Summary
It took me an embarrassing amount of time to work out how to connect theDuckyZero 6108 wireless keyboard to my computer wirelessly. I worked with it tethered by a cable for a week, lamenting the fact that I had to unplug it in order to connect my (wired) controller every time I wanted to play a pad-based game.
You see, the Ducky Zero 6108 may be a full-sized mechanical keyboard with double shot keycaps and RGB lighting, but it doesn’t come with an instruction manual. It does come with a business card-sized slip of paper with a QR code on it, which directs you to a digital manual, but that got lost in the fervour of opening the box. The wireless dongle is also hidden, this time in what I thought was a spare Escape key. There’s a spare space bar in the box and the hot-swappable caps and switches are a key selling point of the keyboard, so that’s an easy error to make!
Thankfully, setting the keyboard up was a doddle, once I’d worked out where all the pieces were and what every function did. I plugged the dongle in, and within seconds I was typing wirelessly to my heart’s content. No bloatware to install, no procedures to follow. Plug and play at its finest.
Fn+F10 switches RGB modes for the backlight. It includes an ‘off’ option, thankfully.
Once you get going, the Ducky Zero 6108 is a pleasure to use. Typing feels smooth, with just the right ergonomics on each key that your finger lands perfectly without slipping off. And, as much as I am inclined to dislike RGB lighting, it does look nice when the rainbow glow seeps through the letters of each key rather than the letters just being printed on the top in white.
I’ve been primarily using 60 percent keyboards for the past 18 months, so I had to clear a bit of desk space for this big boy, but the extra keys come in handy. I appreciate having a full suite of function keys, and the numpad was particularly helpful when I was scratching my head trying to work out how many hours of Pokemon Go I’ve played in my lifetime earlier this week. There’s even room for a dedicated Calculator button to bring up your PC’s default app.
Volume keys are standard these days, and the 6108 has no frills. Three standard keys denote mute/unmute, volume down, and volume up. While I do like the dials and funky switches that the likes of Razer and ROG implement, it can go too far. I don’t need an OLED screen on my keyboard when my PC has a popup to show the volume level anyway. I appreciate Ducky’s back-to-basics approach.
This can go too far the other way, though. The plastic casing feels a little light and flimsy for the price – especially when compared with the heavy metal of myAsus ROG Azoth. From an aesthetic point of view, I’m also not sure why the bottom case is white on my black keyboard. It stands out too much and fails to present a uniform vibe. I wonder if the white keyboard comes with a black bottom half, and I can swap with someone who has the opposite problem?
I opted for Cherry Brown switches – a tried and tested favourite – and they work well. From typing to playing action-packed multiplayer shooters, they did the job. But you know that already. What were a revelation, though, were the Cherry Silver switches. I’d not tried these before, and the completely-unclicky smooth operators blew me away, especially for gaming. My microphone has decent noise cancellation, but it still picks up a few keys here and there. With the silver switches, there was blissful silence.
The wireless functionality didn’t seem to impact responsiveness at all, using the 2.4GHz adaptor.
Swapping the switches was wonderfully simple. The Zero 6108 comes with one of those key-picking tweezer gadgets, and everything went smoothly. This is an area that Ducky always excels at in my experience, and this keyboard is no different. The only problem here is that I like a solid click when I type, and the process wasn’t quite quick enough to swap my entire keyboard’s switches from silver to brown every time I swapped from gaming to writing. Practice makes perfect, I guess.
The Ducky Zero 6108 is a capable keyboard for gamers who want granular customisation with few frills. This is a keyboard that’s simple to use, but difficult to master. If you find yourself daydreaming about different coloured switches, and think you need every key possible to fit on your cramped desk, you won’t find much better for the £100 price tag. If that’s not something that’s ever crossed your mind before, if you’re Googling what a double shot keycap is, then you might be better off looking elsewhere. I just wish it came with an instruction manual and better labelled parts.
