NuPhy Air75 V2 [Air60 V2, Air96 V2] Keyboard Review

These keyboards are available in three sizes. We bought and tested the NuPhy Air75 V2 keyboard, which has a compact (75%) form factor. However, a smaller compact (60%) NuPhy Air60 V2 and a larger compact (96%) NuPhy Air96 V2 are also available. You can see the listed dimensions of the other variants on NuPhy's website here.

The NuPhy Air75 V2 is a 75% compact keyboard that lacks a Numpad. The arrow keys and navigational cluster are tucked close to the alphanumeric keys on the right side of the board to reduce the space it takes up.

These keyboards have excellent build quality. The chassis is made of metal on top and transparent black plastic on the bottom. The keyboard feels sturdy and rigid and is slightly less flexible than the original NuPhy Air75. The keycaps are now made of doubleshot PBT plastic, while the previous version keyboards in the Air series had dye-sublimated PBT keycaps. Note that the nSA profile of these keycaps is slightly different compared to the previous-generation NuPhy Air75, as they provide more spacing between the edges of neighboring keys.

These keyboards now have flip-out feet, whereas the previous NuPhy Air75 had somewhat unusual magnetic feet. Unfortunately, these new feet feel a little unsteady at the lowest incline setting. They're quite easy to accidentally collapse if you slide the keyboard forward and there's some tiny back-and-forth movement while typing. That said, when extended to the maximum incline, the feet feel more stable, although the keyboard does slide around somewhat if you accidentally nudge it while typing.

These keyboards have a low-profile design, making them quite comfortable to type on even without a wrist rest, as you don't need to angle your wrists too steeply to reach the keys. The nSA keycap profile on these keyboards is slightly different compared to the previous generation NuPhy Air75, and the keycaps provide more space between the edges of neighboring keys. For more details about this difference, see the Typing Quality section below.

There are also two flip-out feet on the back of the board that provide two additional incline options.

The home row height of the NuPhy Air75 V2 is slightly higher than on the original NuPhy Air75, but it doesn't feel noticeably different.

These keyboards provide impressive hardware customizability. The PCBs have Gateron low-profile pinouts and low-profile Cherry MX-style switch stems. This means that only low-profile switches and low-profile keycaps are compatible. Additionally, these keyboards have 1u-sized right mod keys, which are slightly less common than the typical 1.25u size.

If you're interested in a keyboard from the same manufacturer that's available as a barebones kit, offering you more opportunity for customization at purchase, see our review for the NuPhy Gem80.

These keyboards have full RGB backlighting with individually-lit keys. You can use the companion software or hotkeys to customize the lighting effects, colors, and brightness.

These keyboards have poor backlight clarity, as the stock keycaps don't have shine-through legends. That said, NuPhy does sell shine-through keycap sets for these keyboards as additional purchases on their website.

These keyboards come with a rubber USB-A to USB-C charging cable. It retains some kinks from its packaging.

NuPhy advertises that the NuPhy Air75 V2 has a battery life of 35-57 hours with all backlighting on and up to 220 hours with backlighting off. These estimates will vary based on usage and connection type. Bluetooth is the most energy-efficient connection, while using the USB receiver nets better performance and higher battery consumption.

When left idle, the NuPhy Air75 V2 enters sleep mode to conserve battery power. Nuphy indicates that the keyboard enters a shallow sleep mode after six minutes and a deep sleep mode after 30 minutes. While your first input will register immediately when waking your keyboard out of shallow sleep, your first one or two inputs won't register when waking the keyboard out of deep sleep. We've confirmed this behavior on our unit of the NuPhy Air75 V2, and we expect this behavior to be the same for all size variants in this lineup. If you'd like to share your experience with this keyboard's sleep settings, reach out to us in the comments below.

These keyboards don't have any dedicated macro keys and don't support onboard macro programming. However, you can record macros to any key using the configuration software.

On the top of these keyboards, there are two switches: one to toggle between Windows and macOS and the other to pick the connection type between wired and wireless or turn the keyboard off. There are a series of hotkeys on the f-row, including media keys.

The LED strips on the sides of these keyboards display different colors to indicate information about various settings and statuses, including caps lock, connectivity modes, and battery levels.

You can see a full list of hotkey combinations and instructions for configuring sidelight behavior in the user manual. You can see a digital version of the user manual here here.

