Tecware Phantom TKL Mechanical Keyboard Review

Peter Donnell / 5 years ago

A Closer Look

First impressions of the keyboard are pretty good, I mean, there are no surprises here and it looks like everything is where you would want it to be. It’s good a good weight to it too, some of the more affordable models tend to feel a bit hollow, but this one feels pretty positive to hold. That weight must be inside though as it’s not hanging off the sides, with very little trim around the edges.

The bezel is very small, which I do like as it’s a real space saver and looks super clean. Despite the compact design, it does still cram in quite a lot of features. Using the Fn-Shift button, you can access a secondary set of functions for most keys, such as the lighting direction, speed and brightness controls on the arrow keys.

Above that, you’ll find there are six program keys built-in too. Again, with Fn-Shift, you can toggle through some macros, profiles and anything else you set to them really.

The keyboard features a top row of launches too, for My computer, Internet, Calc, and Music. It’s a bold move having the internet explorer “e” there as it used to suck, but they got lucky that Edge is now fantastic, phew!

Further along, you’ll find the F5-F11 keys have all your multimedia needs. Now, I do prefer dedicated multimedia control buttons, but honestly, for a TKL keyboard, I’d rather save the space. For skipping tracks while working and gaming, or making quick adjustments to the volume though, this is perfectly serviceable.

The keycaps are double-shot ABS plastic. That’s pretty standard for most keyboards really, but they feel good to the touch and look pretty neat and tidy too. They even mount using the typical Cherry + mount, so don’t be put off by those Outemu switches.

All of the keys are RGB backlit, and you can even toggle the lighting on/off directly from the keyboard. However, for full in-depth customisation, you’ll need the optional desktop software. Don’t worry, you can save profiles to the keyboard and ditch the software later if you need to.

The underside of the keyboard looks fantastic, even if you are only going to see it once or twice. There are four massive grippy feet here, so it really shouldn’t slide around much at all.

Plus the kickstands have rubber grips on them too.

A handy key-cap pulling tool is fitted here, which is awesome because I’m always losing mine.

The red switches look fantastic, and well, they look exactly like you would expect from any other mechanical switch, such as, oh I don’t know, Cherry!