Intro
I’ve used a number of keyboards in the past. If I’m being honest my wife used to give me hell that I ran a mini-Radio Shack out of our house where I would sell my out of favor keyboards and mice to my friends who were in search for gaming peripherals. For the past few years I’ve used a Drop Alt Signature Series Space Race as my keyboard of choice. When Lofree reached out to me and asked if I wanted to try out their low profile gasket mount keyboard, I didn’t expect much, I figured I’ve never used a keyboard like that, so why not, but man, has it really surprised me. Let’s talk about it.
INTRO
I’ve been watching a bunch of Peter Pee’s Sonos videos on YouTube and if you haven’t checked out Peter’s videos you should, I will have a link down in the description. Peter does a really unique thing where he starts his videos with the conclusion so if you’re busy you get the core information with none of the fluff, and then he gives more detail afterwards for those who want that extra detail. I’m going to give that a try in this video, so let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
Let me first start by saying that this video is not sponsored by Lofree. They did send me this keyboard for review, but that doesn’t have any impact on this review. With that out of the way: I’ve been using the Lofree Flow for a little over two weeks now and I’m really impressed with it. It’s by no means perfect, we’ll get into my nitpicks a little bit later, but this keyboard has replaced my Drop Alt Space Race I haven’t missed the Space Race one bit.
A bit of history (Likely use the opening bit from the unboxing, it was actually pretty good)
Before we talk specifics about the Lofree it probably makes sense to spend a few moments talking about my keyboard journey up to this point, so that you can get a feel for my level of experience with keyboards. I find that keyboard nerdery is a wide spectrum and you should probably asses where I fall in this spectrum so you can figure out what to trust and what to be skeptical of. You might have different standards than I do, both higher and lower.
My first foray into mechanical keyboards was a Corsair Strafe which I don’t have anymore. It was a full size gaming keyboard with a full numpad and Cherry MX red switches, but I quickly realized that it was way to big for the small desk I used then as I would often run into it with my mouse while playing shooters. Next up was the Logitech G Pro keyboard. Which is a TKL layout keyboard that had good feeling key travel and was cleaner looking than the Corsair, but it was still too big and I wanted to try something in the 60% size. So I grabbed Anne Pro 2.
Unboxing from the original
<We might end up cutting some of this if it gets too long, but I think it’s probably worth showing some of the packaging. >
<Fast Forward 2+ weeks>
Typing Feel
What it ultimately comes down to is I really enjoy the typing feel on the Lofree Flow. It’s a smaller key-throw than a typical MX switch, but it’s still a sizeable key throw.
Look & Feel
Build Quality
The build quality is definitely a bit lower than my $300 Drop Space race, but I think you can fault the keyboard too much for that, it’s in a different price point * For instance the metal feels a little on the thin side and I can feel it flex a little bit here at the bottom of the keyboard, especially when I squeeze it * When I first got my keyboard the gasket base was slide ever so slightly to the left and you could feel the left shift key brush slightly against the side of the keyboard. * A few days later, I realized I could shift the gasket by pushing it over ever so slightly. Now it’s perfectly centered and it hasn’t moved a bit. My guess is that mine got dropped in shipping.
BlueTooth
- I’m not sure why it has a three-way switch for power. Maybe someone can explain this to me down in the comments. There is off, which is self-explanatory, on which is designed for being used over USB and the Bluetooth mode which enables the BlueTooth Radio.
Customizability
- No QMK
- There is no software component on this keyboard
- You get the effects that ship on the keyboard and that it is
- The switches are hot-swappable, but they’re a non-standard switch and as of yet only hot-swappable with the one other Kaihl Low Profile POM switch.
- So if you buy the linear you could hot-swap to the tactile or vice versa.
- but that’s not a big shame because these switches are where the keyboard shines
- They have a shorter key-throw than a normal MX switch, but it’s still plenty long to be responsive, clear
Pricing bit. Maybe drop this:
What’s even crazier is this keyboard is a fraction of the price of that keyboard. The Space Race when I bought it was $300. Again, it was a splurge, but it was about the same price as buying all the parts individually and I didn’t have to do any group buys and solder anything. If I’m not mistaken, Lofree plans to sell this keyboard for $149 on Kickstarter and I think they have it for $109 during the pre-order period.
Outro
Thanks for sticking around. If you’re interested in picking up the Lofree Flow, please use my link down in the comments as it helps support the channel. Other ways you can help support the channel are by liking and sharing this video. I’m curious, what are your thoughts on the Lofree Flow? Also, this was my first formal keyboard review. What should I do differently in future reviews? Let me know those down in the comments as well. Thanks again for watching and until next time have a great day.