Today we have a typical Velocifire product on our hands, the VM02WS. This is a 104-key keyboard measuring 1200gm weight with a dimension of 44.4x14x4 CM. It has USB 2.0 wireless connector operating at 2.4GHz. It has a built-in Lithium battery of 1850mAh charging capacity. It is rated for 25 hours of full use on a single charge with backlit on and 90 hours with backlit off. Charging time is 4 hours depending upon the charging cycle. The polling rate of the keyboard is 1000Hz. The Velocifire VM02WS features ABS double shot keycaps. The company is also offering a set of PBT 9 key-caps in the red color which is optional.
The Velocifire VM02WS comes with customization options available directly on the Velocifire web site. Each customization has its own price tag. This unit ranges from $59.99 to $72.97 depending upon the selection of the optional O-rings and PBT keycaps set. The main ingredient of the Velocifire VM02WS is the CONTENT Brown Switches. Also, It is obvious that the company is not using Cherry MX switches from the price consideration and Chinese version of the Brown switches have been employed. They are similar to Outemo switches. I have had a good experience with Outemo, Gateron switches as they are being used by multiple keyboard manufacturers and they offer comparable quality at a lesser price. The Velocifire VM02WS also features white LED-backlit. Our sample comes with the O-Rings and the PBT keycaps set. Rest of the details will be covered in the closer look section. Let’s start.
Pricing
Packaging and Unboxing
The keyboard is shipped inside a cardboard box without any theme printing on it. The box is in its original brown color which is understandable since their target market is the office use where such gimmick packing does not apply.
The top side of the main packing box has the Velocifire brand logo printed on the top left side. Wireless Mechanical Keyboard is printed below the logo.
The bottom side of the packing box has Velocifire VM02WS Mechanical Keyboard printed in the center. The keyboard is made in China. The website address of the manufacturer is printed at the bottom left side.
The left and right sides have identical printing (almost). The company’s logo is printed in the center. Compliance to various specifications is printed at the bottom right side.
The rear side of the packing box has Velocifire brand logo printed on the left side. A serial no sticker is pasted on the right side.
Opening the box will show that the keyboard is wrapped inside white color, non-transparent protective sheet. The keyboard is tucked between two white colors Styrofoam pads. The optional sets of O-Rings and PBT keycaps are placed towards the upper side and the cable along with keycap puller is placed at the bottom side. The user manual is placed under the keyboard.
Content
The following are included in the box:
1x Mechanical Gaming Keyboard1x User Manual1x Key puller1x PBT Keycap set [Optional]1x O-Ring Set [Optional]
Closer Look
Now comes a time where we get to take a closer look at the overall design of the keyboard. Velocifire is offering this keyboard for the typists, writers, and programmers and it comes in two formats, 104 keyed version, and the TKL version. TKL stands for Ten Keyless. It is a compact form gaining more popularity these days.
Taking a peek at the main layout of the keyboard, it seems to be following the US International layout. The keycaps are in the black color and are made of ABS material in double-shot. The printing on the keycaps is dim and without backlit, the user can find it hard to type on the keyboard particularly for those users who are tuned to look at the keyboard while typing. The overall finishing resembles the sandblasted. The housing of the keyboard is in all black color. The keyboard is heavier than many other keyboards that I have used. Keep that in mind. The keycaps are not following the suspended design which again makes sense as there is no RGB backlit on this keyboard. In my opinion, the backlit is provided for the two reasons:
To use the keyboard in the environment with the darknessTo make the letter printing on the keycaps more legible.
The Velocifire VM02WS features 1000Hz polling rate which is fixed and can’t be changed since there is no software or dedicated button combination provided for that. The keyboard is designed to be plug-n-play and it does not need any driver. It is compatible with the Windows/Linux/IBM PC. The keyboard features the Anti-Ghosting though it lacks N-Key rollover function. In terms of the design flow of the Velocifire VM02WS, it has curvature design which makes it the ergonomic design intended for the longer use without causing fatigue or stress. Though, there is no rest palm provided with this keyboard which, in my opinion, would have been a nice touch but could cost high. I will cover this aspect in the personal experience section.
Taking a look at the keyboard from the right side, we can see a fully functional Numpad. Certain keycaps on the Numpad have double printing. The primary functionality of the keycap can be activated with a single keypress whereas the second functionality can be activated using the combination of the Shift key and the desired key. Right above the Numpad, there are 4 LED indicators. Starting from the left to the right these are in that order:
Num LockCaps LockScroll LockWindows Start key Lock
The LED will light in the white color if the corresponding lock is activated. It will go off if the lock is disabled.
There are 4 arrow keys at the bottom on the left side of the num pad. Above them, we have a group of 6 keys in two rows of 3s. The top row has Insert, Home, and Page Up keys. The second row has Delete, End, and Page Down keys. These are single-function keys. On top of this group, we have Print Screen, Scroll Lock and Pause keys.
The top row of the Velocifire VM02WS has a standard design and layout. It starts with the Escape key followed by the keys in 4 groups. The Function keys are labeled from F1 to F12. These all are dual function keys. The second on these can be activated using the combination of the Fn and the desired function key. Rest of the keyboard has a standard layout. There are Ctrl, Start, and Alt keys on the left side of the Spacebar key whereas there are 4 more keys on the right side of the spacebar key. The spacebar has a horizontal line printing on its top which lights up. The Fn key is the function key which can be used in combination with other keys to achieving the desired outcome. Let’s take a look at what key combinations have an effect on the keyboard form and function.
