NuPhy Air60 HE Keyboard Review

The NuPhy Air60 HE has a compact (60%) form factor so it doesn't take up much room on your desk. However, compared to a full-size keyboard it's missing a numpad, navigation keys, dedicated arrow keys, and a function row.

There's also a larger compact (75%) version of this keyboard called the NuPhy Air75 HE. It also lacks a numpad but has several navigation cluster keys, dedicated arrow keys, and a function row.

This keyboard has excellent build quality. The chassis is made of plastic and has an aluminum outer frame which makes the entire keyboard very sturdy feeling without any deck flexing.

The stabilizers and switches are pre-lubed from the factory. The stabilizers operate smoothly without any noticeable rattling, and the switches are very stable.

This keyboard also incorporates what NuPhy calls a 'GhostBar,' which is a spacebar keycap with silicone dampeners to help minimize the hollow sound and feel some other spacebars suffer from.

While most of the keycaps are made of PBT, the keyboard also comes with 10 transparent polycarbonate keycaps pre-installed. These keycaps allow the backlighting to shine, but they feel a bit cheaper and tend to be a bit slippery. That said, there are replacement PBT keycaps for each of them included in the box if you prefer. For reference, see a photo with all PBT keycaps installed.

The underside of the keyboard has rounded rubber strips in each corner that keep it in place on your desk, and a set of rubber-capped flip-out feet provides additional incline options.

Note that the cable port is on the left side of the keyboard, right next to the Escape key, which is somewhat unusual. The included cable has an L-shaped connector so that the cable routes straight back from the port. However, this orientation may not suit everyone's tastes or desktop setups.

The NuPhy Air60 HE has a low-profile design with sets of flip-out feet on the underside that offer two additional incline angles.

This keyboard is comfortable to type on without a wrist rest. That said, NuPhy sells wrist rests for this keyboard on their website which you may want to consider if you prefer using the steepest incline option.

This keyboard offers fairly good hardware customizability. The switches aren't soldered and are easy to replace. However, to our knowledge, there aren't any other compatible low-profile magnetic switches available apart from the two options offered at purchase.

This keyboard has fully addressable RGB backlighting. You can adjust the backlighting directly on the keyboard with hotkeys or with the configuration software.

This keyboard has disappointing backlight quality. Although the keycaps seem to be somewhat shine-through, the light mostly bleeds through the keycaps at higher brightness levels.

Since the PCB has south-facing LEDs, it's difficult to read most legends which are in the top left corner of the keys. The backlighting also has a slightly blue tint when set to white only.

The keyboard comes with 10 transparent polycarbonate keycaps installed which let a considerable amount of light shine through. But if you don't like this effect, there are solid PBT keycap replacements for each of these keys also included in the box.

NuPhy does sell sets of 'Canopus' shine-through keycaps for this keyboard which are specifically designed for better legend visibility with the south-facing LEDs.

The included cable is made of rubber and has gray and purple accent colors that match the keyboard's colorway. Unfortunately, this cable retains kinks from its packaging.

This is a wired-only keyboard.

The keyboard's back edge has a switch to toggle between compatibility modes: M1: Gaming Mode, M2: Windows Mode, and M3: Mac Mode. These compatibility modes change between keyboard layouts for each OS. Gaming Mode is the same as Windows Mode but lets you disable the Windows key.

This keyboard also has what NuPhy calls 'sidelights' which are RGB indicators that use colors to display your active profile and whether Caps lock is on. One of these lights is located to the left of the Escape key, and the other is to the right of the Backspace key.

For details on what the color codes signify as well as a list of supported shortcuts for media controls, backlighting, and other commands, you can reference an online version of the user manual.

• USB-A to USB-C cable
• Keycap/switch puller
• 15x extra PBT keycaps (including alternate Mac-specific modifiers)
• User documentation

Note: NuPhy's product page lists that this keyboard comes extra with 10 transparent polycarbonate keycaps and five PBT keycaps in the box. However, our unit came with the 10 transparent keycaps already installed on the keyboard, so the total 15 extra keycaps included in the box are PBT.

This keyboard offers great overall typing quality. The switches and stabilizers are pre-lubed from the factory and very smooth without any noticeable scratchiness or rattle. The 'GhostBar' works well with its added silicon dampeners and helps ensure the Spacebar doesn't sound or feel hollow. Additionally, the low-profile design of the switches and the flat nSA profile keycaps also make the keys feel quite stable while typing, especially compared to some Hall effect switches which are more prone to stem wobble.

However, typing feels a little stiff as this keyboard doesn't use a gasket mounting system and instead has a tray mount design with a layer of PCB and plate foam and a silicon layer on the bottom of the case. These material layers do a good job of rounding out the sound profile but don't do quite as much to soften the typing feel. That said, both Gateron Low-Profile Magnetic switch options available at purchase have a standard 3.4 mm travel, which matches that of most normal profile mechanical switches. Therefore, the typing feel doesn't feel as abrupt as it can on some low-profile gaming keyboards with shorter total travel.

