MISTEL Barocco RGB Review
Conclusion
The MISTEL Barocco has come a long way in the year since I reviewed the non-RGB model.
Whilst the issue with the case lining up has been resolved a few of the other problems I noted in my original review remain. I will go through these below:
The first problem factors down to the coiled cable that joins the two halves together. It is a long cable when extended but it is adept at returning to its neutral coiled state which causes the smaller half to be pulled with it. This makes it hard to have a large gap between the two halves should you want.
Attempting to increase this gap also causes a bit of unwanted lateral force on the sockets for the cable and although micro-USB sockets are quite robust, I feel that it may accelerate issues unnecessarily, the inclusion of right angled connectors on the cables would ease this worry.
The problems I experienced with the halves rocking when being pressed in the top corners seems to have been alleviated in this model which may be as a result of tighter tolerances on the casing.
MISTEL have not made changes to the legs underneath so it is still not possible to have the two halves slanted like the Ergodox.
I will mention the odd enter key here again, it does bring it down a little bit. At the time of writing of this review I have asked MISTEL for a comment on this to see if it is a manufacturing defect. For the moment, I have swapped it to the Orange enter key that MISTEL provide and it has resolved the issue.
UPDATE *** MISTEL informed me that the reason for the difference in Enter key is because the first version of the ISO layout used ABS keycaps, when they swapped to PBT (in June) some of them did not ship with PBT enter keys. They seemed willing to ship me a replacement keycap and I would advise contacting them if you receive a MISTEL Barocco RGB with an ABS enter key ***
At the end of it all, I am impressed with the lighting effects, especially how bright they are, the overall build quality being very good which makes the typing experience one I really enjoy as well, the PBT Keycaps produce a lovely Thunk!
The slight flaws mean that I can’t give it a perfect review score (It is pretty close though) however, I can still recommend it and I am happy to award it the DavePlays Silver Award!