Macros
Up to three macros can be defined on the Velocifire VM02WS. In order to record a macro, press Fn+Ctrl and either of Q, W, or E keys for a second. This will turn off the backlight of the keyboard and selected key and the Indicator LEDs will start to blink. Record the Macro and press again the combination of Fn+Ctrl and selected key from Q/W/E. This will complete the Macro recording. To activate the recorded macro, simply press the Fn+Q/W/E keys.
Switch
The main element of the mechanical keyboard is the switch at its core. All the magic is coming from those switches. Velocifire is using CONTENT Brown Switches. CONTENT is not a new name as they have been in the business since 1999. Their switches are almost alike the Outemo switches.
The Velocifire VM02WS is using the CONTENT’s brown switches. Unfortunately, I could not gather the specifications of the CONTENT brown switches like actuation force, actuation point, keystroke, etc.
Wireless Action and Energy Saving
Since the Velocifire VM02WS is a wireless mechanical keyboard, it has a built-in Lithium battery with a charge capacity of 1850mAh. A single charge is supposed to last for:
25 hours with backlit on90 hours with backlit off
The Velocifire has bundled a USB charging cable having a Type-C interface. The length of the cable is 150cm. When this cable is plugged in, the charging of the keyboard starts. This is indicated by a red LED under the spacebar which continues to light until the charging is completed at which point, it turns off. The Velocifire VM02WS has dual modes. It can be used wirelessly and wired with charging as well. This is definitely a handy feature that allows the user to avoid the downtime and use the keyboard while it is being charged. Kudos to Velocifire design team for this. There is an important aspect of using the cable. When the cable is connected and the keyboard needs charging, it will automatically enter the wired mode. As soon as the charging is completed, it will enter into the wireless mode even if the cable is connected. The backlit turns off after 1 minute of the inactivity and the keyboard enters the sleep mode after the inactivity of 3 minutes. The backlit can be turned back on by pressing any key. Similarly, the unit can be brought to life from sleep mode by pressing any key. This behavior is activated only in the wireless mode. The charging time is 4 hours. As shown in the picture above, the USB 2.0 based Wireless device is provided which operates at 2.4GHz spectrum. I have tested the keyboard with the distance of approximately 55 feet away from the PC and it was still registering the keys press without a miss. This is a spectacular range.
There is a Velocifire brand logo printed in the white and red colors on the near user side. There is no mechanism, provided to attach rest palm with this unit.
The left and the right sides of the main housing are identical. From the far end side, they have more height which gradually decreases when coming towards the user end side.
There is a USB Type-C port located on this side of the keyboard. The rest of the surface area is plain and black.
Taking a look at the bottom side of the keyboard, we can find a sticker pasted in the center. It has information like model of the keyboard, its serial no, power rating printed on it. The power rating is 5V with 200mA. There are two supporting brackets (feet) to raise the height of the keyboard for the convenience of typing. There are 4 rubber pads to avoid scratching the surface on which the keyboard is placed and to firmly hold the position of the keyboard on the surface.
There is an On/Off slider button. Sliding it towards On will turn the wireless mode on and vice versa.
Velocifire is offering an optional accessory with this keyboard which is a set of O-Rings. These are used on the keycaps and their purpose is to further reduce the noise from keypress. With O-Rings on, the actuation will be different. These are compatible with Cherry MX, Kailh, Outemo and CONTENT switches. A single pack as 120 o-rings in it and cost $9.99 stand-alone or at $5.99 in a combo deal with the VM02WS. Velocifire is offering free shipping in 30 countries.
Velocifire is offering K9 PBT set of 9 keycaps as an optional accessory. The keys are Esc, W, A, S, D, Arrow keys. They are:-
PBT Double ShotOEM ProfileShine ThroughRed Color
They are compatible with the Cherry MX, Kailh, Outemo and CONTENT switches. A single set costs $9.99 stand-alone or at $6.99 in a combo deal with the VM02WS. Velocifire is offering free shipping in 30 countries.
The above picture shows the backlight on the Velocifire VM02WS wireless mechanical keyboard.
Personal Experience
My personal experience with this keyboard has been nothing but buttery smooth typing. My line of work includes typing, gaming primarily. Though this keyboard has been aimed at the typists, writers, programmers, this does not stop me from using it while gaming. I have been busy benching multiple graphics cards and I was using this keyboard for the benching which involves actual gaming with multiple sessions. I have no complaint at all with this keyboard from any perspective. I never had any missed keypress during gaming which is important. Typing experience was good overall. If there is any lacking from my point of view, it is no palm rest. Maybe this is due to the fact that I have been using a mechanical keyboard with dedicated palm rest with and I was used to it. The actuation is similar across the entire board and there is no wobbling in the keycaps. The overall sound level is low. These CONTENT brown switches are quiet and can be further made by using o-rings.
Conclusion
The Velocifire VM02WS is using CONTENT brown switches. I was not able to find specifications of these switches though it is mentioned that these are almost alike the Outemo switches. A comparable performance at affordable pricing! The lifetime of the Velocifire VM02WS is rated at 16.5M keystrokes. There are no dedicated multimedia keys but this functionality has been provided using a combination of Fn key and functions keys. The user can record up to 3 macros on Q, W, and E keys using a combination of Fn+Ctrl and either of the mentioned keys. There is no N-Key rollover but anti-ghosting is provided. The Velocifire VM02WS is listed at $ 59.99 at the time of the review and this is definitely a good value for your bucks. This keyboard comes with a 1-year warranty from Velocifire. Lastly, if you are still confused and want to check out other options in the market as well. We are thankful to Velocifire for giving us the opportunity to review their VM02WS wireless mechanical keyboard.
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