Epomaker TH40 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard Review

Introduction

I have reviewed over 350 keyboards to date, covering pretty much anything you can think of. Yet there happens to be one, just one, keyboard in the 40% form factor I have talked about before. That was nearly eight years ago, and for good reason—a 40% keyboard is scoffed at by so many people for various reasons. Some claim it’s poor value for money from a $/key metric, which is just funny to me. Others point out there are simply too few keys to use, which in turn necessitates the use of layers. Another subset of people talk about how smaller form factor keyboards have poor customization options, which again are almost a must-have to allow for the keyboard to be set up as your wish. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many 40% keyboards I’ve even seen in real life, and that includes the Vortex Core from 2017 as well as the subject of today’s review—the Epomaker TH40.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really inclined to review this initially for a combination of those reasons listed above. Yet Epomaker tells me the TH40 is wildly successful, being purchased a lot by those in the IT industry. I can see a smaller keyboard such as this being handy for programming maybe, although the lack of a dedicated console key is already making me question it. Regardless, there’s also the gaming community which is seeing this as a handy macro/game-pad, with wireless connectivity and the travel strap adding to the portability aspect. Then there’s the part where the TH40 comes in two colors and two switch options and, more importantly, is compatible with VIA, meaning you are not tied to any of the other software suites used by Epomaker’s keyboards which are… less than ideal. The key layout attracts attention too, with a key between L.Shift and Z and the split spacebar adding to the question on how easy is it to actually use this keyboard. We’ll cover all this, and more, in our review which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below. Thanks to Epomaker for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!

Specifications