The world of gaming keyboards is flush with a variety of choices, with a range of sizes, key counts, switch types, keycap styles, color schemes, lighting options, extra keys, connectivity types, degrees of programmability, and all kinds of other extra features. It can be a dizzying proposition to find the right keyboard for your tastes, but chances are there’s something out there exactly for you; I’ve got three different ones on my desk at the moment. Expanding upon that range of choices is The Shrimp, a 25-key ultra compact 20% mechanical gaming keyboard from Nordic Game Supply created to save on space and focus on the parts of your keyboard you actually use.
It’s an unconventional proposition, and at first glance it might even seem silly, but after a month of use I’m convinced this is a keyboard worth looking at. Despite its diminutive size, The Shrimp is a serious gaming keyboard that brings a host of features aiming to make it an ideal solution for comfort without compromises.
It’s important to note that The Shrimp isn’t meant to replace your existing keyboard full time, but rather it’s intended to offer a gaming-focused interface that augments your existing setup and allows you to rest one hand on the keys that most gamers use most commonly while gaming, and the other on your mouse, while positioning both in a way that’s more comfortable and ergonomic. It’s a great pickup for folks with gaming laptops who want to bring an external keyboard while on the go, but it finds its home nicely on a full desktop setup as well. It even comes with a nice carrying bag for taking it with you, and making you feel safer about tossing it in a bag.
The construction on the Shrimp is excellent, sporting a sturdy plastic case with some nice weight from the metal base plate, and rubber feet on the bottom in the corners to keep it from slipping. The bezel around the keys themselves is extremely thin at the outer edges, so no space is wasted where it shouldn’t be. It comes with a matching padded wrist wrest, with magnets at the connection points of the wrest and the keyboard so they align easily and stay connected during play. It connects to your computer via the included 6-foot braided USB-C cable, which is all but standard for peripherals at this point but still worth mentioning as I really appreciate the simplicity of USB-C.
The board uses Gateron™ G Pro Yellow mechanical switches, which feel great to use provide a nice balance of tactile feedback with the smooth and quiet operation that yellow switches are known for. Nordic Game Supply claims to be utilizing “sound dampening wizardry” inside of the case and while I don’t know for sure how much extra is actually happening there (no dampeners are pre-installed under the keycaps for example), the board certainly is on the quieter side. Yellow switches can feel a little bit on the softer side to use, but they still bottom out nicely and give you a good satisfying clack at the bottom. I think they’re a great choice for this board in particular in terms of balancing feel with smoothness and sound. There’s no ability to swap the switches out on the Model 1, but future models may include different switch choices or the ability to hot-swap switches.
The ABS keycaps are a custom set of Cherry profile caps with some nice color scheme options available and shine-through with large legends for each of the keys to help accentuate the RGB illumination. Nordic sent over the “Bomber” variant of The Shrimp (there are four color schemes in total), which is a colorful set of blue, orange, and neon yellow keys that really pop and look great. It’s an attractive color scheme and there are yellow accents on the board’s buttons and knobs that are complimentary to the board’s color scheme. The included wrist wrest sports some gaming-inspired graffiti/decal artwork, which isn’t necessarily the look I go for but it works with the colors of the board. The cushioning isn’t huge but it’s enough to add more comfort than you ordinarily get and it does make a noticeable difference during longer sessions.
The feel of the keycaps themselves is soft and gentle, which really rounds out the overall theme of comfort that The Shrimp is going for with the switch choice and wrist wrest. Because the caps are standard Cherry profile, you can use the included cap-puller to remove them and put whatever keycaps you’d like on them, but frankly the stock caps look and feel so nice both to touch and type on, I personally wouldn’t want to swap them at all. This thing seriously feels great to use, and part of me hopes a 60% or 65% version is on the horizon because I think it’d be great to type on as well.
The Shrimp Model 1 is advertised as a keyboard for casual gaming, which I think is the ideal application for it. I’ve tried it with a variety of games and it does work best for slower paced experiences. For most games I played, between strategy, platformers, more relaxed exploration style games, and others, The Shrimp fared well and was a great companion for my gaming sessions. I did find that as the complexity of a game scaled up (and therefore the number of key binds required), the less effective The Shrimp was, but it did great for the majority of titles.
While I’m sure the keyboard could work for competitive gaming, it would really need one extra column of keys to the right (T, G, and B) to ensure enough functionality for shooters or any competitive game requiring the use of as many keys as your left hand can reach. In fact, the lack of a G key specifically was what tripped me up the most often oddly enough, which is admittedly a weird nitpick but it’s a key that I found more games utilized than I expected! This can of course be solved relatively easily by rebinding keys, so it’s a really minor issue that can be worked around, and the keyboard’s manual even recommends this approach for dealing with such scenarios.
The other main challenge I encountered with The Shrimp was when playing multiplayer games with friends; while it works great for casual laid back sessions, if you want or need to use in-game text chat, you’ll still need to rely on your primary keyboard, which is totally fine but means you’ll need to figure out an arrangement on your desk that allows for ergonomic/comfortable use of The Shrimp while still keeping your main keyboard in reach. Again, this is a relatively minor issue, but one worth noting.
The Shrimp Model 1 sports some nice extra features as well. It has two built in knobs at the top; one for controlling the brightness of the illumination (though this seems to only have three levels, the lowest of which is off), and the other is mapped to your OS volume control; next to the volume control is a button that toggles audio mute. Pressing down on the illumination knob cycles lighting effects, and pressing down on the volume knob opens up your system’s default media player.
Perhaps more exciting or interesting is the second layer of keys accessed by holding down the Function key. With the second layer invoked, you have access to a “return” key, F1-F5, media controls, and more fine-grained controls for controlling the lighting effects, which combined help to increase the utility of the keyboard out of the box. The keys are not directly reprogrammable as far as I can tell (no QMK/VIA support), but given that several of them are tied to functionality of the board itself, this makes sense, and in the vast majority of cases shouldn’t be necessary.
Where The Shrimp really shines is where it advertises itself as being strong; as a keyboard for casual gaming, and in my opinion, casual solo gaming. Sessions where you can or really want to focus on chilling (or Viking) out on something fun but not demanding, where you can take your time and enjoy yourself. The comfort features of The Shrimp Model 1 make it incredibly well suited for casual gaming, making it the perfect complement to your blanket and mug of tea for cozy gaming sessions.
Nordic Game Supply has hinted that another future model of this unique 20% keyboard will be more geared toward competitive gaming, and as somebody who really enjoys kicking back with some Fortnite, I’m particularly excited to see what adjustments they may make for that model.
As it stands, while the form factor is easily the smallest and most unique of any keyboard I’ve used (I’m a regular user of 60%/65% boards as daily drivers), I’m pleased to say The Shrimp Model 1 is an easy recommendation to make for somebody looking to optimize for space and to increase their comfort level for their casual gaming. Mine is currently resting to the left of my primary keyboard, its welcoming glow cheerily pulsing as it waits for the next time I sit down for a session of Vampire Survivors, Stardew Valley, or Return to Monkey Island.
The Shrimp Model 1 does a great job of demonstrating the value of its concept, and I expect successive revisions will make the idea of a 20% keyboard all the more compelling. If you’re Shrimp-curious, I say dive in; you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much you like it.
The Shrimp was provided by Nordic Game Supply for review purposes
