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To test the DeFiant, I used it as my daily driver for over a week. During this time, I used it while playing games, typing reviews and editing photos.
To start with, let's look at the included software.
Above you can see the first two pages of the DeFiant software. Immediately, I think it looks very dated, while there is also a lot going on on the first page. This first page lets you re-map functions on a per-key basis, which is good to have, while you can also edit 1 of 4 different profiles.
The next page is for recording and editing your macros – good for MOBA players, but not something I usually do myself.
Finally, the last page is a support section which lets you do little more than update the keyboard's firmware or software.
All-in-all, the software is very limited. It looks clunky and lacks a lot of the functionality we have come to expect from modern-day keyboards – Razer Synapse, this is not.
I must also touch on the keyboard's lighting. It is a white-only backlight, and I must say that it is also very disappointing. For starters, it is not very ‘white' – the light has more of a pink tinge which is not very satisfying. It is also quite dim, with only 3 levels of brightness available to the end-user.
While on the subject of the lighting, EpicGear have designed the LED ‘light-bar', as they call it, to be interchangeable – so you can swap-in a red or blue bar, for example, to get a red or blue backlight. However, this is also sold separately and I think that is very poor from EpicGear. If you are spending £80-90 on a keyboard, you would probably feel a bit miffed that a company wants to charge you even more money just to change the backlight colour.
Anyway, let's move on to the physical testing of the keyboard.
To start with the mechanical switches, I actually found EpicGear's own switch-types to be pretty decent. My sample arrived with the Purple switches, which are the MX Blue equivalent. The tactile feedback is decent while the audible click is also something I appreciate. These Purple switches didn't have quite the same solid or weighty feel as Cherry MX Blues, but for typing my reviews, they did the job just fine.
That brings me to the MMS technology – the hot-swappable nature of the switches. I would guess that the thinking behind this is that you can have most of your keyboard configured with the Purple switches – great for typing – but, for example, you can swap the QWEASD switches so these keys use linear switches – generally considered better for gaming. That way, you have a compromise between the best switches for typing, and the best switches for gaming, all on a single keyboard.
However, in-practice, I did not like this approach at all. Primarily, I found it unsettling to type on a keyboard where some keys would feel tactile and clicky, while others were smooth and linear. This is a personal thing, but I just did not get on with having multiple switch-types installed to the board at once. It affected my typing speeds as I was continually caught off-guard by the different switches – my brain expected to feel one thing, but my fingers felt something else. All-in-all, it just felt a bit weird.
I do have another issue with the MMS tech, though, and that is the fact that the switches all have the same actuation distance and weight: 1.5-2mm and 50g, respectively. This means the Grey, linear switches aren't any faster than the Oranges or Purples – so you do not actually get a speed advantage from using different switches, they just feel different. In comparison, Cherry MX Reds are both faster and lighter than MX Blues, which is why many prefer them for gaming. That all the EpicGear switches have the same actuation weight and distance, to me, defeats the point of having hot-swappable switches.
Lastly, I must mention the build-quality of the DeFiant. Its top-plate is made of aluminium, but even then, it does not feel overly sturdy or well-built. Compared to Cooler Master's MasterKeys Pro family of boards, for example – each of which are absolutely rock-solid – the DeFiant feels lacking. It is also quite plain in-terms of its design which does not help things, either.
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