The very nice people at Epomaker sent me one of their TH40 keyboards to try out. I’ve been absolutely dying to try out a mini keyboard for a long time, and the TH40 is certainly dinky.
The TH40 is a 44 key / 40% keyboard. It is compatible with Mac and Windows and connects via USB-C, Bluetooth, or 2.4G wireless.
The TH40 comes in a choice of Black & Gold or White & Burgundy colourways. I got the Black & Gold, which manages to look sleek and stylish without being too boring and “officey”. Keycaps are PBT Dye-sub Cherry Profile, with nice clean white characters on the black keys, and black on the yellow.
The TH40 comes with a choice of Epomaker Flamingo Switches or Epomaker Wistera Linear switches. I got the Flamingos, which I’ve tried before and which I really like. The switches are hot-swappable, meaning that they can be easily swapped out for other 3 or 5-pin switches with no need for soldering or unnecessary messing about.
The body of the TH40 is made of black ABS Plastic and has a gasket mount design for reducing keystroke noise and minimizing sound. It incorporates Poron plate foam, an IXPE black switch pad, and bottom Poron foam, all reducing the sound transfer when typing so that your keystrokes are the only thing you hear.
The TH40 weighs just 0.5 kg, which is definitely lightweight, but heavy enough to keep it sturdy on a desktop. The Keyboard actually has a little carry loop/handle attached, which is a nice touch. I couldn’t help imagining clipping it on to a 90s/early 2000s wallet chain, and pairing that with a massive pair of baggy jeans as if it was some kind of accessory, but that’s possibly just me.
The TH40 has south-facing RGB backlights, with all the usual Epomaker presets and options. Customisation comes via VIA (V2 Version) with all the programmability and multi-layer functionality you could wish for.
So, what is is like to type on such a tiny, tiny keyboard, especially for someone like me who is always so quick to bemoan the lack of a Del key on any new board? Well, the TH40 doesn’t have a Del key, and there also doesn’t seem to be any keyboard shortcut to Del, so that is a bit of a problem for me. Equally, and actually more awkwardly for me, there is no shortcut for a hyphen, so that does make writing on the TH40 a bit challenging. Those couple of issues aside, the TH40 is really, really pleasant and easy to work on. I really like the split space bar which you can rest both thumbs on, and then have easy access to the central Fn key. Fn + your QWERTY row of keys gives you all your numbers, and Fn + > Alt App and right Ctrl gives you your arrow keys. So, it really doesn’t feel as stripped down or limited as you might think it would, once you get used to it.
Ultimately, the TH40 is probably not a board most people would use as their full-time desktop workhorse. However, I do feel like I have adjusted to using it as such pretty quickly, and I don’t feel as if I desperately want to switch back to a different board (which I often do after testing out a board that doesn’t have everything I need on it).
As a solid, great-looking, great-feeling, take-anywhere portable board with a more-than-decent 3000mAh onboard battery, the TH40 is hard to beat. I imagine all the cool kids down at the skatepark will be wearing them as wallet chain accessories very soon.