Angry Miao, makers of popular custom keyboards like the Cyberboard and AM Compact touch, is back known for combining modern art with mechanical keyboards. It’s back with its latest entry, the Relic 80, a tenkeyless keyboard with the company’s most tame design yet, but a renewed focus on sound. Find out what makes it special — and there’s always something special with an Angry Miao keyboard — in this review.
Specifications
- Current Price:
- Barebones Kit - $490 (Angry Miao)
- Bundle - $650 (Angry Miao)
- Weight: Base Kit 2.0kg / Bundle 2.25kg
- Layout: 80%
- Typing Angle: 8°
- Mount: 3-stage adjustable leaf spring
- Drivers: No additional drivers required, supports N-key rollover
- Layout/Lighting Configuration: Configurable on Windows/macOS
- Switch Mounting Style: Hot-swappable
- Connectivity: Tri-mode: 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 5.1, wired
- Indicators: Case corner RGB lighting and Caps Lock indicator
- USB Port: USB 2.0, Type-C, supports USB-C to USB-C
- Battery: Lithium polymer 5000mAh *2, 10000mAh total (typical)
- Qi Wireless Charging: Wireless charging 5W
- Power consumption: 4W
Introducing the Angry Miao Relic 80
In some ways, the Angry Miao Relic 80 is the most tame keyboard the company has ever made. The company has become synonymous with boundary pushing designs that blend modern art with practical peripherals. The results are wholly unique.
Its best known product, the Cyberboard, is the perfect example of this ethos. Its large, angular design would already have garnered attention but Angry Miao went multiple steps further, adding a full dot-matrix display on the top of the keyboard, a 10,000mAh battery, and a wireless charging coil. The AFA R2, taking a pretty traditional alice layout and turning it into something that looked closer to a spaceship but was almost achingly cool to behold.
The Relic 80 carries through many of the features found in Angry Miao’s previous keyboards and is a clear demonstration of the lessons the designers have learned over their prior releases. The layout, however, is entirely traditional. It’s a standard tenkeyless keyboard without any extragent spacing or layout changes. The biggest difference is that it features an programmable F13 key, which is perfect for Mute.
That isn’t to say the Relic is tame; it’s anything but. Inspired by the artist, David Arsham, and his Brillo Box sculpture, the keyboard features “eroded” corners, revealing diamond-like structures beneath, lit by RGB LEDs. While seemingly small, it’s one of the keyboards most defining features and there’s genuinely nothing else like it out there. It is in a very real way, the melding of modern art and keyboard, and it’s not easily accomplished.
The case, which is made of aluminum, is specially CNC milled. The eroded corners utilize a special ball cutter to produce the precise curves to evoke the art and appearance of erosion. The top case alone takes four hours to produce for every single keyboard. It’s also carefully angled and dimensioned to produce a typing experience that is comfortable and ergonomic, even without a wrist rest.
Internally, Angry Miao has paid special attention to its structure. It adopts the three-stage leaf spring found on the AFA and AM Compact Touch. Rather than use traditional gaskets found on many mechanical keyboards, the bottom case is rimmed with elevated springs that hold the plate and PCB aloft. Each spring has a rubber tab that fits into the assembly to dampen any potential vibrations and make sure it feel smooth and consistent.
These springs can also be modified to adjust the amount of flex. While there's a rubber tap that fits into the PCB assembly above, a second rubber stopper fits into the case below there are three positions, called “gears” this tab can fit into allowing for more or less movement. Stainless steel springs are installed by default, but there’s also a set of copper springs included in the box that are softer and provide more flex too.
As I mentioned earlier, the biggest focus with this release appears to be making the keyboard sound its very best without needing to make any changes yourself (though you certainly can!). The Relic features an 8-layer internal structure consisting of plate foam, switch foam, a PET switch pad, PCB foam, up to two layers of case foam, the FR4 plate, and PCB. The result is a finely tuned typing experience that is exceptionally marbly and smooth, right out of the box. I received the pre-built bundle version and even the stabilizers were pre-lubed and ready to go. All of Angry Miao’s lessons are on display here and the Relic 80 is more accomplished for it.
The keyboard is also wireless — in more ways than one. It supports Bluetooth connectivity with up to three devices as well as 2.4GHz wireless for gaming. These can be hot-swapped on the fly using a key combination and the connection is surprisingly reliable given its heavy-duty metal case. For gaming, you’ll want to stick with 2.4GHz for its 1ms polling rate.
Backing this connectivity is a pair of 5,000mAh batteries and a wireless Qi charging coil. Angry Miao doesn’t quote battery life on the keyboard but this battery is absolutely massive. With backlighting off, it will easily last months between recharges. You’ll probably want to leaves the lighting on, though, in which case you’ll probably need to recharge once or twice a month depending on your use. If you have a deskpad with a charging coil, like Angry Miao’s Cybermat (currently sold out), you’ll literally never have to plug in.
