Introduction

HAVIT is not a brand I expect many of you to have been aware of already, and I had only scarce knowledge of the brand before this. They are an Asian company founded in 1998 and have only recently expanded to the global market through a prime partnership with Amazon (pun intended). HAVIT has much stronger connections with the entire manufacturing process of their products which, as most others, are manufactured in China and boast a team of engineers, designers, and product testers all working together to ensure a good product backed by customer support no matter where the customer resides. While we can't test for the latter, we can most definitely give their claims on the product a run for their money, and so here we are today with a look at one of their recent keyboards. Thanks again to HAVIT for providing a sample for review.


I will say right away that one of the things that swayed me to say yes to HAVIT is the low-profile nature of the HV-KB390L keyboard. I have examined a few before already, be it with scissor switches or even mechanical switches, but HAVIT claims this to be the thinnest 87-key mechanical keyboard on the market today. That is a bold claim no doubt, but one that should automatically interest other readers who have stayed with scissor switch keyboards because they simply prefer a low-profile keyboard. So let us begin our look into what makes this such a low-profile keyboard with the specs in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

The keyboard was shipped by their US partner Amazon, and it isn't protect well. As such, the product box arrived with a few bumps and worse for wear, but it did its job in protecting the contents inside, so I suppose I can compliment HAVIT here already. The product box, as we see above, has a white cover over a black cardboard box. The white cover has the company and product name on the front, with a printed illustration of the keyboard and some salient marketing features, and this continues on the back and sides with another illustration, specs, and features. The box itself has a notification on where to open it, along with an interesting "Enjoy what I have" slogan on the front. It certainly has me curious about the contents now, so I suppose it has done its job.


There are two double flaps on the box that help keep the contents inside in check. Open the box and we see the keyboard itself with the cable hidden in the compartment underneath as indicated by the "Pull" plastic tab attached to the packaging. This inner compartment is another cardboard box with a customized cutout for the cable, and underneath this is were the remaining accessories are. Included here is a quick start guide that describes the onboard controls on backlighting, including the various lighting effects, and I would normally encourage you to read this had I then not realized that there is a software driver as well that makes things a lot easier. Regardless, keep it handy for when you want to quickly change the lighting if the driver is not installed. The keyboard cable is not braided but removable, as we can see, and goes from a male USB Type-A connector to a male micro-USB connector.