Varmilo Beijing Opera Mechanical Keyboard

A Closer Look & Performance

Without a doubt, this is easily one of the most unique and interesting keyboards I’ve ever seen. As the most influential opera in China, Beijing Opera is also known as “national opera” and “the quintessence of Chinese culture”. Not that I’m an expert here, I copied that from the press release. However, it seems with many of the more advanced designs, Varmilo really likes to do their homework and puts a lot of small details into their themes. It’s a refreshing approach to see some art and history vs the usual aluminium and RGB will do mentality. The press kit they sent me details major performances, history and artists involved in the Opera its self, which was really impressive actually.

There’s quite a lot going on here, but the first thing I really noticed was the premium quality feel of everything. It’s a nicely weighted keyboard, you can feel that it is durable and a premium quality product that respects its rather lofty price tag. However, when you start to realise the level of detail they’ve put into the construction and design, you realise this is more than just a keyboard with a fun graphic on it.

This isn’t a typical dual-language keyboard, it’s actually designed for the west. The translations of some keys are more meaningful and taken inspiration from 3000-year-old ancient Chinese bronze inscriptions.

“The character design of Beijing Opera combines English and ancient Chinese writing, bronze inscriptions.
Chinese bronze inscriptions, literally translated as “gold writing(Jin Wen)” in Chinese, are unique scripts in
ancient China, which appeared long before paper was invented. It first appeared in the Shang Dynasty more
than 3,300 years ago (about 1300 BC). “Jin” means “metal”. As the name implies, early inscriptions were often
cast on metal containers (mainly bronze). But this writing system gradually disappeared after the Qin Dynasty
(about 219 BC). Today, research and studies has identified more than 2000 characters. Chinese bronze
inscriptions give us a glimpse of the life and etiquette of ancient Chinese people, and also show that in more
than 3000 years ago, we have already got mature writing system in China.” – Varmilo

So for Shift, they have written 转换, which means “change between the two” and Capslock is Yin and Yang, using
the concept of dualism to represent uppercase and lowercase. That same level of detail and creativity is applied to virtually all of the translations for the caps, rather than just putting the modern Chinese equivalent on there.

Of course, as you can see, the English versions are embossed on the front faces, making them very easy to locate.

Some of the caps are just aesthetically beautiful with no text, such as the escape key. This has some trees and what may be red lights on it. It looks great and matches the colour theme well.

The F-keys are another unique one, representing 12 musical notes in their translation/use of symbols.

“The keys of F1 to F12 on the keyboard are represented by the twelve pitches of China. In ancient Chinese music, we have the pentatonic scale and twelve pitches. A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, corresponding to “do, re, mi, sol, la” as we all know today. The twelve pitches, a standardized gamut of twelve notes, used the same intervals as the Pythagorean scale and was based on 2:3 ratios. The keys of F1 to F12 are represented from low pitch to high pitch, which are Huáng Zhōng (tonic/unison), Dà Lǚ (semitone), Tài Cù (major second), Jiá Zhōng (minor third), Gū Xiǎn (major third), Zhòng Lǚ (perfect fourth), Ruí Bīn (tritone), Lín Zhōng (perfect fifth), Yí Zé (minor sixth), Nán Lǚ (major sixth), Wú Yì (minor seventh), Yìng Zhōng (major seventh).” – Varmilo

F5-F8 are finished in grey, but also house some secondary multimedia functions.

And more on the F9-F12 keys, allowing you to play/pause music and control your volume levels quickly.

I must admit, the colour contrast on this keyboard is staggering. There’s a light texture to everything, and the deep colours really pop and capture light well. The matte grey/black makes the creamy whites and rose reds look even more potent than they otherwise would. Alas, keep in mind, there is no RGB or LED on this keyboard, not that it needs it.

The keyboard is also laced with this gorgeous pattern design that’s similar to those used in traditional Chinese art. It’s not often you see a gold embroidered design on a keyboard, but here it is, and it looks gorgeous!

“In Beijing Opera costumes, ripple patterns are usually embroidered in blue or gold. We employed this element
in our design to recreate the ripples in gold embroidery. For esc and enter keys, the red sun is used to picture
the beauty of sunrise.” – Varmilo

You can see it runs under the caps, and weaves its way around various keyboard sections, giving it a really unique and flowing design.

The primary image is located on the space bar, and it’s pretty striking.

As Varmilo say “Dan, beautiful young women in Beijing Opera, usually the heroine.” Overall though, the colours and the detail within are sublime.

There’s more sun and seawater represented in the enter key, matching that of the escape key.

Had I had the full-size version with a number pad, you’d find this Lion Dance enter key on the right side of the keyboard.

The details continue into the main key caps, which feature the symbols matching Chinese bronze inscriptions from 3000 years ago, meaning certain letters are more meaningful to the Opera, rather than just straight translations.

“Among the characters in Chinese bronze inscriptions, we selected the ones representing Beijing Opera terminology and put them into design. In terms of the design of letters, we made extra efforts to match the pronunciation of English and Chinese. For example, D is represented by 旦 (Dan), which means actress in Beiing Opera. C is represented by 丑(Chou), which means clowns.” – Varmilo

As for the keyboard body, it’s actually quite slim overall. This means the keyboard has a low profile feel so it is comfortable to use without a wrist rest. Furthermore, it’s also got a flat profile from front to back, rather than a curve, making it super fast and uniform to type on, or more accurately, better to game on.

Nothing is going on around the back, alas, you were likely expecting another history lesson here, haha.

Well, would you look at that, if that isn’t one of the nicest looking undersides I’ve ever seen?!

The back of the keyboard has actually been designed to look like a jade buckle in an ancient belt, with the inlaid cloud pattern flowing around the keyboard to look like a belt worn was Beijing opera costumes. Seriously, that much detail in a product label, amazing.

It’s not a flat image either, all the detail on this keyboard is tactile and has texture.

Towards the back, you’ll find some durable flip-out feet to adjust the height.

The keyboard has some small rubber grips, and so do the feet. Combined with the weight of the keyboard, it tends to stay well planted on your desktop.

Strangely, it uses a Mini-USB rather than Micro or even Type C. A little old-school, but hey, if it works, it works. I’m happy to see the port is heavily recessed so that you can hide the header easily. Furthermore, it’s a detachable cable, so you can use a custom one if you wanted to.

The switches themselves are the latest EC 2 variants, a high-quality mechanical switch, and four types are available; as I covered earlier in the review. I have the light pink switches, the Sakura EC Switch V2. They’re a fast, light and linear switch similar to MX Silver/Red. They have a 45gf actuation force, 60gf terminal force, and 2mm operation point with 4mm of travel in total.

One notable difference is the box design, which has become more common now, and reduced key-cap wobble for a more stable feel under your fingertips.