Absolutely love that someone who’s passionate about keyboards is reviewing this keyboard in depth, down to the housing wobble. It’s fantastic that he also gives suggestions on how to make it better, ie. filming the switch and lubing the stabilizers
Plouffe isn't too deep into the rabbit hole he just happens to have the biggest platform out of any keyboard enthusiast, including ones who have been doing it since before the hobby boomed. (i.e. TaeKeyboards etc.)
I mean dont get me wrong hes not an idiot and im not trying to say that he's wrong because 99% of the info of this video is correct; it just would appear he isn't as experienced as someone like TaehaTypes for example who started the keyboard boom in the first place.
As much as some videos are unprepared/misinformed (i know, it's just an unboxing channel), when the host actually knows his stuff and does care, this channel shines.
He's hardly even skimmed the top of mechanical keyboards. I don't get these types of comments - you've got hundreds of actual keyboard enthusiasts out there but because this guy works at LMG his word is god.
I'm with you, but I'll still dock him a point for not wanting to use a soldering iron when he is talking about throwing films on the switches and lubing each of them. Though TBH, I think we'd all agree that de-soldering is the most tedious part of the hobby. Anybody doing lots of switch swaps needs a proper de-soldering iron...doubly so if they are removing lead-free solder.
100%. As an enthusiast I hate when keyboards are reviewed by people who only care about 'gaming' and not actual important aspects of a keyboard. Y'know, the type of person that loves blue switches and doesn't care about a non-detachable cable. This was informative and I can tell Nicholas has a passion for keyboards. Great job SC
great review! I just got the Keychron Q10 today and it is fantastically built from what I can see thus far. Also, I have the Meletrix Zoom 65 EE on pre-order (got it in right before it was sold out). While it is nice to see a big company implementing hot swap board, albeit its only 3 pin, it is at the minimum moving in a good direction for the keyboard market. Thank you!
On hotswap boards like this, the bigger companies use plate mount stabs. You can just pop out the switch and then the stabilizers can come out freely. No need to remove the top plate.
Just a bit of feedback... instead of saying "5 pin switches will not fit on this board", just suggest snipping the 2 stabilizer pins off with a nail clipper or side cutters to turn them into 3 pin switches and let them fit. P.S. as a keyboard enthusiast, and someone who has applied to LMG/LTT twice, I love this content, but I feel like you need Ploof to do more homework before these get filmed (or maybe whoever wrote this)
Recently i bought the k70 pro rgb as my first mechanical keyboard. Where I live it was already hard enough to find a full size keyboard with media keys, so i didn't really have a choice. I do really like it tho. I can't really judge the sound, it sounds good to me. The ping is there but i don't notice it unless i listen for it or smash the keys, which i don't do lol. My only complaint is that the keys are not hot swappable. But i got used to the silvers pretty fast. I just don't think they're actually any better for gaming than the reds
0:44 Outemu switches do fit in other hot swap sockets. It's the other way around, other switches don't fit into Outemu hot swap sockets. 3:43 "Some kinda proprietary thing from Corsair" - Dude, those are just regular plate-mounted stabs...
I do love my Keychron board. Saw it on here and took a leap for my first “quality” board. I think the “boutique” options have been my favorite here lately.
I used to only get Corsair keyboards back when I was first getting into PC gaming but often find that cheaper keyboards like Royal Kludge and Red Dragon to be built way better for like 1/5th of the cost and are super easily upgradable
Some of the EVGA ones have been surprisingly good value recently, especially the z15 if you don't mind full size. It'll be interesting to see if they move more into that space now that they don't do video cards.
The biggest downside to 60% boards from brands like Corsair/Razer/etc, in my experience/opinion, is the limited key re-programmability they offer. "You can reprogram what these buttons do, but not these buttons" - has been my experience. Pretty limiting for a 60% layout. (CapsLock + IJKL for arrow keys is great.) Maybe this has changed recently, but a year(ish) ago that's how it was.
One thing I think you forgot to mention is with the 3-pin sockets - you can clip the other 2 pins on 5-pin switches to fit them in the sockets. Not fun, but it is not impossible to use 5-pin switches as you stated…
@@EddieGooch No he specifically said ‘the board is 3-pin and if you have 5-pin switches, they won’t be compatible’. He never said anything about being able to clip the pins, hence my comment….
agreed, Epomaker are decent, but there are also a tonne of Cheap Chinese brands out there as well that are crazy good (also a few that are terrible too). There are so many other good, much cheaper boards out there. for the price of a Corsair you can get a Wooting where I'm sure the per-key actuation would be far better than higher polling
To make this keyboard good I reckon you need to hotswap the switches (it's scratchy AF), the stabilisers (to something less rattly), the case (to something heavier and more premium), the PCB (to 5 pin, south facing), the keycaps (those legends, ugh). Or... Just buy another new keyboard.
