Mountain Everest Max review: Probably the most modular keyboard
A TEST REPORT from Benedict Behring 
on April 14, 2023, 13:51 am | Write a comment
With the Everest Max keyboard, Mountain promises to be the perfect keyboard that everyone can customize for themselves. It has many unique features at first glance. You can find out how these work in practice and whether they justify the price in our test.
Mountain was founded in 2018 and to date has 3 full keyboards in the line-up. One of them also in “barebones” style. This is basically just a bare keyboard without switches or keycaps, which you can then equip with your own. So it's already noticeable here that Mountain wants to give its customers control over their keyboards. The award-winning Everest Max is the brand's flagship model and is now presented to you in more detail.
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tl;dr: High level of quality comes with high price
The Everest Max from Mountain is certainly a high-end keyboard that is intended to appeal to gamers and streamers in particular. With its modularity, it brings features that are quite unique. I, for example, got used to it, my music and the right thing Proprogram after booting the computer with the display keys. The processing and the typing feel are flawless. The cable is textile-coated and a USB hub is integrated. The somewhat slow software can convince with its functions, but can still be improved. It would be nice if Mountain included PBT keycaps directly with the Everest Max for a price of 249,99 euros and you didn't have to buy them separately. Considering the quality you get, however, the price is reasonable.
Design: high-quality materials, top workmanship
But first to the packaging. This is definitely worth 2 words. The Mountain logo shines at us from the start, if you open the box, the keyboard is already looking at you. Underneath there are 4 slots in which the media dock, numpad, USB cable and customization aids are packed. Even 5 other switches are available for "Protype” enclosed.
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- Picture: TechnikNews
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- Image: TechniNews
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- Picture: TechnikNews
More on that later. The keyboard mainly consists of 2 CNC milled plates made of brushed aluminum. This ensures durability and a rich finish. Each key and the keyboard is RGB illuminated all around. It also looks good, only the digits and the Enter key could be illuminated a little more accurately. Speaking of buttons, these are unfortunately only included in the scope of delivery as an ABS version. PBT double-shot is offered, but must then be ordered separately. Midnight Black and Gunmetal Gray are the two possible color options for the Everest Max.
Modularity: That's what Everest Max is all about
The options are varied. When buying, you can choose between 5 Cherry switches. But they are Top-Swappable, i.e. interchangeable with other 3-pin switches at any time. Once you have arrived, you can connect your numpad to the right or left side of the keyboard directly or with a short cable. The same thing applies to the media dock, which can be quickly and easily attached to the top of the respective page. Both are repositionable on-the-fly and save their settings. The palm rest is quickly attached using magnets, but just as quickly removed again. I see this as a plus because when typing for long periods of time I just separated the palm rest from the keyboard to get the right spacing for my fingers. The inclination of the keyboard and numpad can also be quickly and easily adjusted to the desired height using the magnets supplied.
We also noticed positively that the back of the Everest Max was also thought through. Cable ducts are embedded here, which ensure order.
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- Picture: TechnikNews
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- Picture: TechnikNews
Media Dock and Numpad: The special features of the keyboard
In addition to the freedom on which side it can be attached, the numpad has another special feature. Above the numeric keypad are 4 proprogrammable display keys. They are similar to those of the Stream Deck and work the same way. They can be freely assigned in function and image with the in-house software. Mountain has already pre-designed a few graphics here. You can add more yourself or buy them on the Internet, small animated images are also possible. The number pad is not rigidly connected on purpose. Some play has been left here, which allows it to be easily attached and removed. But it is also intended to ensure that the USB-C connector does not bend when the keyboard is moved. Magnets also provide the necessary stability.
Picture: TechnikNews
The media dock is a small unit for quickly controlling small functions that can be attached to the desired side above the keyboard. This can be used, for example, to change the volume, the lighting or the playback of videos/music. Also info like PC usage, keystrokes pro Minute or the time can be selected as background. You can also insert your own images as screensavers.
Picture: TechnikNews
Software: Good, but not yet on par
The Everest Max also works without the in-house "Base Camp" software, but without using it, it only makes sense if you use it e.g. B. just not installed at a LAN party. For everyday use, you should have downloaded it at least once to set up the keyboard. With "Base Camp" almost all keys can be reassigned, including those of the numpad and the media dock. You can also use it to create macros and the display keys with individual ones Prooccupy files. So or with starting an application you can then just another Profil to be able to use up to 20 images and functions for the display keys. Base Camp provides support for some softwareprogram as example Obs Studio, XSplit, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve and Twitch, YouTube or Twitter. You can also connect Razer Synapse to adjust your lighting effects. Unfortunately, this led to stability in my systemprotrouble. But that should be fixable with an update from Mountain or Razer. Of course, the lighting can also be controlled via Mountains Software, which works quite well.
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- Picture: TechnikNews
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- Picture: TechnikNews
We would like to thank MOUNTAIN for making the Everest Max available.
