Kosalboth S.
The Idobao id42 is great. Better than I expected.
Seth B.
It's great little board! Learning the layers has been new but fun challenge. The abacus layout is nice because it's easy to stretch my hand all the across and hit every key.
Packaging is fantastic and inclusion of a switch/key puller is awesome. The cable is a plus just incase you're in need of one. Spare switches, switch pads, screws and stickers is a nice touch. The included keycaps are actually pretty decent and have a good sound signature. The overall sound and feel of the board is the best part. Nice deep sound with that suble thock when using the included foam. Take out the foam and you get more of a high pitch clack. So you can tune it to how you want.
Overall it's a great board for those looking for a 40% layout. Sounds great and works well.
Sara C.
Took quicker to ship than expected
Melissa F.
This a such a fun little keyboard. It arrived quickly, packaged in a very nice box with many extras plus a soft case for the keyboard. I was really impressed.
Amber K.
I am a pretty big keyboard enthusiast, and am the proud owner of around 15 boards at this point. As many of you know, the keyboard hobby is a borderline obsessive one, with a bunch of us keeb lords exploring the detail and minutia that goes into a board that we may use for clout-based edge cases. I truly believed that the ID42 would have been one such use-case, as the 40% form factor is a novelty, but it definitely has delivered above and beyond.
I think the amount of orientations for the keys works super well, and due to the staggered layout, I find that it is still really intuitive to touch type on. The chassis is aluminum and weighted in a nice way, which is very beneficial for the size as it won't slide away mid game, and the lighting patterns can be customised very easily, making this a visually, VERY beautiful board. The hotswap is also a perfect addition to this little board, as it aids in transitioning this from purely form, to embodying functionality.
If I were to have one single critique of the board, it would be that I wish I had discovered this keeb before standard ortho 40% boards, as then I could justify owning this in multiple colors (especially periwinkle tho). Additionally, using a keycap profile uniform in height, like a XDA or DSA, is super optimal for smaller boards in general, as a lot of the necessary keys don't line up in a cherry / oem way typically. On this board, I am using a BMO artisan from Etsy, gamepad artisan from Drop, and animal crossing xda keycaps for the body.
Emi
I like the board alot, and it sounds great but there is some issues I found. Due to the integrated plate design and case, the board sounds really uneven across keys. I would recommend getting some sort of silent switch if it bothers you as much it does for me. The buttons in the middle sound great but the buttons near the edge sound metallic. Another thing is that when first plugging in, the layout is really messed up and you have to download the proper layout from this store page and load it onto the board with VIA before making your layout. Apart from that, it looks great, sounds pretty good, and turned out really well. You may want to purchase different stabilizers though.
Josh B.
Was thrilled to find a 40% kit in stock. Shipping was quick and came much earlier than estimated. Only complaint is that one if the hit swap sockets was broken right out of the box. But you can’t get too upset about it bc they include extra sockets to solder not the pcb
Albert K.
Shipped fast and what a fun little board!
Paul C.
Easy to assemble, comes with plate foam, has just enough modding potential to make it interesting.
For mine, I:
- Took apart, clipped, and lubed the included plate mount stabs.
- Added PE foam to the bottom of the case to get rid of pinging.
The result is a great sounding keyboard.
I wish the documentation on programming with VIA was better, but basically what I had to do was: load VIA and import the provided ID42_via.json for VIA to detect the keyboard, as it doesn't appear to be supported out of the box.
Sean B.
It's a fantastic little keyboard. The kit itself is very well put together and I absolutely love the quality and feel of the board itself. The included keycaps we're actually a very nice surprise as well. The included keycaps we're actually very nice dye subs, but I wanted to use my sloth keycaps for this particular board. Overall, the ID42 is a great 40% keyboard and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a small keyboard.
Marc-Alexandre M.
i like it but i can't write number
Paul N.
My first 40% board - it's really fun! I outfitted with Penyu switches, foam in the case all the stab mods and KAT keycaps. Turned out quite well. I was surprised it sounded so low and thoccy for it's size. The split space bar made layer switching a breeze. VIA was very easy to make adjustments on the fly so I could dial in my layout.
Patrick Malcom R.
Fast GB and shipping, would get another keyboard but with a different layout or anything that is already implemented of a gasket mount would do!
Osamu N.
This was my first 40% board.
I am using it currentrly, and pretty usable compared to my expectation.
I modded a little with tape mod, and stuffing poron sheet and sound nice with Lumia tactile switch.
The plate is stiff so matches well with tactile switches.
Additional keycap was super nice because I did not have dedicated 40s keycaps.
Thank you Idobao for very nice keyset. I love the quality, price and this layout.