Ducky Channel One X Inductive Keyboard Review
Introduction
Introduction
Should you limit yourself to keyboard from people who also make much of your other hardware, you’re definitely missing out. Given how much of our daily lives are spent with fingers poised on keys – whether typing or gaming – then those same fingers deserve a quality product.
Ducky are a company that flies somewhat under the radar with the general public, but has a rabid fanbase amongst those of us who know. We first saw one of their keyboards in the form of the DK9008 Shine 2 back in 2012. Since then they’ve been endlessly honing their product range until the most recent model we reviewed, the One 3. A keyboard built unbelievably well that made a mockery of anyone’s claims that mechanical keyboards are just too loud. Most are, Ducky keyboards are not.
How they get their keyboards so quiet is something of a traded secret. They build them with multiple layers, including dampening materials. This is the foundation of what they call, in a nod to their company name, ‘Quack Mechanics’. All well and good. But there must be some secret sauce in the mix. After all, they aren’t the only company that produce multi-layer designs. They are, however, significantly quieter than even other very quiet models like the NZXT Function Elite we recently reviewed. With the move from mechanical Cherry MX switches to the inductive ones here, the Ducky One X is just about as quiet as we think it’s possible to make a keyboard without resorting to scissor switches.
Inductive Switches
The headline feature for the Ducky One X is the inductive switches. Rather than a mechanical connection you have a coil and a magnet and the switch measures the inductance to know where it is. We’re not saying it is a design to get around a Hall Effect switch patent, but the two technologies seem awfully similar. What this means for us is that we can determine exactly how far down the travel we want the key to actuate. Being Multipoint switches you can also, as we’ll see in our software overview set up some very cool effects. Best of all inductive keys use less battery than Hall Effect ones, meaning you can enjoy the wireless One X for longer.
Probably most surprising is that when the One X first broke cover at Computex it was suggested these are Cherry MX Inductive switches. Our launch model has Ducky AI switches. The same thing but with a different name? Or has the delay in the launch of the Ducky One X come from this change in switches? We don’t know yet, and maybe won’t ever, but we can tell you how it performs so let’s crack on.
