What does a $2,000 Flex look like in mechanical keyboard form? Or a pair of wireless earbuds ripped from the post-video game future? What kind of excitement does a boutique microbrand enjoy when it has the freedom to charge premium prices for arthouse-level tech projects?

Mechanical keyboard fandom and a loyal Discord server left in the lurch angry miao The Zhuhai, China-based company was originally founded in 2019 as a small-batch keyboard company and is now building what it says is a “future art community”. serious vc money and feedback from his fans. But the campy slogan isn’t what captures our fancy here – it’s the provocative designs with eye-watering pricetags to match.

I have to try Angry Miao’s keyboard and one of its upcoming keyboards Kshitij Zero Dawn-inspired wireless earbuds, and I’m ready to take you on an emotional roller coaster of intriguing design with Edgelord Kring’s lightly airy musk.

Angry Miao’s efforts are simultaneously illogical, admirable, gut-wrenching efforts—the hard and endearing kind. The 67-person company primarily makes mechanical keyboards, yes, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it lost a bit of the plot after that. Angry Miao also makes a giant wireless charging mat for both of their keyboards. And its own funky looking USB-C charger. And its own wireless charging adapter for Logitech powerplay-compatible mice, and NFT trading cards.

And now, finally, it’s dethroning Apple’s AirPods Pro, which is also going green with a new set of noise-canceling earbuds—even though Angry Miao’s Products Often released in limited-edition drops of at least 100 units at a time.

But first, let’s talk about the Am Hatsu Wireless Split-Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard. Even if you’re familiar with split-ergo design, you probably haven’t seen or felt anything like it. Wrapping your hands around this keyboard and tapping on its see-through smoked keycaps with linear, translucent icy silver switch It’s like you’re operating something from another world – no tools or peripherals but a small interactive sculpture. The sculptural part is almost true: The cases have a curved and contoured all-aluminum build, which uses an expensive five-axis CNC milling process for their chassis.

Hatsu has a unique layout on each side, with 52 keys arranged for your fingers and a set of six for each thumb. The tilt angle of each key floating above the white LED reminds me of a jagged mountain range, yet it’s oddly cool to rest my fingers atop their delicately contoured shape.

angry miao pack 12 qi charging coils cybermate – a giant slab of metal and fabric designed to live alone under M Hatsu or his other keyboards, Cyberboard, (take him Apple AirPower.) Ten of those coils are spread in the middle, giving you enough room Hold the Am Hatsu comfortably over a wide area. The other two coils flank the keyboard to juice up your phone and your mouse if you have a Logitech PowerPlay Adapter or Angry Miao’s limited-run cybercoin which snaps onto the bottom of those compatible mice. It’s powered by a single USB-C cord running on the company’s bundled 90W GaN charger, dubbed cyber charge, In case you haven’t noticed the names, Angry Miao has a penchant for theatrics. Not only does it make chargers specifically for Matt’s surfboards, but it infuses the design with vibrancy interchangeable cover – Even if you never see it during use.

This setup for the M Hatsu spoils you with its neat desk aesthetic, with most cables not charging yet. As for the typing experience, the custom-molded high-gloss caps with frosted insides sound great, and the all-metal bass makes for a rock-solid sound with every keystroke. It’s pleasant to type, thanks to each key’s even and clear sound signature, with no pings or hollowness , Although to some it may seem overly dead. When you hit your typing stride, it feels like entering a state of flux with delicately husky sounds giving off a slight stereo effect as they’re drifting further apart.

Angry Miao’s latest product is called cyberblades Because, of course, every threatening thing should be named Cyber-Something—as if shouting from the ceiling: “I’m sharp, and not only did I study Blade, but that Blade is a neon-purple glowing katana of the future.” From!” But I have to admit that these things look wild. They’re a pair of triangular noise-canceling earbuds inspired by Guerrilla Games’ Alloy’s ear-mounted Focus accessory. Horizon Zero DawnAnd there are some connectivity tricks in them that are really interesting.

are cyborg Launching September 1 via Kickstarter For a backer-only price of $299, or $179 for early birds who order in the first 24 hours. After Kickstarter, they should normally cost $328. It almost seems, dare I say, normal. But this is where the sense of normalcy ends. In the looks department, the “Shell Black” colorway I’m testing is a super bright and reflective purple and green—like a pearlescent paint job that goes from mirror-black in low light to really bright, with cool reflections does popping. light. On the sides of each earbud is a strip of color-changing RGB lighting because, of course, they have to be RGB.