This just goes to show how out of touch big peripheral brands like Logitech or Corsair are with the current competition landscape. I just got an Akko 5075B+ which included a set of lubed Akko Wine Red switches (linear, factory lubed instead of hand-lubed but it's still a noticeable improvement), a polycarbonate plate, a set of decent ASA profile keycaps that are double-shot PBT and a knob for less than this Corsair (160 CAD/116 USD). It was great out of the box, with the switches smoother and more stable than the Corsair, the keycaps of higher quality and looked better (IMO) than the Corsair, the stabilizers better tuned and lubed than the Corsair (factory prelubed). I spent an evening and around 40 CAD of material modding it to match the way I wanted it to sound and feel and made it even better for myself. There's a lot of good options out there for good and budget mechanical keyboards and rarely any of them are from big name brands like how it used to be, and they also clearly have no place in the mid-range conversation when enthusiast brands like Wooting, Zoom65, QwertyKeys, Bakaneko, or common brands like Akko, Keychron, Idobao, Glorious and Iqunix exists and consitently offer better value for the price. The only thing the big brands have for themselves is the "gamer" features like RGB ecosystem, 8khz polling rate (most likely imperceptible to 99% of the userbase) or software dependent functionalities that further hinders the board's value on its own. Unless something within these companies changes, I can't see many people will continue to buy big brand names' keyboards for long as they realize that there is so much value that can be found elsewhere and jump ship.
On the latency aspect, I would LOVE to see a comparison between QMK/via and the big box companies that mention speed in their marketing (corsair, razer, logitech, etc). I'm sure there are some boards you can even swap the firmware from in-house to QMK to get it on the same hardware as well.
Most companies that advertise "speed" only do so with short actuation switches. Their reasoning being that the keys activate sooner than the competition. They've been doing this since before the polling rate war. It's dumb.
With QMK some features can slow down the keyboard a bit. I daily drive a 30 key keyboard where every key has multiple functions and it takes a few miliseconds for some features to work, it's not a problem for my daily use but it wouldn't be good for gaming.
You’re telling me, the headset I bought from them got ruined because the ear cushion basically slipped off from heat/sweat and it was held by glue. Never realized it, I just assumed they were assembled like Logitech headsets. I’m so pissed at how much I spent on them.
$180 for plate mount switches only, north facing RGB, not fully aluminum case, and those keycaps? The Keychron Q4 seems like a better buy to me at $160.
0:58 From another keyboard enthusiast let me correct Plouffe It's the other way around. Cherry style pins wont fit in Outemu style hotswap sockets. Outemu style pins are physically more slim then Cherry style pins so therefore Outemu style pins can fit in any keyboard *Note: Gazzew's boba housings (even though they are produced by Outemu are an exception to this rule) (typing on heavily modded Boba U4s)
@@laffeybunn8557 so weird. The board I'm speaking of is a redragon as well. The only problem I had was 3 pin sockets, so I had to clip the plastic legs. Wasn't fun for a full-size board.
@@tyrosine87 I thought I mutilated them but I could be wrong, I was really tired that night after figuring out how to kill the sound of the u4 in a clean manner that 1. didn't make it higher pitched / louder then stock 2. didnt make it sound like fart sound test will be out eventually on my channel if you care
Those really don't look like proprietary stabs, unlike what is said in the video. They look like standard plate mounts, so if you pop out the switch in that position, you can easily remove the stabilizers for tuning without tearing the whole board down. Real shame about it being 3 pin rather than 5 pin, since you would need to clip 5 pins down to fit. It's a pretty easy thing for a manufacturer to include, and for that price tag I'd normally expect that to be included. What is nice is Corsair using a standard layout, which is nice and easy to swap pretty much any MX compatible keycap set under the sun onto. The wireless tech supporting 2000Hz and the wired supporting 8000Hz is cool, but keep in mind a lot of games that aren't the latest launches may not even support that kind of input, and will just be utilizing a 1000Hz polling rate in the engine, so it isn't necessarily a benefit for everyone. It's nice to see some of the gaming brands trying to catch up a bit, but the pricing is not spectacular, and they still have some more features to catch up on still.
I've got the Epomaker TH80 with Gateron Pro Black switches. It's a very nice keyboard in terms of build quality with muffled sounding switches compared to Cherry mx red. The software is kinda annoying to use and the wireless connectivity is a hit or miss.
I love my TH80 SO much! It's still one I often go back to even from my higher end ones. It's just so nice and it was one of my first ones I tinkered with.
Im not to deep in the custom keyboard stuff but got this one about 2 months ago and really like it so far. Switched some RGB MX browns in there and it looks and feels very nice. I was looking at the more "custom" keyboard from keychron aswell but most of them dont have RGB and I already know iCue so that was much easier. When you add some rubber padding the sound is much nicer and actually sound pretty good Id say
Outemu switches fit in Kailh/Gateron hotswap sockets. Cherry switches and many of the other manufacturers just don’t fit in Outemu hotswap sockets since the Outemu sockets have smaller holes. The pins are in the same spot, but Outemu switches have thinner pins that will fit their own sockets (and others).
"maybe I'm being elitist" yeah probably if you're recommending the average corsair buyer to spend the time to disassemble and lube all the switches lol. This is probably a excellent keyboard to people that are not into keyboards and just want to game
My favourite 60% keyboard from an oem is the HyperX Alloy Origins 60. Hefty, per key RGB decent keycaps. No hotswap but HyperX's red switches are very very good.
I've got the same one with the Aqua, which are equivalent to browns. Really sturdy board, switches are consistent, and they feel pretty nice. No hotswap and according to keyboard people it's hard to mod, but it's very enjoyable to use out of the box
Hope Logitech now follows through on hotswap mechanical keyboards too. Now that brands like Corsair are doing this.... As much as I like my g915 I wouldn't mind changing the switches to try out new things. Even if I wanted to solder stuff I'm pretty sure they have different pin arragement too, so I'm locked with their switches forever D:
Logitech would need to dump their romer-g switches or redesign them since they're proprietary and the pin layout isn't compatible with other switches on the market. It would be nice if they did that though.
