CIDOO’s C75 blew me away with its build quality, acoustics, and features. While some of its features were obfuscated in the CIDOO driver, it’s a stellar aluminum keyboard with magnetic hall effect switches. Its price is unbeatable, too! At $19.99, EPOMAKER's FurMix USB cable is a very cute addition to one’s office space. Being 1.5m, it’s a good medium-length cable that’s best used for connecting your keyboard to your computer, but I’m sure that you can use it for other things, too.
This review is a double whammy, folks. Today, I’m going to be covering two accessories in one entry – a mechanical keyboard and a specialty USB cable that is sure to be an excellent addition to your office if you’re looking for a kawaii and/or softer desk space. If you’re looking to upgrade your office space in its entirety, this mechanical keyboard and adorable USB cord are sure to give you the new aesthetic you desire. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
CIDOO C75 Mechanical Keyboard Review
Prior to August 2024, DigitalChumps has not gotten their hands on anything from the CIDOO brand, but I’ve had my eye on them for a hot minute. They have a long history of award-winning product design spanning back to 2010 when they first released a flaretech gaming keyboard involving pressure-sensitive and how-swappable split structures. Clearly, they’ve taken bold steps in innovating within the mechanical keyboard space.
CIDOO’s C75 mechanical keyboard is one of their newer products – their first foray into aluminum mechanical keyboards featuring a volume knob, gasket mount structure, and one notable feature: Hall Effect magnetic switches.
Hall Effect magnetic switches are becoming increasingly popular and borderline flavor-of-the-month in the mechanical keyboard space. Back when I reviewed the MelGeek CYBER01, there were very few prebuilts on the market, save for Wooting, Steelseries, and Keychron. A mere five months later, there is so much hubbub about Razer and Wooting’s keyboards along with cheating accusations from those who play FPS games as software is becoming tightly integrated with the novelty that is a Hall Effect keyboard.
The primary benefit of magnetic switches is that of its adjustable actuation points along with the secondary benefit of ridiculously high durability. Unlike your typical mechanical switch (in tactile or linear flavors), magnetic switches allow the user to customize each and every key’s actuation/reset points, meaning that if you want to make some switches super sensitive (for quicker inputs), you can do that! If you want to make all of your keys less sensitive and have a higher point, you can do that, too. These switches last far longer given fewer mechanical points, meaning you can hit above the usual 50mil keypress you would expect from a traditional mechanical switch.
It makes sense for players to be interested in Hall Effect / magnetic switches (I’ll be switching between the terms throughout this review), as we tend to abuse our keyboards more than the average typist. Heck, most PC players’ WASD keys are more likely to wear out than other keys since, you know, we use those keys in just about every FPS title. In games of higher intensity (and/or the occasional MOBA), I would expect QWER keys to be the most used seeing as we spam these keys to rapid-fire abilities to take enemies down. This is all to say that switches’ durability and sensitivity matter most to players, as our gaming habits are far more intensive than typing out essays, game reviews, and other word processing use cases.
You gotta love magnets, folks. They solve so many problems for players. They’re just expensive. Luckily, CIDOO’s C75 doesn’t break the bank, coming in at $139.99 — $10 less than Melgeek’s CYBER01, $90 less than Keychron’s Q1 HE, and $50 less than Wooting’s 80HE (which is expected to ship to most consumers by November 2024). On price alone, the CIDOO C75 is a compelling gaming keyboard. One question remains: How does the C75 fare?
I now have CIDOO’s C75 in hand, and I am thrilled to share that I’m quite impressed with its build quality, features, and so much more.
At first glance, the C75 looks like a solid hunk of aluminum with a smooth bottom edge that adds to the keyboard’s ergonomic value and prevents the finger from being nicked by a sharp edge. I first thought that the smooth bottom edge was out of place on an otherwise uniform body, but I came around to appreciating its smoothness as my thumbs naturally rested along the bottom of the keyboard. At the top right, next to a knob, is a small LED that lights up when the keyboard is in use and continuously changes colors. Unfortunately, that light cannot be customized, but the rest of the keyboard’s light can be changed to your liking – more on that momentarily.
