Keyboard Builders' Digest / Review
Dierya DK81E review
This affordable 75% board arrived from Kemove: Dierya DK81E with gaskets, rotary knob, and nice lights.
Published December 12, 2025
Let's continue this accidental 75% keyboard series with the nth board in this form factor: the Dierya DK81E-Gasket. With its current price of just $37, this plastic board is one of the most affordable designs I've tested in this genre.
TL;DR: The wired Dierya DK81E is a fully built keyboard coming in a plastic housing. Another very affordable mechanical keyboard ($37 with the KBDNEWS coupon code) with some nice features: gasket mounting and plenty of flex cuts for a soft typing feel, hotswap switches for customizability, plus per-key RGB and decoration lights on the sides. The limited proprietary software makes this an offer more suited for gamers than enthusiasts with complex keymaps. That said, if you don't need fancy materials or finishing, nor sophisticated programmability, this is a real bang-for-your-buck deal.
Should I buy the Dierya DK81E? – you may ask. Well, I'm going to cram as many facts into this review as possible – so you can answer this question for yourself. As you'll see, I was able to eviscerate this Dierya eventually, so I'm going to provide many shots of its features. Your part? Before placing an order, it always helps to know exactly what you want. Make sure you're aware of your preferences and the features you need, and check out the full review below for all the details and photos – plus the full photodump on Imgur for an even closer look.
Disclaimer
- Kemove was kind enough to send me this review unit for free, which may introduce all kinds of biases – both negative and positive in my experience. Take everything I write with a grain of salt.
- The Rice deskmat came from Qwertykey, Romania.
Variants
Dierya is one of Kemove's sub-brands or product lines targeted especially to gamers. Mostly smaller form factors, translucent legends, etc. I'm not entirely sure about the differences between the TMKB and Dierya series boards though.
Allegedly, the Dierya DK81E comes in two colors: black and white. However, I've only ever seen the white one in the shop.
The white one has a silver encoder knob, but other sizes of the Dierya line have it with golden coating for the black variant.
Maybe the black version is simply the TMKB T81E? It looks identical to the white Dierya DK81E.
Unboxing & Contents
The simple recycled cardboard box of the Dierya DK81E is relatively basic, but it't all good. No need for fancy colorful and shiny boxes that make the bundle more expensive. This one has a lot of info printed on the box, partially in shiny black.
Contents:
- The Dierya DK81E, pre-built with switches and keycaps mounted.
- manual
- braided USB cable
- basic tool to remove keycaps
No replacement switches, extra keycaps, or switch puller.
First impressions, design language
The touch of the plastic Dierya is very familiar, I could probably recognize it in a blind test. Very similar to some other Kemove boards I reviewed earlier. It feels definitely plastic, but there's nothing wrong with that.
The side profile of the board reveals the decoration lights.
No visible branding, just a sticker on the bottom.
It's hard to make an impact in such a crowded market like the 75% segment, and I'm not sure that the Dierya DK81E is that unique with its feature set. However, it's pretty unique in the sense that it makes these features available at a very favorable price.
Specs
- Layout: 75% ANSI, 82 keys
- Keycaps: double-shot PBT Cherry profile (at least sculpted cylindrical), translucent legends
- Switches: 45gf linear "Creamy Taro" JIXIAN switches
- Case: plastic
- Typing angle: adjustable via plastic legs
- Structure: gasket mounting
- Stabilizers: plate mount (no screw-in stab support)
- Plate: PC with flex cuts
- PCB: hotswap, north-facing(!) per-key RGB, flex cuts
- Connectivity: wired
- Software: proprietary web configurator
- Dimensions: 332x140x41mm
- Weight: 707g
Layout
The 75% layout is relatively standard and prevalent. This particular keyboard offers a single layout variant (so no stepped CapsLock option, ISO support, or split spacebars).
Otherwise, as you may know, the 75% layout means no numpad and no classic navigation cluster either. However, you have arrows, function keys, full number row, and most of the classic navigation keys.
Featuring 82 keys, the Dierya DK81E is optimizing space while ensuring that all essential functions are easily accessible for new users transitioning from e.g. a fullsize keyboard. Yeah, for some reason this is a keyboard called DK81E – with 82 keys (plus the encoder, so not even because of that). I had to recount it several times… :D
The arrow cluster is nicely offset, I like this arrangement a lot, because this makes locating the arrows easier while ensuring that you won't get lost when changing between the home row and arrows.
The extra column on the right consists of four keys, plus the function row is the cool F13 arrangement – adding an extra key to the right, turning the topmost row pleasantly symmetric.
Keycaps
The keyboard comes with a double-shot Cherry profile keycap set, or at least something very similar, sculpted cylindrical profile for sure. The keycaps are these gamer ones: white with translucent legends, however, not with the most obtrusive gamer-style fonts.
Legend consistency is not the board's strength, I'm pretty sure I've already seen these same modifiers with the rather confusing bold W here on the Win key. Especially in comparison with the skinny Alt. But hey, the whole keyboard costs less than the cheapest single GMK subset I guess. :)
The alphas are a bit more edgy than the slightly rounded ones I'm used to.
With regards to keycap compatibility, the 75% layout should be widely supported if you opt for something different. 3x 1.25U modifiers on the left, 3x 1U mods on the right.
Switches
The switches are JIXIAN-branded linears. Cream housing color with burgundy/plum stems. Some scratch, but even more wobble. Especially on the horizontal axis, but practically in both directions.
Specs of the JIXIAN Creamy Taro switch:
- Actuation force: 45gf
- Bottom-out: 55gf
- Pre-travel: 2mm
- Total travel: 3.4mm
- Material: ?
- Factory lubing: yes
- Led diffuser: no
The switches are okay as a starter, but the PCB features hotswap sockets anyway, so you're not restricted to the factory setup. Check out the current best-selling switches, or feel free to use your personal favorites lying around.
Build quality, structure, case
The top and bottom cases of this board are tightly snapped together – making disassembly without doing any damage to the case almost impossible. I managed it, but was very careful. No screws anywhere. That said, the build quality still feels not just decent but very solid actually, and the board isn't too light either (707g) despite the case being plastic.
Nowhere near the weight of a CNC aluminum 75% board, often exceeding 2 kg, but the Dierya DK81E won't move around when gaming, not even mentioning less demanding jobs. These plastic legs tend to collaps sometimes on other boards, but not the ones of this Dierya – at least not in my experience – neither on a deskmat nor on the bare desk.
Typing angle: adjustable, about 5 degrees by default, plus two additional stages.
Disassembly? The Dierya DK81E made my life as a keyboard reviewer a lot more difficult than boards with screws, not even mentioning some of the quick-release models reviewed earlier. Good news: if you're not a reviewer, you most likely won't need to take it apart for any reason.
Structure & Mounting
The Dierya DK81E features gasket mounting. The foamy gaskets are glued to the PC plate's prodtruding parts, and sit directly on the perimeter of the bottom case. I can clearly see the considerable flexibility, and also feel the softness while typing.
Plate
The plate is PC, and it features many flex cuts.
Plate-mount stabilizers. No support for PCB-mount stabs.
PCB
The nice shiny black PCB is part of the thick plate/foam/PCB sandwich, and it comes with hotswap sockets, north-facing(!) per-key LEDs, and lots of flex cuts.
In addition, it features a daughterboard for the USB socket:
Bottom weight
No fancy decoration weight, intricate carvings, patters, or other gimmicks. The Dierya DK81E's bottom is the plain white plastic with a simple silvery sticker.
That said, the 707 g weight of the board is about ideal, at least for my taste. Not too heavy, not too light. This board doesn't move anywhere. Tested both on deskmats and bare desk surface.
Sound dampening & Feel
According to the exploded image on the product page, the layers are: thick latex sandwich foam, PET pad, IXPE switch pad, bottom EPDM filling foam, bottom sealing PET film, finally, bottom silicone dampener.
Together with the gaskets and the flexible PCB/plate with the cutouts, the Dierya DK81E provides a decent typing feel, better than expected based on the price. It's not overly soft like e.g. the new MoeeTech Glitter65 HE boards, but the clearly visible flexibility of the core results in a typing feel I could easily get used to.