Their pro x Keyboard is hotswap, but only with their propietary romer switches. So not really usefull anyway, i would Love the g915 with hotswap and gateron lp switches. ATM the g915 is too expensive for being non hotswap imho.
I'm currently using the K100 (which I like the new OPX switches, find them similar to Reds in terms of force, but smoother, and prefer them over my old MX brown) but I hate the switches aren't hot-swappable (in case it happens to break, the spring ping is annoying and I can't fix it because I can't get into the switch without a complete teardown and a lot of resoldering, and the cable is still not detachable. Also has an FN key (despite being a full one) which is only used for onboard lighting stuff, and I wish they made it remappable as a full modifier key
If I'm understanding you correctly, you have the K100 with OPX switches? If so, I can confirm that that keyboard is hotswappable - as in you can pull the switches out without desoldering them, then put in other switches - but of course, only optical-type switches. You can't use normal mechanical-type switches which have those metal pins sticking out at the bottom. Pulling out the switches themselves (the first time you do it) will take a lot of *VERY* careful leverage and back-and-forth rocking motions because the top aluminum plate tolerances are quite exact and tight. Just go slow and steady, pulling on the switch like a seesaw while pulling up and out. I've modded my K70 TKL with OPX switches by doing this. In terms of getting replacement switches, as far as I know Corsair's OPX switches are made by Cherry, and you can't buy them separately anywhere, not even from Corsair. Couldn't hurt to ask them though. However, Gateron also makes optical switches in linear, clicky, and tactile variants, and they have 99% the same measurements/switch style housing as the Corsair ones, so that's an option. I dropped them into my K70 and they worked on the few keys that I put them into, but your mileage may vary.
> "which I like the new OPX switches, find them similar to Reds in terms of force, but smoother, " I'm not sure how much of that is due to the switches. My old Razor keyboard was smoother than my current Corsair keyboard, despite both having cherry switches. The corsair keys feel like someone used coarse sandpaper on the stem.
"I don't know how keyboards are dangerous" Well, I had the corded one of these and it literally caught fire and exploded while I was using it, so there's obviously some warrant to including that warning in there, lol.
Probably because Corsair are well known in the PC industry and had a lot of traction when mechanical keyboards started to become mainstream. As someone who has used a K70 for 5 years I would have to do some considerable research to familiarise myself with all the other brands available that offer better products now.
iCue integration. More recognized brand name. Easier to find in physical retail like Best Buy. None of those mean it's any better at all, just easier for the average PC gamer to get ahold of.
Because I like the ICUE software. I use a LOT of macros to save me time & effort and out of all the macro software I have used it simply works the best. I am not spending money on JUST the keyboard, it's also to be able to use the software that accompanies it. Also the fact that Wallpaper Engine can control the RGB matching it with my background is a nice bonus. If there was an open source alternative that worked with all keyboards, that did not require knowing lua programming like autohotkey does, and that I could validate works as well for my workflow, then I would gladly give other brands a chance to get my money.
iCue, real warranty, resale, brand recognition, Cherry switches. It's hard to swallow dropping $200 on a brand that you've never heard of, or with switches you've never seen before.
Id recommend the Redragon K530 instead. Also 60%, also RGB, also wireless, also hot swap. Only thing it doesnt have is iCue. Its also less than half the price. And can be black or white and your choice of blue, brown, or red switches
Is that keyboard really usable? For my daily use, missing function keys would be an absolute deal breaker. Are there people that do not use function keys?
I bought the wireless black Royal Kludge RK68 RGB with brown switches all together for $60 and it's my first mechanical keyboard and it seems to have more build quality than that $200 keyboard lol. I noticed you guys haven't even reviewed this brand either. I would highly recommend it.
at this rate in the next 5 years corsair will give us a board with 5 pin support, 10 years we'll maybe get a piece of foam and then our great, great grandkids will tell us about their corsair board having screw in stabilizers
I don’t know how I could ever use a 60% keyboard. They’re too small and the fn shortcut keys seem annoying to deal with. TKL is the perfect size for me.
The catch with polling rate above 1000Hz is that it eats up enough CPU resources, that you will get worse PC performance as a result. Basically, it's a detrimental feature to enable.
This seems like it'll hit discount shelves soon after release at $180, I can't see spending that much on a keyboard ever but I'd think a custom one would be better quality for a lower price.
Corsair and other major manufacturers really need to step up their game and release some 75% keyboards! Just because we have limited space doesn't mean we should have to compromise on keys!
PLEASE just let plouffe go full on keyboard enthusiast in a video series about the mechanical keyboard hobby! A first step in to the beautiful world perhaps?
Just some context here. When Logitech made their first mech board the G710 they bought Cherry's entire production of Cherry MX browns for a year. Keychron and the like dont move anywhere near enough units to make that happen.
even ducky has a lot of enthusiast parts slapped into their keyboards now like more sound dampening foams, lubed switches and stabs. theres absolutely no excuse for logitech, corsair and razer to slack off on the keyboard department since their keybs are hellauva lot more expensive.
I wish Mainstream tech tubers wouldn't say stuff like, " if you have five pin switches they won't fit in here because these are three pin sockets." They absolutely will fit...you'll have to clip the two extra pins off, they're plastic and add stability and it won't hurt them at all, but they'll definitely fit.
