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The EpicGear DeFiant ships in a black box, while some electric-blue accenting on the front grabs your attention.
Inside, a small quick-start guide is included, along with a key/switch puller and 3 EpicGear stickers.
Getting our first look at the keyboard itself, I think it is fair to say it looks a bit plain. It does feature an aluminium top-plate, but it is not brushed or anodised so it lacks the ‘wow-factor' of other aluminium keyboards like the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum or the ROG Claymore.
Getting a closer look at some of the keyboard's features, in the top-right corner of the board we find a small volume wheel – always something I appreciate.
Play/pause/skip functionality is mapped to the Function keys, though, so there are no dedicated multimedia buttons here. You can actually buy dedicated media controls for the DeFiant, but these are sold separately.
The underside of the keyboard features a large EpicGear logo across the top – although, considering this will not be visible to users, I do wonder why they bothered – while there are also 4 rubber feet and the usual height-adjustment stands.
The USB cable is non-detachable, but it is braided and measures 1.8m long.
However, the most interesting thing about the DeFiant is the ability to change out the switch-types on-the-fly. EpicGear call this ‘MMS' technology, or modular-matrix structure.
While this is certainly innovative, before going any further I must point out that you have to buy the extra switches – they are not included so you cannot swap out any switches if you just buy the keyboard itself.
If you do buy the extra switches, they arrive in a small box with 24 switches inside, comprising of 8 sets of 3 different switch types. These switches are actually EpicGear's own design, though they are essentially Cherry MX clones: the Purples are tactile and clicky, Oranges are tactile and non-clicky, while Greys are linear and non-clicky.
My keyboard arrived with Purple switches by default, but here I will show you how to change the switches.
The first thing to do is remove the keycaps, using the key puller. This puller actually features two ends – one end to pull keycaps, and another to pull switches. In theory, you just place the puller over the switch and pull.
However, in my experience, it is not that easy at all. For starters, the prongs on my puller were not spaced correctly, and thus the puller did not fit over the switches. Because of that, I had to pinch the prongs to keep them in-place, and then try and pull the switch upwards without lessening my pressure on the prongs.
After a couple of (stressful) minutes I eventually got the WASD switches out from the keyboard, but it was not a pleasant experience.
After that, though, the new switches just drop in-place and you are good to go.
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