Fantech MAXFIT67 RGB Mechanical Hotswap Keyboard

[VSG]

Fantech is a growing peripherals brand looking to grab your attention and money with the 65% MAXFIT67 RGB hotswap mechanical keyboard. It provides an exhaustive feature set for its price, including hybrid wireless connectivity, two excellent switch choices, pre-lubed stabilizers, long battery life, and much more!

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[MarsM4N]

Funny how hard they are all pushing the 65% form factor. TKL is small enough, and you don't have to do FN finger gymnastics.

Bluetooth & battery is another thing I don't really need & want for a stationary device. Looks like some stand out attributes invented by the Chinese (most if not all Chinese keyboards got it now). Maybe it's a thing over there. But with PBT keycaps the price is really fine. I could see me going for the Keychron K8 (non PRO since I like backlight), but it's again bluetooth & battery.

Btw. @VSG: there is a typo on the last page "Fantech Alexpress store"

 

[VSG]

Funny how hard they are all pushing the 65% form factor. TKL is small enough, and you don't have to do FN finger gymnastics.

Bluetooth & battery is another thing I don't really need & want for a stationary device. Looks like some stand out attributes invented by the Chinese (most if not all Chinese keyboards got it now). Maybe it's a thing over there. But with PBT keycaps the price is really fine. I could see me going for the Keychron K8 (non PRO since I like backlight), but it's again bluetooth & battery.

Btw. @VSG: there is a typo on the last page "Fantech Alexpress store"

Thanks, I've corrected it now.

 

[duynguyenle]

Counterpoint, 65% is big enough and I don't have to move my hands off the home position just to get to the Function F1-F12 keys while still having dedicated arrows (in fact, 60% is big enough for most people, but standalone arrows seems to be a desirable feature). I also disagree with the bit about finger gymnastics, if the keys are all within reach of your fingers while your hands are positioned on the home row, why is that considered finger gymnastics?

Nobody is really PUSHING the 65% form factor as you said, companies tend to make what they think is popular in the market, which at the moment appears to be 75 and 65%. There are plenty of boards in other form factor being sold (and I suspect the full size and TKL form factors still dwarf these niche smaller boards by an order of magnitude, just going by the sheer number of boards big name OEMs like Logitech, Corsair, HyperX etc... pushes out annually, and I don't see anyone complaining how hard all the big name brands are PUSHING the full size/TKL form factor). The 65% form factor itself has been around for years (the first really popular 65% in the hobby scene was the TADA68, first ran in 2016 and iterated upon multiple times since then).

 

[VSG]

Counterpoint, 65% is big enough and I don't have to move my hands off the home position just to get to the Function F1-F12 keys while still having dedicated arrows (in fact, 60% is big enough for most people, but standalone arrows seems to be a desirable feature). I also disagree with the bit about finger gymnastics, if the keys are all within reach of your fingers while your hands are positioned on the home row, why is that considered finger gymnastics?

Nobody is really PUSHING the 65% form factor as you said, companies tend to make what they think is popular in the market, which at the moment appears to be 75 and 65%. There are plenty of boards in other form factor being sold (and I suspect the full size and TKL form factors still dwarf these niche smaller boards by an order of magnitude, just going by the sheer number of boards big name OEMs like Logitech, Corsair, HyperX etc... pushes out annually, and I don't see anyone complaining how hard all the big name brands are PUSHING the full size/TKL form factor). The 65% form factor itself has been around for years (the first really popular 65% in the hobby scene was the TADA68, first ran in 2016 and iterated upon multiple times since then).

Oh you brought back some memories: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/originative-saber68/, too bad Originative wasn't really able to get past the re-branding exercise.

 

[duynguyenle]

Oh you brought back some memories: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/originative-saber68/, too bad Originative wasn't really able to get past the re-branding exercise.

Indeed, I bought into the very first run of TADA68 from Originative (original plastic injection moulded casing, cheap feeling and rattly plate-mount stabs, slightly dodgy firmware and re-mapping that requires using a random website to generate a .bin).

The board itself was a bit of a paradox. It is simultaneously very good in certain aspects but also kinda weird with various shortfalls in other ways. I have long sold mine (moved on to better boards) but off the top of my head, here are the things I can remember:

Pros:

• Price: This was a big one, if I recall correctly, it was very very cheap for its time (something like $99 in the initial wave) and for that, you get an already pre-built board with several switch options, bundled plate and stabilisers, as well as some pretty good dye-sub PBT caps (this was back in the days where good keycaps weren't as abundant and cheap as it is now, especially thick Cherry profile options)
• Even though it was only initially offered in one layout, the PCB itself had shockingly included pretty much all layout options you could want, splittable left shift, backspace, accommodation for ISO enter cluster, support for multiple bottom row layouts (6.25 or 7u spacebars, and 1u, 1.25u or 1.5us mods with 1.25 or 1u GUI keys) (old photo of the back of the TADA68 PCB https://i.imgur.com/W5pAowu.jpg)
• While the board came stock with rattly plate-mounted stabs, the PCB did have the proper holes for PCB mount stabs.
• Re-mapping keys was fairly easy for beginner (this was kinda both a pro and con)

