Luxia Le

While I might have said that I didn’t think a 60% keyboard was right for me, that won’t stop me from trying out new ones until I find one that works for me. That’s why I picked up the Newmen GM611 keyboard. It’s a cheap mechanical keyboard that fit well into our budget theme while also offering us the chance to review something that was actually mechanical instead of “mechanical feeling” like we’ve been looking at. Let’s dive right in.

Newmen GM611: At-A-Glance

Keyboard	Newmen GM611
Price	16,99 USD
Tier	Budget
Switches	Red (Linear)
Keycap Profile	OEM
Keycap Material	Plastic (Unknown)
Interface	USB-C
Layout	US ANSI 60%
Keyboard Type	Mechanical
Hot-Swappable?	No

My Experience with the Newmen GM611

Price

The price of the Newmen GM611 is hard to beat. At just 16,99 USD, this keyboard is barely more expensive than a standard membrane keyboard, making it an excellent pickup for those who want to upgrade their keyboard without breaking the bank.

Construction

One major complaint I have about this keyboard is that it feels very cheap in the hand. It’s very light and the plastic feels very flimsy. This could be, in part, due to my preference for larger keyboards, which are naturally heavier. However, I did find that the keycaps and frame felt very cheap to me.

Keycaps

The keycaps are made of an unidentified plastic. They have the texture of PBT keycaps, but I highly doubt they’re actually PBT. Most likely they’re ABS or something else. I’m also not a huge fan of OEM keycaps in general. I like the MOA profile the best, but that’s not what this series is about.

Keyboard Mechanics

The keyboard uses generic red switches, which I’m pretty sure are meant to be linear. They make a lot of noise for linear switches, even when pressed very lightly. The sound of plastic scraping on plastic can be heard when the keys are depressed.

Problems I Had When Using the Newmen GM611

The biggest problem that I had was that no matter what I did I could not get the keyboard to activate the arrow keys. The function key worked perfectly for every key except the arrow keys, which was really frustrating because I really need the arrow keys to work with my screen reader.