A lot of the rattle from the case comes from the daughterboard, which they inexplicably decided to hang at a weird angle off of the main PCB, surrounding the battery (which is also attached to the bottom of the PCB). There's no way to easily remove the plate from the PCB without peeling off some copper tape connecting the battery assembly to the main PCB, which I am reluctant to do, because there are two screws underneath that tape. There's no way to put any sort of standard 60% plate foam in here to stop the plate from pinging without undoing those hidden screws. However I was able to reduce the case from rattling by wedging some foam between the loosely attached daughterboard and the PCB. It's overengineered. Rather than simply putting a battery in the bottom of the case, they split part of the PCB out into this weird daughterboard to make room for the battery enclosure attached to the PCB. They have a precision moulded plastic insert in the bottom of the case which contacts the PCB and has cutouts for the hotswap sockets, which could have easily been made of silicon to reduce sound transmission. I do give them props for at least making the USB port not surface mount, instead in its own enclosure attached to the PCB, to keep it from breaking off, something I wish more keyboards would do. But this is a gamer keyboard, not a modders keyboard, and not an enthusiast keyboard. 3 pin hotswap eliminates 90% of switch options without modding the switch; north facing RGB eliminates the use of cherry profile keycaps for many switch choices; there's no included foams and no way to mod it with your own foam. It's just a pingy, rattly mess that is annoying to type on, but there's so much going on that you can't do much of anything to fix that mess. It's well-engineered for what it is: it has class-leading low latency even in wireless & bluetooth modes and lots of pretty gamer lights. The software is somewhat useful and quite user-friendly (unlike using arcane programming powers to wrangle QMK). But for $180 you can get a much better keyboard from Keychron or similar that does everything else this keyboard does. If the features this has as a game controller still appeal, there's nothing keeping someone from using it for games while using a proper keyboard for typing. But it is a game controller more than it is a keyboard.
Great video. I agree, I don't think that there's anything particularly too bad on this board but it's hard to justify 180$ on it. For a similar price you can get a wooting with analog contactless switches (wired only, unfortunately), but with better software and stabs. Or you can get something custom for way cheaper. Or like an APEX pro which also has better switches and stabs and it's TKL, and a (gimmicky) display. And macro and better software.
I got this now a year later for 120 bucks on sale and for that price, I'm super super happy with it! Might swap these silvers out for browns. It's super portable for all the travel I do. Has all the wireless features, good battery life. Over all highly recommend!
It's really the pricing that made them fall behind the competition imo. You pretty much can get some cheap 60$ hotswap board and spend the rest of the budgets on custom case and mods these days
I still don't get why the depth of the keyboard is such a big deal to remove the function row. It makes is so much less usable and it usually costs more for less materials, less storage space and less ship[ping costs.
It costs more because people pay more for it. Cost of a $180 keyboard has less than zero to do with the cost of materials and logistics; only what the market will bear.
@@tim3172 but what is the point of 60% keyboard anyway? TKL, or other narrower designs I get - mouse space, but how is the depth so important for some people? Are they the same sort of people like self proclaimed audiophiles buying expensive HDMI cables for some sense of superiority or something?
I have a corsair K70 keyboard at the moment, it replaced a Razor mechanical keyboard. It's fine... but the keypress always felt quite rough in comparison to the Razor, despite both having cherry switches. If I knew where my keycap puller was, I might try lubing it. I was mildly disappointed after I bought it, given that it cost more.
Even if you are in some Corsair eco system, 180$ is just way too much for no proper dampening, no gasket mounting and no proper lubing of switches and stabs. If you do not get that, you can just as well not buy a mechanical keyboard.
1. Outemu switches does fit in these Kailh type sockets, but switches besides Outemu has thick pins which makes them doesnt fit in Outemu sockets, so it's the other way around. 2. You can use tab + enter to get a new run on monkey type, instead of hitting F5
Before I knew about the custom mechanical world, I bought the K95 Platinum, thinking since it was the best keyboard they offered, it would be amazing.. It was... not amazing. If anyone is considering buying a Corsair or any gaming brand keyboard, pleaseeeee just look up custom mechanical keyboards, first. They're sooo much better quality in every way possible. If the prices are too high, a hot-swap gaming brand would be your next best option, that way you can buy whatever switch you want and toss em in or switch out individual keys (if you like your space bar to be a different feel, for example) but any keys with stabilizers will have a very high chance of needing to be modded, if you want it to really sound/feel good.
Hot swap is an interesting option I hadn’t thought about. There are a lot of keyboards that don’t seem to offer cherry mx blue but I like cherry mx blue switches. Maybe this would be an option to widen my range of possible keyboard choices. I’d still rather not do all that work replacing switches though, hotswappable or not!
cherry mx blue are not even good clicky switches... you should test other switches... for example, any of the kailh box would be better or even gateron or outemu blues would be better.
@@ViXoZuDo I’m a keyboard noob but can you elaborate on how those switches might be better? I like the MX blues and don’t really have anything particularly bad to say about the switches themself. I have a Corsair K70 MK2 and the only thing I would improve really is the build quality of the board itself, it feels a little lightweight, the USB passthrough on the back is slow and the keyboard takes up 2 USB ports
i really like my steelseries apex 3 keyboard. fullsize, has a nice wrist rest, decent sound, good feel. the only thing im not a huge fan of is the rgb on it. the zones are huge, so theres only like 7 vertical zones that span the keyboard. is it a dealbreaker? no. i just have it pulse and fade from the center out. it IS kinda hard to see the keys if im in the dark, but im generally not, so its not a huge issue either. quite happy with my purchase. i ran an old microsoft membrane keyboard for like 10 years. i took it apart and cleaned between the layers like 4 times before it started to not take too well to the cleaning. i moved it to the server because i rarely type on the server anyways.
