I’ve been using this keyboard for a week now, If you’ve been looking for a new keyboard recently, this is the one you should definitely check out. So this is the Lofree Flow, it’s a very impressive low-profile mechanical keyboard. It should be of interest to anyone who has a need for both typing comfort and portability.
They’ve been crowdfunding on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo for a while now, if you are interested, you can check them out after reading this article.
Design (Keycaps)
A lot of people like low-profile keyboards because they are compact and good-looking. And Lofree is a brand that pays a lot of attention to keyboard design, so this Flow of course doesn’t disappoint us. The bezel is equal in width, also it is quite thin and light, so the simplicity of a low-profile keyboard is kept pretty well in this keyboard.
Some Lofree exclusive design elements, such as the rose gold Lofree logo and keyboard feet, make this keyboard very elegant. There’s a power indicator on the front, and the RGB side-lit on both sides of the bottom, with two modes to choose from in 8 colors. However, there is only one single color for the backlit and the light is always on only, and the keycaps are slightly translucent under high brightness backlit.
Other than that this is a nice set of keycaps, the five-sided DYB-sublimation PBT keycaps are excellent in terms of the look, build quality, and overall feel. The font is also very neat and the stability is fantastic. As I just said, you never have to worry about the design from Lofree.
Weight & Battery Life
When you get a low-profile keyboard, you have a good reason to take it somewhere else to use it frequently, right? Although the Lofree Flow is built with an aluminum case, it still maintains an excellent level of thickness and weight. It’s easy to type without a wrist rest, and it’s just so easy to put it into your backpack or suitcase, and it won’t add too much weight to your everyday carry.
It has two connection options: wired or Bluetooth. I must say that the Bluetooth connection is very power-saving, because I turned off all backlit and used it for 8 hours a day, and it was still working after a week. It only takes 3 hours to charge the 2000mAh battery fully. With the ability to connect three devices as well, it should still be pretty handy to take out on business trips. But if you want to play games on this keyboard, I would recommend that you just plug the cable in.
Switches
As a mechanical keyboard, its typing experience should be much better than those of membrane keyboards. For the switches, Lofree Flow chose Kailh’s Full POM Switches, which have the advantage of being self-lubricating and hard-wearing, and the longer you use it, the smoother it will be.
If you choose the white variant of this keyboard, then the switch is linear. and the black version comes with a tactile, I tried both switches right after I received them, and they are both very smooth. These two switches are the quieter type and perfectly fine in use in the office or even the library. They make holes above the switch’s upper housing so that the LED beads don’t attenuate the brightness by covering them up. The stabilizers are also very reliable and stable, as the four corners don’t get stuck when pressed down.
If you don’t have a favorite color, I recommend you buy the linear switch version, which is the white variant, this is because the linear switch can better show the smoothness of the POM material. By the way, this keyboard is hot-swappable, so you can also swap two different switches and keycaps on the same keyboard as I did.
Gasket mount
In addition to POM switches, there’s another thing to enhance the typing experience: the Gasket mount, can you imagine that on a low-profile keyboard? By disassembling it, we can also tell that it’s filled with all kinds of sound-absorbing materials. So as you can also hear, the typing sound is just barely like cavity tone, the thock of this keyboard is something I didn’t expect.
But also because it’s stuffed and has little room inside, it doesn’t feel as soft as you’d expect. the PCB isn’t slotted either, so it has a hard typing feel which makes it on the hard side of the type in a gasket mount.
Conclusion
I’m honestly impressed with the Lofree Flow. I’ve never seen a low-profile keyboard doing such a great job on the overall experience. With a minimalist design, a great typing feel, and sound in such limited space. This keyboard makes typing enjoyable no matter where you are, something that no other low-profile keyboard can do. So I do like this keyboard very much, and I hope Lofree will keep up the good work and make more unique keyboards for all types of needs.
