Set Rei Ayanami as the screen art and run profiles, volume, and lighting from the top-right cluster.

MelGeek Centauri80 Review: EVA Rei Ayanami Magnetic Keyboard

MelGeek Centauri80 review in EVA Rei Ayanami colors: aluminum case, OLED touchscreen, magnetic switches, wired-only trade-offs, price, and fixed typing angle.

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━ 04 Oct, 2026
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The MelGeek Centauri80 (also called the Qidian 80) is MelGeek's flagship magnetic-switch keyboard. This Evangelion collab reimagines it in Rei Ayanami's iconic blue and white — a wired 80% aluminum board with an OLED touchscreen tucked in the top-right. Rather than chasing the absolute lowest latency, it's built around stability, feel, and a switch platform that just... works.

EVA Rei Ayanami Design on Solid Aluminum

Swap in a different wallpaper and the blue accent keys still tie the top-right corner together. — Fig. 2. Blue accent keys tie the design together, even with different wallpapers.

Turn the board sideways to show the REI AYANAMI nameplate and blue strip on the flank. — Fig. 3. REI AYANAMI nameplate and blue accent strip on the side.

Turn the keyboard over for the printed Caution panel and the — Fig. 4. Bottom side features Caution panel and "I WILL PROTECT YOU" print.

MelGeek machined this out of aluminum with electroplating, keeping things sharp and angular instead of rounded. The EVA edition pulls straight from Rei's color scheme: frosted translucent alphas, translucent blue modifiers running across, and "THE FIRST GIRL" stamped on the spacebar. You'll spot MelGeek x EVANGELION and EVA-00 along the bottom, and flip it over — there's a stencilled Caution panel and "I WILL PROTECT YOU" printed on the back. People call it the desktop starship, and honestly, it looks the part.

The real star is that 1.78-inch OLED touchscreen sitting above the arrow keys — 325 PPI, 60 Hz, pixel density that rivals an Apple Watch. Below it sits a metal knob and a red physical button. From there you can jump between profiles, dial the volume, tweak RGB lighting, or pull up a live RT readout without ever leaving your game. RGB lighting runs down both sides, across the front, and through the honeycomb strip along the back, with per-zone control and stackable effects.

Magnetic Switches, Gasket Feel, and the Sound

Transparent keycaps put the switches on show, so a misaligned stem is immediately visible. — Fig. 5. Transparent caps expose the switches — misaligned stems show right away.

Run blue modifiers along the bottom row and let the frosted alphas carry the typing. — Fig. 6. Blue modifiers on the bottom row, frosted alphas for the rest.

Keep translucent blue keys along the outer edges so the colour reads as trim, not a flood. — Fig. 7. Blue trim along the edges keeps the color balanced, not overwhelming.

The front edge spells out EVA-00 and the Centauri Evangelion Proto Type-00 badge. — Fig. 8. Front bezel with EVA-00 and Centauri Evangelion Proto Type-00 badge.

Under the hood, MelGeek's third-gen magnetic switch platform runs on a distributed architecture — one master MCU plus five slave chips. The company reckons this setup handles data faster and keeps response times snappy. Rapid trigger goes down to 0.01mm adjustable, and there's a patented magnetic shield that's supposed to kill the missed keys and cross-talk that older magnetic boards used to suffer from. Third-party testing has it ranking high on both latency and stability.

The switches themselves? Co-developed by MelGeek and TTC. The magnet lives inside the stem, with a small POM nub at the bottom. That setup removes the hard, flat bottom-out — sound comes out duller and more concentrated, and the typing feel sits somewhere between a good linear mechanical. No clack, no harshness, just smooth actuation.

Under the keycaps sits a leaf-spring gasket with three adjustable levels (balanced out of the box). Want it softer or firmer? Different-thickness leaf springs are sold separately. Five dampening layers — PC plate, PC sandwich foam, switch pad, PORON bottom foam, plus an F24 plate — keep the typing sound tight and focused. Gone are the days of hollow rattle you got from early magnetic boards.

The Touchscreen, Built-In Safeguards, and What You're Trading

The honeycomb strip along the back glows magenta, with the braided cable leaving cleanly from the port. — Fig. 9. Honeycomb strip glows bright, braided cable exits cleanly.

Plug in at the left corner and the EVA-00 mark lines up right beneath the front edge. — Fig. 10. USB port at the left corner, EVA-00 mark aligns perfectly.

A braided cable and velcro strap come in the box, the strap printed with restrictions lifted. — Fig. 11. Braided cable and velcro strap included in the box.

Hold it upright to see the full layout and the fixed angle, since there are no flip-out feet. — Fig. 12. Fixed typing angle — no flip-out feet to adjust.

Fig. 13. Wedge profile and side lighting visible from all angles.

That touchscreen really pays dividends in actual use. Sure, swiping works, but the knob and physical button are faster for quick tweaks. You can set a custom wallpaper or move your fiddly driver settings onto on-screen cards, so you can dial in parameters mid-game without backing out. MelGeek also threw in power-anomaly alerts and water-ingress warnings — the kind of small touches that matter when you're dropping serious money.

But let's be real about the trade-offs. First: it's wired only. No tri-mode wireless option here. That said, if you're an FPS player chasing zero latency, a cable is probably the smarter choice anyway. Second: price. The standard version sits north of 1,900 RMB, and the EVA Rei Ayanami edition crosses 2,000 RMB — this is flagship territory. Third: there are no adjustable feet, so your typing angle is locked in. If you're used to a steep tilt, you might need a few days to adapt.

Final Thoughts

The Centauri80 isn't trying to squeeze out the absolute lowest latency number. It's betting on stability, feel, sound, and on-screen convenience instead. That makes it a solid pick for FPS players with budget to burn, anyone building a desk around the EVA aesthetic, or people who just dig the quick-trigger feel of magnetic switches. If wireless is non-negotiable, your budget's tight, or you need adjustable typing angles, this probably isn't your board.