This guy has convinced me to search for a better keyboard than my K55 - but I refuse to get another keyboard without hot-swappable switches now. Just seems like a logical thing manufacturers should be doing, along with replaceable mouse switches.
My keyboard bought a year ago cost 45 bucks. Is a led full hot swappable 100 keys. Can work at wired, Bluetooth, and 2.4ghz dongle. The short coming is the control software is proprietary, and the chassis is made of plastic. These large brand is falling wayyyy behind the game.
I dunno how people have keyboards without a numpad. Maybe I'm biased as someone who uses a keyboard to work but using a keyboard without a number pad is excruciating
I feel like I'm the huge oddball out on keyboards. lol I've had mechanical keyboards and never got as good at typing on them as I can the low profile keyboards (I don't mean low profile mechanical, we're talking something like the Apple keyboard). Back when I got into computers these low profile thin things didn't exist but that's what I've ended up using now. Maybe it's because of the consistency when I go between my desktop keyboard and my laptop that makes me prefer the thin jobs over the big mechanical units.
What I would actually prefer is Corsair just sell a barebones set, with no key caps, switches or stabs for a cheaper price. That way, I can just customize it to my liking for cheaper. But we all know that’s not gonna happen lul. Corsair wants you to pay for everything cause money.
While I'm happy that more manufacturers are building mechanical keyboards, the price here is a joke. This has less features than my basic $60 Royal Kludge RK84. Add an additional $35 for Akko Jelly Black switches (or whatever you prefer) and krytox and you've got a vastly superior keyboard for half the price.
I don't think you should complain about $179 price tag when you've spent as much as you have on boards sir. We've seen your dedicated board building desk.
man why do all these customizable keyboards have these stupid compact layouts, i dont care how good your switches are its gonna be absolutely awful to use. Would love a customizable board, TKL but otherwise full width, and separate numpad, individually wired. Nothing too fancy with the super thicc, wide and heavy metal gimmick cases, just something decent but not needlessly expensive. Dont particularly need backlight I can type blind, no fancy graphics or knobs or macro buttons or other crap. I just want a bloody quality keyboard. Something mundane, but just a bit better.
Aside from being able to use their software and 3 pin switches, I don't see how this is any better than the Huntsman mini that is less than half the price. A lubed silent Huntsman is tasty on the ears.
I’m a simple man, all I want is a gasket mounted 5pin hotswap pcb, screw in stabs with per key north facing rgb lighting without keycap interference. Made out of quality material. LTT keyboard when? You guys already invested in keyboard testing equipment. May as well design a high quality board with all the right features and materials to put it to good use.
There's not much reason to buy a keyboard from Corsair when you're initially getting into the mechanical keyboard space, unless you specifically like their software. Might as well buy a cleaner, sleeker looking board for cheaper without the Corsair bloat.
These f-ing keyboards are so big. When will they finally release one that only has letters and numbers on it and I need to put one hand above the other to use it?
I'm a firm believer in reviewing the product for what its meant to be and not what you want it to be. Those are two completely different things. Im not saying you cant comment on that but you cant call a product bad because it doesnt do something it was never intended to do or doesnt compete in a market it was never a part of.
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Yooooo, used to watch you 7-8 years ago! Great content man, hope youre doin well :)
Who are you quoting?
Making a segway along the lines of video title
@@dan3458 no one. Just using the title to guess how they could’ve segued.
Yes
Absolutely love that someone who’s passionate about keyboards is reviewing this keyboard in depth, down to the housing wobble. It’s fantastic that he also gives suggestions on how to make it better, ie. filming the switch and lubing the stabilizers
Plouffe isn't too deep into the rabbit hole he just happens to have the biggest platform out of any keyboard enthusiast, including ones who have been doing it since before the hobby boomed. (i.e. TaeKeyboards etc.)
I mean dont get me wrong hes not an idiot and im not trying to say that he's wrong because 99% of the info of this video is correct; it just would appear he isn't as experienced as someone like TaehaTypes for example who started the keyboard boom in the first place.
As much as some videos are unprepared/misinformed (i know, it's just an unboxing channel), when the host actually knows his stuff and does care, this channel shines.
He's hardly even skimmed the top of mechanical keyboards. I don't get these types of comments - you've got hundreds of actual keyboard enthusiasts out there but because this guy works at LMG his word is god.
I'm with you, but I'll still dock him a point for not wanting to use a soldering iron when he is talking about throwing films on the switches and lubing each of them. Though TBH, I think we'd all agree that de-soldering is the most tedious part of the hobby. Anybody doing lots of switch swaps needs a proper de-soldering iron...doubly so if they are removing lead-free solder.
I’m so glad that a keyboard enthusiast, or at least someone who cares about keyboards to an extreme extent, is reviewing the keyboard
100%.
As an enthusiast I hate when keyboards are reviewed by people who only care about 'gaming' and not actual important aspects of a keyboard. Y'know, the type of person that loves blue switches and doesn't care about a non-detachable cable.
This was informative and I can tell Nicholas has a passion for keyboards.
Great job SC
If only he didn't have a hard on for hotswap, and absolutely shit on everything that isn't. His reviews are the worst on ltt.
agree
@@SomeMadAussie Why the hell would a "Gamer" want blues? Most gamers want linear switches. Your statement doesn't really make a lot of sense.
