If you've been keeping up with our reviews lately, you'll almost certainly be familiar with Epomaker. They've managed to release a staggering number of keyboards over the past year, and they've got one more product to roll out before 2021 comes to a close. Just what does Epomaker have up their sleeves this time? 

Despite the name of Epomaker Light, this is a keyboard that promises a lot. With inclusions like sound dampening foam and a gasket-mounted design, it feels like this is a board that comes as both a direct response to popular mech keyboard trends and an improvement on some of the aspects that have been lacking in previous Epomaker models. 

Much like the beloved Glorious GMMK keyboard, the Epomaker Lite utilizes a gasket-mounted design, however, Epomaker has an interesting take on the concept. Before we get into that, you might wonder why exactly this is something worthy of note, and not just marketing fluff. This style of keyboard is designed specifically to allow for the internal plate to flex and move as you type. It makes it a bit easier to not bottom out--fully press down on the key and make it hit the chassis--meaning you'll be able to type and move a little bit faster, while also adding a satisfying bounce to each keypress. 

While Epomaker tends to stay the course with their keyboards, the Lite goes all out, by having its own special desing, unique to this board, called a Shallow Gasket structure. It definitely isn't as dramatic a feeling as typing on a larger, standard gasket-mounted keyboard, but for the size, it does a really great job of flexing with presses and coming back up to meet your fingers as you type. You can feel the difference from the moment you start typing on it, and it's great to see it on a 60% board, especially as the gasket is pretty smooth across the board without any inconsistency in the flexing.

Another part about this keyboard that I'm fond of is the dampening foam. This has been a sticking point with a lot of boards from this brand in the past--the loudness factor has always been pretty high on these, even by clacky mechanical keyboard standards. Here, though, the Lite with linear red switches is quite to type on, with nice medium pitched clacks on each press, and just like the gasket, it's done nicely, because there's zero hollowness and the keys are evenly quieted across each of the 61 keys. 

As always, this keyboard rocks the traditional Epomaker features, such as Bluetooth 5.1, RGB, fun keycaps, Mac support, and best of all, hot-swappable switches. That last one is one of the board's biggest selling points, as you'll be able to test out Epomaker's own Chocolate switches, go with the more standard Gateron, or just bring your own favorite switches to the table without issue. I also love to see RGB on any piece of tech, but the inclusion here feels more like just making sure it's there to hit a feature checkbox--using the RGB in wireless mode chews through the 4,000mAh battery like nothing else, and it's hard to even see it, since the keycaps are thick and fairly close together. 

The Epomaker Lite may be a budget keyboard, but it's hardly "lite" in terms of features. At a current backer price of $79.99, this is without a doubt an easy recommendation to anyone wanting something a little different without having to break the bank on fancier offerings. Even the fully-upgraded version is decently priced at $119. I could also see this as being a fantastic option to start with, if you've been curious about the mechanical keyboard craze, and want to understand the hype a little bit better while giving you the room to tinker with it and upgrade it later down the line. Either way, it's hard to be disappointed with one of Epomaker's best keyboards yet.