Ducky is a Taiwanese company specialising in computer peripherals such as keyboards, keycaps, mice and more. With their QUACK mechanics philosophy: each device is finely tuned for weight, acoustics and balance to deliver a solid product to consumers. The Ducky One 3 series range comprises of mechanical keyboards that bring quality parts to provide the ultimate typing experience!

My first impression of the Ducky One 3 DKON2108 keyboard was that it was exceptionally heavy. Clocking in at 1123g this keyboard is incredibly solid once planted firmly on your desk. The Matcha colourway is equally as high impact as personally I have never seen such an odd colour green on a keyboard before, perhaps I am uncultured, but "Matcha" doesn't feature prominently in my day-to-day life, so this was unexpected!

Aesthetically this keyboard reminded me of a 90's computer, its unintentionally retro, it's creamy/off-white colouration is how the old plastic keyboards we had at primary school ended up, and the general layout and key height look remarkably unremarkable, but they work perfectly, and that's the bottom line with this product: it works.

Plug and play via the supplied ultra fast, low latency, braided USB-C cable is easy too with cable management tracks bevelled into the rear of the keyboard, and dual height legs for those who prefer a more angular load-out when you're about to embark on a typing frenzy.

To the rear are also a series of DIP switches, these are covered in the manual but essentially offer a little more customisation towards features such as NKRO modes, Windows key locking and defaults. Given this keyboard's N-Key rollover rating, which means it can register all of its keys being pressed simultaneously, I chose to leave it this way for Windows, whereas you could change it for 6KRO for Linux or Mac if preferred.

The 105 keys themselves are made from PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) which promises to be stain resistant and will stand up well against general wear and tear. Each key has a definite "frosted" texture under your fingertip, and ergonomically the SA layout is sublime with the height of the frame also being just right to combat wrist fatigue as well for those who refuse to use a wrist rest.

Supplied with the keyboard is a keycap removal tool and a separate set of switch removal tweezers. This means that if you wish to change the caps for some of the supplied ones, simply pop the metal prongs over the key, twist it around to get under the corners and pull it straight up, it couldn't be simpler.

Equally the tweezers clamp down on the top and bottom edges of the switches and with a little squeeze and a soft pull they pop out ready for you to replace. Notably, the switches supplied have two small connector pins on the underside that push back into the main circuit board when you put them back on, this helps you orientate them easily when replacing them.

Supplied are a bunch of alternate keys including an alt green coloured Enter, Backspace and Escape keycaps, up, down left and right keycaps with red arrows on them, an alternate thin enter key cap, and a funky little two-tone round Ducky keycap and two red Ducky symbol keycaps for you to use as you wish!

Ducky state that the PCB is fitted out in such a way that the switches are replaceable with virtually all mainstream switches, and therefore all mainstream or custom keycaps, making the Ducky One 3 Series incredibly versatile, and highly customisable. If you're a gamer, for example, you could simply swap out the WASD and spacebar etc, for RGB Cherry blue's. It would take all of 2 minutes to set up!

The Cherry Silver MX switches are as smooth as you like and bounce back with a reliably confirmatory thud that signifies it hasn't missed a stroke. Rated at over 1 million actuations these will not fail so quickly (approx 2 years at moderate usage), need just 45cN force to push, and have just 1.2mm pre-travel (distance when the keyboard detects a stroke) and 3.4mm total travel (how far to entirely press the key to its limit).

Hammering this very review into the Ducky One 3 keyboard was a delight from start to finish. I noticed very little fatigue using this keyboard, even for minor gaming, and really enjoyed the solid, exacting, smooth, quiet action of the Cherry MX switches paired with Q-Bounce pads to deaden noise. I really dig the bare basic simplicity of the design too, there are no OTT design choices being made here, and its durability and reliability that are at the heart of these QUACK mechanics.

If I had one negative, and this is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel: it would be that the LEDs used to illuminate the various Numlock, Capslock, Screenlock and Macro Keys is absurdly bright. Honestly, they are blinding, it is like looking directly at the sun, you get blind spots and have to wait to regain your vision after a few moments. I have no clue why they have to be turned up to 11 but it's not a great idea to look directly at them, especially at night, in the dark, with badly adjusted eyes.

Overall I was very impressed with the Ducky One 3, it performed flawlessly, operates like a dream and is so easy to adjust and swap bits quickly, that should you need to replace or update the keys or switches you totally can with zero hassle and very little effort. I would say that the Matcha colour scheme is not for everyone, but then again the Ducky site has a lot of impactful colour options, including RGB, that im sure will impress anyone of any ilk!