Fifty per cent off: Budget delight for mechanical keyboard warriors

Indian Express

5 hours ago

They might be noisy, heavy and take some getting used to, but mechanical keyboards with their clickety clack sounds that bring out typewriter vibes, have a dedicated following of their own. Once largely of the wired variety seen with desktops, mechanical keyboards have evolved with time and today you can get mechanical keyboards that work wirelessly.
The problem is that these often come with stiff price tags – some of Logitech. Keychron and Razer's mechanical keyboards can set you back by well over Rs 15,000.
While wireless keyboards with affordable price tags do exist, they often come with a number of compromises, which makes them slightly risky investments. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, and one of them is the Portronics Hydra 10 Wireless Keyboard.
This keyboard comes with Bluetooth as well as 2.4 Ghz wireless connectivity and mechanical switches as well as RGB lighting, and while it was generally available for around Rs 3500 – Rs 4000 and has an official sales price of Rs 9,999 on the Portronics website, it is now available for prices in the range of Rs 1,999 – Rs 2499, and at those prices, it is a terrific deal.
It might now come with a very affordable price tag, but the Portronics Hydra 10 does not look like a low cost mechanical keyboard from any angle. The keyboard is made mostly of plastic and has a very solid feel to it. It is available in black and white, and although the white one does look more attractive, its ability to attract dust (a quality, alas, too common in mechanical keyboards, thanks to the deep spaces between keys) makes the black variant a more sensible option, unless you work mostly indoors.
It is a 68-key keyboard, so you do not get a dedicated number pad and the number row on the top also has the F function keys with then, which can be a bit of a disappointment for those who want a full array of keys on their keyboard, but the keys themselves seem sturdy, have plenty of travel and have letters very clearly printed on them.
What's more, they come with RGB backlighting, which you can turn off if you wish (we left it on).
As this is a slightly compressed keyboard, we would recommend spending some time getting familiar with the specific shortcuts available for this keyboard as some common keys, such as that for hashtags, are not clearly marked. The left side of the top of the keyboard houses a USB Type-C port while the base of the keyboard (its back) has a USB nano dongle for 2.4 GHz for wireless connectivity and an on-off slider switch. The keyboard comes with Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and can be connected to three devices at a time.
The Hydra 10 is about a foot in length, 29 mm in height and about 10 centimetres wide, and weighs about 580 grams. It is very easy to carry along, although there is no carrying case (or even a cloth or plastic bag) in its box. We would recommend investing in a basic carry bag for it, if you are considering taking it along on your travels – it is sturdy enough to survive being thrown into a regular backpack, but it does attract dust and other particles there. All said and done, this is a compact, easy to carry keyboard, with clean, smart looks. It certainly does not look like a Rs 2000 keyboard.
The Portronics Hydra 10 delivers a very good performance. The keys are a little on the small size as is often the case in compact keyboards, but there is plenty of space between them, so the chances of errors is limited. Typing itself is a great experience and those who love mechanical keyboards with satisfying clicking sounds will love the Hydra 10. It is not too loud, but key travel is excellent and each keystroke delivers a satisfying click.
The RGB lights add to the overall typing experience, though those who find it distracting can turn it off. The absence of some keys can be a little disorienting initially, but you get used to the shortcuts for them by and by.
Typing in general is a smooth experience, and the keyboard connects very smoothly with devices on all platforms – we used with an iPad, a OnePlus Pad 3, a MacBook Air and an Asus VivoBook and it worked well with all of them.
Connecting is as simple as switching the keyboard on, pressing a key which you wish to use as a connectivity key (you can choose from three), and then choosing the device from your tablet or notebook. To switch between devices, simply hit the key dedicated to each device. The process is seamless. We used it to switch between typing on our OnePlus 13s and iPad, and faced no problems.
There is hardly any latency on Bluetooth but the experience seems just a little faster on the 2.4 Ghz connection – we suggest using that mode if you are using the keyboard for gaming. Battery life is pretty good – we got through close to 5-7 days of usage on a single charge, and the fact that the keyboard charges off a type-C port is so much more convenient than carrying AAA batteries for it. And yes, you can even connect the keyboard to your device using a Type-C cable if you like a wired connection (it is the fastest of all).
It is not all roses with the Hydra 10, though. We found the Bluetooth connection dropping sometimes in the middle of a typing session, which can be very irritating (it never happened on the 2.4 Ghz connection). And we can see some people getting annoyed at the need to remember keyboard combinations for something as basic as a hashtag. There is no clear way to see battery levels on the keyboard itself, and as with all mechanical keyboards, one has to reconcile oneself to regularly cleaning the space between keys! '
Still all said and done, the Portronics Hydra 10 delivers great value for mechanical keyboard fans on a tight budget. You can get it for around Rs 2,000 – Rs 2,500 or even lower with the right offers, and at that price, it just clicks!