I’ve complained plenty about how some of the best gaming keyboards are too expensive, from the Razer Black Widow V4 75% to the Wooting 80HE, but nothing comes remotely close to The Icebreaker. Announced nearly a year ago by Serene Industries, The Icebreaker is unlike any keyboard I’ve ever seen — and it’s priced accordingly at $1,600. Plus shipping, of course.
What could justify such an extravagant price? Aluminum, it turns out. The keyboard is constructed of one single block of 6061 aluminum in what Serene Industries calls an “unorthodox wedge form.” As if that wasn’t enough metal, the keycaps are also made of aluminum, and Serene says they include “about 800” micro-perforations that allow the LED backlight of the keyboard to shine through.
The Icebreaker looks more like an art piece than an actual keyboard, but it at least has the specs of a solid mechanical keyboard. It comes with a 65% layout, along with a metal rotary dial, and it supports hot-swappable switches. It even works wirelessly over Bluetooth with a built-in 4,000mAh battery, or wired via USB-C. It’s hard to say how the keyboard sounds — I’m not about to spend $1,600 to find out — but the company says there are two layers of sound dampening within the keyboard.
This is the first product from Serene Industries, which is a company founded — and presumably still solely run — by Denis Agarkov. Agarkov is a filmmaker and designer based out of Los Angeles, and they’ve racked up a handful of credits as a cinematographer on various short films. The Icebreaker is something completely different, and born out a “love of materials, experimentation, and an endless exercise in learning new things.”
If nothing else, it’s certainly an interesting keyboard. And as someone who can appreciate craftsmanship, I’d even call it a beautiful keyboard. Form certainly looks like it takes priority over function in this case, which shouldn’t be surprising for a keyboard designed entirely out of aluminum. I haven’t actually seen one of these keyboards in the wild, and I haven’t seen so much as a forum post from an excited customer. Hopefully, someone will buy The Icebreaker, if for nothing else than bragging rights.
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As for me, I’ll be waiting for some mythical budget version that looks the same, just without all of that aluminum jacking up the price. A man can dream.
