Retro design meets Apple Touch Bar in a wireless mechanical keyboard with 1000-hour battery: NuPhy reveals Node75
NuPhy has again launched a new hybrid-profile mechanical keyboard via a crowdfunding campaign, this time foregoing the knob of the Kick75 (curr. $99.99 on Amazon) for a more interesting, if somewhat unorthodox, touch bar along the top of the keyboard's top surface. The NuPhy Node75 will officially be available for pre-order on November 10 at a launch price of $99.95. NuPhy has also confirmed that a Node100 is in progress, and that it will feature the same retro-inspired design as the Node75, but with a full-size layout.
NuPhy Node75 details and highlights
The major selling point of the NuPhy Node75 are its retro looks, immense battery life claims, and the nifty customisable touch bar along the top of the keyboard deck. NuPhy claims that, when connected to Bluetooth and likely only when the RGB backlighting is disabled, the Node75 can achieve 1,000 hours of use on battery. Obviously, this needs to be verified to be taken seriously, but during our brief testing of the NuPhy Kick75, which runs the same NuPhyIO firmware, NuPhy's battery life claims were actually quite accurate.
Connectivity modes will consist of 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth, and USB-C wired, with the 2.4 GHz and wired connections offering up to 1,000 Hz polling. It will also be customisable in NuPhyIO, the company's in-house web-based customisation suite that allows for macro creation, key remapping, and in this case, remapping of the touch bar on the top of the keyboard.
Of course, there's more to a mechanical keyboard than wireless performance and auxiliary features, and the Node75's spec sheet is loaded on that front as well. It will likely use the same PCB gasket mount as the Kick75 and a choice of Gateron x NuPhy Low Profile 3.0 or Gateron full-height 5-pin mechanical switches. Obviously, this means there will be no fun analogue input features, like those we praised in our recent Keychron K4 HE review, but the selection of linear, tactile, and silent switches on offer all use a mixture of POM or LY stems and nylon, POM, or PC top and bottom housing, and all the switches are pre-lubricated — all meaning that the switches should feel smooth to operate. The Gateron x NuPhy Red Max switches which impressed in our testing of the Kick75 are present as an option, as are the silent Blush and tactile Brown Nano and Max switches.
While there is confirmation that users will be able to use both low-profile Nano switches and full-height Max switches with a simple case swap, it's unclear if the keyboard will be available in a kit with both the high- and low-profile case and switch options. There's a strong likelihood that the conversion kits will only be available as after-sales add-ons, as they were with the Kick75.
The aesthetics of the NuPhy Node75 are both clean and retro-inspired, with the touch bar at the top of the keyboard featuring a grid of dots and the whole keyboard coming in beige, pink, and a charcoal grey. NuPhy's nSA and mSA profiles also add to those retro looks, thanks to their resemblance to the classic SA profiles found on older Apple and IBM keyboards.
Much like the recent NuPhy Air75 V3 line-up, the top case of the Node75 appears to be made from aluminium or an opaque plastic, while the bottom case will be a translucent plastic. The currently available teasers offer scant information, but it looks as though there will be 10 white LEDs in a 5×2 grid in the top left section of the textured touch bar surface that will be used for feedback and communication of things like battery level.
The NuPhy Node75 will also have the same feet that allow keyboards like the Air series to be placed on the top of a standard Apple MacBook keyboard without actuating the built-in laptop keyboard keys.
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