For years now, EVGA has been teasing a mechanical keyboard called the Z10, but an EVGA rep confirmed on Twitter that the device is “coming soon,” and more to the point, is currently in mass production. We can also infer from the tweet that the pictured model is a working prototype (if not a finished consumer-ready model).
Many have presumed the Z10 to be little more than vaporware at this point, especially considering that back at Computex 2017 last summer, we were told that it would arrive shortly (by July 2017). As Computex 2018 ambles into view, there’s been no further word about the heretofore vaporous plank, other than some CES 2018 sightings, but now that it’s in mass production, we can feel more confident about its impending arrival.
The EVGA Z10 won’t be for everyone--it’s most suited for fans of EVGA and owners of its products (that’s probably a pretty tight Venn diagram). The keyboard’s marquee feature is a little LCD readout that’s embedded into the top bezel. As we noted last summer, the original plan was to use the screen to display EVBot stats, but as things have evolved, it will instead sync with EVGA Precision software to display system vitals. In that way, it’s sort of a bespoke companion device for EVGA components.
As before, we still don’t know all that much about the Z10. After our sighting at Computex, we wrote:
We can glean a bit more from the provided photo, which shows that this is a full-size keyboard with a row of dedicated macro keys down the left side and four dedicated buttons on the upper right. There are also two horizontal sliders on the top bezel that feature a design we haven’t seen before on a keyboard. One is labeled “dimmer” and presumably adjusts the backlighting, and the other controls volume. The keyboard features backlighting, and it has a removable wrist rest.
One key bit of info we did not have before is that it will use Kailh Brown or Blue switches. Also note that the spacebar is unique, with a wider profile (top to bottom) and a beveled edge. You can also see that the keycaps appear to be ABS plastic as opposed to a higher-quality material such as PBT. (ABS caps with translucent legends are fairly standard fare among mainstream mechanical keyboards, though.) It's also unclear if the backlighting will be RGB or just red.
There’s still no word on an exact date for when the Z10 will be available, nor how much it will cost. Probably "soon" and "a lot," although rumors on the EVGA forums suggest a reasonable $120 asking price.
