There are mini keyboards, after which there are mini-er keyboards. We often name these macro pads, as a result of they’re often designed as a cluster of programmable macro keys/buttons.
Nordic Sport Provide’s mini-keyboard The Shrimp is a little bit completely different: it’s a 25-key macro pad organized to appear to be the left aspect of a regular keyboard. The corporate calls it a 20 p.c gaming keyboard, and it’s designed for players who need that mechanical keyboard really feel within the keys that actually matter — the W, A, S, D keys and the 21 keys that encompass them.
The Shrimp’s diminutive footprint makes it ultra-portable, so it’s good for laptop computer customers who don’t wish to haul a complete mechanical keyboard round with them (although the 60 p.c keyboards as of late are fairly small — you’ll find a pair on our listing of finest gaming keyboards). It comes with a removable magnetic wrist pad and a removable USB-C cable, in addition to a velvet carrying bag for straightforward journey. It’s obtainable now on Nordic Sport Provide’s official website for €79.95 (approx. $87), however transport is proscribed to a handful of nations in the mean time — the corporate is working with native retailers to make it obtainable elsewhere.
Design of The Shrimp
The Shrimp is a 25-key macro pad with two tactile push dials and one media button, designed to appear to be the left aspect of a keyboard. It has ABS keycaps with shine-through main and secondary legends. It has a USB-C port on the heart of its again edge, and 4 rubberized ft on its underside. It appears to be like and feels extraordinarily well-built and sturdy — nicely definitely worth the value if we’re going by construct high quality alone.
The Shrimp comes with a padded magnetic wrist relaxation, a 6-foot braided USB-C to USB-A cable, a plastic keycap puller, and a drawstring velour carrying bag that matches all of this. The carrying bag has a fabric divider to separate the keyboard from the wrist relaxation, however contemplating The Shrimp is no less than considerably marketed as a journey accent so it could be good to see one thing a little bit extra sturdy.
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The Shrimp is available in 4 colorways: “Vitello” incorporates a white case with white keycaps and blue and grey accents, and comes with a white and grey wrist relaxation. “Pinkey” has a light-weight pink case with matching gentle pink keycaps and tangerine orange and marigold yellow accents. It comes with a pink-on-pink wrist relaxation. “Monochrome” has a black case with black and grey keycaps, white accents, and a black-on-black wrist relaxation. “Bomber” has a black case with gentle blue and burnt orange keycaps and neon yellow accents. It comes with a gamer-inspired graffiti wrist relaxation.
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The wrist relaxation has a lightly-padded floor lined in textured leather-based and 4 rubberized ft on the underside for grip. It sits flush with the macro pad as soon as hooked up, including an additional 3.52 inches (100mm) of depth to the general measurement of The Shrimp. It’s a really premium-looking (and feeling) accent, and it definitely provides ergonomic consolation that matches with the keyboard’s lower-profile keycaps.
Specs
| Buttons (Tactile) | 25 |
| Buttons (Contact) | N/A |
| Dials | 2 |
| Keycaps | ABS |
| Software program | N/A |
| Interface | USB-C |
| Cable | USB-A to USB-C |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 5.31 x 4.92 x 1.06 inches / 135 x 125 x 27mm |
| Weight | 11.39oz / 323g (15.59oz/442g with wrist relaxation) |
| MSRP | €79.95 / ~$87 |
Keys and Typing on The Shrimp
The Shrimp has 25 keys organized to emulate the left half of a regular keyboard. It doesn’t have a perform row, nevertheless it does characteristic second-layer performance (accessed utilizing the Fn key) with secondary aspect legends on a number of of the keys. The keyboard ships with Gateron G Professional Yellow switches, that are linear switches with an actuation pressure of 50g. That is the one swap choice obtainable in the mean time, however the firm says it should “in all probability” construct a mannequin with a hot-swap PCB sooner or later.
The keyboard appears to be like and feels superior — truthfully, it feels so good I type of want it had been full-size. The keycaps are fabricated from ABS however feel and appear extra premium than commonplace ABS keycaps, with a matte end and outsized legends that actually add to the general aesthetic. They characteristic a Cherry profile, which suggests they’re barely shorter than OEM keycaps and have sculpted tops that make it simple so that you can kind with out transferring your fingers fairly as far.
The Gateron G Professional Yellow switches had been barely heavier than I’m used to, however that wasn’t as large of a deal as a result of I wasn’t actually typing on the keyboard — simply utilizing it for gaming and shortcuts.
Dials on The Shrimp
The Shrimp has two tactile, notched dials with push performance. The dials are fabricated from plastic however really feel very sturdy and well-built. They do jut out a bit previous the keycaps, although, so this may pose a sturdiness situation for journey.
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The left dial controls The Shrimp’s built-in per-key RGB lighting: turning it adjusts brightness, whereas urgent it cycles by 16 pre-loaded lighting results. There are solely three ranges of brightness (excessive, medium, and off), so this looks like considerably of a waste of dial performance.
The 16 lighting presets are achieved fairly nicely — it’s not only a bunch of uninspired variations on commonplace spectrum biking. There’s a pleasant number of results, together with a pair which can be activated on keypress.
The appropriate dial controls system quantity, and urgent it opens your default media heart. The media key subsequent to the best dial toggles mute/unmute.
Software program for The Shrimp
The Shrimp doesn’t at the moment ship with devoted software program, however Nordic Sport Provide is trying into making software program (with a macro recorder) for the gadget sooner or later. For now, nevertheless, you may remap The Shrimp in video games utilizing in-game menus, and use free software program reminiscent of autohotkey to file macros and remap keys exterior of video games.
The Backside Line
The Shrimp is an attention-grabbing gaming accent — it’s not fairly a macro pad (if you’d like a kind of, think about one thing just like the Elgato Stream Deck+ or Adafruit MacroPad RP2040) , nevertheless it’s additionally not fairly a keyboard. Whereas it may be remapped utilizing third-party software program, it could take a little bit effort to show it right into a devoted macro pad (it’s arrange as a keyboard, so primary remapping would additionally remap the identical keys in your primary keyboard). The Shrimp may undoubtedly be an amazing little macro pad if Nordic Sport Provide finally ends up making devoted software program.
As a result of it’s not precisely a macro pad, it doesn’t actually make sense as an adjunct for a desktop PC setup the place you’d even have a full (not essentially full-size) keyboard. But it surely does make sense for players with laptops who want to journey as gentle as doable with out sacrificing an excessive amount of of the gaming expertise. It’s not good, however The Shrimp mixed with one of many finest gaming mice would supply an honest cellular gaming setup that’s barely extra space-efficient than an ultra-compact 60 p.c keyboard such because the SteelSeries Apex Professional Mini.