If you’ve seen a NuPhy keyboard before the out of box experience will be a fairly standard one. On top of the keyboard itself, you get a USB A dongle for 2.4GHz connectivity, seven additional keycaps to match the OS you’re most likely to use the keyboard with, four extra switches to give you a taste of what’s available, a keycap and switch puller, a set of stickers, and the recognisable fold-out manual. I’ve said this in other NuPhy reviews, but I will always enjoy a manual that doubles as a poster, and this one is definitely no different. It feels high quality and the anime artwork is really pleasant if you enjoy that kind of thing. It won’t be to everybody’s taste, but it remains far more creative and interesting than your run of the mill manual, while not really compromising on any critical information.

The keyboard itself feels as well-built as the other NuPhy keyboards I’ve looked at. Its aluminium and plastic body feels incredibly sturdy, and for the few weeks I’ve been using it I’ve had no reservations about just throwing it in my bag for my commute to the office. It is worth noting here that if you do travel a lot and want a bit of extra protection, there is a folio case available to buy alongside the keyboard. While I don’t have it on hand, I can at least appreciate its clean and simple design.

If you’ve seen the original Air75, the V2 follows pretty much all the same design cues from what I can tell. You have the same compressed 75% layout with fully-backlit keys, alongside two small light bars on each side of the keyboard. While they’re not quite as impressive as the Halo models’ ring, I do enjoy them being on while the rest of the keyboard is dark. I’ve grown to dislike lighting below the keys, so these small touches are far more to my taste.

One thing I quite liked on paper was the metal plate on the bottom of the keyboard. This is fairly typical on these keyboards and really ties together the design well. It does fall short in practice though, especially when you consider one of the larger use cases for this specific model: sitting on top of laptop keys. Now I’ve used this with a MacBook, which is what the board is specifically designed for, and it fits like a glove. The rubber feet slot between the keys and secure it into place, giving you one of the best on the go typing experiences around. If you’re using it with other laptops though, your experience will vary. With the Dell Precision 7670 I use for work the keyboard has no issues sitting on top of the keys without pressing anything down. It does apparently catch something though, with the metal plate getting significantly scratched up. It would’ve been nice for them to pivot slightly from their staples here and maybe have some kind of plastic plate that wouldn’t scratch as easily, but I can’t say I know if that would’ve looked great. It’s not something you see either way when using the keyboard, but it does annoy me a little to know what lurks underneath.

In terms of configurations, you have three board colours and seven switch types to pick between. The model I have is the white board with tactile Wisteria switches. It’s worth noting that the model I received actually had the linear Cowberry switches in it, but NuPhy were nice enough to send across a jar of Wisterias to install myself. Using the provided tool it was just as simple as any other hot-swappable keyboard to pull a switch out and pop another straight back in. I really enjoy the 55gf required to actuate these switches, letting me fairly confidently rest my hands on the keyboard between spurs of writing. This is something fairly important to me when typing on a laptop; a switch too sensitive just leads me to frustration. As always though, it’s a thing of preference. The Moss switches actually require a heartier 60gf to actuate, so I may yet be checking those out in the future. Hot-swap is always a win for me, but it is worth noting that due to the low-profile nature of the Air75 V2, you are going to be more limited than a traditional keyboard in the switches you’re able to put in. The same goes for the keycaps you’ll have available to you.

As far as typing experience goes, I’d be shocked if you could find something better in such a portable form factor. The V2 is stellar, and has proven a joy to type on for the past few weeks of use. The keyboard sounds great too, featuring an evolution of, and I quote “plate poron hollow-sound absorption and IXPE PCB sound purification solution on Air96”. On top of that, NuPhy have continued to deliver on a great-sounding space bar, using what they’ve learned from their full-sized GhostBar to make something that really goes beyond its form factor. I really don’t have much to complain about, outside of maybe feeling some of the larger unstabilised keys like Caps Lock and Tab are easy to slant if you press them on one side instead of centrally. It can be adjusted easily to be flat again, but it is something I noticed. All the stabilised keys sound great with no kind of noticeable rattling sound. It all comes together brilliantly.

The battery life has also managed to impress me, with me not having charged it at all in the few weeks of use it's had. Now it is worth noting that I've gone without the back-lighting as mentioned above, but it does give me faith in NuPhy's numbers of up to 220 hours when not using the backlight, and 35-57 with. Assuming a busy eight hour working day, the V2 has a good chance of lasting you more than a month if you're not fussy about lighting, and it'll obviously go much further by just periodically being plugged in. I doubt I'll be going out of my way to charge it anytime soon.

It doesn’t stop there though, with one of my biggest criticisms of their previous boards getting the solution it deserves: the Air75 V2 supports QMK/VIA for key remapping. I can’t stress how much of an improvement this is over previous software that was a mean combination of virus warnings and being closed source. VIA is a whole new world. With just a json file, you can remap your keyboard in-browser. It’s clean, it’s simple, and it’s familiar for anybody who’s had a VIA-compatible keyboard before. It just works, and I couldn’t be happier. Using VIA you’re able to customise everything you’d expect with support for keyboard-specific actions like lighting control and Bluetooth connectivity. You can also add a number of layers using VIA, something I admit I don’t use enough. I had no issues adding my usual backslash onto Fn+Z, with this being one of the few keys you lose if using an ANSI-layout keyboard as a UK one on Windows.

There is one quirk though; there’s always a quirk. You see the Air75 has a switch to move between Windows and Mac mode, with different shortcuts loaded up for each system. I like this, and for those moving between operating systems it’s definitely useful. The only real issue is that it’s only the Mac mode that can be customised when the keyboard is loaded up in VIA. As somebody who doesn’t really use the Mac shortcuts even on a Mac, I didn’t mind so much and just remapped it to match the Windows layout. It definitely could be an issue for those wanting to move between systems more frequently though and want a bespoke experience on both platforms.

A few more things just to mention in passing for the Air75 V2 are that it supports a 1000Hz polling rate on both its wired and 2.4GHz wireless connection. This isn’t uncommon in a lot of modern keyboards, but it is notable for a wireless low profile board. The three Bluetooth 5.0 connections the keyboard can store internally are unfortunately limited to 125Hz polling, but that is a bit of a trade-off for the convenience of being able to just flip between devices. I found a few inputs getting skipped over when connected via Bluetooth on my MacBook, but it was never bad enough as to make me want to use the built-in keyboard instead. The dongle being USB A is a bit of an unfortunate choice in my mind, especially with MacBooks users as one of the biggest target audiences here. Not being able to use it to its fullest without being plugged in or having a USB C adapter to hand is a let down. You also don’t have anywhere convenient to be storing that adapter, meaning it’ll likely manage to disappear given enough time (at least in my experience!).

That aside though, the Air75 V2 is a magnificent low profile keyboard, and is something I would absolutely recommend for both laptop users wanting the best typing experience and those who just want a low profile keyboard for easy transportation. With support for VIA NuPhy have nailed the customisation aspect, and I can only hope they keep it going forwards. It’s a great showing for the $120 asking price, and I remain hopeful for what comes next from the company.