Ducky Year of The Goat – Review (Basically a Shine 5)

Up Close

I’m going to take a bit of a more detailed look here. Though I won’t be taking it apart – as much as I want to. Not least because I spent my own hard earned money on this.

So first the keycaps. The Year of the Goat is one of the first keyboards from Ducky to feature Double Shot backlit ABS keycaps (a bit of a mouthful). They differ from previous Ducky keyboards that used UV hardened paint coated ABS keycaps (another mouthful) in that they use two different coloured layers of plastic to make up the keycaps, rather than painting a translucent plastic cap the desired colour. It’s easier to see in the image below especially from underneath.

The end result are keycaps that should resist use more effectively with legends that should not fade over time.

The switches, at least in my Year of the Goat are Cherry MX Browns and where MX Clears are not available, they are my go to switch. The ones used here in the Year of the Goat are Cherry’s special clear cased models for use with surface mount LED’s, primarily RGB models.

Also in use and also another first is the white back plate for the switches. A design choice no doubt taken to help disperse the LED’s effect.

Another new change is the move to a micro-usb cable and socket. This is, in my opinion, a big improvement to the normal mini-usb. With the major difference not only being the size, but the number of insertions the cable has been rated for.

Of course there are a few different sides to this argument, and I can say I have never run into a problem with a faulty mini-usb port or cable.

This does pose a slight problem for those that might want to use their own cables as well, with the area being slightly tighter than previous models.

Underneath are also the keyboards legs which, including flat as an option, give three heights. You can also see that the legs have individual bits of rubber on them for additional grip.

Unique to this model I believe is a thinner case, which was a big complaint for the Shine 4 when it was released. Ducky changed the style for this model and I am not sure if they will be doing so in the near future for the release of the Shine 5 as the images I have seen do not seem to show a change.

The main takeaway is a thinner ‘lip’ around the front of the keyboard and around the edges, which resembles earlier Shine models.

As is normal with Ducky, there are a number of built in lighting modes. For which I have taken a video.