The always lovely people at Epomaker have very kindly sent me one of their Shadow-S keyboards to try out. My first impression? Well, it’s definitely the pinkest keyboard I’ve reviewed since the Akko World Tour Tokyo.
The Shadow-S is an 85 key / 75% keyboard. It has ANSI layout, is compatible with mac and windows, and connects via USB-C, or wirelessy via Bluetooth or 2.4G wireless. At the rear of the board, next to the USB port, the Shadow-S has two switches: one to select win/mac and one for USB/Bluetooth/2.4G. Next to these is the wireless USB dongle, which plugs directly into the back of the board when not in use. Everything neat, tidy, and easily accessible.
The Shadow-S also has a aluminium volume knob (push/click to mute/unmute), and a 1.14-inch Programmable Smart Screen. More on that in a little while.
The Shadow-S comes in a choice of Pink and White or White and Brown colourways. As I already mentioned, I got the Pink and White, which makes me think of strawberry Angel Delight. Keycaps are single shot and opaque; white caps have pink characters, and the pink caps have black ones. It looks delicious, but how does is feel to type on?
The Shadow-S comes with a choice of Epomaker’s own Flamingo, Mulan, Wisteria Linear, or Sea Salt Silent switches. I got the Mulan switches, which are absolutely gorgeous to type on. It might seem bizarre that, as someone who reviews quite a lot of keyboards, ASMR videos of people typing generally set my teeth on edge. Similarly, the word “creamy” when used in reference to the feel and sound of a keyboard makes me feel a bit ill. However, these Mulan switches… well they feel and sound very, very nice.
The switches on the Shadow-S are hot-swappable, meaning that they can be easily swapped out for other 3 or 5-pin switches.
The Shadow-S is gasket mounted with five layers of damping/sound absorption materials: sandwich foam, IXPE switch pad, acoustic pad, bottom sponge and base silicone layer. Three-position flip-out feet allow for a good range of typing angle adjustment.
The Shadow-S has south-facing RGB backlights (like the Epomaker Dynatab keyboards I reviewed recently), and you get all the usual pre-loaded patterns and on-board customisation options. Now, typically, I’d add that you can customise things further using the free Epomaker software, but the Shadow-S is a little different. The standard Epomaker software won’t detect or recognise it.
VIA is an app that works with QMK, the firmware that powers custom keyboards. The Shadow-S is only configurable using VIA, but the cool thing is that you can use a version of the app online without downloading anything. That is, so long as you open VIA in Chrome, Edge, or Opera (other browsers will be supported in the future).
VIA cannot control/configure the Shadow-S‘ Smart Screen, however. For that, you’ll need to download the Custom Image Tool. I’m happy to report that connecting the Shadow-S to the CIT synched up the time and date display on the mini-screen for me, which is all I really wanted. This same time/date screen also shows battery charge levels, mode, etc. There is no third-party library of GIFs accessible via the CIT (as there is via the usual Epomaker software), but you can load animations and images of your own onto the screen with ease.
Ultimately, the Shadow-S is just a really, really nice keyboard. A pleasure to work on, and beautiful to look at (so long as you like pink), the Shadow-S weighs about 1kg, but it’s definitely compact and portable enough to be a travelling board.
The VIA customisation options might well attract some more technically minded modders, and the screen is a nice little extra, but really these are just the icing on an already lovely slice of strawberry deliciousness. I’ve seen a few other reviews online saying that the Shadow-S is one of the best keyboards out there right now for under $100, and I definitely agree with that.