• NuPhy Air75 V2
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• 2.4Ghz USB receiver
• Four alternate low-profile switches (these are samples of the other low-profile switch options available for this keyboard)
• Alternate keycaps for Windows users
• Keycap puller/switch puller
• Stickers
• Enamel Pin (pre-order bonus only)
• User documentation/poster

These keyboards offer a good overall typing experience. The keys are generally quite stable with only minimal wobbling that's only a bit more pronounced on larger keys, and the keycaps are made of high-quality-feeling, double-shot PBT plastic. The stabilizers feel quite smooth and don't make any rattling noises, and there are added silicone pads on the baseplate under the spacebar, which reduces the noise and the somewhat hollow feeling that spacebars often suffer from.

The low-profile design also means you don't have to angle your wrists very steeply to reach all the keys, which can help reduce fatigue and strain from typing for longer periods.

Although these keyboards have standard spacing between keys, their compact form factors mean there aren't spaces between some key clusters like on full-size keyboards (the arrow key cluster or navigation cluster, for instance).

These keyboards have somewhat unusual nSA profile keycaps. They're slightly different from the keycaps on the previous generation NuPhy Air75, providing a bit more spacing between the edges of neighboring keys. Several people around our office subjectively found that typing on the newer NuPhy Air75 V2 doesn't feel quite as cramped as the original NuPhy Air75 and feels closer to typing on a regular, full-sized keyboard rather than a compact model.

To illustrate this point, you can see an image comparing the 4.0mm space between the edges of the keyboard on the NuPhy Air75 V2 here compared to the 3.2mm space on the previous NuPhy Air75 here.

These keyboards have layers of poron foam in the keyboard case and silicon pads on the baseplate under the spacebar that help dampen overall noise and deliver a quiet typing experience.

We tested the NuPhy Air75 V2 with tactile NuPhy Wisteria switches, which are quiet and unlikely to bother those around you. You can also get these keyboards in other switch types, including linear options, which we expect to be slightly quieter, and other tactile switch options that we expect will be about as loud as the Wisteria switches.

The NuPhy Air75 V2 we bought and tested uses tactile NuPhy Wisteria low-profile mechanical switches.

You can also buy this keyboard in various other stock Gateron low-profile or NuPhy low-profile switch options. For more details, see the Differences Between Variants section above.

Or, check out NuPhy's product page for the Air75 V2 that identifies and provides details for all the stock switch options available here.

The NuPhy Wisteria switches have a fairly short pre-travel distance and a fairly small and gentle tactile bump that comes relatively early in the keypress. These switches don't require much force to operate, so typing feels quite lightweight and responsive. However, these switches may feel too sensitive if you're a heavier typist.

These keyboards have excellent single-key latency overall and are more than well-suited for playing games in any genre at any competitive. However, the wireless performance is slightly inconsistent compared to many dedicated wireless gaming keyboards, which typically have fewer outlying latency events. Although, it's important to note this is only an issue if you're primarily interested in playing competitively.

These keyboards have great multi-key latency overall. However, the performance is somewhat inconsistent compared to many dedicated wireless gaming keyboards, which typically have fewer outlying latency events.

These keyboards have excellent data transmission performance. They support full n-key rollover, can send multiple reports per USB report, and have an effective update rate of 1000Hz that isn't bottlenecked by other latency components.

These keyboards have very good chord split performance. The 4-chord split delay performance is impressive overall. However, the 8-chord split delay hovers between good and only satisfactory.

Altogether, the performance is quite variable, which can produce consistency problems for playing games requiring many simultaneous inputs, like rhythm games.

These keyboards use VIA configuration software that you can access using any chromium-based web browser after downloading the JSON file from NuPhy's website here. NuPhy also has a guide to help you connect to the VIA software that you can see here.

The software allows you to control backlighting, customize key assignments, create custom layers and profiles, and record or code macros to any key. Overall, the software provides robust customizability options. It's also fairly well laid out and straightforward, but it can be somewhat intimidating for an unexperienced user, and it's less intuitive to set up than most downloadable software options from other manufacturers.

These keyboards are fully compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux.

On macOS, tested in Mac compatibility mode, all keys work as expected. However, if you're using a non-apple monitor, the F1 and F2 hotkey commands that, by default, control screen brightness don't work.

On Linux, tested in Mac and Windows compatibility mode, all keys work as expected except for the F1 to F6 hotkey commands.

These keyboards are fully compatible with Android, iOS, and iPadOS. However, there's no software available for these platforms.

On iPadOS and iOS, all keys work as expected on the NuPhy Air75 V2 except for the Print Screen and Insert keys, which do nothing.