GoKawiilYou probably know just by looking at it if the Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is for you. Do you want a retro-looking wired keyboard without a number pad? Great. Do you care that it doesn’t have wireless? Perfect. Do you want it preassembled? Buddy, you’re in the right place.
But Nathan, you might say, preassembled is the regular way to buy a keyboard. That is the baseline expectation. Most people buying a cake expect a cake, not a box of cake mix. And that’s true, for most people and most keyboards. But until now, the Classic-TKL has only been available as a bare-bones kit, and now you can buy one ready to go, with quality components, for less than the price of doing a similar build yourself.
If you’re like me, figuring out what keycaps, switches, and stabilizers to use, then putting them all together, is a big part of the fun of mechanical keyboards. But if you just want something to type with that looks retro and sounds and feels nice, without having to build it yourself — or if you were going to use classic beige keycaps anyway — then the Underscore Edition might be up your alley.
The $189 NovelKeys Classic-TKL Underscore Edition is a wired-only, gasket-mounted tenkeyless mechanical keyboard. It has an injection-molded plastic case with a high forehead, reminiscent of the 18-year-old Realforce 86U, and a silicone mat on the base for sound dampening. It also has hot-swap MX switches, full RGB backlighting, and a light bar (both of which can be turned off), and it’s fully programmable using the Via web app.
The Classic-TKL has been around for a couple of years in kit form. I built one and wrote about it in 2024; I also tested the glow-in-the-dark version. I like them a lot! But apparently not everyone who wants a nice retro-looking keyboard also wants a craft project. Michael Sickler, who owns NovelKeys, told me that the Underscore Edition is aimed at giving NovelKeys’ keyboard enthusiast customer base something they can recommend to friends and family. It’s also aimed at professionals who might lurk on the keyboard subreddits and Discords enough to know what they want, but don’t want to build it themselves. (This is basically the same thing Ryan Norbauer told me about his Seneca, except the Seneca is 20 times more expensive.)
From the top: boulder, lichen, and clay. I tested the clay but look at that green. Photo: NovelKeys
The Underscore Edition comes in clay (warm beige), boulder (taupe-ish), and lichen (a dusty green). My review unit is clay, but I’d buy the lichen personally. It ships with NovelKeys’ own Classic Blue switches, GMK CYL Classic Beige keycaps, a USB A-to-C cable, and preinstalled and pretuned TypePlus stabilizers.
These are name-brand parts. GMK CYL keycaps are the benchmark for doubleshot Cherry-profile keycaps. They’re several steps in quality above the keycaps that come with a Keychron, for example. The letters and numbers are crisp and clear and the consistency is unmatched. They’re also expensive; you’d pay at least $120 if you bought them on their own, though you would get more keycaps. The Classic-TKL comes with just the ones you need to cover the board.
Nice thick doubleshot keycaps and smooth switches. Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The TypePlus stabilizers are also a good choice; I’ve installed and tuned a couple sets myself, but the people who made them do a better job. There’s no rattle or tick on any of the stabilized keys. And the Classic Blue linear switches (also made by TypePlus) are also nice. They’re smooth and stable, with almost no wobble; at 53g actuation force and 63g bottom-out, they’re medium-heavy, like a lighter version of the Cherry MX Blacks in my first-ever mechanical keyboard in 2009. They’re not silent, but they’re also not as loud as you’d expect a keyboard this beige to be. (I still feel like a blue switch should be clicky, though.)
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