Introduction

Remember this or this? If you do and wanted more, you are in luck. If you had not read those, welcome to your first typewriter-inspired mechanical keyboard review. If you had read those and were done with the trend of similarly styled keyboards, well, you are in for a surprise as well. You see, when AZIO first contacted me about their Retro Classic keyboard, I realized that this is actually a product incorporating features many wish the "base" MK Retro would have - backlighting, for one. Others wanted a more luxurious product with a metal frame instead of plastic, and I actually did see one person say he wanted to see a leather finish as well. I do not know if that last one was a planted comment, but it is very fitting then that we have here a keyboard that has all those features, including the leather!


The AZIO Retro Classic is a mechanical keyboard with the same round typewriter-style keycaps, and the overall design scheme is also very similar to the others we saw before. But with the addition of a zinc-aluminum alloy frame and a leather top plate, they have adopted materials otherwise not seen in this hobby. As a result, they also want to let you know that this keyboard is currently being fundraised on IndieGoGo to ramp up production, and so far, it does seem to be doing fairly well, so good for them. Thanks again to AZIO for providing a pre-production sample for us to take a look at.

Specifications