Skyloong GK87 Pro Mechanical Keyboard Review
Silently Brilliant
I love typing on this keyboard. In fact, I have trouble finding much to complain about. The Skyloong GK87 Pro doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it certainly refines what a mechanical keyboard should focus on to provide a great typing experience. What makes the GK87 Pro so consistent? Let’s explore it in-depth.
Retail Price: $164.99
A removable display option
Customize IT
Most keyboard enthusiasts value customizability over just about any other function out there. The GK87 most certainly takes this concept to heart as it's a board that not only offers many points of customization, but makes those changes extremely easy to pull off. It’s a compact tenkeyless board that holds several magnetic points of attachment. There’s one on the bottom right side of the frame that houses a slot for the 2.4 GHz USB receiver. The top magnetic bar can be removed to expose the screws to get into the sandwich plate of the keyboard. Those magnetic pieces both have branding stamps on what is otherwise a very clean and minimalistic product.
My Red Gray White board has a beautiful compilation of hues that accent just about any desk it sits on. It’s a clean color layout and I also like some of the other combinations that are offered by the company as well. Our PBT keycaps are basic in design, but they match my aesthetic preferences. There are a bunch of themed caps that are pre-built with this model type so I’m sure there’s something for everyone out there.
Speaking of pre-built configurations, the switches that come with our keyboard seem to be called Glacier CuCI2 Silent. They’re linear switches that have a beautiful light blue color. I believe these are Skyloong branded switches and they are certainly quiet to type on. I really dig the soft recoil and lack of sound feedback when typing on the GK97 Pro, so much so that I think I am now fully onboard with silent switches. And as with all hot-swappable keyboards, if you don’t like the sound or feel of these switches, you can always replace them with some that fit your tastes. Skyloong goes as far as allowing the volume knobs to be swappable as well. It goes even further as the area that traditionally houses the 6 keys can be replaced with a 1.7 inch LCD display.
The screen shows the current time, the battery life, the connection type, and can also be utilized to display a GIF or picture to customize the look and feel of the board. You’ll need to download the software from Skyloong (I believe it’s called 6+) to fully capitalize on the customizability factor. Like a lot of software from keyboard makers, it’s a bit rough around the edges and the interface could use a facelift.
The little display is neat and somewhat functional for displaying additional information, but I don’t find it anywhere near sharp or vibrant enough to be fun to look at with a GIF placed in it. Still, I just love how incredibly flexible this board is for just about anyone to tinker with.
Heck, Skyloong pre-packs the GK87 Pro with a split spacebar that I find enjoyable to use. Is it necessary? Probably not as my typing rhythm isn’t affected whatsoever by having or not having a cut in the middle, but it looks cool from an aesthetic standpoint. I do feel the difference when I swap the spacebar to a full bar that is also provided with the keyboard, but I’ve stuck with the split bar and have come to enjoy it. An added benefit of having the bar split is to utilize the shortcut combinations that take advantage of the switch’s location with the Shift key. There are a few useful combinations, but I wouldn’t say it's anything game changing for productivity.
DISCLAIMER: Skyloong SENT US A UNIT OF THE GK 87 Pro FREE OF CHARGE TO REVIEW, BUT ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS REVIEW ARE OUR OWN AND WERE NOT DISCUSSED WITH THE COMPANY PRIOR TO PUBLISHING. 
Premium Features
I also love the look and feel of the CNC aluminum knobs. The silver color accents the red plates that they’re seated on nicely. They also make a nice solid click noise when pressed into. The knobs are there to assist with zooming, music control, and browsing tab navigation. The board just has this aesthetic flare behind the sneakily good features and benefits. Take the oddly shaped Escape key. It’s step-stacked and I love the weird texture of the shape when pressing into it. A lot of things just work and look pretty cool on the GK87 Pro.
As a bluetooth keyboard, the board can swap between a 2.4 GHz connection, Bluetooth 5.0, and a USB-C wired connection. There’s also gaming functionality like N-Key Rollover that add to the extensive list of high quality gaming functions. But the absolute best part about the keyboard is the astonishing battery life. There’s a 7,200 mAh battery that the company says will last up to 200 hours with the RGB turned on. In actual daily usage, I’ve gone a full month off of one charge periodically using the board and walking away. It’s terrific to have a board last this long.
And finally, the RGB sequences and color range are quite solid. They shine through the PBT keycaps and generally look uniform and quite nice. I did like how clean the GK87 Pro looks lit up on my desk. It doesn’t necessarily scream gaming keyboard which I personally enjoy more than a heavily themed board would lean towards.
final thoughts . . .
What Can I say? Sometimes the least flashy items are the silent winners in life.
The biggest takeaways from the Skyloong GK87 Pro has to be the extremely quiet typing structure and the modular customization throughout the board. For a pre-built to be this refined in both senses is quite a feat. I’m not kidding when I say that I really liked the typing experience coming from the GK87 Pro. Silent switches have never been my cup of tea, but I think this board has finally won me over to the silent side.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees and support our channel by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.