Sharkoon Crystal Shark in Testing

The sharkoon crystal shark affects with its transparent design and interchange switch that exposes RGB light. Is the overall package confident?

In addition to its striking look, the crystal shark from the German manufacturer Sharkoon also brings a fast -known popular feature with it that is expected by buyers – hot swapping. This is not only practical because you can change the defined switch for new people at any time during the ongoing operation, but also because you can customize the keyboard according to your thoughts. In doing so, she offers something that otherwise disappears from the sharkoon keyboard. In addition, she comes with normal restrictions on a sharkoon keyboard. The test suggests that the crystal shark is eventually something.

The sharkoon crystal shark comes home in an ordinary box. Top: The packaging is completely spread with. In addition to the keyboard, you get a USB-AA-on USB-C connection cable with dongle for 2.4 GHz radio mode. It should be mentioned positively that the connecting cable by the dongle holder is not at all on the PC. It avoids laying of small stick. The keyboard also consists of a keyboard and switch remover. At its top, the last two replacement switches are.

There is a magnetic habitat cover on the keyboard, of which the magnets are unexpectedly strong. If you close it, the keys are free, which is primarily useful if you want to exchange a kicap or switch. However, the keyboard does not include operating instructions, which should be downloaded from the Internet.

The first thing that holds the sharkoon crystal shark’s eye is polycarbonate keys. These slightly transparent keys not only give the keyboard a striking look, but also feel quite different when typing as PBT plastic kicap. In general, the entire look of the keyboard is somewhat reminiscent of consumer electronics from the nineties and the early two thousands, such as the gameboy, some of which were also caught with transparent houses. The keyboard is available in black and white. The upper half of the keyboard is placed in a constant color, while the lower half has a transparent form similar to the button.

If you turn the sharkoon crystal shark, thanks to the transparent housing, you can see the board of the keyboard. RGB light also shines here-if it is active. Crystal sharks, as by default, have two folds to adapt to the keyboard in two stages.

The magnetic housing cover is placed on the keyboard with a satisfactory click and then the bomb also sits solid. Annoying: If the cover is on the keyboard, in our case the CTRL key often rubs on it, which does not feel good when typing and sometimes it ensures that the key is trapped in half the way. This is particularly annoying when gaming, because the Ctrl key is more often used. If the cover is removed, the button no longer causes any problem.

On the top left, between the ESC button and the F1 button, there are three LEDs. They indicate whether the capslock button is active, Windows key is blocked and how the battery level of the keyboard is.

Along the upper edge of the crystal shark, a winding switch is placed with you switch to the keyboard and switch between the connecting mode. However, it is somewhat uncontrolled, and so when closing the keyboard it is regularly that you shoot beyond the situation and the keyboard changes instead of wireless or wired connection mode.

There is some USB-C port next to the rocker switch, through which the keyboard connects to the PC and charge the battery. After two days of use, however, the font printed on the rocker switch was almost completely completely rubbed, which is a shame. Eating font in the house will make it very understandable at this point.

Polycarbonate keys are definitely an eye catching, but they also have their own disadvantages. The material is susceptible to fat spots and fingers which can arise from natural oils of the skin. After a day’s use, it can be clearly considered on the improvised improvation on the keyboard. If it bothers you very much, you should switch to another key cap or buy a completely separate keyboard. Soft plastic is also a side effect compared to PBT cakep compared to PBT Kaikap. However, thanks to the supplied equipment, a exchange of the key cap is done quickly and easily.

As it should be for the keyboard that are mainly aimed at gamers, Crystal sharks also have RGB light. It is not controlled by software, as common with sharkoon keyboard, but only using keyboard keyboard. The keyboard brings a total of 18 lighting effects with it, although self -modal lighting is also possible. Thanks to transparent kicaps, RGB effects come much better in itself and thus admire the overall design of the keyboard.

As a TKL keyboard, the numpad is traditionally decreased. So if you are dependent on it, you will have to fall back to an external numpad.

The first assignment of sharkoon crystal shark is very simple. Since there is no software for the keyboard, you insert the dongle very easily on the PC or connect it with the USB cable supplied with it. Then switch to the keyboard. After a few seconds, the PC recognized and set the keyboard – no more necessary.

18 separate light effects are controlled through FN key. The frequency and intensity of light also changes. As with the sharkoon purerist W65 (Test Report), the selection of existing effects is satisfactory, but the earth -shuttering does not provide anything. Workflow is easy to understand and is quickly internal. The variety of settings of a dedicated software is clearly exchanged for quick and easy handling of effects on the push of a button. In vain, crystal sharks have to be installed to install macros or reprogable buttons.

However, changing very wirelessly with wiring is not always as smooth as desired. It was striking that this happened when the keyboard was transferred from the wired state to a wireless position. There was no problem in the other way around.

hazard: According to the instructions, the keyboard only supports PCs that operate with Windows. Unfortunately, Linux, Mac or Android users go empty -handed here. However, it is confused that it is a keyboard to switch between Mac and Windows PC to switch to the keyboard. If you press it, nothing happens. Since no Mac device was available during the test, the function could not be fully tested.

Crystal shark is equipped with linear, lubricated switch from KTT. In combination with polycarbonate buttons, you ensure a pleasant clacking when typing. The switch has a 43 g 5 gram trigger force, which has a distance from the release point of 1.9 ± 0.3 mm. This mainly means that they are more easily operated when typing, but it can also ensure that unwanted major inputs occur if you have previously worked with a high trigger powers. Eventually, triggering power and distance is a matter of taste, in which linear switches are preferred when playing more often.

The keys take themselves to use something, which is not due to the least very smooth surface, which otherwise represents a strong contrast to some kind of textured PBT keypap. The advantage of crystal sharks is certainly very clear that you can exchange both the keys and switches at any time and thus adapt it to your taste. The keyboard accepts 3 or 5 pin switch.

The sharkoon crystal shark is RRP 80 Euro. This is certainly one of the cheap options when it comes to mechanical hot swap keyboard, but there are still cheap options.

The sharkoon crystal shark mainly stands out through its design. You do not see transparent polycarbonate buttons every day on a keyboard and they certainly prove to be an eye catching, mainly in combination with RGB light, which comes in itself-but you like to typing on them. The design does not work on everything, as the removable keyboard cover is more disturbing and is the least affected typing during the test.

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With crystal sharks you get a keyboard without it, which does what to do and that thanks to hot swapping is also a good deal than other products of the German company. If the missing software does not interfere with support and prefers the design despite the defect, you can strike here.