The latest trend in the world of gaming keyboards is starting to make its way into the budget sector of the market. That's magnetic, or Hall effect, switches. These types of switches have been around in controllers and other products for a while, and keyboards are making use of them as opposed to a traditional mechanical switch and an electrical connection. This technology has a ton of benefits, from durability to speed, and enables modern gaming features like Snap Tap and Rapid Trigger.

Although many keyboards with magnetic switches are pricey, the Yunzii RT75 gives you Rapid Trigger, Hall effect switches, and customizable actuation force for under $100. Very few of the best mechanical keyboards I've tried are that affordable, so the Yunzii RT75 immediately has appeal. After trying it out, I'm far from sold. The keyboard does do just about everything it promises, including Rapid Trigger with low input lag. However, the basics and build quality are so far off the mark that it's tough for me to recommend the RT75.

About this review: Yunzii provided an RT75 keyboard for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in this article, and did not see its contents before publishing.

Pricing, specs, and availability

You can buy the Yunzii RT75 for under $100, though the price can vary depending on where you buy it from and the currently-running promotions. Amazon lists the keyboard for $90, while Yunzii's sale price of $95 is also an option at the time of writing. It's a 75% form factor keyboard with 81 keys and a knob, featuring double-shot PBT keycaps, magnetic switches, and customizable RGB lighting. There is just one colorway though: gray.

What I like

You can get Rapid Trigger, magnetic switches with low latency for under $100

The Yunzii RT75 is a magnetic keyboard, and that means sensors in the PCB detect when sensors in the switch enter the magnetic field. That's how the Hall effect sensor knows when to acuate. The cool thing about magnetic keyboards is that their actuation force can be customized, simply by telling the magnetic sensor precisely how sensitive it should be. The other neat thing about these switches is that they don't have to return to their home position before they can be actuated again. All these characteristics are what make the features known as Rapid Trigger and Snap Tap possible.

Both of these are available on the Yunzii RT75 after a software update recently added the latter feature. And to Yunzii's credit, Rapid Trigger and Snap Tap work well on the RT75. The keyboard has an actuation and sensitivity range of 0.1-0.4mm, and this can be adjusted with a web app. Through intervals of 0.1mm, you can adjust the actuation force required to trigger a key. A high actuation force might be set to improve accuracy while typing on the Yunzii RT75, while a low actuation force enables Rapid Trigger for competitive gaming sessions.

The keyboard is plenty responsive, too — there's an advertised input delay of 4-6ms and a polling rate of 1,000Hz. Both of those figures are more than you'll probably need, as your cables, monitor, and PC are likely to be other limiting factors contributing to total input lag. Playing games with the Yunzii RT75 compared to other, more expensive mechanical gaming keyboards highlights why you might want to choose this one. Rapid Trigger and the magnetic switches opened new possibilities for input, reducing delays and improving the speed of my in-game actions.

Considering that the mechanical keyboard I used for comparison is more than double the price of the Yunzii R75, there is a reason to be impressed. Additionally, this is the cheapest Hall effect keyboard we've reviewed at XDA to date, with the next step-up being the $150 Akko MOD0078B-PC. Despite all these perks, for reasons I'm about to explain, I'd rather take a cheap mechanical keyboard over the magnetic Yunzii RT75.

What I don't like

The keyboard stinks, and the build quality leaves much to be desired

You'll notice immediately that the Yunzii RT75 stinks when you first start unboxing the keyboard. No, really — the keyboard and accessories came out of the box with an absolutely putrid smell that nearly made me sick and still lingers as I write this review. The USB-C to USB-A cable reeked enough that I tossed it right in the trash, opting to use my CableMod coiled cord instead. Without getting into a chemistry lesson here, I'll explain that the reason for the smell is something known as off-gassing. It's when plastics retain their chemical gasses and odors long after the manufacturing process finishes, and usually products made out of cheap plastic are affected the worst by it.

So, my hopes immediately diminished after catching the smell — which is reason enough for me to not want the Yunzii RT75 in my home. The plastic is just as flimsy, scratchy, and visually unappealing as I expected. It feels like a step above 3D-printed material, but not by much. To be clear, some of my favorite mechanical keyboards feature premium plastic chassis, and this is not one of them. In the photo at the top of this section, you'll see how much the deck of the Yunzii RT75 flexes when I try and twist it.

Things got worse the more I used the Yunzii RT75. The keycaps are double-shot PBT, which is excellent, but the typing experience was seriously disappointing. There wasn't much tactile feedback, and while the keyboard was loud, it was simultaneously noisy in a way that wouldn't please clicky key switch lovers. To be clear, this is a characteristic of magnetic keyboards in general, since the magnet and switch aren't directly making contact with the PCB. However, I suspect that the overall cheap build — inside and out — doesn't help.

Finally, the one thing I couldn't forgive about the Yunzii RT75 is that it arrived with crooked feet, so it wouldn't rest completely flat on any surface. There was a wobble on every desk, mat, and table I tried (and yes, this was before I gave it a flex test). This was not only distracting, but also could impact typing accuracy. This could be a fluke with my unit, although with how flimsy the plastic is, I wouldn't be surprised if warping was possible during the manufacturing and shipping process.

The web-only software (that requires driver downloads) isn't ideal

One final nail in the Yunzii RT75's coffin is that the web-only software for the keyboard is a pain to use. It's simply a website that you have to navigate to every time you need to change a setting, which will be often if you want to tweak the actuation force, lighting modes, or macros. What's more is that it requires a sketchy driver download that my Windows PC refused to install for security reasons. And, when you finally get it installed, remember that you'll need to manually launch the driver program before navigating to the website — every single time.

Should you buy the Yunzii RT75?

You should buy the Yunzii RT75 if:

• You need features like Snap Tap, Rapid Trigger, or customizable actuation force
• You only have under $100 to spend

You should NOT buy the Yunzii RT75 if:

• You want solid build quality from your keyboard
• You want true hot-swappable switches (this board doesn't have the pinholes required to connect with aftermarket switches)
• You need a better software solution than a janky web app

At its attractive sub-$100 price point, I wanted to like the Yunzii RT75. It's true that it does have the switch tech to offer Rapid Trigger and Snap Tap is all you care about. For me, I want more from my keyboard. After spending time with the Yunzii RT75, my takeaway was that I would rather forgo Hall effect sensors to use a better-feeling traditional mechanical keyboard at the same or lower price point.