[section_title title=”Closer Look”]
Closer Look
From first inspection, the Shine 3 is not at all dissimilar from the previous generation Shine 2 TKL, albeit the snake on the space bar. As usual the keyboard is relatively simple compared to some of the other offerings of mechanical keyboards on the market. Being a TKL version, the number pad is no longer present, which is great if you are looking to save space on your desk. Don’t take it’s smaller size for granted though, it still weighs a fair bit at ~1.2KG.
The right side of the keyboard features the majority of the Shine’s ability adjustments, with the usual brightness up/down, volume up/down and mute and with this keyboard, speed up/down. the Ins/Home/PgUp buttons control the colour of the space bar LEDs, which you will see later. They work by adjusting the different levels of red, green and blue.
Some of the other features for the keyboard can be controlled using the alternative controls across the function keys along the top. In conjunction with the Fn key being pressed (found by the right Ctrl), you can control the key repeat (F5-F8) and delay (F1-F4) rate, user lighting profiles (F11 & F12), LED profiles  (F10) and record buttons (PrtSc & Pause)
On the reverse side of the Shine 3 TKL you have four non-slip pads and two feet which fold out, like on most keyboards, which alter the angle of the keyboard to best suit the user.
Along the back of the edge of the keyboard you also have the mini USB port (which you cannot really see in this image, but it is at the centre of the main cut-out below), which has a cable channel allowing you to feed the cable to either edge, or just straight out at the middle – a simple and overlooked feature on other keyboards.
On the bottom of the keyboard you will also find the DIP switches that alter various functions of the Shine 3.
- DIP1 On: Swap left Ctrl and CapsLock
- DIP2 On: Swap Alt keys with Windows Keys
- DIP3 On: Lock Window keys
- DIP4 On: DEMO Mode – key presses do not do anything, purely to demo the lighting options.
This particular model of the Shine 3 TKL has Cherry MX brown switches, which have a slight tactile feel to them and are often the best choice for users who game and type a fair bit. You can also make out the LED above the switch as the Shine 3 product range have a variety of different LED options. The key caps themselves are easy to remove using the tool provided, and are made from ABS plastic with a UV coating to let the backlight through. They follow the common OEM profile, so if you are looking to change the key caps, make sure you find OEM and not Cherry profile key caps.
The Shine 3 TKL comes with a gold-plated mini USB cable, which is removeable.
