NuPhy Kick75 review: Modder’s delight

The NuPhy Kick75 is the brand’s best mechanical keyboard yet, representing the fulfilment of (or at least a major milestone towards) one of the company’s driving ambitions: to create a combined low-profile/standard-profile keyboard.

Want low-profile keycaps and switches? Get ‘em. Want to swap out to standard-profile later? You can. The Kick75 is the ultimate mechanical keyboard for modders who can’t quite make up their mind.

But it isn’t just a one-trick pony. The Kick75 is gorgeous, built well, sounds great and is a joy to type on. And better yet, you can get your eager little mitts on it for just $89. Eighty. Nine. Dollars. For a NuPhy!

NuPhy is on a serious roll right now, having released the fantastic Air60 HE and Field75 HE gaming keyboards last year. And that roll continues with the Kick75. In fact, I’ve struggled to think of anything seriously wrong with this board.

Find out more in my NuPhy Kick75 review.

NuPhy Kick75 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A combined low-/standard-profile mechanical keyboard
• Huh? "Combined"? You can swap out the top case and PCB to use either low-profile or standard-profile switches and keycaps
• Any good? You bet. It looks incredible (classic NuPhy), types and sounds great and polls at 1,000Hz
• That’ll be pricey, surely? That’s the kicker! You can grab a Kick75 for just $89 from NuPhy (currently in pre-order)
• Anything wrong then? Barely. I’d have liked to see more tactile switch choices at checkout, but that’s a minor gripe

NuPhy Kick75 review: Specs

NuPhy Kick75 review: The ups

Gorgeous looks, great sound and effortless typing. Heaps of moddability, QMK firmware and 1,000Hz polling. Oh, and it costs just $89. What’s not to love?

Styling & build

I mean, just look at it. I can probably leave it there for this section, right? I won’t, of course, but you’ll doubtless agree that the Kick75, like all of NuPhy’s keyboards, is simply beautiful.

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Turning up to our IT department to solve a laptop issue, Kick75 in hand, gave me the closest approximation to the lifestyle of a celebrity. I was surrounded by a throng of fellow nerds asking what board it was and what switches were in it — prodding it, tapping its keys and trying to keep their gaping mouths shut. One guy even went and got his colleagues to come over and take a look. Can you blame them?

With its low-profile nSA keycaps, the Kick75 closely resembles the NuPhy Air75 V2, while with the high-profile mSA caps, it’s a dead ringer for the NuPhy Halo75 V2. Like its siblings, it employs cutesy typefaces on its keycaps, with a mostly monochromatic design punctuated by pops of color.

The Kick75 uses a translucent top case, which, in addition to serving as a pretty RGB diffuser, evokes major 8-bit era GameBoy vibes. Continuing that theme, the rear of the bottom case sports a Mario-esque decal on gray, retro plastic. It’s the glorious execution of a singular, clear design ethos — and it’s pure NuPhy.

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The RGB lighting is bright but not at all garish. Using non-shine-through keycaps, the light from the south-facing LEDs is reflected off the back of the keycaps and then bounces again off the solid white polycarbonate plate, resulting in a soft, diffused glow. Any harsher beams trying to escape around the base or edges of the case are similarly softened by the translucent top case.

As per any NuPhy keyboard, build quality is excellent. The case has virtually no flex, and there are no untoward pings or rattles.

Customization

The Kick75’s major selling point is its customizability. I’m not talking just hot-swappable switches here, either. NuPhy is on a quest to break down the traditional intercompatibility barriers between high- and low-profile components and champion an increase of the base level of compatibility in the industry generally.

Its quest started with the NuPhy Nos75, a board that was intended to blur the lines between high- and low-profile boards, bundling the benefits of slimmer switches and keycaps with the sound, feel and stability benefits of high-profile components.

The Nos75 also launched with a novel low-profile switch socket that used a typical pin configuration from standard-profile switches. The intention was to bring about industry change and push the “entire low-profile market to adopt a normal-profile switch socket, thereby resolving the issue of incompatibility between different manufacturers’ low-profile switches.”

The issue was that there weren’t any other low-profile switches using that socket, and with a low-profile top case and PCB, standard-profile switches wouldn’t work properly in the board, either.

But whereas the Nos75 was a toe dip, a prototype if you will, the Kick75 is the full production model; the culmination of NuPhy’s grand ambition to rectify incompatibility. NuPhy sells either a low- or standard-profile PCB and top case kit, so you can choose between the two and/or swap between them at a later point. This gives you full flexibility with your switch choices and overall keyboard profile. And I think it’s great.

Annoyingly, you still can’t fit north-facing low-profile switches flipped upside down, so for all NuPhy’s postulating about intercompatibility, I still wasn’t able to fit my favorite low-profile Kailh Phantom switches. But hey, can’t win ‘em all.

NuPhy sent me a corresponding standard profile top-case but no matching keycaps, so I haven’t yet swapped from my low-profile to a higher-profile setup using NuPhy’s mSA keycaps (my favorite profile). Once I do, I’ll update this review with photos.

NuPhy also states that the components used to build the Kick75 are open-source, so you can 3D print your own. This is likely a limited-run keyboard, so you might need to 3D print the whole thing to get your hands on one.

Software customization

The Kick75 can be chosen with QMK/VIA firmware or NuPhy.IO, the latter being the cheaper option. Personally, I prefer NuPhy.io, having used it to customize the NuPhy Air60 HE and NuPhy Field75 HE. It’s slicker and offers more control than the Via web app.

