Genesis Thor 404 TKL – a decent keyboard at a decent price

The keyboard community seems to fall into two categories. One group claims that a keyboard needs nothing more than a nice appearance and relatively good sound. The other camp takes a completely different approach to keyboards – it pays attention to every little detail, values customization and has strict standards. Today we will take a look at the Genesis Thor 404 TKL keyboard, which picks up the gauntlet thrown down by the biggest enthusiasts in the keyboard community.

Specification

• Size: 80% (TKL)
• Connectivity: wired
• Key layout: ANSI
• Switches: Gateron Yellow Pro
• Switch characteristics: linear
• Keycaps: PBT
• Backlighting: RGB
• Weight: 1005 g
• Warranty: 24 months
• Price on the day of writing the review: ~£250

What comes with the Genesis Thor 404 TKL?

The question of the box and what it looks like, I allowed myself to skip completely. After all, what is most interesting is inside. The box, it’s just an accessory, which, when opening the package, is only meant to raise the endorphins in the brain. Coming down to earth, however, the manufacturer definitely didn’t skimp on the extras. Getting to the bottom of the box, we managed to rummage through some interesting items, including those that may come in handy later:

• USB-A to USB-C cable
• two spare switches
• Overlay and switch removal tool
• Waste paper for kindling

Personally, I’m a little sorry that there wasn’t room for some additional overlays in a different color to adorn the keyboard. This is a nice addition, especially for users who are bored with the traditional one-color design.

Appearance and individual components

But moving on to the main course, which is the keyboard itself. At first glance, it seems to look the same as most other designs in this price range. After all, what we have here is a traditional plastic case that doesn’t particularly stand out. Moreover, in my opinion it has relatively sharp corners, especially at the bottom. I think these areas could be much more rounded, as is the case with more expensive models from abroad. Other than that, the case seems to be perfectly fine. When trying to bend it, I didn’t experience any negative signals that could indicate that the components were not well-fitted. Apart from the aforementioned corners, everything is as it should be.

Height adjustment

In fact, full two-stage keyboard height adjustment has become standard for quite some time now. This is one of those trends that came to us along with Chinese keyboards. Fortunately, local manufacturers were quick to pick up on this and started using a similar solution at home. It is no different and in the case of the reviewed Genesis Thor 404 TKL. The manufacturer has graced us with the presence of two feet of different heights on both sides of the device. This gives us as many as three positions in which the keyboard can be located.

Connectivity

As for connectivity options, unfortunately I don’t have good news for fans of wireless solutions. The manufacturer decided to bet on connecting the keyboard only using the included USB-A to USB-C cable. I’ll admit that I’m mildly disappointed, as I’ve more than once encountered keyboards in this budget that offered BT and 2.4 GHz connectivity. The full suite of connectivity options is slowly becoming the standard and is being encountered, at ever lower budgets.

Moving on, however, to the cable that you receive in the kit with the keyboard. It is made correctly, it seems to be slightly too stiff, which is felt especially at the very beginning, when it is necessary to stretch it in order to connect it to the computer. On the plus side, it is 180 cm long, so there won’t be any problems when laying out the cable, or connecting it to a device a little further away.

Keycaps

It will come as no surprise if I say that we are dealing with the traditional overlay profile used in keyboards in this price range. For most users, this is the natural and most comfortable shape of overlays and they are used to it.
But back to the caps themselves. They are made of a material known as PBT. It is characterized by high resistance to friction. It is worth mentioning at this point that the manufacturer has decided to make the overlays using the so-called double-shot method. This solution enhances the resistance to abrasion, so there is no question here of any rubbing out of the font during use. Exactly, the font – what surprised me the most was the presence of so-called closed bellies in letters like B, A, P, Q, etc. Usually with double-shot overlays one observes a lack of continuity in the letter structure. This is due to the technological process itself. In the case of the reviewed Thor 404 TKL, the font is closed, which significantly improves the perception.

