Overengineered arthouse tech from a tiny microbrand

What does a $2,000 flex successful mechanical keyboard signifier look like? Or a brace of wireless earbuds ripped from a video game’s post-apocalyptic future? What benignant of zaniness does a boutique microbrand get up to erstwhile it has the state to complaint premium prices for arthouse-level tech projects?

Tucked distant successful the recesses of mechanical keyboard fandom and a loyal Discord server is Angry Miao — the Zhuhai, China-based institution primitively founded successful 2019 arsenic a small-batch keyboard institution and which present says it’s gathering a “Future Art Community” with serious VC money and feedback from its fans. But the campy slogan isn’t what catches our imaginativeness present — it’s the provocative designs with eye-watering pricetags to match.

I got to effort retired 1 of Angry Miao’s keyboards and its upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn-inspired wireless earbuds, and I’m acceptable to instrumentality you connected an affectional roller coaster of intriguing plan combined with a flimsy airy musk of edgelord cringe.

Angry Miao’s efforts are simultaneously illogical, admirable, gut-wrenchingly try-hard, and benignant of endearing. The 67-person institution chiefly makes mechanical keyboards, yes, but you’d beryllium forgiven for reasoning it mislaid the crippled a spot aft that. Angry Miao besides makes a monolithic wireless charging mat for some its keyboards. And its ain funky-looking USB-C charger. And its ain wireless charging adapter for Logitech’s Powerplay-compatible mice. And NFT trading cards.

And now, aft each that, it’s singling retired Apple’s AirPods Pro arsenic the happening to bushed with a caller acceptable of noise-canceling earbuds, excessively — adjacent though Angry Miao’s products are often released successful limited-edition drops of arsenic fewer arsenic 100 units astatine a time.

The Am Hatsu’s plan is meant to beryllium inspired by the opening series of HBO’s Westworld, wherever automated mechanical arms weave tissue-like threads of a cybernetic android, contrasting the cold, hard metallic with integrated shapes.

But first, let’s speech astir the Am Hatsu wireless split-ergonomic mechanical keyboard. Even if you’re acquainted with split-ergo designs, you astir apt haven’t seen oregon felt thing rather similar this. Wrapping your hands astir this keyboard and tapping connected its see-through smoked keycaps with linear, translucent icy metallic switches feels similar you’re operating thing from different satellite — not a instrumentality oregon a peripheral but a tiny interactive sculpture. The sculpture portion is astir true: the cases person a curved and contoured all-aluminum build, utilizing a costly five-axis CNC milling process for their chassis.

The Hatsu has a unsocial layout connected each side, with 52 keys arranged four-by-six for your fingers and a clump of six for each thumb. The starkly tilted angles of each cardinal floating supra the achromatic LED reminds maine of a jagged upland range, yet it’s oddly calming to remainder my fingers atop their delicately contoured shape.

These glowing peaks of a keyboard are afloat wireless, designed to beryllium atop the 13-inch x 35-inch Cybermat wireless charger.

Angry Miao packs 12 Qi charging coils into its Cybermat — a monolithic slab of metallic and cloth singularly designed to unrecorded beneath the Am Hatsu oregon its different keyboard, the Cyberboard. (Take that, Apple AirPower.) Ten of those coils are dispersed astir the middle, allowing you ample country to comfortably presumption the Am Hatsu crossed a wide area. The different 2 coils flank the keyboard to foodstuff up your telephone and your rodent if you person a Logitech Powerplay adapter oregon Angry Miao’s limited-run Cybercoin that snaps onto the bottommost of those compatible mice. It’s each powered disconnected a azygous USB-C cord moving to the company’s bundled 90W GaN charger, dubbed the Cybercharge. If you haven’t noticed from the names, Angry Miao has a penchant for the dramatic. Not lone does it marque a charger specifically for its surfboard of a mat, but it besides dresses up the plan with vibrant interchangeable covers — adjacent though you whitethorn ne'er spot it portion successful use.

This setup for the Am Hatsu spoils you with its cleanable table aesthetic, devoid of astir cables yet perpetually charged. As for the typing experience, the custom-molded high-gloss caps with frosted insides consciousness great, and the all-metal basal makes for a rock-solid dependable with each keystroke. It’s pleasant to benignant on, acknowledgment to each key’s adjacent and wide dependable signature, lacking ping oregon hollowness — though immoderate whitethorn find it overly deadened. When you deed your typing stride, it feels similar entering a travel authorities with the delicately clacky sounds giving disconnected a flimsy stereo effect since they’re coming from further apart.

Clean lines beryllium atop 1 of the galore wireless charging coils embedded into the Cybermat table pad.

Angry Miao’s newest merchandise is called the Cyberblades because, of course, each dang happening it makes indispensable beryllium named Cyber-something — arsenic if to outcry from a rooftop: “I’m edgy, and not lone did I survey the blade, but that leaf is simply a neon-purple glowing katana from the future!” But I person to admit these things look friggin’ wild. They’re a brace of triangular noise-canceling earbuds inspired by Aloy’s ear-mounted Focus accessory from Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn, and they diagnostic immoderate connectivity tricks that are genuinely interesting.

The Cyberblades are launching connected September 1st via Kickstarter for a backer-only terms of $299, oregon $179 for aboriginal birds who bid successful the archetypal 24 hours. After the Kickstarter, they should usually outgo $328. That sounds almost, situation I say, normal. But that’s astir wherever each consciousness of normalcy ends. In the looks department, the “shell black” colorway that I’ve been investigating is simply a ace shiny and reflective purple and greenish — similar a pearlescent overgarment occupation that goes from a mirrored-black successful debased airy to truly popping with chill reflections successful agleam light. On the sides of each earbud is simply a portion of color-changing RGB lighting because, of course, they indispensable beryllium RGB.

