Unleashing the Power of the EPOMAKER TH108PRO Mechanical Keyboard: A Comprehensive Review

I recently reviewed the 98% PIIFOX LUNA Grid98 Mechanical Keyboard, which I thought was excellent.

While I appreciate that full-sized keyboards have fallen out of fashion, I am old-fashioned and like a number pad and generally as many keys as possible.

If, like me, you are a fan of fully sized keyboards, then the EPOMAKER TH108PRO is well worth your consideration. It is a well-specced keyboard considering the price of £100 from Amazon.

This mechanical keyboard has hot-swappable switches, 5-layer sound optimisation and tri-mode connectivity, as well as a smart display and a volume knob.

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Specification

Switch Options

The two switch options are the EPOMAKER Creamy Jade and the Sea Salt Silent V2. Both are factory-lubricated linear switches, and there is little or no price difference between them.

My keyboard came with the Creamy Jade switches. These have a 45gf actuation force, 50gf bottom-out force, 2.0 mm pre-travel and 3.6 mm total travel. They are smooth, with no noticeable scratchiness or spring ping.

The product page is slightly confusing here. It lists the Creamy Jade as linear, but also describes it as “tactile and crisp” with a “satisfying bump”. In use, it is a linear switch with no tactile bump, so ignore that part of the description.

The Sea Salt Silent V2 is a silent linear switch with a 45gf actuation force, 51gf bottom-out force, 1.8 mm pre-travel and 3.5 mm total travel. The feel is similar on paper, but the switch is dampened to reduce noise. If you are buying for a shared office or for typing late at night, this is the one I would choose.

The PCB is hot-swappable and accepts both 3-pin and 5-pin switches, and EPOMAKER includes two spare switches and a 2-in-1 keycap and switch puller in the box. epomaker.com also sells a wide range of alternative switches you could swap to, including tactile, silent and linear options.

EPOMAKER sells magnetic switches too, but these are designed for Hall Effect keyboards. They will not work in the TH108 PRO, which uses standard mechanical switch sockets.

Design & Build

The TH108 PRO is a full-size 104 key keyboard in an ABS plastic case, measuring 445 x 140 x 42 mm and weighing 1.12 kg. Much of that weight comes from the 10,000mAh battery and the five layers of foam and silicone inside, and it means the keyboard stays put on the desk. A plastic case is normal at this price, and the Keychron V5 Max takes the same approach. The shell feels well put together, but it lacks the dense, cold feel of an aluminium board.

I have the black version, which pairs grey alphas with black modifiers and adds a few accent keys. There is a pink Esc, yellow Enter keys on the main block and the numpad, and a pastel arrow cluster where each key is a different colour. The result is a retro look that avoids being too loud, although the multi-coloured arrows will not suit everyone.

The keycaps are double-shot PBT in Cherry profile. They have a lightly textured finish that should resist shine for a long time, and Cherry profile sits lower than OEM, which I find more comfortable for long typing sessions. The legends are not shine-through, so the south-facing RGB works as underglow around the keys rather than lighting up the characters. If you type in the dark, that is a drawback. Personally, I prefer the underglow as it is a bit more subtle. The modifiers carry both Windows and macOS labels to match the Mac/Win toggle on the back.

I was sent two samples. One uses the US ANSI layout, so there is a long left Shift, a single-height Enter, and the @ and ” symbols are swapped compared with a UK keyboard. As far as I can tell, there is no UK ISO version, which will put some buyers off.

The second sample was ISO-DE, which is quite different from the UK layout as it is QWERTZ and has various accented keys. However, if you really need a UK layout, this may be the better choice, as there are far more keycap options for ISO-UK than ANSI-UK, which are quite hard to get. The ISO-DE board has the same physical key shapes as a UK keyboard, including the tall Enter and short left Shift, so a standard UK ISO keycap set will fit.

EPOMAKER has rearranged the top right corner.