Of additional things worth mentioning – on the front panels there are described additional functions activated with the fn function button. Thus, they are elegantly hidden, and additionally inform the user about all available functions. So there is no need to learn the key combinations, or check the instructions every time you want to change the backlight or enable an option.

Switches

Over the past few years, we as users have been accustomed to three switch colors: red, brown and blue. As a matter of fact, this should be completely sufficient, since each of them introduces a different sensation when activating the switch. Practice, however, is quite different. There are thousands of different switches on the market, which differ in their details. Genesis in its new keyboard decided to use Gateron Yellow Pro switches, which are a kind of prelude to the world of all these more exotic switches. What are their characteristics? In principle, they work exactly the same as linear (red) switches. The difference, however, can be found in the sound they make when pressed and, above all, the smoothness of operation. This effect is further improved by the grease with which the individual components inside the switch were treated. This made it possible to achieve a much smoother operation and a deeper sound, which can be heard every time the switch is pressed all the way down.

Hot-swap

Another functionality that is appearing more and more in low-budget keyboards every year. For many enthusiasts, this is one of the most important functionalities a keyboard can offer. So following this lead, Genesis used the aforementioned hot-swap in the new Thor series keyboard. This makes it possible to remove the switches without having to dismantle the case and solder them. This is especially useful at times when we want to replace the switches with other ones, swap a single piece in case of failure, or when we want to make some modifications. However, I’m afraid that in the case of this keyboard the hot-swap may be an unnecessary option. After all, here we have switches of good quality, which are additionally lubricated. Replacing the switches with something more exotic and from a slightly higher shelf is more the domain of enthusiasts who are deep in the subject of keyboards and like to experiment with new solutions.

Stabilizers

Right next to the switches, this is one of the most commented on aspects of any keyboard. After all, the stabilizers are hugely responsible for the sound generated when pressing such buttons as Space, Enter, CapsLock and Backspace. In the case of the Genesis Thor 404 TKL, this issue has been handled properly. The stabilizers used are of good quality, and there was no lack of lubrication of key components. In this regard, there is nothing to complain about. Most users will be completely satisfied with their performance and will not feel any shortcomings.

Highlight

Since the Thor 404 TKL is aimed at gamers, it couldn’t lack RGB backlighting. In the case of the reviewed keyboard, we are dealing with pretty good LEDs. They provide a satisfactory visual experience, vivid and faithfully reflect the programmed color. In some keyboards, in the case of white backlighting, we get light falling into pink or blue. In the case of the review model, neither of these cases is the case. What is there to say, the white light is just…. white. That’s all and that’s all.

Naturally, the keyboard offers a plurality of different backlighting modes and colors. All animations generated by the LEDs are smooth, and I didn’t notice a “skipping” effect between successive color shades. The backlighting modes can be easily switched from the keyboard itself, as well as from the software, about which a bit below.

Software

The keyboard has a dedicated app that allows the user to change several important settings. The app itself seems to be transparent, there is no question of unnecessary splendor, in which later it is difficult to find anything that interests us. Of the most important functions provided to us, first of all, it is possible to change the backlight modes, its color and brightness. It is also possible to change the direction of the animation if we decide to use dynamic backlighting. In addition, the ability to create your own macros and save profiles. Of course, all saved settings will be saved on the keyboard memory, so there is no need to launch the application each time to load the saved profile.
On the plus side, the presence of full support for the Polish language is also worth noting. Admittedly, Genesis is a Polish hardware manufacturer, but more than once I have encountered a situation where a Polish manufacturer “forgot” about the native language.

Summary

Genesis Thor 404 TKL is a keyboard that has definitely become the tongue-in-cheek of the Polish keyboard market. The manufacturer has come out to meet the needs of users who have certain requirements for a keyboard, and at the same time boast a less affluent wallet. After all, we are dealing here with a closed design, relatively interesting switches, rich equipment, and all this while maintaining good build quality. Such a combination means that the keyboard will not be despised by average users who are just entering the beautiful world of keyboards, but also by more demanding experts who have had more than one keyboard in their hands.