thing I personally found difficult is finding home row.  The F and J keys are marked although I found myself being shifted over two keys due to the line of Marco buttons along the left.  I'll blame this on not getting a lot of time to use the Z10 day to day and helped me exercise my delete key finger.  I did find myself pressing E5 instead of CTRL when attempting to Cut/Copy/Paste inside windows.  They are pretty close together and I might argue that some extra space between them and the main keys would have been helpful.

The EVGA Software was easy to use and rather straightforward.  I’m not one to program macros into my keyboard but I welcome having that feature available.  Early in this review I mentioned how the Explosion LED effect is quite nice and will send out circular rippled around whatever key you just pressed.  This effect also set the lights into a being off by default.

When it comes to keyboard backlight I’m a little disappointed that the Z10 isn’t full RGB.  I do realize that multi color LEDs are difficult to implement on a mechanical keyboard however, a static color feels dated.  With luck there will be an RGB upgrade in the future.  I do like how the LCD display does have multi colored lights and will change color based on which profile is selected.

Visual cues are important in a gaming system and with each profile supporting different applications and macros it is important to know which one is selected.  Much to my surprise switching profiles does take a considerable amount of time and will flash the profile name on your monitor when it becomes active.

Overall the EVGA Z10 is a very nice keyboard.  It does have some quirks such as slower than expected profile switching and the extra row of macro keys really threw me off from what I was expecting.  I do like how all of the profile data is stored in the keyboard meaning that I can program the Z10 at home and expect all of your customizations to be available when I move the keyboard around.  Software displays are dependent on the application being installed and running, If not then the LED screen will be blank.  Finally I would have liked to see an RGB backlight used on the Z10.  The static Red is nice and works well but feels dated by today’s standards.

Great to see the Z10 on the market
20x4 LED Digital Display
Dedicated Macro Keys
Blue and Brown Switch Options
Onboard USB 2.0 Hub
Red LED Backlight
Kailh Mechanical Switches
Future Application Support on LED Screen
Will Display Precision X System Data

Profile switching is slow
Spacebar wobbles when pressed
No RGB backlight