Aula F87 Review: Smooth, Creamy, And Feature-Rich At An Unbeatable Price

It’s been three years since I used a mechanical keyboard for the first time. It was a cheap board that cost me less than $30, but it managed to ignite a lasting hobby, which spurred me to keep searching until I found the best budget mechanical keyboard for myself. On this quest, I came across Aula, a Chinese peripherals brand making waves on social media for its quality mechanical keyboards which regularly punch far above their weight.

I knew I had to get my hands on one of their “thocky” keebs, so, after careful consideration, I decided to buy the Aula F87 — a wireless, TKL mechanical keyboard with a gasket mount and five layers of sound dampening. Needless to say, the price at which the F87 claimed to deliver not only this impressive feature set but also a “creamy” and near-perfect typing experience made me eager to try it out. I’m very happy to report that it surpassed nearly all my expectations.

The F87 is a treat to use — it sounds and feels premium, has nearly all the features I could ask for, and is undoubtedly the best budget keyboard I’ve ever used. With only a few misses here and there, I can safely conclude that the F87 is easily the best mechanical keyboard for most people new to the mechanical keyboard hobby and, dare I say, maybe even for the seasoned veterans.

About this review: I purchased the Aula F87 myself for the purposes of this review. Aula had no input in its contents.

The people’s keyboard

Class F87

Thocky, smooth, near-perfect

The Aula F87 represents the best of the new wave of highly affordable prebuilt mechanical keyboards on the market. The F87 is a gasket-mounted tenkeyless (TKL) board that comes with pre-lubed and hot-swappable linear switches. You get all the creature comforts of a wireless connection, a large battery, PBT keycaps, programmable keys, and customizable RGB lighting, but the highlight of this board is its creamy sound and comfortable typing feel.

Pros

• Premium gasket mount with 5 layers of sound dampening
• Smooth and creamy typing experience
• Great looks, versatile feature set, thoughtful RGB

Cons

• Keycaps should have been transparent
• Software support is lacking

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Pricing and availability

The Aula F87 is not a new keyboard. In fact, it launched about a year ago, in June 2023. But, next to the Aula F75, its smaller sibling which was getting all the hype on YouTube and Instagram, the F87 has flown relatively under the radar. It only became available on Amazon in January this year. It’s hard to find it elsewhere, but you can get it from Amazon for $70.

There’s also an F87 Pro priced around $76 which is nearly identical but comes with a slightly modified gasket mount and a lower front height. By all accounts, it feels exactly the same as the F87 I’m going to be reviewing below.

Design and build quality

It doesn’t feel like a budget keyboard

For $70, you’d expect the company to cut some corners to prioritize the typing experience over the chassis materials. But it turns out there are not a whole lot of compromises made as far as the construction of the F87 is concerned. The body is made up of ABS plastic, so while there’s no aluminum as seen on pricier keyboards, the F87 doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy at all. There’s no unnecessary flex and the keyboard has a satisfying heft to it.

At 916g (around 2 lbs), it’s not the heaviest keyboard out there, but certainly the heaviest I’ve used to date. It has a smooth finish all around, and the weight does not actually prevent it from being a portable keyboard. You’ll definitely feel it in your backpack, but you’ll be glad you brought it with you, thanks to the superior typing experience. There’s a dual kickstand to customize the angle of the keyboard. I use the bigger ones, as I like a more angled setup that goes well with my wrist rest.

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If looks could kill…

Coming to the looks of this board, the first thing you notice is the dual-tone PBT keycaps (triple-tone, if I’m being precise). I love white-themed PC components and peripherals, so naturally, I love this design. I got the smoke blue variant which has a cluster of white keycaps in the middle surrounded by shades of blue on the spacebar, shift, enter, and arrow keys, among others. The minimalist look feels great and can easily fit in well with any setup.

The F87 is certainly not meant to be a gaming keyboard, but you still get gorgeous RGB lighting that you can customize from the keyboard itself. The best part about the design is that you get dual RGB sidelights that can be customized separately from the overall RGB theme of the keyboard. Additionally, you get an RGB light strip above the arrow key cluster that you can also customize separately. Plus, it can double up as a battery indicator with the press of a simple key combo. The Caps Lock key has a small light on the keyboard frame, which is something you don’t always get.

These small additions manage to elevate the otherwise simple design of this keyboard to something that is eye-catching as well as functional. I also love the transparent acrylic keyboard cover you get in the box that helps keep the keyboard dust-free for a little longer. Talking about the box contents, you also get a keycap and switch puller, four spare switches, and a gray USB-C to USB-A cable for charging and wired connection.

A minor gripe that I have is the lack of transparent keycaps on this keyboard, which would have made it far easier to work on during the night. You can certainly swap them for some custom keycaps, but with everything else about this prebuilt keyboard being exceptional, having transparent keycaps would just have made it perfect.

The sound, the feel, the experience

It all comes down to this

The typing experience of the F87 was what I was most excited about, and was the whole reason why I bought it. So, when I received it, even before checking what was in the box or connecting it to my PC, I immediately put its sound and feel to the test. I knew it was going to sound good, but my only fear was that it wouldn’t be as awesome as I’d heard on Instagram reels or YouTube videos. Thankfully, I was nothing but pleased with the soothing, creamy sound as soon as my fingers hit the keys.

