The lovely people at Whatgeek have very generously sent me a Fopato H98 keyboard to try out. And, following on from my recent review of the TH80-X, this is another board with its own in-built mini screen.
The Fopato H98 is a 98 key / 96% keyboard. It has a compact ANSI layout, is compatible with Windows/Mac/Android/iOS, and connects Wired via USB-C, or wirelessly via Bluetooth or 2.4G wireless (dongle stashed at the rear of the board, behind the magnetically attached LOVE & SALVATION rear panel). The three connectivity modes are switched between using a rotary knob to the right of the H98‘s 1.14 inch LCD TFT display screen. A second rotary knob to the right of the mode selector controls audio playback volume (push/click to mute/unmute).
The H98 comes in a choice of Lemon Green, Lila, and Peach Pink colourways. I got the Lemon Green, the palette of which really reminds me of a suitably autumnal Kermit the Frog…
The Kermit-coloured keycaps are made of PBT, are Double-shot UV printed, and have a nice, comfortable JSA profile.
The H98 comes equipped with TTC Speed Silver V2 switches. These are linear switches, but they’re not too soft feeling (like some linears can be) and make for a pleasant typing experience. The H98 is fully hot-swappable though so, if you wanted to switch the TTCs for any other 3 or 5-pin switches, you’d have no problem doing so.
The H98‘s plate is mounted onto the top and bottom covers using soft, cushiony gasket mounts, meaning that your typing experience is quiet and clunk-free, even if you’re hammering away at the keys.
The H98 is RGB backlit, with 20+ presets. Further customisation is available via the free-to-download Fopato software, which is also how you customise your LCD TFT screen. You can save your own gifs and images to the screen, but it also provides a handy display, telling you time, date, current backlight settings, battery level, and so on.
The H98‘s in-built 6000mAh battery will last up to 20 hours with the backlight turned on, and up to 80 hours with the backlight turned off. Now, considering that this is a 98% board and that it weighs around 1.5 kg, the H98 probably isn’t a keyboard that most people would be thinking of carrying around with them and using out and about anyway. But, for use at home or in the office, the 6000mAh battery provides plenty of hours of wireless use. There’s a simple battery on/off switch on the right side of the board, ensuring that you’re not wasting any charge.
Ultimately, the H98 looks and feels like a much higher-spec, higher-end keyboard than I originally expected it would. So many of the images online don’t do justice to just how nice it is “in person”, both aesthetically and from a tactile perspective. The metal nameplate on the underside of the board, the LOVE & SALVATION panel at its rear, and even the packaging are all extra little touches which really elevate the H98 above what I was expecting. If I had to nitpick, I would say that the rotary knobs on the H98 are the only element which didn’t feel quite as high-end as the rest of the board. It would have been really nice to have those in the same rose-gold-coloured metal as the nameplate, etc, I think. But that’s really a minor “what if”, rather than any kind of actual complaint.
As with all full-size, or near-full-size keyboards I get my hands on, I have discovered that the H98 has mysteriously migrated from my desk to that of my wife, Leah. In the office she still uses the Wombat Pine Pro, but here at home, she’s using the H98 with her laptop every day. If your co-worker actually comes and takes the keyboard from your desk, then it’s hard to come up with a better recommendation than that, really.
The FOPATO H98 LOVE & SALVATION keyboard is available from Whatgeek now for £152 GBP / $184 USD.