EpicGear DeFiant Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The EpicGear DeFiant isn’t easy to find in the UK outside of eBay stores, but it’s readily available in many markets and no impossible to get in the UK if you shop around. We found it at Amazon for £118.29, which is pretty on-par with a lot of other gaming mechanical keyboards. You can also pick up a bundle of green, orange and purple switches for the modular features for 49,90 EUR, or buy both as a bundle for 129.90 EUR.

Overview

I’ve never seen or used a keyboard quite like the EpicGear DeFiant, and that’s a wonderful thing, as the market can seem a little repetitive at times, with many keyboards just being the same. Is this the innovation the market needed? I’m not so sure, but having something unique to offer is no bad thing and I can certainly see this keyboard proving popular with gamers who want something fresh.

The design is completely crazy, with so many modular parts it’s hard to see what EpicGear were actually aiming for here. The rear add-on panel is quite large, and only adds a single USB port and four buttons, and could have easily been integrated into the stock keyboard design. The side panels make the keyboard super wide too, and while they do help increase the keyboard height if you want them to, this is a feature that could also have been built-in. The one that does make more sense is the rubber wrist rest, it’s perfect and does a great job of giving you a comfortable typing position. That being said, every add-on is modular, you can pick and choose, and they have the welcome bonus that they look pretty cool too. While I can see they’re not perfect, I can’t imagine using this keyboard without them. It would be like having a supercar that looked boring, you want all the crazy extras, that’s part of the fun. All of this is very subjective of course.

The build quality is decent, nothing ground breaking, but nothing wrong either. What I do love the most is the modular switches, being able to tweak the feel of the keyboard on a per-key basis isn’t something you see often and could prove popular with competitive gamers. I’m not a fan of the whole light bar thing, not that the effect doesn’t look stunning, but it’s very time-consuming to swap the colours and you’ll likely only want to go through that process once.

Performance wise, the DeFiant delivers on all fronts. The keyboard is light, fast, and agile to type on and it’s a blast for working and gaming. If you’re looking for a solid keyboard for your desktop, this is ideal, and with all those extra add-ons, modular switches and all kinds of other crazy tweaks, it’s a perfectly imperfect break from the norm.

Pros

• Modular switches
• Light bars
• Unique add-ons
• Excellent switch performance
• Detachable wrist rest
• Comprehensive software
• Per-key lighting
• Braided cables
• Competitively priced
• Unique design

Cons

• Add-ons do make the keyboard quite large
• Light bars are cumbersome to install
• Some of the add-on features could have been more easily integrated into the main keyboard design

“The EpicGear DeFiant is a major departure from most mechanical keyboard designs, offering you extensive performance and aesthetic customisation options that are sure to appeal to a lot of gamers. Its design is an acquired taste, but the rock solid performance of the DeFiant is something any PC gamer can love.”