 It's not often I get to check out something as entirely unique as the Datamancer Aviator keyboard that I have in front of me today. And that's really saying something, since in my position I get access to all kinds of really cool stuff. This is different. The Cooler Master NovaTouch TKL is powered by Topper Hybrid Capacitive switches for the ultimate typing experience, and is now available for a reduced price. Click my face to learn more. Let's start with an overview of who exactly Datamancer is, since you've probably never heard of them. Datamancer is a bit of a ragtag group of keyboard artisans, many of which are students, some of which were prodigies of the late Richard Docknagy, who was the original founder of the company and was responsible for most of the designs. So the way it works is rather than mass producing keyboards and putting them in boxes and then selling them through your local store like a normal company, Datamancer treats each keyboard more like an art piece commission that they then build to order according to the user's specifications. Now, for me that was a bit tricky since I basically said my favorite key switches are Cherry MX Browns, but other than that I'd like you to surprise me, so they played it safe and went with their simple yet classically styled Aviator, which I guess we'll take a tour of now. The unboxing experience was pretty exciting. It's hard for me to get amped up about some new gadget these days sometimes, but I was genuinely dying to open this puppy up and play with it. It comes carefully wrapped in bubble wrap with a nondescript brown box around it, no accessories or documentation whatsoever, but then again, if you expected that and thought you were getting a multilingual instruction manual from a company with two full-time people, then A, get real, and B, what on earth do you need an instruction manual for? Just plug the nice supple paracord style sleeve USB thing into the other USB thing and it's off to the races. Frankly though, the coolest thing about opening the Aviator for the first time was something I wasn't expecting, the smell. It doesn't smell like new toy, you know that plastic smell, or even new PCB. It smells like wood and metalworking and soldering. It smells like someone made it for you, and it amazed me what a different smell made to my perception of the product. Not like I didn't know that someone makes it for you, I mean according to Datamancer, every single keyboard project is chosen by an individual artisan who then is usually the only person working on it as it's hand assembled over a period of about 24 hours. After which time it is inspected by the team before it is deemed worthy of being sent out to a client. So what is it exactly that my artisan worked on then? Well, we'll start with the housing. The bottom is made of a burnt finish wood that when reinforced by the internal PCB and brushed aluminum frame around it provides a stable backplate surface with no perceivable flex as I was typing on the keyboard. On the sides we get a better look at the aforementioned brushed aluminum frame that uses a thick curved aluminum plate on each side with holes that looked kind of drilled out to allow modular assembly to other components to achieve this unique utilitarian look. Then near the back of the keyboard there are two triangular pieces in a similar style that act as the feet for the keyboard. I actually kind of hoped that folding them down would allow me to flatten out the keyboard on the desk surface a little bit, but the aviator is intended to be used with the feet in one position only. So let's talk about using it then. Each keycap is hand assembled from four pieces. The stem that installs on a standard Cherry MX key switch, the lettering that appears to be simply printed on an inkjet printer, the concave plastic lens that sits over top of that to protect it, and finally the metal ring around the outside edge to create a very unique look and feel. For starters it really is more like using a typewriter to click away on. This style of keycap is much less tolerant of misstrokes than a square one, and this is particularly true in the case of keys that would normally be larger with stabilizers or other components that might look unsightly on a design such as this, like the shift and the enter keys. Something that stood out to me though is how smooth they felt under my fingers. The seam between the lens and the metal ring is almost impossible to feel unless you really go looking for it, and the rounded feeling to them means that you never touch a sharp corner while you're typing on the keyboard anywhere. Under the keys is a leather covered backplate, a fun little factoid by the way is that Datamancer uses either Tandy leather or pieces from antique furniture that combined with the metal frame gives it an incredibly handmade look and feel that even wood wouldn't have achieved quite as well. The crown jewel, or jewels, of the Aviator is the fender jewels that handle number lock, scroll lock, and caps lock indication in the top right corner. Alright, so I said a lot of good stuff about the Aviator. Let's get to the rougher stuff, shall we? This is a very, very expensive keyboard. I mean, there are lots of expensive keyboards, but unlike many of the others, a Datamancer cannot sell itself for any practical reason. The typing experience, while unique, is not as comfortable as a mass produced keyboard with a wrist rest, adjustable angles, larger keys, and the internals are decidedly unremarkable with no fancy macro functionality and not even N-key rollover to boast about. It appears to be six keys plus modifiers for my testing, but I also believe that those comments would mean very little to the kind of customer who's interested in buying one of these. It's not a practical purchase and nobody ever tried to claim it was. This is a luxury item for people who are willing to buy it simply as a showpiece or for the unique experience, and from the very moment I unboxed it to the time I'm standing here telling you about it now, using it has been a unique experience. I have to give them that. So guys, thanks for watching. Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you thought it sucked, leave a comment on our forum linked in the video description if you have feelings that are more complicated than that. Also linked in the video description we have a merch store where you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one, a contribution link where you can give us a contribution if you think what we're doing is important, and a link where you can change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so we get a small kickback whenever you buy stuff on Amazon. That kind of stuff helps us out a lot. Thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to like and subscribe and follow and all that good stuff.