Das Keyboard 4C Ultimate Review — A Blank Slate

Our Verdict

The Das Keyboard 4C Ultimate is stylish and minimalist, but doesn't offer enough unique features for its asking cost.

For

Respectable keys
Sleek pattern
Driverless installation

Confronting

Very expensive for what it does
Few unique features
Promises more than it can deliver

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Das Keyboard 4C Ultimate is stylish and minimalist, but doesn't offer enough unique features for its asking price.

Pros

+
Respectable keys
+
Sleek design
+
Driverless installation

Cons

-
Very expensive for what information technology does
-
Few unique features
-
Promises more than it tin deliver

Quick: Shut your eyes and blazon, "The quick dark-brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" into your URL bar. How did you do? If your innate familiarity with touch typing means that you don't need letters on your keyboard, the Das Keyboard 4C Ultimate ($143) has yous in mind, combining letterless keys with a uncomplicated, just premium pattern.

Everything most the Das Keyboard 4C Ultimate, from the marketing to the aluminum chassis, screams "elite." As it turns out, though, the keyboard delivers only moderate quality and no special features to go along with its slick appearance and high toll.

(Note: if a letterless keyboard is not to your tastes, yous tin can also invest in the Das Keyboard 4C Professional. Save for the presence of written letters and numbers, this model is identical to the 4C Ultimate.)

Design

If you lot visit Das Keyboard's website, the words "euphoric typing experience," "badass typists" and "envious glares" show up before the second paragraph is out. The company's marketing hype is not exactly subtle: You don't want the 4C Ultimate considering it's better than the competition; you want it because y'all're better than the contest.

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Nonetheless, Das Keyboard promises that the 4C Ultimate looks crawly, and lives upwards to its hope. The keyboard's confront is anodized aluminum (the keycaps are still plastic), and its shiny jet-black face tin can look either elegant or absurd, depending on whether you need it in an office or a gaming rig setup.

Where the 4C Ultimate distinguishes itself from most keyboards is that in that location are no messages on any of the keys. No letters, no numbers, no Enter, no Shift, no Impress Screen — nothing. While this won't intimidate touch typists, hunt-and-peckers are better off with the $143 Das Keyboard 4C Professional, which has letters.

The 4C Ultimate is also tenkeyless, so take into account how much y'all really want a numpad before picking ane upwardly.

Keys and Typing Speed

A mechanical keyboard is only as good equally its switches, and in this respect, the 4C Ultimate works adequately well, with two solid choices for mechanical key aficionados. The 4C Ultimate lets consumers choose between resistant-but-quiet Browns and their clackety Blue counterparts.

While typing on the 4C Ultimate is extremely comfortable, it'south not necessarily fast. Using the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, I logged 102 words per minute with a 1 percent error rate on the 4C Ultimate. A standard Dell function keyboard gave me 111 words per minute with an error rate of null. Later working with the keyboard for a few days, I tried the typing test again with similar results.

One potential reason for the slower typing is that the 4C Ultimate'south Greetech Brown switches require a fair amount of forcefulness to actuate: 55 g with three mm of travel. Compare this to a Crimson MX Chocolate-brown switch, which requires 45 g and has 2 mm of travel. When we tested the Logitech G710+ with Cherry MX Brownish switches, I establish that I typed just as fast every bit on my function keyboard.

I usually like a flake of resistance on my mechanical switches, but the Greetech Browns felt a fleck stiff overall. They're comfortable and functional overall, but not the all-time the manufacture has to offer.

Features

The 4C Ultimate is admirably lightweight in terms of installation. It has no special drivers and no dedicated software. Simply plug information technology in, and it works. While this isn't ideal for high-level gaming, it saves hardcore typists and more casual gamers a few potential headaches.

Non having software does have a few drawbacks, though, especially for gamers. You tin't plan macros, and would have no actress keys for them, even if y'all could. The peripheral lacks backlighting — fair enough, since there are no letters or numbers to run across, and nearly impact typists do non demand to see the keyboard, anyway.

Notwithstanding, backlighting is not strictly for highlighting letters. It tin can also illuminate a keyboard's general shape in a night room, and information technology tin expect attractive, given the right setup. Not having information technology doesn't hurt the overall typing experience, but it would have added a welcome chip of flavour.

The 4C Ultimate as well has media controls mapped to the top row of Office keys, but adept luck seeing them. The designations are absolutely tiny, and crave an awkward combination of the lower-left Part button with the upper row to part. Information technology's uncomfortable and hard to see, although it does work simply fine one time you get used to it. A key for disabling the Windows button during gameplay sessions works the aforementioned mode.

Performance

While the 4C Ultimate is primarily for typing, the website claims that information technology's a perfect companion for gaming as well. To put this to the test, I ran information technology through the standard Tom'southward Guide battery of Titanfall, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Assassin'due south Creed Unity and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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The results were good across the lath. Like any keyboard with high-quality keys, the 4C Ultimate felt comfortable and responsive in every genre. As it lacks macro functionality, however, it's not an ideal choice for high-level tournament or massively multiplayer online play.

Bottom Line

The 4C Ultimate is a perfectly proficient keyboard, simply it's expensive and -- other than the lack of messages -- unremarkable. A tenkeyless keyboard that costs more than $100 is non unheard of, but something like the Corsair K65 RGB gives you lot both full rainbow backlighting and a robust software suite. Even the $80 CM Storm Quickfire Rapid offers a software suite and a few actress features, and both it and the Corsair use superior Cherry-red MX keys. The 4C Ultimate — and by extension, its 4C Professional counterpart — is stylish and minimalist, but, ultimately, it doesn't offering enough unique features for its asking cost.

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Marshall Honorof is a Staff Author for Tom's Guide. Contact him at mhonorof@tomsguide.com . Follow him @marshallhonorof . Follow us @tomsguide , on Facebook and on Google+ .

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site'southward coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a scientific discipline writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. Later on hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.