Chilkey - Slice68 HE Keyboard

I got a chillkeys 80he. It’s kinda pricey but so worth it. It sounds like a custom. And magnetic.

With the recent wave of Hall Effect (HE) keyboards, I always found myself holding back because the general concensus was that they just didn’t sound as good as the more mature traditional mechanical keyboards. This Slice68 is my second HE board, and I think manufacturers are getting very close to closing that gap. This board was sent to me by Chilkey for review. Chilkey is based in Wuhan and Dongguan, sharing staff, factories, and R&D resources with Meletrix and Wuque Studio. While Wuque Studio focuses on high-end keyboards, Meletrix and Chilkey are their gaming-oriented brands. In the sea of EVA-01 inspired boards, the Slice68 is among the few that also offer an EVA-02 themed option, and it is **CLEAN**. **Specs at a glance**: Wired-only, 68% layout, 8,000Hz polling rate, 1.65kg weight, gasket-mounted, with a unique sound profile. Count me in. As usual, it includes a black braided USB-C cable and a spare ribbon cable if you manage to break yours (though you can purchase these for cheap on Amazon or AliExpress). Over my five years in the hobby (15 if you count my first Razer BlackWidow), I’ve grown to prefer wired keyboards. I don’t like dealing with degrading batteries, and truthfully I’ve probably spent too much on custom cables to let them go to waste. So the Slice68 being wired-only is a huge plus for me. The Slice68 uses an exploded 68% layout with the less common 2.75u right shift key alongside a square navigation cluster. This suits me perfectly, as I use the right shift for capitalizing letters when typing. The **build quality** is immaculate - no surprise given Wuque/Meletrix/Chilkey’s track record. Even under close inspection there are no imperfections. Every edge is chamfered, and the metallic red finish is flawless. With its bold red, white, and gold Evangelion Unit-02 theme, this is the most beautiful keyboard I’ve ever owned. Internally, Chilkey has opted for a **stiff plate construction**. The aluminum plate is layered with cork, PET, and IXPE sheets, while the bottom is padded with thick poron case foam and another PET layer. The plate and PCB are mounted using small silicone “dumbbells,” resulting in an extremely firm typing experience with little to no bounce. The **keycaps** are among the thickest keycaps I've measured at 1.6–1.7mm. They’re dye-sublimated and continue the Evangelion-inspired theme. At first, I found them harder to read, but after two weeks of daily use I adjusted and now find them perfectly fine. The stabilizers are plate-mounted, pre-lubed, and notably much better tuned than the ones on the Slice75 HE I purchased myself, which were often over-lubed. For me personally, the real star of the show are the **Wuque Studio Flux Clacky switches**. These are custom-colored versions of the Flux switches sold on Wuque’s site, and they completely changed my perception of HE switches. Using them was like watching a movie in 4K OLED for the first time - they are that smooth. Compared to other HE switches I’ve tested (Gateron Jade Pros, UR Studio Ice Ultra, HMX x Akko Astrolinks), the Flux Clackys feel uncannily smooth, with zero scratchiness even under horizontal pressure. It actually took me a few days to adjust as there was no feedback when depressing keys. As a sanity check, I pulled out some of my smoothest mechanical boards (with Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellows, Oil Kings, and Akko Mirrors), and the Flux switches still came out on top. Whether it’s the factory lubing process (theremingoat has a great write-up on them) or another design factor, the result is the smoothest switch I’ve ever tried. The Deep Clacky variant is just as smooth, with a noticeably deeper sound. After experiencing Flux switches, all my other boards feel scratchy. It won't be long until more HE switches overtake popular linear mechanical switches in terms of feel. The **software** is a reskinned version of Sparklink, the popular web driver used by many Chinese brands. It’s intuitive and responsive, offering adjustable polling rate, four profiles, rapid trigger, per-key actuation settings, deadzones, calibration, DKS, MPT, MT, TGL, END, SOCD, and macros (though macros can only be assigned on the first profile). I don’t have the equipment to measure latency, but if it’s anything like the Slice75 (which tested at 0.17ms in eyejoker’s latency tests), it should be extremely fast. In daily use, I can’t perceive the latency, but it feels snappy when typing or gaming. At **$199 USD**, the Slice68 isn’t cheap, especially with so many HE keyboards entering the market. But it competes strongly on specs, aesthetics, and especially switch feel. This is a board for people who value great sound and smooth switches as much as performance. **Overall**: The Slice68 HE has been an absolute joy to use and has quickly become my daily driver. I wish more companies offered 2.75u right shift layouts, though I admit I’m in the minority. It performs flawlessly, looks stunning, sounds fantastic, and feels even better. **TL;DR** The Slice68 HE is a high-spec keyboard that’s as heavy as a brick, looks amazing from every angle, sounds incredible, and has switches smoother than any mechanical switch I own. It has incredibly bright south-facing RGB LEDs and is offered in eVA-01 and EVA-02 themes. * Visual overview and extended sound test (Flux Deep Clacky): [https://youtu.be/dyZflO6buNk](https://youtu.be/dyZflO6buNk) * Sound test (Flux Clacky vs Deep Clacky): [https://youtu.be/0T0Z0OLbEMI](https://youtu.be/0T0Z0OLbEMI)