This keyboard's typing noise is very quiet, and it's unlikely to bother those around you, even in noise-sensitive environments.

We expect the noise level to be roughly the same for both switch options available.

We bought this keyboard with Gateron Low-Profile Magnetic Jade Pro switches.

We bought this keyboard with Gateron Low-Profile Magnetic Jade Pro switches.

You can also buy this keyboard with standard Gateron Low-Profile Magnetic Jade switches. NuPhy has an image on its product page that compares these two switch options.

Ultimately, the difference is minor. Both have a customizable actuation range between 0.1 mm and 3.3 mm. The Pro switches are slightly heavier and have a POM upper and lower housing which typically produces a slightly smoother keystroke feel.

For this test, we produced measurements using an actuation point setting of 0.1 mm with a Rapid Trigger setting of 0.1 mm. However, the actual measured actuation at this setting was closer to 0.4 mm.

For reference, we measured additional actuation point settings below.

Setting 0.2 mm: actuation 0.82 mm
Setting 0.5 mm: actuation 0.53 mm
Setting 1.0 mm: actuation 1.08 mm
Setting 1.5 mm: actuation 1.61 mm
Setting 2.0 mm: actuation 2.14 mm
Setting 2.5 mm: actuation 2.64 mm
Setting 3.0 mm: actuation 3.09 mm
Setting 3.3 mm: actuation 3.19 mm

We also see significant inaccuracy with the 0.2 mm setting. Thankfully, at higher actuation point settings the accuracy is much better, typically within 0.2 mm of their intended distance, which is very good.

For added context, we made sure to calibrate our switches using the tool in the software before our actuation testing. It's possible that NuPhy may be able to improve the accuracy of the lowest actuation point settings with future firmware updates. If you have reason to believe they've addressed this issue and would like us to retest, reach out to us in the Comments.

The NuPhy Air60 HE maintains exceptionally low single-key latency and delivers an extremely responsive and consistent in-game experience.

We conducted this test using the following settings:

• Polling rate: 8000Hz
• Actuation point: 0.1 mm
• Rapid Trigger: 0.1 mm (activation) and 0.1 mm (release)

The NuPhy Air60 HE provides superb and exceptionally consistent multi-key latency performance. It's well-suited for playing any game that requires additional keystrokes while multiple keys are pressed and maintained.

We conducted this test using the following settings:

• Polling rate: 8000Hz
• Actuation point: 0.1 mm
• Rapid Trigger: 0.1 mm (activation) and 0.1 mm (release)

This keyboard exhibits excellent data transmission performance. It can send multiple keys per USB report and supports full N-key rollover by default, out of the box.

It also has an effective update rate of 8000Hz, so it doesn't suffer from a performance bottleneck and can take advantage of the maximum 8000Hz polling rate.

This keyboard has great chord split performance with very low 4-chord and 8-chord split delay, making it an outstanding option for playing rhythm titles or other games requiring many simultaneous inputs.

This keyboard uses a web-based configuration utility that you can access on Nuphy's website.

This software is fairly complex but relatively easy to navigate. It allows you to adjust RGB lighting and effects, rebind keys, set custom profiles, create macros, and customize switch actuation and rapid trigger settings.

It also supports more advanced analog key settings. Unfortunately, many of the descriptions of how these advanced settings work are unclear. They may be particularly confusing if you aren't already familiar with analog gaming keyboards. NuPhy has a more in-depth explanation for these settings as well as some examples in an online IO manual on their website.

Find our description for these settings below. Just be aware that you may need to experiment with them yourself to decide if they'll be useful for the games you play.

• Dynamic Keystroke: Allows you to map up to four different actions to a single key based on actuation distance.
• Mod Tap: Allows you to map two actions to a single key based on actuation distance: a held key for the first action and a tap for the second.
• Toggle Key: Toggle a command between on/off states by tapping a key. Holding the key activates the normal key behavior.
• Rapid Shift: Actively monitors two keys, prioritizing input for whichever is pressed further downwards at any time.
• SOCD: Specifies a pair of two keys with custom trigger behavior along three possible parameters: 1) Last input priority where the last pressed key overrides the first if both exceed the actuation point. 2) No priority, where neither key triggers if both exceed the actuation point. 3) Absolute priority, where one key always overrides the other if both exceed the actuation point. Disclaimer: Using this setting may be disallowed in some competitive online games, such as CS:2.
• Hyper Tap: This setting binds two keys together and automatically triggers one as soon as the other stops registering. This setting has two priority options. 1) Bidirectional binding: when either of the keys stops triggering, the other switch is automatically triggered. 2) Unidirectional binding: when one of the two keys stops triggering, the other switch automatically triggers.

There's a compatibility switch to toggle between Windows (M2) and Mac (M3) keyboard layouts on the back edge of the keyboard.