The eagled eyed amongst you will notice some key similarities between Echelon and QPAD’s MK85 keyboard. Echelon is based on the same design but surprisingly comes with no bundled software at all. As a result, the only additional functionality to be utilised on Echelon are the multimedia buttons and the LED backlight controls. Aside from this the keyboard just as any other USB keyboard.
Lighting

Echelon with LED backlit on maximum brightness
Moving from a standard membrane to a mechanical keyboard and especially one which uses Cherry MX Black will feel a rather strange at first and will take some getting used to. For gaming Cherry MX red switches are more commonly used because of their light tactile response but black switches are also a popular choice for gamers too. With black switches the actuation is significantly stiffer but after some time, general tasks such as typing up documents and web browsing are easy to perform. If you’re used to something with red or brown switches then black will be tricky to use in games at first, especially if you need to double-tap keys.
In general, Echelon is a great keyboard for general usage and gaming. The addition of multimedia keys are useful but we’re slightly disappointed there is no software with this keyboard. As a result of this, we cannot customise keys or apply macros. Echelon is literally just a standard USB keyboard, with mechanical switches and LED backlighting!

Echelon can support full NKRO via PS2 connection or 6KRO via USB. For some reason the PS2 connection wouldn’t give us any functionality so we had to use the USB adapter and as per above, this keyboard handled up to six key presses simultaneously.