While most earbud makers focus on specific brags like sound quality, battery life, and noise cancellation, Angry Miao is instead boasting super low-latency audio for better gaming performance. It also housed an additional processor in the charging case and built in a fox-wired mode to achieve an estimated latency of around 40 milliseconds. To use this pseudo-wired wireless mode, you plug in the charging case via its USB-C port, and the CyberBlade is picked up as a USB audio output — bypassing the need for Bluetooth pairing.

You might be thinking that adding a wire to the setup of wireless earbuds sounds a bit silly—and it’s kind of the way—but the feature is great too is use. Wired headphones are still there The best choice for latency-free listening and gaming, the Cyberblades still make a compelling case because they’re actually fun to use. The cylindrical charging case lid itself is a button And A rotary dial, and that’s the key to using the Cyberblades with your computer. You press or hold the lid to connect, disconnect, mute the microphone, or cycle through preset EQ modes (Gaming, Movies, and Music). While rotating the lid controls system volume, the clicky detent gives you some physical feedback.

It’s a unique and innovative way to use a pair of earbuds, certainly the most I’ve implemented so far. And while it works with my Steam Deck and gaming PC, where I can see the low audio latency making its biggest difference, I’ve gotten the most out of it during the work day using the Cyberblade with my M1 MacBook Air. more appreciated. Pairing it with my phone via Bluetooth while connected to a Mac in wired mode allowed me to seamlessly switch back and forth by double-tapping the case lid—without getting stuck in Cupertino’s walled garden. A small touch of handoff convenience.

If the earbuds don’t sound good, all those low-latency specs and connectivity tricks are mostly in vain, but the CyberBlade’s overall performance is decent. They meet the essentials with great-sounding audio (though not the brightest in the treble range), good battery life, and a good fit – eight sets of silicone and memory foam tips are included to ensure this. The AirPods Pro still have a slight edge in noise cancellation and improved Transparency mode, but the Cyberblade isn’t far behind in sound quality.

The accompanying Angry Miao app, which is only for Android at the time of testing, allows you to customize RGB lighting and choose three Bluetooth EQ modes: Soft, Vocal, and Bass. Of the three, bass and vocals sounded the best for music. Soft just seemed too meaty and compressed. Bass was a bit high on the lower end, though I didn’t mind it. The middle setting, the vocals, was a good catch-all balance.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here: No sound quality is going to stand out in the face of how the Cyberblades look and the image they present. You will stand out wearing these in public and on the street. Personally, I’m used to earbuds being nondescript and even completely hidden by my long hair. Wearing the Cyberblades with my hair up, I felt how much they cling to your ears, begging you to look at them. If you’re looking for something designed to set you apart from all the AirPods and Galaxy Buds in the world, they absolutely do.

I have used these earbuds for several hours but I will not review them as they are pre-production Samples — and a lot can change via Kickstarter and beyond. But just as Kickstarter has its inherent risks, so does getting your tech products from a boutique brand. The Cyberblades have their fair share of junk and clunkiness that aren’t guaranteed to be ironed out. For example, the rotating case lid is nifty, but it takes a lot more turning than just recording small volume changes. Plus, the earbuds don’t auto-pause unless you quickly remove both at the same time. And frankly, until a firmware update fixes issues like frequent connection drops and near-unusable touch controls, auto-pausing is my least problem. While Angry Miao is still in the works, always keep in mind that tech products should never be bought on the promise of what’s to come in line.

Most of Angry Miao’s products are prohibitively expensive and difficult to buy, though it’s nice to see a small team with a unique identity manufacturing hardware that forces some emotion. Is this the “art community of the future”? That word still seems like a meaningless exaggeration to me. But it is definitely a lifestyle tech brand that is carving out its weird little niches within niches and doing it in interesting and unique ways.

And I must admit that there is a part of me that is clearly mesmerized by these products. Designs can spark emotion like nothing else. For example, when I first learned about Angry Miao and saw pictures of the cyborg and one of its colorful LED matrices, I had a personal fever dream of a custom-modified one. ledge model, where it is associated with the ticker showing the latest ledge Moving around in the headlines. I imagined a custom key opening a web browser to take you to that exact story. Why did I think so? Maybe not just because I’m a big nerd, but also because these cool, quirky designs can help drum up your own ideas. is my imagination ledge keyboard anything obtainable? Maybe not. But hey, dreaming is fun.

Antonio G. Photography by Di Benedetto / The Verge