This keyboard is hefty, too. I described it in the previous keyboard as a solid hunk of aluminum because, truth be told, it’s quite heavy yet sturdy. It weighs just over 2lbs (~1.95kg) and does not budge once I placed it on my desk. I tried pressing down on the aluminum in narrow spaces, such as between the F4 and F5 keys, and the aluminum did not bend in the slightest. This keyboard is built to last.
The C75 comes in two colors – silver and black. I was sent the silver model to review (which was my preference, anyway). The keycaps in this model are mainly three shades of grey along with an orange ESC key. I love how this keyboard looks from afar given how its cherry profile dye-sub PBT keycaps stand out from the rest of the keyboard and are appropriately accented. The other unique aspect of its keycaps of their legends’ fonts: The legends use the original Mac font, UNIVERS in all caps. I don’t expect most of you all to know what the UNIVERS font is – don’t worry. UNIVERS was used on Mac computers prior to 2007, it was also adopted by the 1972 Summer Olympics. It’s currently used on Sony’s imaging products, too. This font should look familiar to those who’ve used older technology – I personally love it. It’s readable and very easy to distinguish between letters.
If you’re not keen on the keyboard’s keycaps, don’t worry – they can be removed and hot-swapped with the keycaps of your choice. The same goes for the C75’s magnetic switches – just be sure that you’re replacing the switches with another magnetic switch (like the GATERON Jades – my personal favorite).
Speaking of the C75’s switches, this keyboard comes with GATERON KS-20U Magnetic Hall Sensor Switches. On GATERON’s website, they’re known simply as GATERON KS-20 White Hall Sensor Switches (not orange!). These switches have a total travel of around 4.1mm, an operating force of ~30gf, and are closer to feeling linear in their smoothness and acoustic profile. Better yet – they’re rated for 100 million individual keypresses, so they should last a long while before needing to be individually replaced.
The KS-20s are delightfully smooth. Their mid-range operating force meant that I could type and play for quite a long time without fear of my fingers getting tired. Their sound profile skews clicky with a crisp poppiness that emerges when multiple keys are pressed. It’s not too loud, either, thanks to the several sound-dampening layers that have been added to the inside of the keyboard. The resultant acoustics are great for a shared office – not obscenely loud to disturb neighbors while also being just loud enough to get the sweet and satisfying clicks from using a mechanical keyboard. The switches stems aren’t wobbly in the slightest, so you should expect a stable typing experience.
Like my prior experience with the CYBER01 and Turtle Beach’s Vulcan II TKL Pro, magnetic switches are smoother than any other mechanical switch on the market. If you’re coming from a mechanical keyboard, you’re going to have to relearn your typical typing styles, so be prepared for some shock. You should also be prepared to adjust your keys’ actuation points using the CIDOO Driver (which is available on CIDOO and EPOMAKER’s websites).
By default, the entire keyboard’s actuation point is 2.0mm, which is solidly in the middle of the switches’ total travel. Using the CIDOO driver, I was quickly able to adjust the keys’ actuation points in the Trigger submenu by sliding a little bar. During my testing, I brought all of the keys down to 1.5mm (which was the sweetspot for accurate and effortless inputs). If you’re using magnetic switches for the first time, I recommend bumping it up to 2.5mm (or even 3.0mm) and slowly bringing it down once your fingers get used to the feeling.
The CIDOO driver can also be used for adjusting the C75’s south-facing RGBs, creating macros via the Toggle Key feature, and enabling/disabling Rapid Trigger (the software calls it “Quick Trigger” – it’s the same thing with a different name). Rapid Trigger is a unique feature of magnetic keyboards that makes it so that repeated keypresses to occur without your fingers fully depressing the switch back to its original resting position – great for rapid input games like FPS (such as peeking in VALORANT).
