Tucked away in the breaks of mechanical keyboard fandom and a dedicated Discord server is Angry Miao — the Zhuhai, China-based company founded in 2019 as a small-batch keyboard company.
It is building a “Future Art Community” with severe VC money and feedback from its fanatics.
But the campy slogan isn’t what captures our imagination here — it’s the provocative techniques with eye-watering price tags to match. Angry Miao’s efforts are unbelievable, admirable, gut-wrenchingly try-hard, and endearing.
Yes, the 67-person company primarily makes mechanical keyboards, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it lost the action a bit after that. Angry Miao also makes a substantial wireless charging mat for both its keyboards. And it is a funky-looking USB-C charger. And its wireless charging adapter for Logitech’s Powerplay-compatible mice. And NFT trading cards.
Apple’s AirPods Pro is the item to beat with a new pack of noise-canceling earbuds — even though Angry Miao’s products are often unleashed in limited-edition drops of as few as 100 units at a time.
The Am Hatsu’s layout is meant to be boosted by the opening sequence of HBO’s Westworld, where automated mechanical arms knit tissue-like threads of a cybernetic android, distinguishing the cold, hard metal with organic shapes.
But first, let’s chat about the Am Hatsu wireless split-ergonomic mechanical keyboard. Even if you’re acquainted with split-ergo designs, you probably haven’t noticed or felt anything like this. Wrapping your hands around this keyboard and clicking on its see-through smoked keycaps with linear, translucent icy silver switch handles like you’re operating something from another world — not a tool or a peripheral but a small interactive sculpture. The sculpture part is almost genuine: the cases have a curved and contoured all-aluminum build, employing a costly five-axis CNC milling strategy for their chassis.
The Hatsu has an exceptional layout on each side, with 52 keys arranged four-by-six for your fingers and a bunch of six for each thumb. The starkly tilted angles of every key floating above the white LED reminds me of an uneven mountain range, yet it’s oddly calming to rest my fingers atop their delicately contoured shape.
Angry Miao consolidates 12 Qi charging coils into its Cybermat — a massive slab of metal and cloth singularly created to live beneath the Am Hatsu or its other keyboard, the Cyberboard. Ten of those coils are scattered around the middle, permitting you ample room to position the Am Hatsu across a wide area comfortably. Finally, two coils flank the keyboard to charge up your phone and mouse; suppose you have an Angry Miao’s limited-run Cybercoin or Logitech Powerplay adapter that snaps onto the base of those compatible mice.
It’s all switched off with a single USB-C cord running to the company’s bundled 90W GaN charger, anointed the Cybercharge. Angry Miao is inclined to be dramatic if you haven’t noticed the names. Not only does it drive a charger specifically for its surfboard of a mat, but it also dresses up the structure with vibrant interchangeable covers — even though you may never see it while in use.
This setup for the Am Hatsu satisfies you with its clean desk aesthetic, devoid of most cables yet perpetually charged. As for the typing understanding, the custom-molded high-gloss caps with frosted interiors feel great, and the all-metal base drives for a rock-solid sound with every keystroke.
Thanks to each key’s even and transparent sound signature, it’s pleasant to type on, lacking ping or hollowness — though some may discover it overly deadened. When you switch your typing stride, it feels like entering a flow state, with the delicately clacky sounds giving off a little stereo effect since they’re coming from further apart.
Angry Miao’s newest product is called Cyberblades. They’re a duo of triangular noise-canceling earbuds inspired by Aloy’s ear-mounted Focus accessory from Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn. In addition, they feature some genuinely interesting connectivity tricks.
While most earbud makers focus on typical brags like sound quality, battery life, and noise cancellation, Angry Miao boasts super low-latency audio for better gaming performance. It even set an extra processor into the charging case and created a faux-wired mode to reach a claimed latency of about 40 milliseconds. To employ this pseudo-wired wireless mode, you plug in the charging case thru its USB-C port, and the Cyberblades get selected as a USB audio output — eschewing the need for Bluetooth pairing.