@@Tagiau This and all other keyboard vidoes on this channel are not reviews.
great review! I just got the Keychron Q10 today and it is fantastically built from what I can see thus far. Also, I have the Meletrix Zoom 65 EE on pre-order (got it in right before it was sold out). While it is nice to see a big company implementing hot swap board, albeit its only 3 pin, it is at the minimum moving in a good direction for the keyboard market. Thank you!
When it comes to "budget enthusiast" keyboards, it's really hard to beat Keychron
not a review, just a first impression
@@skyboy884 epomaker defo gives keychron a run for their money
On hotswap boards like this, the bigger companies use plate mount stabs. You can just pop out the switch and then the stabilizers can come out freely. No need to remove the top plate.
Just a bit of feedback... instead of saying "5 pin switches will not fit on this board", just suggest snipping the 2 stabilizer pins off with a nail clipper or side cutters to turn them into 3 pin switches and let them fit.
P.S. as a keyboard enthusiast, and someone who has applied to LMG/LTT twice, I love this content, but I feel like you need Ploof to do more homework before these get filmed (or maybe whoever wrote this)
you have got me addictted to buying keyboards and making em. thanks!
My condolences to your wallet
@@hawxchampion523 I appreciate you good sir.
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اونور اب زندگی میکنی؟
@@user-xx3yp6vg8c yes I am, chetor?
Recently i bought the k70 pro rgb as my first mechanical keyboard. Where I live it was already hard enough to find a full size keyboard with media keys, so i didn't really have a choice. I do really like it tho. I can't really judge the sound, it sounds good to me. The ping is there but i don't notice it unless i listen for it or smash the keys, which i don't do lol. My only complaint is that the keys are not hot swappable. But i got used to the silvers pretty fast. I just don't think they're actually any better for gaming than the reds
0:44 Outemu switches do fit in other hot swap sockets. It's the other way around, other switches don't fit into Outemu hot swap sockets.
3:43 "Some kinda proprietary thing from Corsair" - Dude, those are just regular plate-mounted stabs...
I do love my Keychron board. Saw it on here and took a leap for my first “quality” board. I think the “boutique” options have been my favorite here lately.
I used to only get Corsair keyboards back when I was first getting into PC gaming but often find that cheaper keyboards like Royal Kludge and Red Dragon to be built way better for like 1/5th of the cost and are super easily upgradable
Those are my 2 brands as well. I have the 918 for work since I need the num pad, and the RK61 and 552 for non-work.
Some of the EVGA ones have been surprisingly good value recently, especially the z15 if you don't mind full size. It'll be interesting to see if they move more into that space now that they don't do video cards.
The biggest downside to 60% boards from brands like Corsair/Razer/etc, in my experience/opinion, is the limited key re-programmability they offer. "You can reprogram what these buttons do, but not these buttons" - has been my experience. Pretty limiting for a 60% layout. (CapsLock + IJKL for arrow keys is great.) Maybe this has changed recently, but a year(ish) ago that's how it was.
One thing I think you forgot to mention is with the 3-pin sockets - you can clip the other 2 pins on 5-pin switches to fit them in the sockets. Not fun, but it is not impossible to use 5-pin switches as you stated…
He did mention that
@@EddieGooch No he specifically said ‘the board is 3-pin and if you have 5-pin switches, they won’t be compatible’. He never said anything about being able to clip the pins, hence my comment….
@@SahZoom Ah my bad, I didn't read your comment properly
Epomaker have a decent range of budget mechanical keyboards you can easily mod. I loved the SK66 so much I bought one for work and play.
I have a th80 and it's super nice for the price. I don't get buying big brand keyboards
I’m still rocking my modded magicforce 68
Someone knows the good stuff from keyboard.
agreed, Epomaker are decent, but there are also a tonne of Cheap Chinese brands out there as well that are crazy good (also a few that are terrible too).
There are so many other good, much cheaper boards out there.
for the price of a Corsair you can get a Wooting where I'm sure the per-key actuation would be far better than higher polling
To make this keyboard good I reckon you need to hotswap the switches (it's scratchy AF), the stabilisers (to something less rattly), the case (to something heavier and more premium), the PCB (to 5 pin, south facing), the keycaps (those legends, ugh).
Or... Just buy another new keyboard.
This just goes to show how out of touch big peripheral brands like Logitech or Corsair are with the current competition landscape. I just got an Akko 5075B+ which included a set of lubed Akko Wine Red switches (linear, factory lubed instead of hand-lubed but it's still a noticeable improvement), a polycarbonate plate, a set of decent ASA profile keycaps that are double-shot PBT and a knob for less than this Corsair (160 CAD/116 USD). It was great out of the box, with the switches smoother and more stable than the Corsair, the keycaps of higher quality and looked better (IMO) than the Corsair, the stabilizers better tuned and lubed than the Corsair (factory prelubed). I spent an evening and around 40 CAD of material modding it to match the way I wanted it to sound and feel and made it even better for myself.
There's a lot of good options out there for good and budget mechanical keyboards and rarely any of them are from big name brands like how it used to be, and they also clearly have no place in the mid-range conversation when enthusiast brands like Wooting, Zoom65, QwertyKeys, Bakaneko, or common brands like Akko, Keychron, Idobao, Glorious and Iqunix exists and consitently offer better value for the price. The only thing the big brands have for themselves is the "gamer" features like RGB ecosystem, 8khz polling rate (most likely imperceptible to 99% of the userbase) or software dependent functionalities that further hinders the board's value on its own.
Unless something within these companies changes, I can't see many people will continue to buy big brand names' keyboards for long as they realize that there is so much value that can be found elsewhere and jump ship.
+1
LTT this guy needs an intervention not more keyboard videos.
On the latency aspect, I would LOVE to see a comparison between QMK/via and the big box companies that mention speed in their marketing (corsair, razer, logitech, etc). I'm sure there are some boards you can even swap the firmware from in-house to QMK to get it on the same hardware as well.
Most companies that advertise "speed" only do so with short actuation switches. Their reasoning being that the keys activate sooner than the competition. They've been doing this since before the polling rate war. It's dumb.
With QMK some features can slow down the keyboard a bit. I daily drive a 30 key keyboard where every key has
multiple functions and it takes a few
miliseconds for some features to work, it's not a problem for my daily use but it wouldn't be good for gaming.
@@MAGAIVER Exactly! That's the data I want to see.
Testing zmk also would be very nice. In bluetooth and in wired modes.
You’re telling me, the headset I bought from them got ruined because the ear cushion basically slipped off from heat/sweat and it was held by glue. Never realized it, I just assumed they were assembled like Logitech headsets. I’m so pissed at how much I spent on them.
Apparently clipping 5-stem switches to 3-stem is still a locked skill for Plouffe.
I rather buy Q1 with that price. Better default stab, factory Lubed, easy to mod, and QMK ready.
$180 for plate mount switches only, north facing RGB, not fully aluminum case, and those keycaps? The Keychron Q4 seems like a better buy to me at $160.
0:58 From another keyboard enthusiast let me correct Plouffe
It's the other way around. Cherry style pins wont fit in Outemu style hotswap sockets. Outemu style pins are physically more slim then Cherry style pins so therefore Outemu style pins can fit in any keyboard
*Note: Gazzew's boba housings (even though they are produced by Outemu are an exception to this rule) (typing on heavily modded Boba U4s)
Actually, i have some U4Ts in an outemu hotswap board, so they DO have the slimmer pins.
@@tyrosine87 My u4s didnt fit in my Redragon K552. I didn't decide to dig deeper into it.
@@laffeybunn8557 so weird. The board I'm speaking of is a redragon as well. The only problem I had was 3 pin sockets, so I had to clip the plastic legs. Wasn't fun for a full-size board.
@@tyrosine87 I thought I mutilated them but I could be wrong, I was really tired that night after figuring out how to kill the sound of the u4 in a clean manner that
1. didn't make it higher pitched / louder then stock
2. didnt make it sound like fart
sound test will be out eventually on my channel if you care
Those really don't look like proprietary stabs, unlike what is said in the video. They look like standard plate mounts, so if you pop out the switch in that position, you can easily remove the stabilizers for tuning without tearing the whole board down. Real shame about it being 3 pin rather than 5 pin, since you would need to clip 5 pins down to fit. It's a pretty easy thing for a manufacturer to include, and for that price tag I'd normally expect that to be included. What is nice is Corsair using a standard layout, which is nice and easy to swap pretty much any MX compatible keycap set under the sun onto. The wireless tech supporting 2000Hz and the wired supporting 8000Hz is cool, but keep in mind a lot of games that aren't the latest launches may not even support that kind of input, and will just be utilizing a 1000Hz polling rate in the engine, so it isn't necessarily a benefit for everyone.
It's nice to see some of the gaming brands trying to catch up a bit, but the pricing is not spectacular, and they still have some more features to catch up on still.
Would love to see Plouff's opinion on something like the Epomaker TH80, they seem to be doing some good stuff for a lower price point.
I've got the Epomaker TH80 with Gateron Pro Black switches. It's a very nice keyboard in terms of build quality with muffled sounding switches compared to Cherry mx red. The software is kinda annoying to use and the wireless connectivity is a hit or miss.
epomakers' TH series is ok but the TH96 was a mistake and I will fight you on it.
I love my TH80 SO much! It's still one I often go back to even from my higher end ones. It's just so nice and it was one of my first ones I tinkered with.
Im not to deep in the custom keyboard stuff but got this one about 2 months ago and really like it so far. Switched some RGB MX browns in there and it looks and feels very nice. I was looking at the more "custom" keyboard from keychron aswell but most of them dont have RGB and I already know iCue so that was much easier. When you add some rubber padding the sound is much nicer and actually sound pretty good Id say
If you have the board just get good switches like oil kings and try them out.
The fact that they could go from the k65 minis stabs which are absolutely amazing factory to this??? Just WOW
Outemu switches fit in Kailh/Gateron hotswap sockets. Cherry switches and many of the other manufacturers just don’t fit in Outemu hotswap sockets since the Outemu sockets have smaller holes. The pins are in the same spot, but Outemu switches have thinner pins that will fit their own sockets (and others).
"maybe I'm being elitist" yeah probably if you're recommending the average corsair buyer to spend the time to disassemble and lube all the switches lol. This is probably a excellent keyboard to people that are not into keyboards and just want to game
Not when compared to the likes of the Keychron K6. Its a prebuild as well.
@@keonxd8918 Honestly the Keychron boards they have shown on this channel all sound really-really bad during typing for me. Just can't stand them.
No matter what corsair makes if it expects the installation of iCUE "software" (read malware), I won't touch it
yep, was going to be like they didnt talk about the STD your computer will get but using this keyboard.
My favourite 60% keyboard from an oem is the HyperX Alloy Origins 60. Hefty, per key RGB decent keycaps. No hotswap but HyperX's red switches are very very good.