The keyboard is available in two versions, a barebones kit that doesn’t include switches or keycaps and a bundle version that does. The barebones kit will retail for $490 and the bundle $650. Both kits will offer cases with and without Windows keys. It will also come in three colors: Chalk White, Basalt Black, and Meteor, which is an anodized light brown finish.
The bundle version also comes with AM’s custom transparent keycaps and excellent Icy Silver Pro switches. These two elements justify the higher cost of the bundle version and they’re both excellent. The keycaps are custom molded, and the switches are pre-lubed, long-pole switches; both work fantastically in conjunction with the internal structure to enhance the keyboard’s sound.
Finally, we have the staples: per-key RGB and hot-swappable switches. It wouldn’t be an Angry Miao board without these and they’re certainly present here.
Also like prior boards, all of your remapping and customization is done through Angry Miao DIY site. Since this board is more traditional than the rest, I would have loved to have seen VIA support added to provide more remapping options and macro support, but DIY allows you to program layers of keymaps, so the majority of core functionality is still there. DIY also gives you much more control over the keyboard’s LEDs, so beats VIA handily there.
Angry Miao Relic 80 - Typing, Gaming, and Overall Impressions
First off, the fit and finish is excellent, just as I’ve come to expect from Angry Miao. There were no milling marks, streaks, or imperfections in the ano. Everything was immaculate in that regard — as it should be at this price!
But even though things look simple on the outside, if you do decide to open it, you’ll find that the internals of the keyboard are definitely a bit outside of the box. There are a whopping ten springs rimming the case. The eroded corners are actually bits of plastic with the internal side milled into a crystalline pattern. These fit into the corners of the top case and the PCB actually snaps in on top.
Instead of JST cables like most keyboards, we have the same wide ribbon cables found as far back as the Cyberboard connecting everything. Remove the bottom foam and you’ll find that there’s actually a removable plate in the bottom case that reveals the wide USB daughterboard. The corner LEDs are housed on their own circuit boards that run back into the main daughterboard, which feeds back into the PCB. Nothing with Angry Miao is simple, and even though the outer case might look that way, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface!
The Relic 80 is the first Angry Miao keyboard that I feel as been completely optimized, right out of the box. The other keyboards, while each great in their own ways, always needed a little bit of Krytox on the stabilizers or some modifications to the foam configuration. Here, you’re getting the full experience without having to remove a single screw. Send a keyboard to a professional builder and you aren’t likely to get results better than what you’ll find straight away with the Relic 80.
Marbly is the word. This keyboard has that creamy, poppy sound that was popularized by the Owlab Jelly Epoch and has taken the keyboard scene by storm, but it does it so well. They keyboard sounds great. I don’t see myself changing switches anytime soon.
Or keycaps, for that matter, though I could see why some people might. Their glossy surface gets fingerprinted immediately and shows every stray speck of dust that happens to land on it. They sound great, though, and their translucence is, to me, one of the most characteristic aspects of this keyboard and ties directly with the eroded corners.
2.4GHz wasn’t ready during my test period, but Bluetooth was reliable and steady. For typing and other productivity tasks, it will work perfectly fine. There’s a slightly amount of noticeable delay when gaming, however, so I’d use the dongle or plug in for that. Even though I haven’t tested this feature, it has become so standard, even on keyboards 1/8th the price, that it would frankly be hard for Angry Miao to do wrong. And considering they are now owned by Lenovo and have access to more resources than ever, a simple 2.4GHz dongle should be easy and reliable to implement.
I’ve always contended that a great gaming keyboard has to be a few things. It needs to be fast. It needs to be reliable. And it needs to be a joy to use. A keyboard that feels good makes you want to type on it. It encourages you to play just so you can spend more time with it. It encourages practice and improvement. The Relic 80 does each of those things in addition to being comfortable to use for extended periods of time.
And for those of you the want flex, the Relic has it in spades. I spent most of my testing time with the copper springs but either set will allow you to see slight movement under your fingers when typing normally. Push down intentionally, and you’ll see a lot of movement, even with a single case foam added (there’s less with the second foam). There’s nothing mushy about the experience either. The FR4 plate is stiff enough and the switches responsive enough that every key stroke feels crisp.
Have a listen for yourself:
In short, the Angry Miao Relic 80 is probably my favorite keyboard from the company yet. It factors in all of the best internal aspects of its previous keyboards and applies them here to create an impeccable balance of form and function. The Relic 80 is simply a fantastic keyboard.
Final Thoughts
Would I recommend you buy it? If you want a great typing experience straight out of the box and money is no object, sure. You can’t go wrong here. It’s certainly an expensive keyboard, though, and like all of Angry Miao’s products it’s going to require you really resonate with its artistic leanings first and its internal design second.
Because, make no mistake, Angry Miao is just as much an art company as they are a tech company. It takes the time to spend four hours on each case with an intricate and expensive milling process. It isn’t afraid to think outside the box and come out with unique structures for the base that they have to mold and mill themselves. Even the keycaps on the bundle are from custom molds, just to reach AM’s exacting specs. You pay for that. But if the Relic 80 speaks to you, it’s a wonderful way to upgrade your computing and gaming experience. Just brace your wallet for impact.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
