Classic-TKL Underscore Edition overview: dressed to kill (in beige)

You most likely know simply by it if the Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is for you. Do you need a retro-looking wired keyboard with no quantity pad? Great. Do you care that it doesn’t have wi-fi? Perfect. Do you need it preassembled? Buddy, you’re in the precise place.

But Nathan, you may say, preassembled is the common manner to purchase a keyboard. That is the baseline expectation. Most folks shopping for a cake count on a cake, not a field of cake combine. And that’s true, for most individuals and most keyboards. But till now, the Classic-TKL has solely been obtainable as a bare-bones package, and now you should buy one able to go, with high quality parts, for lower than the worth of doing the same construct your self.

If you’re like me, determining what keycaps, switches, and stabilizers to make use of, then placing all of them collectively, is a giant a part of the enjoyable of mechanical keyboards. But if you happen to simply need one thing to kind with that appears retro and sounds and feels good, with out having to construct it your self — or if you happen to had been going to make use of traditional beige keycaps anyway — then the Underscore Edition is likely to be up your alley.

The $189 NovelKeys Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is a wired-only, gasket-mounted tenkeyless mechanical keyboard. It has an injection-molded plastic case with a excessive brow, harking back to the 18-year-old Realforce 86U, and a silicone mat on the bottom for sound dampening. It additionally has hot-swap MX switches, full RGB backlighting, and a lightweight bar (each of which may be turned off), and it’s absolutely programmable utilizing the Via net app.

The Classic-TKL has been round for a few years in package kind. I constructed one and wrote about it in 2024; I additionally examined the glow-in-the-dark model. I like them so much! But apparently not everybody who desires a pleasant retro-looking keyboard additionally desires a craft mission. Michael Sickler, who owns NovelKeys, advised me that the Underscore Edition is geared toward giving NovelKeys’ keyboard fanatic buyer base one thing they will advocate to family and friends. It’s additionally geared toward professionals who may lurk on the keyboard subreddits and Discords sufficient to know what they need, however don’t need to construct it themselves. (This is principally the identical factor Ryan Norbauer advised me about his Seneca, besides the Seneca is 20 occasions costlier.)

The Underscore Edition is available in clay (heat beige), boulder (taupe-ish), and lichen (a dusty inexperienced). My overview unit is clay, however I’d purchase the lichen personally. It ships with NovelKeys’ personal Classic Blue switches, GMK CYL Classic Beige keycaps, a USB A-to-C cable, and preinstalled and pretuned TypePlus stabilizers.

These are name-brand elements. GMK CYL keycaps are the benchmark for doubleshot Cherry-profile keycaps. They’re a number of steps in high quality above the keycaps that include a Keychron, for instance. The letters and numbers are crisp and clear and the consistency is unmatched. They’re additionally costly; you’d pay at least $120 if you bought them on their own, although you’d get extra keycaps. The Classic-TKL comes with simply those it’s worthwhile to cowl the board.

The TypePlus stabilizers are additionally a sensible choice; I’ve put in and tuned a pair units myself, however the individuals who made them do a greater job. There’s no rattle or tick on any of the stabilized keys. And the Classic Blue linear switches (additionally made by TypePlus) are additionally good. They’re easy and steady, with virtually no wobble; at 53g actuation drive and 63g bottom-out, they’re medium-heavy, like a lighter model of the Cherry MX Blacks in my first-ever mechanical keyboard in 2009. They’re not silent, however they’re additionally not as loud as you’d count on a keyboard this beige to be. (I nonetheless really feel like a blue switch must be clicky, although.)

I attempt to keep away from the “fans of the genre” overview. You know, “if this is the kind of thing you like, you’re going to like it.” But when you get previous the strictly utilitarian, just about every thing about mechanical keyboards comes all the way down to desire and style.

The Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is a well-executed model of what it’s. If you need an earth-tone retro-looking tenkeyless board — a traditional TKL, if you’ll — with linear switches and beige Cherry-profile keycaps, it’s an amazing selection.

When you consider it as a high-quality preassembled model of an fanatic DIY keyboard, with name-brand elements, it’s additionally deal. I constructed the DIY model of the identical board with the identical stabilizers and equally priced keycaps in September 2024. It labored out to $276, and took me an hour to place collectively (most of which was spent lubing and tuning the stabilizers). The Underscore Edition prices $189, $100 greater than the bare-bones package. You can’t get keycaps, switches, and stabilizers of this high quality for $100 mixed.

But it’s additionally true that $189 can get you loads of keyboard as of late, particularly if you happen to’re not hooked up to the Classic-TKL’s specific vibe.

Even inside the tenkeyless kind issue, the Evoworks Evo80 prices $169 and comes with an aluminum case and each Bluetooth and a couple of.4GHz wi-fi. Same for the $179 Wobkey Crush 80. But these are totally different keyboards, with totally different aesthetics. The 8BitDo Retro 87 is nearer, with a number of classic-computing-inspired flavors together with Commodore 64 and IBM Model M, for round $100. But — no disrespect to the 8BitDo right here — these look perhaps a smidge extra informal than the Classic-TKL.

I desire the Classic-TKL’s plastic chassis to the aluminum of the Evoworks or Wobkey boards. But I wouldn’t thoughts if it had wi-fi. It’d even be good if it shipped with a number of further keycaps, in case you need Mac legends or Control in its correct place (Caps Lock). While I’m being choosy: I additionally want it got here with the choice for MTNU Classic Beige keycaps, somewhat than simply CYL, as a result of I like MTNU higher. An electrocapacitive swap possibility can be good too, however now I’m simply getting grasping. (Actually, now I’m simply reinventing the Realforce.)

If you need the Classic-TKL in a unique colour, or with totally different switches or keycaps, there’s nonetheless the kit version and the Glo model. And if you need a unique keyboard completely, properly, these abound. The Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is the factor that it’s, and it’s good at that.

I’d nonetheless go for the inexperienced one, although.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge besides the place famous.