The CIDOO V87 is a custom mechanical keyboard in every way except you don’t have to build it yourself. It comes ready to use out of the box but with all the attention to detail you would expect from a hand-built, hand-modded mechanical keyboard. It also sports tri-mode wireless with a fast 2.4GHz dongle, a heavy aluminum case, thick PBT keycaps, pre-lubed switches and stabilizers. The best part? It’s only $150.
Specifications
- Current Price: $149.99 (Amazon, Epomaker)
- Mount Type: Gasket-mounted with imported Poron adhesive foam strip
- Connectivity: Bluetooth & USB-C wired & 2.4Ghz wireless
- Battery capacity: 3000mAh
- RGB: South-facing RGB
- Stabilizer: PCBA screw-in stabilizer
- Plate: PC flex-cut mounting plate
- Keycaps: Single-sided and five-sided dye-sublimation PBT keycaps
- Foam
- PCB Poron foam
- IXPE Switch Sheet
- Bottom switch socket Poron Foam
- PORON bottom foam
- Cable: 1.6m Type-C braided cable
- Case material: Powder-coating CNC Aluminum
- Dimension: 400mm x 145mm x 35mm
- Weight: 2.16kg
- Inside the box
- CIDOO V87 Keyboard
- Keycap/switch Puller
- Instruction Manual
- USB Cable
CIDOO V87 - What Is It?
The CIDOO V87 is a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard designed for gamers who want the custom mechanical keyboard experience without the need to build it themselves. It features a heavy aluminum case in a powder-coated retro beige with matching keycaps. There are colorful accent keys for spacebar, right shift, and escape, as well as some bold RGB, but turn the lighting off and you have a keyboard that screams “retro.”
At this point, I feel like the bar has just been getting consistently raised on affordable mechs. It’s possible to find a great typing and gaming experience well under $100 that far exceeds what was available even three years ago. The V87 shakes that up with its aluminum case. Most cheap keyboards, and even expensive ones like the ROG Azoth, still use plastic — and there’s nothing wrong with that. But the V87 feels and sounds much closer to the kind of experience you’d expect from a more expensive group buy keyboard.
The V87 is a beast. Its case is substantial, weighing in at just under five pounds. It doesn’t move on the desk, and should you ever find yourself in a home invasion, you can rest assured that it easily doubles as a weapon. It’s not all about size, though. The V87 is built to one of the highest standards I’ve encountered in a pre-made keyboard.
CIDOO V87 - Soft Gaskets, Soft Typing
Inside its metal chassis, the keys are built on a soft gasket mount. Unlike most gaming keyboards even today, the internal structure (the switches, the switch mounting plate, and the PCB) isn’t bolted to the case. Instead, it rests on soft foam strips that are sandwiched between its top and bottom. This isolates keystrokes from the case and allows the plate and PCB to flex when typing. The typing experience is quieter, softer, and all-around better.
CIDOO has also added all of the usual foams you would find in a custom keyboard kit. Between the plate and PCB is a layer of plate foam that surrounds the switches, isolating and cleaning up their sound. Beneath the switches is a layer of IXPE foam to give them more pop. Underneath the circuit board is a layer of PCB foam. Beneath that is a final layer of foam that sits in the bottom part of the case to remove any hollowness.
On top of that, CIDOO has used a polycarbonate plate rather than the steel or aluminum typically found in gaming keyboards. This soft plastic material enhances the softness and provides noticeable flex when typing. Note, this isn’t the bad flex people used to talk about with gaming keyboards. That type of flex has to do with the case. This type of flex has to do with the layer of keys and enhances the typing experience.
CIDOO V87 - Great Switches and Stabilizers
The V87 comes with downright excellent switches, though it’s a bit tight lipped on their details. It uses Matte Linear switches but declines to provide any specifications. These switches are pre-lubed and incredibly smooth. They’re lightweight but not overly sensitive. I would place them around a Cherry MX Red in actuation force if not slightly heavier. They have a light typing sound that’s rounding and not at all sharp. There’s no spring noise whatsoever.
That high quality also applies to the stabilizers. The keyboard uses screw-in stabilizers, which are more solid and stable, and are perfectly pre-lubed. That’s great because they’re also harder to mod yourself, but since they’re so consistently excellent, you likely won’t have to add any grease of your own. Do note, however, that like all pre-built keyboards, your mileage may vary. Just because mine was excellent across the board doesn’t mean that yours will be totally perfect. Still, this is really impressive work.
The combination of great switches and stabilizers works in conjunction with the acoustic foams to deliver a very satisfying, smooth, and consistent typing experience across the board. For gaming, I was able to spam these extremely easily and half-press to be poised. It’s easily one of the best typing experiences I’ve ever had on a pre-built keyboard, right alongside the ROG Strix Scope 96 II.
CIDOO V87 - High-speed Wireless
One of the hallmark features of this keyboard is its wireless connectivity. Despite being made of metal, it’s able to support Bluetooth and 2.4GHz with up to four total clients (three BT, one 2.4GHz). For gaming, you’ll certainly want to stick with the 2.4GHz dongle for its improved 1ms connection speed, but for normal typing, you can hotswap between Bluetooth devices with very little delay in transitioning.
In my testing, I found the wireless connectivity to be very consistent and reliable. I didn’t have a single drop out in all of my testing. That said, the range is certainly less and is likely attributable to the aluminum case. When used on the same desk as the computer, even between four and five feet away or when the computer is below the desk, it’s able to maintain solid connectivity. Walking away with the keyboard to use on a couch, on the other hand, causes missed keystrokes, so you’ll want to stay close.
The keyboard sports a 3,000mAh battery, which isn’t the biggest but is enough for around a week of moderate use with RGB on. Turn RGB off and it will likely surpass a month but I wasn’t able to test beyond two weeks during this review period. This battery life is fine but not outstanding and is one of the core areas where the V87 falls a bit short. I would love to see that expanded to at least 4,000mAh in a future version.
CIDOO V87 - Programming and RGB
The V87 sports per-key RGB backlighting and it looks fine, but isn’t exceptionally bright. They keycaps are thick and not backlit, so lighting is limited to under the keys only. Lighting can be customized using hotkeys on the keyboard.
Programming these keys, as well as remaps and macros, is done through VIA, a popular open-source software. VIA is one of my favorite keyboard applications because it’s easy to use and changes save automatically to the keyboard, ready to be used on any PC.
When you connect the keyboard, VIA presents you with a diagram of your keyboard. Simply press the key you would like to change and then choose what you would like there instead from another diagram below. This can also be done across multiple layers, allowing you to access several “virtual keyboards” on the fly, whenever you would like. Again, this is all on the keyboard, accessible by holding a layer key that you can freely set.
VIA also allows you to program in hotkeys for the keyboard’s lighting and macros, though, you’ll find that the options aren’t as robust as most gaming softwares. Macros are essentially limited to text strings unless you want to program in specific keycodes for modifiers and place things in a set syntax. Complicated. But, for the basics, VIA gets the job done with aplomb and then you can close it and not worry about it again until you need to make another change.
Final Thoughts
The CIDOO V87 surprised me. It is, for all intents and purposes, a true custom keyboard that saves you the work of building it yourself. The typing and gaming experiences are top notch, and though the retro aesthetic isn’t for everybody, I really liked it. At $150 fully built, this is a hard keyboard to beat and is quite impressive.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes. Some articles may contain affiliate links and purchases made through this will result in a small commission for the site. Commissions are not directed to the author or related to compensation in any way.
