Matrix Lab Carnival Alice Review: A 10th Anniversary Alice Board

Matrix Lab's 10th anniversary kit, the FAUKWAA Carnival Alice, is basically their version of a light show in keyboard form — Alice layout, screens and a dot-matrix display running across the front, beryllium-copper guts underneath, and two spacebars you can swap around however you want. They dropped 350 of these by lottery on December 10, 2025. Let's dig into what actually works here and where you'll find yourself grinding.

What the Carnival Alice Gets Right

The carnival-of-lights theme is literally built into the front — light parts, screens, a dot-matrix display, PVD accents and a weight all stacked across the face. Dark room? This thing shines.

Build quality is tight. The coating feels refined, the screw holes line up in proper rows instead of scattered everywhere. It reads like a 10th-anniversary celebration should: polished.

The core feels different. They swapped out FR4 for beryllium copper, paired it with a 1.2 mm slotted PCB and a PC plate — all aimed at flex. People who've used Matrix boards before say the give is noticeably greater than the older stuff. That means real room to dial in exactly how it feels.

Spacebars actually swap. You get 2.25U and 2.75U bars that mix freely and flip left-right without fuss. Want dual 2.25U? Done. Dual 2.75U? Also works.

Weight and height.** Front sits at 19 mm, board weighs around 2.74 kg when everything's assembled.

The Second Y Key, Loose Light Parts and Other Trade-Offs

That extra Y on the left. Alice splits add a Y key. Keycap sets come with two Bs but almost never two Ys, so that slot's gotta be an artisan cap — and yeah, it probably won't match your alpha set. Quietly adds to the total cost of actually using this thing.

Light parts are finicky. A couple of those small light pieces sit awkwardly under the glass cover and just fall off. The aluminum-plate light part technically fits better on the PC plate, but you'll need to force it. Not great.

Edge feel needs work. Some folks who've lived with earlier Matrix boards say the beryllium-copper build doesn't hit as hard as last year's Christmas and Valentine's drops, especially toward the sides. Still needs tuning.

Stabilizers are a pain to dial in. They're fussy, and occasionally the spacebar position picks up rattle. Not a deal-breaker, just annoying.

That PVD film. Peel it off and risk scratches; leave it and you're stuck with the edge bothering you. Minor, but still there.

Fit, Finish and Who This Board Is Actually For

Color options are broader than usual: eight finishes total. Seven of them are coated — Almond White, Flash Red, Sea Blue, Sunflower Yellow, Peach Pink, Flash Black, Retro Grey — plus a stone-washed silver. Inside, it's hot-swap with no switch LEDs, and if you grabbed one of the 90 overseas-limited units, you got a high-refresh PCB with 8K polling.

Who should actually buy this? Someone who already has keycap stock sitting around and doesn't mind tuning. If you're looking for a daily-driver Alice board that just works out of the box, the premium and the layout quirks probably won't justify it. Plenty of stone-washed silver kits have already shown up in resale, which tells you something.

Editor's Notes & Summary

This is a design-first kit: light matrix, soft beryllium-copper core, dual-spacebar flexibility. But the second Y, the loose light parts and edge tuning rough around the edges show it shipped a little half-baked.

The specs at a glance: