Introduction
After the influx of 75% gasket-mounted budget boards such as the Monsgeek M1, Akko Mod007, and Leobog Hi75 to name a few, one might expect that there might be very little left to improve upon when it comes to to creating a unique product for a very oversaturated market of >$150 keyboards marketed towards newcomers.
However, there are some refinements put in place by the less often talked about brand, Chosfox, and their CF81 Pro keyboard that places it above its competitors in some key areas.
The brand, based in China, has recently put a major effort into creating some well-priced boards for newcomers in a variety of layouts and switch-types, with their other boards being the Leo80, upcoming Fox65, and Minipeg48, a 40% choc keyboard.
The Details
The CF81 Pro, a board that was released after the Minipeg48 as their first MX-style keyboard, is an iteration upon the non-pro CF81. For $40 more than the original CF81, you can enjoy pre-installed, pre-lubed stabilizers, a clean brass weight with a fox engraving, and tri-mode capability with Via compatibility. Both versions come with a similar board design other than those differences, as well as a very clean aviator coiled cable, keyboard carrying case, and switch/keycap puller.
The board is offered on Chosfox’s site in three colors: purple, black, and white, and the same brass weight is on all options. For an in-stock board, this color choice already places it above the Akko and Monsgeek boards in terms of color choices. Both Akko and Monsgeek have tried to offer their boards in similar color choices, but Monsgeek had failed to deliver a decent quality white M1, and Akko’s most recent Mod007v3 has proven to not deliver the anodization colors shown on their website, as I discuss in my previous review where I received a navy board instead of a “space gray” keyboard like I was promised.
Chosfox’s PCB also not only features RGB, but also is non-flex cut and 1.6mm in thickness, which is less common amongst many budget boards which often prioritize flex and flex cuts, over core features of OEM boards such as RGB. The Via compatibility also makes it a great wireless choice above the Hi75 and M1W, both of which do not support Via. The brass weight also has no noticeable machining marks, and the anodization on both the inside and outside is clean with no variation in texture or color.
The Typing Experience
For my build, I kept the same internals and NicePBT keycaps, and tried out 3 different switches.
The switches were Jerrzi Rouge, WS Morandi, and HMX EVA.
You can check out a sound test of all three switches in the board here:
Across all builds, the stock form suffered from some ping issues despite Chosfox’s best efforts to implement their own form of force break into the design. After applying my own force break, the corners did still suffer from some ping, but it didn’t take away fully from the typing experience.
With a typing angle of 6 degrees and 20.5mm front height, the board definitely was a little taller than what I was used to, but it wasn’t impossible to type on. The board most definitely also has large bezels all around, which possibly overall was done to increase a deeper sound signature. Like many other boards in its price bracket, it unfortunately is extremely foam dependent, and does not fare well foamless and sounds fairly hollow otherwise. However, with the CF81 Pro especially, it seemed clear to me that their intention was to create a board that did not require disassembling, and could be used after some simple installation of switch and keycaps. While I personally would still force break mod it, they did in fact accomplish this otherwise, with not even the stabilizers needing much touch-up.
Jerrzi Rouge switches did most definitely sound the best on the board (although I may be biased), as well as HMX EVA in a close second place, giving the board the classic HMX clack sound, albeit in a foamed up board. WS Morandis unfortunately, to my ears, increased the sounds of ping, but did also deepen the board’s sound.
Conclusion
For anyone looking for basically a “plug and play” building experience, the CF81 Pro has achieved exactly that in a way that I’ve yet to see anywhere else. While there are still some areas that could’ve seen refinement, it is much harder to see here where the corners were cut when it comes to delivering such a great out-of-box, in-stock experience for only $150. The Neo boards, in my opinion, still sit in an entirely different class of board, being that they are still technically pre-order boards, offer extreme customizability, and require assembly to a higher degree. It will always be impossible to truly compare two keyboards, especially when the products are sometimes with entirely different needs in mind, but the CF81 Pro still has hit it out of the park, especially for Chosfox, a brand with little prior history in the world of designing and delivering barebones keyboards.
Rating: 8.5/10
Buy the board here:
Chosfox Website
Kinetic Labs Website