FiiO KB3 Review | Trusted Reviews

Verdict

The FiiO KB3 is an excellent mechanical keyboard for both enthusiasts and audiophiles especially. It’s incredibly well-made while offering a responsive linear experience and a beefy DAC for powering headphones. VIA software support is welcome for lots of customisation, too. It may not be a wireless choice, but it is nonetheless fantastic.

Introduction

FiiO isn’t a company known for making computer peripherals, but the new FiiO KB3 may well just be the ideal introduction for the audio brand.

The Chinese manufacturer has taken some of its expertise in audio equipment such as excellent speakers, DAPs and headphones, and chucked it into the chassis of an enthusiast-grade mechanical keyboard which is rather unique among its contemporaries, coming with a DAC built-in.

At £139/$149/€169, it’s quite reasonably priced too, sitting well in the mix with other top contenders such as the Lemokey P1 Pro and the Drop Shift V2 while offering some fantastic features for the price. Whether it’s one of the best mechanical keyboards we’ve tested though remains to be seen – I’ve been testing it to find out.

Design

• Smart and sturdy construction
• Translucent keycaps add flair at the cost of worse legibility
• USB hub and DAC are noteworthy additions

The KB3, much like its contemporaries, is a thick slab of metal and plastic, offering a magnesium aluminium alloy top plate with a textured plastic frame beneath. It’s a sturdy ‘board, especially thanks to the metal top plate meaning there’s no deck flex to speak of, while the 1.06kg weight offers plenty of heft for a keyboard of its size.

As with other enthusiast-level options from the likes of Keychron, the KB3 offers a 75 percent layout that both saves space and is functional to use. It comes with handy additions such as arrow keys, a single-height nav cluster and a function row, while offering less of a footprint than a larger TKL layout. It’s for that reason that it’s such a popular layout among enthusiasts, alongside the slightly smaller 65 percent.

Combined with the 75 percent layout, FiiO’s keyboard also brings the benefit of a volume wheel on the right hand side, which is tactile and one of the best dials fitted to a keyboard.

Otherwise, the left side is where the DAC inputs sit, while the back is home to a two port USB-A hub for connecting low power devices. The DAC is especially interesting, as it signals an intersection between mechanical keyboard enthusiasts and audiophiles, while the two port USB-A hub is a welcome addition, as it seems to be a feature lost in time otherwise.

The KB3’s keycaps make for an interesting flair, too. Unlike other gaming keyboards with shine-through legends, the ABS keycaps here are entirely translucent, allowing for even more of the backlighting beneath to shine through. For the KB3’s brilliant aesthetics and looks, it works a treat but hampers the legibility of the white legends on them. In some lighting environments, the legends are barely visible, which means it isn’t the easiest keyboard to use in places.

On the plus side though, the KB3 comes with dual-printed legends for Windows and macOS use, while there is a small sector of lock lights next to the nav cluster for Caps and Num Lock, as well as for which OS is in use. The interface around the back is simple too, as there is a USB-C port for wired operation as well as the USB hub.

It is possible to get the KB3 without the DAC, and instead with a 4000mAh battery for wireless operation. With this model, it sacrifices the jacks on the left side, and swaps out the USB hub for switches for toggling between operating systems and connectivity methods.

The keyboard itself comes in a cardboard box with foam inside for packing, although the top of it is protected by a plastic cover, and the bundled accessories such as a cable and a keycap and switch puller are in their own individual plastic bags. That isn’t necessarily the best for the environment, unlike the competition.

Performance

• Responsive linear switches
• Powerful DAC helps reduce cable clutter
• Thoughtful enthusiast-level touches

Regardless of variant, the FiiO KB3 offers one switch option – Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellows – which are a slightly heavier linear switch with a 50g actuation force and a 67g bottom out. They feel responsive under finger and are some of the better linear switches I’ve tested in recent years with a consistent, snappy feeling across all switches.

The switches also come pre-lubed, which lends to their buttery smooth feeling, although if you don’t like them, then they can be swapped out with ease as the KB3 is hot-swappable. This means you can swap switches in and out almost at will with no requirement for soldering or re-soldering, and with the bundled switch and keycap puller, it’s straightforward.

Acoustically, the KB3 impresses too with no case ping or rattle, and a deep sound. There is also little in the way of key wobble with the Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellow switches either, which is pleasant to see. While this is a gasket-mounted keyboard, in keeping with other modern mechanical choices, it isn’t as bouncy as some others, leading to a more rigid feel.

The other big thing here is the DAC that the KB3 features. It offers both 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced output with up to 550mW of power on offer (that’s on the balanced output – the single-ended is only 170mW). This means it can power even notoriously fiddly headphones to run such as Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros without flexing its muscles too much.

I tested it with both a pair of Grado Hemps and Drop x Sennheiser HD6XXs, and it worked a treat. The Sennheisers are notoriously fiddly to run with a 300-ohm impedance, and the KB3 worked like a champ, serving up rich and detailed audio with both standard streamed tracks through Spotify and hi-res local files. Essentially, the integrated CS43131 DACs and SGM8262 op-amps means the KB3 features FiiO’s own pocketable KA13 DAC inside, which is an excellent performer on its own and is worth £70 or so – that makes the entire keyboard worth the same, which is incredible value for money.

Elsewhere, this is a wired keyboard, so there’s no need to worry about pairing or battery life, and having the extra USB-A ports was useful for connecting the receiver for my Logitech MX Master 3S, freeing up one of the ports on my PC, and I even had another port to play with afterwards, too.

Software and Lighting

• Incredibly bright RGB lighting
• VIA offers lightweight software with powerful customisation potential
• QMK firmware flashing support also available

The KB3 utilises QMK firmware and VIA for its software-driven customisation, much like a lot of other mechanical keyboards in and around this price, such as options from Drop and Keychron. This allows for some seriously versatile customisation for remapping keys and assigning functions across several different layers, and while there isn’t per-key configuration of RGB lighting, the 19 different presets on offer give the KB3 a funky look.

For its lighting, the KB3’s RGB is vivid and shines through extremely well thanks to the translucent keycaps. The lack of per-key control is a bit of a shame, but otherwise, it’s bright and vibrant. The only downside here is the reduced legibility of legends, but if you turn the lighting down, then it becomes less of an issue.

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