However, QMK firmware is open source rather than proprietary, giving you more flexibility, and the Via web app used to access firmware is pretty good for customization, even if it is a little bit janky looking. It lets you remap keys, assign macros and binds and easily tweak your board’s lighting — everything you really need.

Sound

Unlike the Air75 V2, the Kick75 doesn’t feel or sound hollow, thanks to its extra damping and thick PC plate. This brings extra weight, while the thicker top and bottom cases bring extra height than the Air75 V2, even in the Kick’s low-profile guise. That said, it’s by no means a heavy or cumbersome board, and I had no issues carrying it around in my bag.

As with the NuPhy Nos75 and Air75 V2, the low profile NuPhy nSA keycaps supplied with the Kick75 aren’t the nicest sounding, resulting in a muted clack on the deck’s PC plate. It isn’t a bad sound by any means, but it isn’t addictive like the sound from NuPhy’s heavier mSA mid-profile caps.

Obviously, you can change to standard-profile keycaps, which I’d recommend unless you specifically need the portability benefits of low-profile. With a set of NuPhy’s fantastic mSA caps and some panda switches, you can expect the beautiful gentle thock of the Halo75 V2 and NuPhy Gem80.

Typing & switches

I haven’t found the NuPhy Kick75 to be the fastest keyboard around for typing. My test unit sports Gateron brown low-profile tactile switches, which are relatively firm, resulting in lower-than-average typing speeds.

That said, with a long travel distance of 3.4mm, the switches were more forgiving than those on NuPhy’s other boards using low-profile Gateron switches, like the Air75 V2 and Nos75. Meaning increased accuracy.

If you want a super fast board, I’d recommend a magnetic board with adjustable actuation points, allowing you to back off actuation for high accuracy while maintaining speed. The NuPhy Air60 HE is an excellent shout if you’d like low-profile, although it uses a top-mounted PCB, which is quite firm (and better for gaming).

A softer gasket mount magnetic board like the Keychron K2 HE is more comfortable, and so ideal for typing, although it’s a standard-profile keyboard.

The Kick75 is more about feel, anyway. With its gasket mounted PCB and layers of impact absorbing material, it’s a thoroughly comfortable and satisfying board to type on, and never tiring over longer periods.

Polling

The NuPhy Kick75 polls at 1,000Hz over wired or 2.4G, which won’t awe those looking for an ultra-fast gaming keyboard. But an ultra-fast gaming keyboard the Kick75 was never meant to be. 1,000Hz is fast enough for gaming without lag. I played a few rounds of Iszono and Counter-Strike 2 with the board and experienced no noticeable lag.

The brown tactile switches really aren’t suited to gaming, feeling lumbering and slow (especially versus the rapid magnetic linears of the Lemokey P5 HE I’d just been testing), so I’d opt for a set of faster linear switches if you’ll be using the Kick75 to game.

Price

As if this board wasn’t impressive enough, there’s the price. For the amount of customization potential the Kick75 offers, NuPhy could easily have justified pushing the price up to the $150-$200 mark, which is where it positioned other super-moddable boards like the Gem80.

Instead, NuPhy has undercut even its cheaper decks like the Air75 V2. The Kick75 starts at just $89! That’s budget keyboard territory… from NuPhy!

Choose a QMK/VIA deck in the pricier high-profile guise and you’re still only going to spend $119, which is a similar price to the Air75 V2 — that’s still crazy good value given the Kick75 offers so much more.

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You can also add a wrist rest at checkout for $19 during pre-order phase or around $27 once it hits production. This is well worth the spend. It's gloriously soft, padded with foam and faux leather, can have its height adjusted with the addition (or removal) of a lower plate to match low- or standard-profile configurations and makes long hours of typing fly by with mini

NuPhy Kick75 review: The downs

I have very little bad to say about the NuPhy Kick75, so I’m kinda clutching at straws here. My one gripe is the limited tactile switch offerings at checkout, but I really wouldn’t let that put you off.

Limited tactile switch choices

If I’m being picky (which I get paid to be), I would’ve liked to see a second tactile switch offered at checkout. Currently, NuPhy is selling the deck with a choice of three linears, providing various levels of input and end forces — essentially, various levels of softness.

There’s only one tactile switch choice, though, and it’s brown. I don’t mind brown switches, but I would’ve loved to see this board come with NuPhy’s Lemon tactiles, which I absolutely loved in the Halo75 V2. It would’ve been nice for tactile fans like me to have a little more choice.

NuPhy isn’t selling the Kick75 as a barebones kit either (the board minus switches and keycaps — these kits are usually cheaper), so if you want different switches or caps, you’ll have to buy a pre-assembled unit then fork out more for keycaps and switches. Still, given the Kick75’s baseline affordability, that isn’t the end of the world.

NuPhy Kick75 review: Verdict

Want a beautiful-looking, beautiful-typing, beautiful-sounding, super-customizable mechanical keyboard? I can’t think of a board I’d recommend more right now than the NuPhy Kick75. I mean, it really has everything, with very few drawbacks (and its only real flaw is still very minor). And best of all, the Kick75 can be obtained for just $89, making it an absolute bargain!

The Kick75 is designed primarily for productivity, so I wouldn’t recommend this deck for anyone needing a seriously competitive gaming keyboard. For everyone else, though, take heed: get the Kick75 while you can, because I can guarantee stocks won’t stick around for long.