Wireless And Mechanical

Tempest Kirin v2

- Kenny Yeo

Singapore keyboard company Tempest is back with an improved TKL keyboard called the Kirin v2. It comes in only one colourway, which is a black chassis with a mixture of white, black, and pink keycaps. It’s a striking colour scheme and I like it, but if pink isn’t your vibe, Tempest provides additional black keycaps for you to swap out.

The chassis is sturdy plastic with a matte finish, so it neither looks nor feels cheap. Inside, there’s an aluminium backplate that adds rigidity. The chassis has a slightly angled profile so the top rows sit higher for improved comfort, and it has retractable feet to prop it up even more. You’ll also find a USB-C port under the keyboard used for charging or to use in wired mode.

Keycaps are Doubleshot PBT, which gives them a textured surface and are also more resistant to wear so you won’t get that nasty shine that inevitably shows up on ABS keycaps after prolonged use.

RGB lighting makes an appearance on the Kirin v2, but the problem here is that there’s no software included. All customisations are done on the keyboard, limiting options. There’re 19 presets that include the usual suspects like flashing, ripple, and sine wave. Within each preset, you can further cycle through eight colours. So while it may be an RGB keyboard, you can’t go wild and create custom or game-specific colour templates.

Also, the lights aren’t super bright, but I think has more to do with the aforementioned fact that the keycaps are fairly thick. You can choose to swap the keycaps for one of those shine-through or pudding-type keycaps; the Kirin v2 supports any MX-style keycaps.