Another keyboard tested and while I am sad to see them go, I am always happy to be able to wrap up a review. I do have some mixed feelings when it comes to the KB366L so let’s recap!

Performance

The overall performance of the KB366L was good. The Outemu/Gaote switches seem to do the job even if they are quite noisy. The actuation point felt fine and there were no problems with the responsiveness of the keystrokes during gaming or general use. While these particular blue Outemu switches are not my cup of tea, I can not fault them at all when it comes to the performance they offer. The only real thing I can see maybe affecting performance is after awhile the keycaps may become a bit loose due to the cheap plastic used to make them, other than that the KB366L had pretty solid performance.

Design

This is where we got let down a bit, but not completely. Let’s go ahead and speak on the good design features first. The base of KB366L is solid and heavy thanks to being made from metal and not plastic. The LED backlighting has a few different modes that can be cycled through with ease and considering there is no software for it, you really can not complain. Also, the Outemu switches seem to be a good fit for this board, even if they are a bit loud for my liking.

Now for the bad bits. First and foremost, the keycaps are very thin and fragile and while I had no problems with them during my tests, if you are a heavy typer then you may run into some issues in the long run. To keep things short, I noticed a tiny bit of cracking in them when trying to remove them for the closer look photos, something I am no accustomed to seeing when removing keycaps from any other keyboard. Next are those horrid blue bumpers, while I am a big fan of blue, I don’t see the need for the blue plastic protectors on all four corners. Yes, if you drop the keyboard it may hit on, but this thing is so heavy I would be more concerned about breaking the floor with it. If HAVIT can overcome those two small flaws, they could have a very decent mechanical keyboard on their hands.

Value

This is where things get a little tricky as the KB366L is about $110 in US and £70 here in the UK. Normally these numbers are a bit closer to each other as we in the UK pay a ridiculous amount of taxes. Normally if something is around $110 you can expect it to be at least £90 or so which is a bit of a difference from what we are seeing today though this is good for us here in the UK! However, while I can look past the blue bumpers for a second, I can not get past the fragile keycaps, I just can’t. I wanted to like this keyboard and I actually do, except for the keycaps, they really just need to be upgraded. Aside from that, here in the UK for £70 it would be a decent mechanical keyboard for the most part.

When all is said and done, this is HAVIT’s first attempt at a mechanical keyboard from what I can see and they were looking to keep costs down somehow. I feel instead of a metal base, I would be happier with a cheaper plastic base that would allow them to get better keycaps and add a few extra functions and/or media keys to the KB366L. Havit are on the right track with this keyboard and hopefully can learn from their minor mistakes and make an updated model that will be something amazing.

I would like to thank HAVIT for sending the KB366L in for review and hope to see HAVIT release a bit nicer mechanical keyboard in the future.