While I was able to make adjustments to the keyboard to my liking using the CIDOO driver, several of its windows were oddly named and had hazy descriptions. For instance, the “Senior Keys” tab had no explanation – what is a Senior key? The CIDOO and EPOMAKER website did not say anything. After some testing, I surmised that this was the space for users to create Toggle Key macros, Dynamic Keystrokes (allowing each key to perform up to 4 different actions based on the depth of the keypress), and Mod-Tap (which assigns multiple functionalities to a single key based on a single tap and a long-press). It would have helped for the UI to be more forward in how it onboarded users with how to enable and create functions; its current state assumes that users already know what each function is and does.
A few months ago, I claimed that I wasn’t fully convinced that Hall Effect keyboards would hold up as a daily driver in an office setting. Face it, I wouldn’t expect most users to need Rapid trigger for word processing and programming. What user rapidly presses the same key (other than possibly the arrow keys, Enter, or the Spacebar) to need such a function? As I’ve used these keyboards, I’ve come to appreciate the macros that can be created to quickly create strings. For instance, the Mod-Tap function could be great for a programmer who uses the same string over and over; long-pressing one of the function keys with Mod-Tap and having it spit out a longform string of characters is an easy solve.
I’m now convinced that the C75 would be an excellent addition to your office space, even if you don’t plan on gaming at all. The build quality and durability of the switches means that this keyboard is built to last and is acoustically tuned to sound satisfying without disturbing your office mates (if you work in an office). My only concern is that of its driver’s user-friendliness; if you’re not willing to fiddle with the driver that isn’t the clearest, you might not get the most mileage out of your keyboard’s unique features. Then again, it’s $139.99 – it’s one of the most affordable aluminum keyboards with Hall Effect switches!
Let’s chat the C75’s gaming prowess. My topline overview of this keyboard is that it’s a perfect fit for a PC player looking to level up their skills. During my own testing, the adjustable actuation points of the switches and the Rapid Trigger function alone made most gaming functions a breeze. Now that I’m familiar with magnetic switches (from multiple manufacturers, no less!), gaming on a magnetic keyboard is like typing on a buttery smooth keyboard. The C75 is no different.
I said this before in an earlier review, and I’ll repeat it here: I don’t think the C75’s magnetic switch-powered features made me a “better” player. Some things were easier to execute (like peeking and rapid inputs), sure, but I won’t go so far as I to say that using the C75 was using real-life cheat codes. I know recent updates (like Razer’s Snap Tap) are contentious topics amongst gamers who feel like it’s enabling cheating, but I don’t think that players will take full advantage of the keyboard to the point where they can easily defeat another player. It might improve gameplay a smidge, but it doesn’t hit the level of macros that are considered cheating by professionals. It’s too early to tell, though: Once more players get their hands on this tech and we can start seeing shifts in the PvP ladders, then we can settle this debate once and for all about the degree to which magnetic switches and keyboard enhancements dramatically impact a player’s typical behavior.
I digress. I put the C75 through a litany of tests across multiple games of varying intensity. Starting with games of higher intensity, namely VALORANT, Counter-Strike 2, and Starfield, the C75 had no issue in keeping up with my rapid-fire inputs. Using a magnetic keyboard like the C75 makes it so that sometimes the keyboard can read my mind due to its smoothness and accuracy in handling the intensity of my key presses. I had a little better control over my character’s movement in FPS games, but I still died to players who were far better at these games than I. I don’t consider myself to be a pro-FPS player by any stretch of the imagination – I play for fun. I just died…a little less than usual, but I still wasn’t on top of my game.
If you’re an individual who prefers higher intensity games like Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, or a similar FPS, then the C75 will do very well for you.
In terms of games of medium intensity, I put this keyboard through its paces on platformers like Kitsune Tails, Noreya The Gold Project and Wizordum (a retro FPS that looks and plays like Hexen/DOOM). It handled these games flawlessly. Given that these games weren’t too heavy on needing rapid fire inputs, I disabled Rapid Trigger – I doubt that folks will need it for games of medium intensity. But it was great all the same – the smoothness of the switches made gaming a breeze.
