Whether you’re playing games on your PC or just doing some typing for work, one of the best mechanical keyboards can definitely help improve your game and your workflow. While I’ve tried dozens of them over the years, the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is my current favorite thanks to its NES-inspired design and large, reprogrammable Dual Super Buttons. It's now on sale during Black Friday.
Right now, the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is just $90 at Amazon. Even though this isn’t the biggest discount, it’s the lowest price we’ve seen yet on this unique mechanical keyboard that was just released back in July.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is in a world of its own when it comes to design but it also packs in plenty of great features. From a hot-swappable PCB that lets you use whatever mechanical keyboard switches you want to a physical knob to control your computer’s volume, this budget mechanical keyboard almost has it all. There’s also a classic power status LED on the right to complete its retro look.
The Dual Super Buttons that come with the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard plug in at the back and you can reprogram them to your favorite keyboard shortcuts or to a single key like Esc or Enter. If two large, customizable buttons isn’t enough, 8BitDo sells extra ones you can add to your keyboard on its site. In fact, you can have up to four Dual Super Buttons connected at the same time.
What I love about the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard only ships with super clicky, Kailh Box Switch V2 mechanical keyboard switches. While this might be fine when you’re at home by yourself, these switches can get quite noisy if others are around, especially at night.
Fortunately, as the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard has a hot-swappable PCB, you can easily change them out with whatever mechanical keyboard switches you want. If you like the look and design of this keyboard but were put off by its loud switches, you’re not stuck with them.
Likewise, you can also mix and match and use different mechanical switches for certain parts of your keyboard. Let’s say you like playing the best Steam games on your gaming PC, in that case, you could have linear switches like Cherry MX Reds for your W,A,S,D keys and the spacebar with tactical Cherry MX Brown switches for the other keys. The customization possibilities are almost endless but with the 8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard, you can try out as many as you want.
The Dual Super Action Buttons are another one of my favorite parts of this keyboard as I use a mini macropad to control a lot of different parts of my PC. With these large customizable buttons though, I was able to streamline my desk setup and have fewer things plugged in at the back of my PC.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard could be the perfect gift for that older gamer in your life but I’m sure younger gamers would also get a kick out of its design and how easy it is to make this keyboard their own.
