Epomaker TH80 Review: ‘Best Keyboard for Under $100’

EPOMAKER TH80 KEYBOARD REVIEW FOR PC AND MAC.

After coming away impressed by the TH66, it was time to step things up to its bigger brother, the Epomaker TH80. The biggest difference between the two boards is that the TH80 has additional keys for an F-row. Despite this, it’s still a compact keyboard, mostly growing in height rather than width.

A stock performer

Joining the TH80 in the box is a manual of the keyboard functions, a decent-quality white USB-C cable, and a combo switch/keycap puller. This latter tool will come in useful for swapping out key switches and keycaps later down the line.

For those looking to enjoy the TH80 stock, I’m delighted to say that it delivers a wonderful out-of-the-box experience for under $100.

Looks the part

Aesthetically, I think it looks great. I’m especially fond of the white finish and the blocking between the Escape key and function row. The knob is also awesome to see!

The provided keycaps set is comprised of PBT plastic with dye-sub printing. They’ve lasted a month of heavy use with no shine or wear and I think they are some of the best looking stock keycaps I’ve seen, helped by the interesting MDA profile that makes for a wonderful feeling and sounding typing experience.

Let’s talk about lube

As seen with the TH66, the TH80 makes use of the new and improved Gateron Pro line. These are pre-lubed and ready to “thocc.” Buyers have a choice of black, blue, brown, red, and yellow switches. I have the brown option, which provides a satisfying tactility without being too heavy. It’s a nice mix that works well for both work and play. Competitive gamers may want to consider a light linear option like the reds, however.

Like I saw with the TH66, the TH80 the plate-mounted stabilizers are injected with a healthy dose of lube. This makes them better-sounding than most of the other prebuilts that I’ve tested, but there’s still room for improvement. Users wanting to eliminate all rattle will want to open the stabilizers up and re-lube them, while also making use of the “band-aid mod” to minimize the housing wobble.

Aiding the sound are some thin pieces of foam to help fill the hollowness of the case. I’ve also spotted what appear to be attempts at gasket mounting, but there’s zero bounciness in the board. What’s more, gasket mounting isn’t advertised in the product listing, so I think Epomaker changed its mind on this.

Pick your connection

Connecting the TH80 to a system is achieved via either wired, 2.4 GHz wireless, or Bluetooth 5.0. It’s brilliant to see more budget offerings incorporating low-latency wireless solutions that make them legitimately usable for gaming. With that said, the USB storage slot on the bottom of my unit doesn’t hold onto the dongle very well. It’s a little too loose, making it a potential problem when traveling around.

Though the TH66 has a top row that uses north-facing LEDs, the TH80 is entirely south-facing, which RGB fans and owners of Cherry profile keycaps will be happy to hear. RGB can be easily tweaked using the board itself, meaning there’s no need to mess around with drivers. This is always a nice bonus, as promising hardware can often be let down by poor software.

Epomaker TH80 Review: The final verdict

At $99.99, the Epomaker TH80 offers top value for money. It’s a prebuilt with no major weak points. It’s a fantastic size with a knob, has great keycaps and switches, a good factory lube job and included foam, solid RGB performance with south-facing LEDs, and a generous range of connectivity options. Overall, this has got to be the best keyboard that I’ve tested for under $100.

TH80 keyboard review unit was provided by Epomaker.