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In a fresh development, it’s already a pretty good deal at full price for a mechanical, hot-swappable, wireless board, but it frequently goes on sale for $80, sometimes even $60. Today, Amazon is beating its own record, selling the original NES-inspired colorway for just $50.99. This isn’t refurbished or renewed—it’s for a fresh keyboard and it’s the best price I’ve seen yet. There’s something about the 8BitDo Retro Keyboard that intrigues.
As part of the ongoing story, but the tech underneath is solid, with a great TKL layout, high-quality PBT keycaps, and clicky Kailh Box switches. If you’re not a fan of those, you can swap them out for any other MX-style switch—and that’s true for the two switches underneath the oversized buttons, too. Layouts can be changed in Windows, and it connects wirelessly via the included dongle or over Bluetooth. The 8BitDo Retro Keyboard is obviously, well, retro, with its beige coloring and add-on buttons.
According to the latest update, you can read my full review of the keyboard here if you need more info. Amazon is only discounting this NES-style colorway, by the way; the others are at or near full price. At nearly half off, I don’t expect this to last very long, if only because the stock won’t hold out. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a shockingly good keyboard considering the style.
The report highlights that on PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a fresh one for a review and building a fresh mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile Worldwide scene Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip. Michael is a 15-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE.