Mountain Everest Max Midnight Black, LEDs RGB, MX RGB BROWN, USB, DE

Die modulare Everest Max Gaming-Tastatur von Mountain war in der Anfangszeit des Kickstarter-Unternehmens dauerhaft ausverkauft und Kunden wurden auf längere Wartezeiten vertröstet. Nun ist die Everest Max im Webshop für stolze 260 Euro verfügbar und wir testen, was diese modulare Tastatur zu bieten hat.

Gleich mit seiner ersten Tastatur will Branchenneuling Mountain für mächtig Aufsehen sorgen. Die Everest verspricht ein neues Level an Flexibilität. Dazu setzt Mountain auf flexibel nutzbare Module - und auf frei austauschbare Cherry MX-Schalter. Und auch Elemente wie Tasten und ein Drehrad mit integrierten Displays lassen aufhorchen. Doch gelingt Mountain mit der Everest tatsächlich der Gipfelsturm?

Although there are many mechanical keyboards on the market, the Mountain has managed to present something interesting. The first thing is the detachable Numpad (so you can go tenkeyless), which you can also move to the left side of the keyboard. This is not all. There’s a Media dock segment that has a display on it. There are also four keys for which you can assign what is shown. Isn’t that great? From more ordinary things – you can select from a variety of Cherry MX switches so that you can find your match. The provided MX Browns are relatively quiet (thanks to the dampening foam) and work well when typing. But of course – the gaming is not a pain with them, definitely no. What’s more? 1,000 HZ polling rate, full NKRO, 100% anti-ghosting – all checked. The software – Base Camp does what it’s supposed to —no complaints in that department. Aaah, there’s a USB pass-through, which is great; you can attach some dongle there. What’s not hot? The standard keycaps are from the ABS. Yes, the PBT is available (you need to pay 30 EUR more), but it should be a standard in such an expensive keyboard. Yes, the price. It’s steep, as it begins at 249.99 EUR and can be even ... 289.99 EUR when selecting the PBT keycaps and Cherry MX Speed or Silent. So why not do some nit-picking? For that budget, I’d expect that the Media Dock would be a little more solid. Also – it’s sometimes a struggle to attach it to the right side of the main keyboard part. Why? I don’t know, but I’ve seen that it’s not a case only for this sample. What I’m worried about is that the connection for the Numpad can break in some time in the future. Additionally, I’d like to have not only a 15 cm cable to attach it but, for example, also a two times longer one, for more flexibility. Maybe some other idea would be to have it as a wireless one? That would make it even more comfortable to use. The Media Dock and the four buttons display on Numpad could have been set a bit of an angle to be more visible to the user? Additionally, the Media Dock buttons are not lit up, so it can be troublesome to hit the right one in some darker rooms. Another thing is a quite weak magnet for the palm rest. Overall – it would be a “Top pick,” as it’s an innovative product. Still, it’s only “Recommended” due to the steep price, ABS keycaps, and some issues like with connection of the Media Dock to the right side of the keyboard and some others already mentioned above. A great product, but it could (and maybe it will) be even better.

Mountain wants to take us to the top of the keyboard world with the Everest Max, a highly customizable TKL keyboard with an add-on numpad in either direction and a media dock. Featuring four LCD display keys and a larger LCD dial, it can be just as useful for gaming as for content creation.