If you want granular input then do everglide su75 pro, irok mg68plus or mg75 pro/max, chilkey slice68/75he, morkblade bold tkl, or a custom build with a geonworks venom pcb. Most HE/TMR boards use pretty unreliable OEMs such as shenzhen arbiter or rongyuan which don't have great stability and frequently drop support. These options use another OEM called sparklink which is more stable and reliable, and the configurators are also way better (can even write your own if you want with their SDK). The Venom PCBs are even better as theyre developed inhouse. I'd avoid wooting due to pricing and buid quality as well as stock switches and lack of good sounding/feeling mounting options. Monsgeek falls into the category of boards using bad OEMs, in this case rongyuan. Keychron is okay, but the build quality, switch options, mounting, and pricing falls behind good options using sparklink pcbs.

For prebuilt the best value option would be su75 pro imo, slice75's a bit better but not worth the extra price. With custom, it definitely gets more expensive but you can do some great shit. Venom87he pcb is compatible with h87c/nu cases, and IMO a great option for that is the geonworks frog tkl leggera. Then you need a plate, which has to be specificially for the venom PCB for standoffs, then the standard switches/caps/stabs. If your preferred sound signature is something more foamed up and subdued, it's not really worth doing this over a prebuilt, but it your preference is anything else (ie higher pitched, volume) then it becomes a more appealing option. Do you have specific preferences for sound in terms of pitch, fullness of sound, volume, etc? That'd help narrow down what switches would be good for you. Also, what form factor are you after? there are 60%, 65%, and TKL venom PCBs that can be built differently. A custom venom87he with the frog tkl leggera might cost about $300 for a full build, potentially higher with current tarriff and shipping situation, so if that's a concern then the prebuilts are gonna be better value for you.

i would do a custom venom60/65/87/88he pcb with ndiy freya, mathew he, or haimu dove silent switches. Aiglatson vella is good for the 60% and is sold in a kit with it, machina overture65, swk eave65, and bakeneko65 work with venom65, and h87/88 cases will work with the TKLs, a standout pick being the geonworks frog tkl leggera Wooting's pcbs and software are good but the case and switch quality is really lacking and they're quite overpriced. Keychron is also overpriced and their stock switches aren't great, but the open source firmware is nice Nuphy's stuff is a mixed bag, some of their boards use sparklink pcbs, which are good but you can get the same stuff for cheaper with brands like everglide (su75 pro) or irok (mg75 pro/max). The other nuphy stuff uses other older pcb oems which have reliability issues Steelseries software is pretty atrocious and their build quality is really lacking Gravastar is really investing in form over function, wouldn't recommend unless youre fine to prioritise aesthetics over actually functional acoustic design etc ducky and razer are both overpriced companies that get away with predatory pricing and low quality products because of marketing and distribution plus brand loyalty from times when the market was less developed and lemokey's just keychron If you need a prebuilt I'd check out everglide ae68 pro metal or su75 pro, irok mg68 plus or mg75 pro/max, chilkey slice68/75, morkblade bold tkl or mk60 (you want the aula one, it's not actually an aula product it just has better switches and is sold under their name) geonworks venom pcbs are super good options due to performance, consistent firmware development, pricing, a good configurator, and importantly (something that wooting is lacking) good case compatibility with oring mounting points for 60%, a 65 that's compatible with existing good mounted 65s like glare65 and bakeneko65, and TKLs that conform to hiney h87c/nu and h88 standards