HyperX and Ducky have joined forces to bring the world a limited production, super teeny, adorable mechanical gaming keyboard designed to provide the "best gaming keyboard experience. "The HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini gaming keyboard takes Ducky s One 2 Mini keyboard design and PBT DoubleShot seamless keycaps, while utilizing HyperX's red linear switches. It adds HyperX flair to the existing One 2 Mini. It's odd that a gaming keyboard of which only 3,700 units will be produced gets the Jordan 1 Retro treatment.

Like most 60% keyboards, the HyperX x Ducky One 2 mini is not for everyone. The arrows and numeric keypad are cut off, making data entry more cumbersome, and most small keyboards of this sort can feel flimsy at times. I can live with a tenkeyless keyboard. However, when I lose the dedicated arrow keys, I feel like I've lost part of my soul.

I can understand a design choice that basically trims the fat to the bare minimum to increase desktop real estate. The arrow keys are still there, just as a function on the J, K, L, and I keys.

For someone like me who edits text and video all day long, the arrow keys are extremely useful, and the lack of them purely hits my productivity. Adding a second Fn modifier key to the left side of the keyboard would have made it more comfortable, at least for me. That said, the additional desk space may be more important for game playing, as it gives me more room to move the mouse around.

If your workspace is small, the One 2 Mini's ergonomics alone are worth considering. The detachable USB-C cable makes the Mini an ideal candidate for a travel keyboard as well; the Fn layer has keys for everything from pseudo-mouse buttons to media controls. In theory, the Mini allows you to work without a mouse if necessary, so it's not bad as a second keyboard for streaming or for movie scenes where Super 1337 hacks into an evil corporate server from inside a building.

The space savings with this small keyboard means more room for a mouse. In Apex Legends and Halo 2 Aniversary Edition, this did not result in a noticeable performance boost, but at least it was comfortable. It didn't noticeably improve performance in Apex Legends or Halo 2 Aniversary Edition, but at least it made them more comfortable.

As a gaming keyboard, the One 2 Mini shines, not just because of the wild RGB lighting, but because of the white base underneath that highlights the color of each key; the RGB backlighting modes can be controlled and customized with the keyboard combination. I would have preferred to control the lighting via software, but the One 2 Mini does not have that. Everything from macro settings to the keyboard minesweeper (no joke) is set using a specific key combo. This is a problem when you accidentally put it in demo mode and can't figure out how to turn it off.

These switches have shorter travel than the Cherry MX Reds, making them faster to type on, which is great for gaming. They also offer the same linear action. I prefer more tactile feel, but the high-end keycaps offset that slight irritation. However, the larger keys such as the backspace, enter, and shift keys felt a bit off. These keys seemed to require an unusual amount of force, which threw off my typing rhythm.

To compare how different the One 2 Mini is from my Steelseries Apex 7 (which uses similar linear switches), I did my usual writing, editing, and Twitter swearing, and the space key required more force than usual! Despite this, I saw no significant difference in typing performance. The lack of arrow clusters always bothered me when I had to work with Google Sheets, but I was brave enough to work around it.

The HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini is an impressive 60% keyboard, perfect for gaming thanks to HyperX's Fast Input Red switches, and built well enough for daily abuse. While other versions offer a variety of switches, the HyperX and Ducky collaboration only offers Linear Red. This limited production keyboard is well designed, feels great, and enjoys a decent light show.