The Cyberblades diagnostic a unsocial design, customizable RGB lighting, and a charging lawsuit with a starry entity aesthetic.

While astir earbud makers are focused connected emblematic brags similar dependable quality, artillery life, and sound cancellation, Angry Miao is boasting ace low-latency audio for amended gaming show instead. It adjacent enactment an other processor into the charging lawsuit and built successful a faux-wired mode to execute a claimed latency of astir 40 milliseconds. To usage this pseudo-wired wireless mode, you plug successful the charging lawsuit via its USB-C port, and the Cyberblades get picked up arsenic a USB audio output — eschewing the request for Bluetooth pairing.

You mightiness beryllium reasoning that adding a ligament into the setup of wireless earbuds sounds a spot silly — and it benignant of is — but this diagnostic is besides beauteous cool in practice. Wired headphones are still the champion enactment for latency-free listening and gaming, yet the Cyberblades marque a compelling lawsuit due to the fact that they’re really amusive to use. The lid of the cylindrical charging lawsuit is itself a fastener and a rotary dial, and it’s the cardinal to utilizing the Cyberblades with your computer. You property the lid oregon clasp it down to connect, disconnect, mute the microphone, oregon rhythm done preset EQ modes (gaming, movies, and music). Turning the lid controls the strategy volume, with clicky detents giving you immoderate carnal feedback.

It’s a unsocial and caller mode to usage a brace of earbuds, surely the astir I’ve ever seen implemented. And portion it works with my Steam Deck and gaming PC, wherever I tin spot the reduced audio latency making its biggest difference, I appreciated it astir during the enactment time portion utilizing the Cyberblades with my M1 MacBook Air. Having it paired with my telephone via Bluetooth portion connected to the Mac successful wired mode allowed maine to power backmost and distant seamlessly conscionable by double-tapping the lawsuit lid — a tiny interaction of that Apple Handoff convenience without being trapped successful Cupertino’s walled garden.

The Cyberblade docking throne. This included magnetic charging dock combines acheronian grey aluminum with an RGB-illuminated acrylic stand, and the metal-rimmed lawsuit lid rotates for measurement control.

All those low-latency specs and connectivity tricks are mostly pointless if the earbuds don’t dependable good, but the Cyberblades person bully wide performance. They conscionable the essentials, with large sounding audio (although not the brightest successful the treble range), bully artillery life, and a bully acceptable — with 8 sets of silicone and representation foam tips included to guarantee it. The AirPods Pro inactive person the flimsy borderline successful sound cancellation and a amended transparency mode, but the Cyberblades don’t lag down overmuch successful dependable quality.

The accompanying Angry Miao app, which is lone for Android astatine the clip of testing, allows you to customize the RGB lighting and take 3 Bluetooth EQ modes: soft, vocal, and bass. Of the three, bass and vocal sounded champion for music. Soft was conscionable excessively mushy and compressed-sounding. Bass was a small implicit the apical connected the debased end, though I didn’t caput it. The mediate setting, vocal, was a good catch-all balance.

But let’s beryllium honorable with ourselves here: nary dependable prime is going to get retired successful beforehand of however the Cyberblades look and the representation they present. You’re going to basal retired wearing these successful nationalist and connected the street. Personally, I’m utilized to earbuds being nondescript and adjacent wholly hidden by my agelong hair. Wearing the Cyberblades with my hairsbreadth up, I realized however overmuch they instrumentality retired from your ears, begging you to look astatine them. If you’re looking for thing designed to acceptable you isolated from each the AirPods and Galaxy buds of the world, they perfectly do.

Be prepared to get immoderate unusual glances from radical oregon nerdy questions and conversations.

I’ve utilized these earbuds for galore hours, but I won’t reappraisal them due to the fact that they’re pre-production samples — and a batch tin alteration done the tally of the Kickstarter and beyond. But conscionable arsenic Kickstarter has its inherent risks, truthful does getting your tech products from a boutique brand. The Cyberblades person their just stock of jank and clunkiness that’s not guaranteed to get ironed out. For example, the rotating lawsuit lid is nifty, but it takes a batch much turning than it should to registry tiny measurement changes. Also, the earbuds bash not auto-pause unless you rapidly region some astatine the aforesaid time. And frankly, until a firmware update fixes issues similar predominant transportation drops and near-unusable interaction controls, auto-pausing is the slightest of my woes. While Angry Miao whitethorn inactive beryllium moving things out, ever support successful caput that tech products should ne'er beryllium purchased connected a committedness of what’s to travel down the line.

Most of Angry Miao’s products are prohibitively costly and hard to buy, though it’s chill to spot a tiny squad with a unsocial individuality gathering hardware that compels immoderate emotion. Is it a “future creation community?” That word inactive sounds similar meaningless hyperbole to me. But it’s decidedly a manner tech marque that is carving retired its weird small niches wrong niches and doing it successful absorbing and unsocial ways.

And I indispensable admit there’s a portion of maine that’s unequivocally charmed by these products. The designs tin spark emotion similar not overmuch other retired there. For example, aft I archetypal learned of Angry Miao and saw pictures of 1 of the Cyberboard and its colorful LED matrix, I had a idiosyncratic fever imagination of a custom-modified Verge model, wherever it’s connected to a ticker showing the latest Verge headlines scrolling crossed it. I envisioned a customized cardinal opening a web browser to instrumentality you to that nonstop story. Why did I deliberation of this? Probably due to the fact that I’m conscionable a immense nerd, but besides due to the fact that these cool, quirky designs tin assistance drum up ideas of your own. Is my phantasy Verge keyboard thing attainable? Probably not. But hey, it’s amusive to dream.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge