I do not like the 60% keyboard. Making such a confession early in a review of the new 60% keyboard may cause you to question my suitability for a review. Besides, you have probably already seen the high scores and award badges, and you may find this opening speech somewhat comical. However, all the other 60% keyboards I've used so far, while certainly pretty, have been completely unsuitable for actual daily use. [But the Mountain Everest 60, like its competitors, is cute and has all the extras of a geeky keyboard.

Previously, ten-keyless (TKL) boards were about as small as I would reasonably go for a home setup. And the Mountain Everest Max has been my regular keyboard since it was released a year and a half ago. The board can be either a TKL unit or a full-size keyboard, thanks to its removable numeric keypad. Thus, it provides the extra space of a small form factor board and the utility of a standard board.

Mountain is a newcomer to the crowded enthusiast keyboard market, determined to make the best board, and they have nearly succeeded. The modularity of the full Max setup, and the fact that the Core version could be a pure barebone base for choosing your own switches and keycaps, meant that it offered everything you could ask for in a modern gaming keyboard.

Well, not all, because every peripheral manufacturer that has ever considered shipping a keyboard has bent over backwards to cram a miniscule 60% board into their lineup. But now Mountain is doing the same, and is trying to bring its somewhat unique perspective to the tiny keyboard market as well.

Mountain is not the first to make a modular keyboard. By keeping modular components firmly in place and offering multiple mounting options, the entire setup is not just a marketing gimmick, but actually useful. The Everest 60 is not modular, but the dedicated numeric keypad can be purchased separately and is hot-swappable. What matters to me is that they can be mounted on either side of the board.

If you are still putting the numeric keypad on the right side of your gaming keyboard, you are doing it wrong. The main advantage of a smaller keyboard is that the mouse and WSAD hands are closer together, and by changing the numeric keypad to the left, you can use the extra desktop area for extra buttons and gaming rodents.

It also comes in handy when using spreadsheets. Benchmark numbers don't just populate on their own, you know.

That extra mouse space is the main reason the 60% board can have a place in the game, but for me at least, the lack of traditional cursor keys makes it incredibly frustrating to use full time. Mountain obviously thinks so, and has pushed the cursor keys to the right side of the board, pushed down the right shift key, and added a del key.

The small right shift key takes some getting used to, but the addition of the cursor keys makes a huge difference in the overall utility of the Everest 60. But that is not the only reason I fell in love with this board.

The original Everest Max is reassuringly solid, and typing feels good, especially after replacing all the original Cherry MX Red switches that were included and installing homemade Halo True switches. However, the Everest 60 is much better. Best typing experience ever and a real pleasure to use.

The bottom of the keyboard has a layer of silicone to add weight and dampen sound. Mountain also uses Cherry's factory stabilizers on their boards, but they make sure they are properly installed and lubricated for the Everest 60, so there is no rattling, even on wide space bars.

And we were impressed with Mountain's mechanical keyboard switches. Mountain also sells the Tactile 55 (indicating 55 cN of force required for actuation), Linear 45, and Linear 45 Speed (shorter travel distance and actuation point) separately. My sample uses the Tactile 55 and the feel is excellent. It is really stable, responsive, and factory lubricated, so it doesn't have the grittiness that tactile switches tend to have.

It was interesting to test the Everest 60 alongside NZXT's new Function MiniTKL. However, while Mountain has learned a lot from its first release, NZXT has stumbled in a few key areas. [But the Everest 60 package is not complete. The main drawback, as is always the case with peripherals, is the software. Almost never a problem. Mostly. But there are quirks, and I experienced the odd little bug, both in my early review testing of the Everest 60 and in my daily use of the Base Camp software on the Everest Max.

Thankfully, once you set up your preferred RGB lighting layout and choose a few macros, you can largely ignore them and enjoy an excellent gaming keyboard experience.

The standard Everest 60 comes with PBT Double Shot Black keycaps, which are perfectly fine, but I have a preference for the Aquamarine set that adorns this review sample. That said, it's just an aesthetic, and the great feeling you get from the original keycaps remains the same.

However, these excellent keyives come at a price. The Everest 60 costs $140 (£110) on its own, and the hot-swappable numeric keypad is $50 (£35), making the whole package expensive. There are bundles that include these two, as well as bundles that include the new colorful PBT keycap series, which can be a bit cheaper. However, there is not much difference.

To be honest, the design and manufacturing of all parts of this package-the base, switches, numeric keypad, connections, and keycaps-has a sense of quality that makes this price point understandable.

However, being modular also means that you don't have to buy everything right away. Once you have chosen a base board, you can choose a numeric keypad at another time. Then, if you feel you need a set of mineral PBT keycaps or a new switch, you can choose that. I am confident that this board will be with you for many, many years to come.