Intro
Welcome to Keebsoc’s first-ever written keyboard review!
Before I begin, I just want to introduce myself. Hi all, I’m Keebsoc’s treasurer Anson, a first-year studying Engineering and computer science, obviously from my degree and role in Keebsoc, expect nothing less than absolute mastery in photography and the English language. This review should definitely be one of the reviews you have ever read.
The budget custom keyboard marketplace has recently been flooded in the past year or so, most options being great for beginners wanting to get a feel for what the custom keyboard hobby brings. Ranging from $200-400 AUD, these keyboards have occupied the popular market for 65% and 75% form factor keyboards. The Satellite is no different, coming in at $350 AU, packaged with AEboards Staebies and a Keyboard Treehouse carrying bag, it offers a relatively budget 65% keyboard coming from a big name in the keyboard hobby. I was lucky enough to buy my own at Treehouse’s EOFY Mini-meet and got to talk to AEboards directly and got my hands on a wacky wavy reverse 65% layout that unfortunately I don’t believe will be available for public purchase.
Build
Weighing in at around 1.6Kgs fully built, the Satellite is marketed as a sort of “little sibling” to the famous AEboards Constellation (~$900 AUD board), offering beginners (or poor university students) a chance to experience a widely regarded “end-game” keyboard. Being lighter than the Constellation, the board is also more portable for people who want to be annoying at work, or for some reason want to bring their board to school. With the same side profile and almost identical top view to the constellation, the only major difference is the missing big boy brass weight and the interchangeable side accent pieces, we still get the top notch anodization quality, the classic AEboards design and a choice between gasket and top mount. In fact this board is so similar to the Constellation that it shares the same PCB and plate, so the constellation plates and PCBs work in the Satellite as well. The top and bottom bezels measure at around 11mm and the side bezels at 6mm. Coming from the super thin and low profile Korean design of the Geonworks Frog, I initially didn’t like the thicker bezel design and higher front height, but after dailying this board for almost 6 months, this design and look has really grown on me. What makes this board even more special is its ability for the entire top case and PCB structure to be rotated 180 degrees, allowing for a negative typing angle if you so desire (this is not available on the Constellation). For me personally, this raises the adjusted front height to a slightly uncomfortable height of around 32mm whereas the stock front height is around 21mm, but of course this sort of customisability I have never seen before and I think some people will quite enjoy it.
My unit has a black top and a super hawt sexy red for the bottom. The anodization is pretty much perfect with no visible imperfections on the outside and the deep red is just so satisfying to look at. However on my unit there are some small weird discolourations on the inside of the bottom, but of course these aren’t at all visible when the board is fully built. Instead of the weight like what’s on the Constellation, there is a simple “Satellite” engraving directly on the bottom case and of course the standardised AEboards feet. The whole case is put together with 8 hex screws (I’m not sure which size these exactly are, but my T8 bit gets them out perfectly).
Typing experience
I built the board gasket mounted with the new Raeds V2 and a 1.5mm FR4 plate expecting a super flexy thocky clacky poppy creamy bubbly thuddy marbly thwompy typing experience, but this board does not offer that experience. There is basically no flex as the 8 screws that hold the case together compress the gaskets so much that it basically feels like a top mount. Is that really a downside though? The board is quite stiff but isn’t stiff enough that it breaks my fingers, it still has a comfortable bottom-out experience and offers the sort of “vibration transfer” from one hand to another as I type. On the contrary, it offers a sort of “unique” experience when compared to the super flexi and bouncy typing experience almost all other budget boards opt for. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a chance to try out the top mount as the plate I got has its screw holes slightly off from the ones in the top case so I physically can’t screw the plate into the top (I’m sure this won’t be an issue with the production units, I got the stupid dumbass layout anyways), so I won’t be able to comment on that. But I’m assuming it would just be the same as any other top mount 65% with a relatively even and stiff typing experience but not as much “bounce” as the gasket mount option. Overall I personally quite enjoy a stiffer typing experience anyways and prefer it over a super ultra mega soft typing experience, and the sort of feedback I get from the vibrations of typing are really satisfying.
Layout
This section is probably only going to appear in this review since I got such an interesting layout, but maybe it may reappear in future reviews for other boards if they have a really interesting layout.
I just want to start off this section by saying, THIS LAYOUT IS GOATED (Thank you Eric and Harrison for coming up with such a god layout). I’ve always preferred 65% over 60% because of the arrow keys and as an avid indie game enjoyer (Journey of the Prairie King iykyk), the arrow keys were always missed when I moved to a 60%. But also as an extreme high intensity FPS gamer, that extra 2 cm of mouse space was also a main factor in me using a 60% over a 65%. This layout offers me the extra sweaty mouse space needed, but also the functionality to play games where arrow keys are needed. Plus being the meganerd I am, being able to use the arrow keys without lifting my hand off my mouse is super handy. The weirdo PCB I have is solder only and has support for split backspace, split right and left shift (wtf?) and split spacebar. The split left shift and spacebar are the only weird ones so I’ll talk about that.
Since the keyboard is basically shifted an entire unit to the right and an arrow cluster being placed right under the A key, the left shift is shifted one unit TO THE LEFT, so it’s actually more to the left relative to the alphas and might be hard to use if your pinky sits on the right side of the shift key. For me personally, the split 1.25u option was absolutely perfect and sits right where my left pinky was already resting. Now onto the spacebar, this spacebar caused me so much grief, it’s a 6u bar not split and is split into two 3u bars. I initially built the board with 2 3u bars because the set I was using came with one 3u key so I thought it would be fine to just use half of my spacebar for a bit until my DCS 9009 arrives with 2 3u bars (still waiting…). I was incredibly wrong. Turns out I use my right thumb to type and my left to game, so I resorted to using a 2.75u spacebar that didn’t sit on the stabs correctly on the other bar. Finally broke me one day and ordered a 6u stab set from aliexpress and a 6u bar and now I’ve been typing normally.
Thank god you won’t have to deal with that and will be provided with a nice standard 65% layout in the form of a constellation PCB (same PCB as the $900 board??? yes.), and if you don’t enjoy soldering, there is a hotswap RGB PCB in the works (coming soon tm).
Typing test
Ah yes, a much-needed typing test. This requires the usual disclaimer that typing tests are HORRIBLE ways to gauge how a keyboard will actually sound in your room, but nonetheless I’ve included one anyways just for the hell of it. Recorded with a Samsung s22+ (yeah this is incredibly inaccurate as a sound test), I present my AEboards satellite with Raeds V2 lubed with 205g0.
Availability
This board will be in stock at keyboardtreehouse.com (International) or at treehousehobbies.com (OCE).
At the time of writing, there is no info on when the next drop is going to happen but if you’re interested, join their Discord for updates! There will be red, black and grey options available, but I am unsure as to whether or not any two-tone half-half options will be available, and if any handling fee may come with such an option. There will be only 1 plate option available, a 1.5mm aluminium plate (although any 1.5mm constellation plates will also work with this board).