Ducky Shine 3 Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅12-12-13
Lighting, Customisation & Performance


LIGHTING DEMO


The lighting and customisation is a specific highlight with Shine 3. The ability to tweak the colour and different modes can be initiated by using the FN key + F10. A full listing of the options available can be found within the instructions booklet.

There are numerous lighting modes available with Shine 3 which include:

• Full (100%)
• Breathing
• Wave Marquee
• Snake Marquee
• Reactive mode
• Ripple mode



Lighting @ 100% - White LED


Shine 3 also has two pre-defined command buttons placed upon F11 and F12 keys. Pressing FN + F11 illuminates only the WASD keys – specifically for gaming sessions. Alternatively if you do not use WASD, pressing FN + F12 will illuminate the arrow keys instead.


WASD illumination options on Shine 3


By default the snake design on the spacebar illuminates white on our sample – using just one LED in the centre, other models which have red for backlighting will light up in this colour instead. Pressing FN + Spacebar will initiate additional lighting on Shine 3. LEDs on the left and right illuminate red to begin with but this colour can be modified by pressing FN + Insert (Red) or Home (Green) or PgUP (Blue). An RGB demo can be started by pressing FN + Num_0 – this cycles through the colour spectrum.


Snake LED can be tweaked too


Additionally there are performance tweaks which can be adjusted such as USB Repeat Delay and Repeat Acceleration. This modifies the speed at which characters are input when a key is held down. Of course, all of these options can be stored to memory and if you make any alterations you aren’t happy with the factory defaults can be used.

Specific lighting settings can be saved to memory by using the REC1 and REC2 keys at the top of Shine 3.

Overall, we’re very impressed by how extensive Shine 3 is in the lighting and customisation department. It most definitely is a keyboard which gives you lots of flexibility.

Performance

Ducky’s Shine 3 has unlimited NKRO (N-Key Rollover). We tested whether this claim stood true and sure enough with Aqua’S KeyTest there were no problems with multiple presses on the keyboard.


Testing NKRO using Aqua’S KeyTest


The Shine 3 is available with numerous Cherry MX switch colours but the one we have uses the Cherry MX Brown switches. Coming from a standard membrane to a keyboard of this nature and switch type will feel a little strange at first and as always will take some getting used to but for general usage within windows, typing up documents and web browsing the Shine 3 is a superb keyboard. Keys aren’t located in peculiar places and therefore, a touch-typer will be able to move on with the job at hand.

Brown switches offer a good balance between gaming and general usage and Shine 3 performs well in the gaming arena too. Gamers can take advantage of the backlit keys and even the pre-defined options under CM1 and CM2 – initiate these commands will cause all keys to black out except for WASD or arrow keys. This is perfect for those late night sessions when the room is dark and it can be hard to see. Some may find it more useful to have all the keys illuminated since in some games other keys require pressing too.

Overall, Shine 3 performs to a very high-standard and we have been presented with no problems at all – only accuracy and precision.

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