Initial Impressions: Input Club's Kira

The finished product of another group buy just landed on my doorstep.  The Kira by Input Club got its start on Kickstarter in March of 2018.  While the project did not make its delivery estimate of October 2018, I am glad it made it out of production and into the real world.  

The board uses a 96% layout, meaning that it has almost all of the keys of a "standard" full-sized keyboard, but with a lot of the "dead space" cut away (along with a few compromises on keys, like a shorter right shift).  I am excited to use this board at work, where I have been missing a numpad.  I know I can program a numpad into the layers of my ErgoDox, but I still want to give this keeb a go.

While many of the reviews I've seen of the board so far have been mixed, I have not had enough time with the board to formulate my own opinion.  With that being said, what follows are my initial impressions.

Seems Cool:

• It comes with a carrying case.  The case is huge, but this makes sense given that this is a near full-sized board.  My sense is that the case would be impractical to EDC, but would probably be reasonable to put in a carry-on.
• I appreciate all the pack-ins: extra modifier keycaps in vibrant colors, and keycap and switch pullers.
• The keyboard feels solid in the hand (though I am a touch concerned that the white non-slip pads on the bottom of the keyboard will be crap-magnets).

Seems Gimmicky:

• I've never had a board with this many RGBs.  It was cool at first, but I ended up disabling the feature in under an hour because it was just too much.  Needless to say, the board is much too gaudy to use in a professional environment with the RGB enabled.
• I wanted the underglow (on the bottom and sides of the plastic chassis) to be more pronounced.  Even in fairly dark lighting conditions, it is not particularly visible (without bending to look at it). 
• It is hard to say with certainty given that I don't have a plastic frame to compare it to, but I am not sure that the metal top frame was worth the $80 up-charge.  As far as I know, both versions of the keyboard use the same plastic material for their body.

Seems Meh / Sketch: 

• I can't believe I had to flash to board to get the board to have "." be one of the key's defaults instead of ">"
• Watching the drivers install and use command line seemed kinda sketchy (but only due to my inexperience with that aspect of my computer).
• The included cable is boring at best; it isn't braided and isn't branded to match the keyboard in any way.

I will have more to say as I spend more time with this board, so watch this space.