Lower intensity games like Teamfight Tactics, ONE BTN BOSSES, and Guayota – same thing. While it lacks the satisfying “thock” sounds that would be emphasized in games of lower intensity (thanks to fewer but more meaningful inputs), this keyboard was just fine during my testing. In some ways, the C75 felt like overkill if only because of how the lower-intensity games didn’t need to take advantage of, well, any of the magnetic switch features. I didn’t need Rapid Trigger. I didn’t need mod-tap. I didn’t need adjustable actuation, either.
At the end of the day, it shouldn’t really matter what kind of gaming you’re planning on doing if you’re considering this keyboard. Unless, of course, you’re considering a higher intensity game. If you’re planning on spending the majority of your gaming time playing a FPS, then the C75 should be the top of mind as you’re planning on your next keeb purchase.
CIDOO’s C75 blew me away with its build quality, acoustics, and features. While some of its features were obfuscated in the CIDOO driver, it’s a stellar aluminum keyboard with magnetic hall effect switches. Its price is unbeatable, too!
EPOMAKER FurMix Cable ReviewOur friends at EPOMAKER sent us a special accessory to include in this keyboard review: A specialty USB-A to USB-C cord that is both aesthetically appealing and functional, too! Enter the EPOMAKER FurMix Cable.
Just by the name, it should be easy to surmise that this cable is…furry. Yes, dear reader, this USB keyboard cable is equally kawaii as it is functional. The fuzz of this keyboard is 100% polyester, but it feels more like velour/velvet fabric than a traditional fuzzy fabric you might expect from a toy. It comes in several pastel colors – beige, blue, and pink. I was sent the beige color to review.
This keyboard comes in two separate parts that screw together with a metal detachable 5-pin aviation connector. The first part is a regular long cable that plugs into a USB-A port; the second (which is honestly the most interesting) is a tightly coiled segment that ends in a USB-C port. In theory, the coiled section should run parallel to the top of your keyboard while the rest of the cord dangles down underneath your desk. Thanks to the coil, there’s less cord surface area that may end up occupying space on your desk or even worse, cluttering up the bottom of your desk.
With the 5-pin aviation connector, the cord can be securely screwed together to ensure persistent connectivity. EPOMAKER claims that it eliminates lag, which would make sense given that the cord is able to consume up to 5V/1.5A, so it can transmit quite a bit of juice and data between devices.
The cord feels great in hand and even better to set up once it’s all plugged in and ready to go. The previous cords I’ve received from EPOMAKER (such as the rubber USB cord that came with the DynaTab 75X) have proven to be sturdy and thick. The FurMix is no different – my attempts at pulling the coiled portion of the cord apart yielded no success in altering the coil. It snapped back to its tightly coiled origins. The same durability note can be made in describing the USB-C and USB-A connectors. After vigorously wiggling them around and repeatedly plugging and unplugging them into my computers, nothing jiggled. This cord remained sturdy throughout my aggressive testing, so if you’re planning on taking a cord to work, this would be a great option.
My one concern about the fur on this keyboard is that it may be a dust magnet. I, myself, have to continuously set reminders to dust the underside of my desk behind by computer tower to ensure that it doesn’t get dusty. I see a world in which forgetful users who clean less than they should may end up accumulating more dust than expected given that fust can get trapped in the polyester fiber. Be sure to clean under your desk, folks!
One final note about this cord – it has some LEDs! The USB-C connector has a small LED and diffuser at the top of the connector that, when powered, cycles through colors and adds a very nice colorful touch to my desk space. I love it – I wish other USB cables had something similar.
At $19.99, EPOMAKER’s FurMix USB cable is a very cute addition to one’s office space. Being 1.5m, it’s a good medium-length cable that’s best used for connecting your keyboard to your computer, but I’m sure that you can use it for other things, too.
