I’ve complained a lot about how a few of the finest gaming keyboards are too costly, from the Razer Black Widow V4 75% to the Wooting 80HE, however nothing comes remotely near The Icebreaker. Introduced practically a 12 months in the past by Serene Industries, The Icebreaker is not like any keyboard I’ve ever seen — and it’s priced accordingly at $1,600. Plus delivery, in fact.
What might justify such an extravagant worth? Aluminum, it seems. The keyboard is constructed of 1 single block of 6061 aluminum in what Serene Industries calls an “unorthodox wedge kind.” As if that wasn’t sufficient steel, the keycaps are additionally fabricated from aluminum, and Serene says they embody “about 800” micro-perforations that enable the LED backlight of the keyboard to shine by means of.
The Icebreaker appears to be like extra like an artwork piece than an precise keyboard, nevertheless it at the least has the specs of a stable mechanical keyboard. It comes with a 65% format, together with a steel rotary dial, and it helps hot-swappable switches. It even works wirelessly over Bluetooth with a built-in 4,000mAh battery, or wired by way of USB-C. It’s laborious to say how the keyboard sounds — I’m not about to spend $1,600 to search out out — however the firm says there are two layers of sound dampening throughout the keyboard.
That is the primary product from Serene Industries, which is an organization based — and presumably nonetheless solely run — by Denis Agarkov. Agarkov is a filmmaker and designer primarily based out of Los Angeles, they usually’ve racked up a handful of credit as a cinematographer on numerous brief movies. The Icebreaker is one thing fully totally different, and born out a “love of supplies, experimentation, and an infinite train in studying new issues.”
If nothing else, it’s actually an attention-grabbing keyboard. And as somebody who can admire craftsmanship, I’d even name it a phenomenal keyboard. Type actually appears to be like prefer it takes precedence over perform on this case, which shouldn’t be stunning for a keyboard designed solely out of aluminum. I haven’t really seen one in every of these keyboards within the wild, and I haven’t seen a lot as a discussion board publish from an excited buyer. Hopefully, somebody will purchase The Icebreaker, if for nothing else than bragging rights.
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As for me, I’ll be ready for some legendary funds model that appears the identical, simply with out all of that aluminum jacking up the worth. A person can dream.