Cons:

• Stock case was injection moulded plastic, it gets the job done decently, and looks good (for the time) but it is pretty light and hollow sounding (this is fixable with foam infill at user's discretion)
• While the PCB had some pretty decent compatibility options, the original factory soldering job was pretty shocking, plenty of leftover flux and cold joints (refer to my PCB shot above)
• The key remapping, while pretty cool and easy for beginners (generate a .bin on a web UI, then dropping it into the board by making it pretend to be a USB mass storage device), it is not quite as fully featured as TMK/QMK proper, and the process of putting the file on the board itself is exceptionally buggy and prone to failure. I ended up just re-flashing QMK to it proper once someone ported the bootloader.
• Stock stabs were plate-mounted, kinda rattly and terrible
• If you were inclined to mod the keyboard and swap switches, the board supports in-switch LEDs which were installed from the factory, and were a pain in the neck to desolder.

All in all, for a board released in 2016 before we had fancy things like easy QMK configurator, VIA no-reflash remapping, and all the modern convenience and availability of parts we've come to take for granted with the explosion of the hobby, in some way I think TADA68 was the one that really got things going (and IIRC this was the one that launched KBDFans, as I think they were the original producer of the board in cooperation with Originative).

I parted with mine years ago, but not before getting a custom lasetcut plate for it so I could use it as an ISO layout board (ended up swapping the switches for some Gateron Black and putting PCB mount stabs and some nice caps on it of course! These were OG GMK Dolch from a very early GH GB, plus a nice Rama OEM profile alu cap)

 

[Rhein7]

Ah a bit surprise seeing Fantech review in TPU, they are kinda big brand here in SE Asia.
Loved their mouse because it was cheap lol.
Thanks for the review.

 

[micropage7]

Ah a bit surprise seeing Fantech review in TPU, they are kinda big brand here in SE Asia.
Loved their mouse because it was cheap lol.
Thanks for the review.

yeah, some asia brands hard to reach outside asia

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

Funny how hard they are all pushing the 65% form factor. TKL is small enough, and you don't have to do FN finger gymnastics.

Bluetooth & battery is another thing I don't really need & want for a stationary device. Looks like some stand out attributes invented by the Chinese (most if not all Chinese keyboards got it now). Maybe it's a thing over there. But with PBT keycaps the price is really fine. I could see me going for the Keychron K8 (non PRO since I like backlight), but it's again bluetooth & battery.

Btw. @VSG: there is a typo on the last page "Fantech Alexpress store"

I see a lot of 60% in the DIY area. It's always funny to see the tiny keyboard strapped to a paracorded and srink wrapped coiled aviator USB cable on top of a full desk mat.

 

[erocker]

I really like mine. Mine came with the white clicky switches which I actually kinda liked but replaced them with some lubed ATTO pink's and got some SA profile keycaps.

 

[kapone32]

Alas still nothing that pulls we away from my Logitech G510. It is amazing how far we have not come. I can't believe how much some keyboards cost. It's not like they can make you type any better.

 

[MarsM4N]

Alas still nothing that pulls we away from my Logitech G510. It is amazing how far we have not come. I can't believe how much some keyboards cost. It's not like they can make you type any better.

Actually they can make you type better. Esp. tactile switches (blue, brown, etc.) are gold for typing.

Mechanical keyboards are really from a different world. Especially the feeling/feedback you get when typing on it. The way more solid build/durability, reduced key wobble, multi layer dampening, satisfying acoustic feedback & firmer stabilizers for long keys is just the cherry on the cake. You should relly try one out, there is no way back to rubber dome after you got your hands on one.

 

[kapone32]

Actually they can make you type better. Esp. tactile switches (blue, brown, etc.) are gold for typing.

Mechanical keyboards are really from a different world. Especially the feeling/feedback you get when typing on it. The way more solid build/durability, reduced key wobble, multi layer dampening, satisfying acoustic feedback & firmer stabilizers for long keys is just the cherry on the cake. You should relly try one out, there is no way back to rubber dome after you got your hands on one.

I grew up using an actual typewriter. I don't believe there is a Mechanical alive that could give you the weight of that. As my focus is Gaming though I much more value my 15 G keys that are absolutely Golden for Action RPGs like Grim Dawn. Indeed the G510 even has profiles for a surprising number of Games that you can see on the little Display Window that integrates with AIDA64.