The sound is still clacky, so not really muted. The flexibility seems to be relatively well distributed horizontally, less so vertically, resulting in considerably different sound across the rows.
RGB lights
The board comes with per-key RGB (north facing to match the translucent legends), a bunch of built-in lighting effects, 20 to be precise, and full support for real-time customization via a web-based configurator.
The backlight and ambient side lighting are completely independent. Good job! You can adjust and turn these lights on/off with pressing FN+arrows/PgUp/PgDn for the main backlight, and FN+Ctrl+arrows/PgUp/PgDn for the side lights.
From subtle ambient glow to vibrant full-spectrum animations, you can fine-tune colors, brightness, and modes to match your mood and setup.
Encoder knob
I've seen this kind of knob on multiple boards before. The outer cylinder is aluminum, while the inner part is plastic.
With regards to its position, the rotary knob sits too low for my fingers, which makes it difficult to access. Additionally, the silky surface is quite slippery, making it challenging to turn the knob.
Otherwise the default functionality is volume up/down, plus mute on press.
Software
Hm. The Dierya comes with a proprietary online configurator. No QMK/VIA/Vial support, unfortunately. Enthusiasts with elaborated keymaps are not very fond of such software.
Anyway, you can try it here: app.dieryatech.com/
Easy key remapping, encoder included, macros, lighting, directly in your browser – in theory. In practice, the options are limited to basic functionality.
Swapping letters or symbols works as usual, so setting up your base layer is quite straightforward. In addition, there are four layers to play with. However, despite MO and TO functionality present, I couldn't find any way to set up SpaceFN properly.
You can assign layer 3 to e.g. CapsLock (MO3), but there are no double-function mod-tap layer options, so you can't use any "important" key for layer switching.
The lighting adjustment part is pretty comprehensive.
Portability
This Dierya is a great board if portability is your main concern. Although it lacks any wireless features, the mere 707 g weight combined with a relatively small 75% footprint makes it mobile enough.
Comparison
In the past few months, boards with very similar layouts have piled up in my review schedule, so I can compare them side by side now: the Evoworks Evo75, Womier SK71 Pro and ERA75, and KiiBOOM Jade have been already covered, and we'll get to even more in the upcoming weeks.
From all the 75% keyboards, the Dierya DK81E is one of the most affordable – with its price of just $37 (using the KBDNEWS coupon code). In addition, its offset arrow cluster is a relatively rare feature – especially in contrast to the quite crowded Dry Studio Battleye. I you fancy this arrangement, check out the Redragon Eclipse K720 Pro as well.
Comparing the DK81E to a much more expensive aluminum board would make no sense. 75% boards, often in the $120-130 price range and below, are numerous, so to decide you have to consider some important differences. You can check out the classy NPKC RO75, the silly (plastic!) KiiBOOM Phantom81 and more serious Moonshadow V2, or even the GravaStar Mercury K1 Pro – and try to figure out what features you find important: plastic vs CNC alu case, rotary knob, display, offset arrows, wireless, software (VIA/Vial support vs something proprietary) or simply aesthetics.
Conclusion
The 75% wired Dierya DK81E GASKET is a very affordable pre-built mechanical keyboard with highlights like the surprisingly soft and pleasant typing feel, thanks to the gasket mounting and plenty of flex cuts. Double-shot caps with translucent legends and decent switches, however, I'm not a big fan of the web-based configurator. A great offer for gamers on a budget, keymap wizards will miss some important software features though.
Pros
- pleasant typing feel (gaskets, flex cuts)
- nice decoration light
- customizable (hotswap, MX)
- great form factor (F13, offset arrow cluster)
Cons
- Hard encoder knob access – it sits too low to properly grab it
- limited proprietary software
- considerable stem wobble of the switches
- screwless structure – disassembly discouraged
Price & Availability
The Dierya DK81E is available at kemove.com. The KBDNEWS coupon code (5% off) is in effect too, so you can get it for just $37 now.
- Dierya DK81E product page
Published on Fri 12th Dec 2025. Featured in KBD #204.
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