My previous mechanical keyboard came with a layer of foam to try to mimic the thocky sound signature that’s all the rage these days. But, the F87 is on a whole different level — it houses five layers of sound-dampening material, including different kinds of foam and silicone sheets. I’ll not pretend to be an expert at keyboard modding and sound dampening, but whatever Aula did with this board seems to be working well. The gasket mount is also crucial here, as it cushions the effect of the keystrokes and contributes to a silent typing experience.

Both the switches and stabilizers come pre-lubed, which is not common in this price range. This adds to the silent and soothing sound of the keyboard, and saves you the trouble of lubing the switches and stabilizers yourself.

I bought the F87 specifically for its TKL layout as I couldn’t get on board with the 75% layout of the more popular F75. I simply can’t do without dedicated keys for the Home, Insert, and Delete functions. So far, I haven’t felt the need to program any macros or remap any keys. The “Fn” key combined with the various Function keys is enough for most common operations, and I haven’t missed the Num Pad for years. Coming from a 75% keyboard, I feel like this TKL could become my daily driver.

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I could get used to linear switches

Besides sounding amazing, the F87 also feels smooth on your fingers, thanks to the Graywood V3 linear switches. I’ve previously loved typing on tactile brown switches, but after using the F87 for a week, I might switch to linears permanently. One concern I had before ordering the F87 was that I wouldn’t like the linear switches because of their “uneventful” operation, unlike the satisfying bump I felt with my brown switches, I was afraid linear switches would feel sort of “meh.”

But, I’ve been seeing fewer typos and faster typing on the F87 compared to my previous keyboard. In the few gaming sessions I had with this keyboard, the linear switches felt slightly faster than my previous brown switches. This might not be entirely due to the linear switches, as the Cherry profile could also be making a difference in my typing speed and accuracy, but the switches certainly helped. Combined with the silent yet satisfying sound of the keyboard, this is the most enjoyable typing experience I’ve ever had.

I haven’t encountered any latency issues on this keyboard in a week — no missed keystrokes, connectivity issues, or delayed keystrokes. The first-time setup was seamless as I only had to insert the wireless receiver into the USB port of my monitor and the keyboard was immediately connected to my PC. I prefer to keep my wireless dongles separated from each other to avoid interference, hence I used the monitor’s USB port instead of the front or rear ports of my PC case.

Customization options and software

Works great for me, but might be a deal-breaker for some

Being a hot-swappable keyboard, you can mod the F87 to your heart’s content. Replacing the keycaps and switches is fairly easy, but once you manage to open the keyboard you can try to make more invasive modifications like replacing the internal layers of foam can be done. However, that’s easier said than done. Aula doesn’t make it easy to open this keyboard, and you’ll have to struggle a bit to get the top casing off the first time.

Personally, I don’t believe this keyboard needs any major mods. It works beautifully in its stock condition, which is another reason I bought it. In terms of the RGB, as I mentioned before, you can use the Fn key along with the Insert key to cycle through the RGB effects. You can also change the brightness, speed, and colors of the lighting effects with other keys (all explained in the manual). I just keep the two sidelights and the light strip on with the rest of the lighting switched off. During the night, I switch on my desk lamp as the non-transparent keycaps don’t help anyway, even with the RGB on.

Related

Coming to the software, it was a bit tricky to find. I browsed some Reddit threads, found a link to a Drive location where the company stores different drivers and software for various keyboard models, and downloaded the one for the F87. But, when I installed and launched the program, it was stuck on the loading screen forever without detecting the keyboard. You might have better luck with it, but I simply left it alone as all the customizations I need are available directly on the keyboard itself.

Should you buy the Aula F87?

If you’re just jumping into the world of mechanical keyboards or even if you’ve tested a few cheap and mid-range boards, the Aula F87 is bound to impress you. It’s one of the best keyboards I’ve ever used, whether I consider its smooth typing experience or beautiful creamy sound. For a budget board, it features tons of sound-dampening material and comes with a gasket mount for those fluffy keystrokes.

You also get both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz alongside wired connectivity, hot-swappability for those wanting to further tweak their typing experience, pre-lubed switches and stabilizers for that added convenience and comfort, a compact yet functional TKL layout, and a beautiful design with PBT keycaps and tasteful RGB implementation. The only cons are the lack of transparent keycaps and unreliable software.

You should buy the Aula F87 if:

• You want to experience a highly satisfying typing experience
• You want a prebuilt keyboard that feels and sounds great without modding
• You want a compact keyboard without sacrificing any functionality
• You want both wireless and wired connectivity options

You should avoid the Aula F87 if:

• You want transparent keycaps for the RGB to shine through
• You can’t do without recording macros and remapping keys

A near-perfect experience

Class F87

The Aula F87 represents the best of the new wave of highly affordable prebuilt mechanical keyboards on the market. The F87 is a gasket-mounted tenkeyless (TKL) board that comes with pre-lubed and hot-swappable linear switches. You get all the creature comforts of a wireless connection, a large battery, PBT keycaps, programmable keys, and customizable RGB lighting, but the highlight of this board is its creamy sound and comfortable typing feel.