I've got the same one with the Aqua, which are equivalent to browns. Really sturdy board, switches are consistent, and they feel pretty nice. No hotswap and according to keyboard people it's hard to mod, but it's very enjoyable to use out of the box
@@Katoptrys I've always wanted to try the aqua switches out but getting that model here is incredibly difficult.
Hope Logitech now follows through on hotswap mechanical keyboards too. Now that brands like Corsair are doing this.... As much as I like my g915 I wouldn't mind changing the switches to try out new things. Even if I wanted to solder stuff I'm pretty sure they have different pin arragement too, so I'm locked with their switches forever D:
Logitech would need to dump their romer-g switches or redesign them since they're proprietary and the pin layout isn't compatible with other switches on the market. It would be nice if they did that though.
Their pro x Keyboard is hotswap, but only with their propietary romer switches. So not really usefull anyway, i would Love the g915 with hotswap and gateron lp switches. ATM the g915 is too expensive for being non hotswap imho.
I'm currently using the K100 (which I like the new OPX switches, find them similar to Reds in terms of force, but smoother, and prefer them over my old MX brown) but I hate the switches aren't hot-swappable (in case it happens to break, the spring ping is annoying and I can't fix it because I can't get into the switch without a complete teardown and a lot of resoldering, and the cable is still not detachable. Also has an FN key (despite being a full one) which is only used for onboard lighting stuff, and I wish they made it remappable as a full modifier key
Problem with optical switches is that every manufacturer is doing their own thing. That's why many (if not all) don't have Hot-swap capability.
If I'm understanding you correctly, you have the K100 with OPX switches? If so, I can confirm that that keyboard is hotswappable - as in you can pull the switches out without desoldering them, then put in other switches - but of course, only optical-type switches. You can't use normal mechanical-type switches which have those metal pins sticking out at the bottom. Pulling out the switches themselves (the first time you do it) will take a lot of *VERY* careful leverage and back-and-forth rocking motions because the top aluminum plate tolerances are quite exact and tight. Just go slow and steady, pulling on the switch like a seesaw while pulling up and out. I've modded my K70 TKL with OPX switches by doing this.
In terms of getting replacement switches, as far as I know Corsair's OPX switches are made by Cherry, and you can't buy them separately anywhere, not even from Corsair. Couldn't hurt to ask them though. However, Gateron also makes optical switches in linear, clicky, and tactile variants, and they have 99% the same measurements/switch style housing as the Corsair ones, so that's an option. I dropped them into my K70 and they worked on the few keys that I put them into, but your mileage may vary.
> "which I like the new OPX switches, find them similar to Reds in terms of force, but smoother, "
I'm not sure how much of that is due to the switches. My old Razor keyboard was smoother than my current Corsair keyboard, despite both having cherry switches. The corsair keys feel like someone used coarse sandpaper on the stem.
"I don't know how keyboards are dangerous"
Well, I had the corded one of these and it literally caught fire and exploded while I was using it, so there's obviously some warrant to including that warning in there, lol.
Don't understand why anyone buys an overpriced corsair keyboard when there's so many good options to choose from
because many are just blinded from marketing and the only thing to wake them up is to let them feel and hear a real good keeb ^^
Probably because Corsair are well known in the PC industry and had a lot of traction when mechanical keyboards started to become mainstream. As someone who has used a K70 for 5 years I would have to do some considerable research to familiarise myself with all the other brands available that offer better products now.
iCue integration. More recognized brand name. Easier to find in physical retail like Best Buy. None of those mean it's any better at all, just easier for the average PC gamer to get ahold of.
Because I like the ICUE software.
I use a LOT of macros to save me time & effort and out of all the macro software I have used it simply works the best. I am not spending money on JUST the keyboard, it's also to be able to use the software that accompanies it.
Also the fact that Wallpaper Engine can control the RGB matching it with my background is a nice bonus.
If there was an open source alternative that worked with all keyboards, that did not require knowing lua programming like autohotkey does, and that I could validate works as well for my workflow, then I would gladly give other brands a chance to get my money.
iCue, real warranty, resale, brand recognition, Cherry switches.
It's hard to swallow dropping $200 on a brand that you've never heard of, or with switches you've never seen before.
Id recommend the Redragon K530 instead. Also 60%, also RGB, also wireless, also hot swap. Only thing it doesnt have is iCue. Its also less than half the price. And can be black or white and your choice of blue, brown, or red switches
"Don't know how keyboards are dangerous." RSI's are really common, so you see keyboard manufacturers often place warnings about such.
Plouffe’s the best host these days. Most down to earth and chill host, who seems like a normal dude. I’ll always click his videos
these keyboard videos have been my favorite out of all the LTT content lately. keep it up.
"i dont know how keyboards are dangerous"
*me typing this on basically a solid block of aluminum* i can think of a few ways
Is that keyboard really usable? For my daily use, missing function keys would be an absolute deal breaker. Are there people that do not use function keys?
I bought the wireless black Royal Kludge RK68 RGB with brown switches all together for $60 and it's my first mechanical keyboard and it seems to have more build quality than that $200 keyboard lol. I noticed you guys haven't even reviewed this brand either. I would highly recommend it.
at this rate in the next 5 years corsair will give us a board with 5 pin support, 10 years we'll maybe get a piece of foam and then our great, great grandkids will tell us about their corsair board having screw in stabilizers
Would be nice to mention if these wireless keyboards have user replaceable batteries, what happens when they’re dead? New keyboard??
"I dont know how keyboards are dangerous" You've obviously never stepped on one when all of the keycaps were removed ..
I don’t know how I could ever use a 60% keyboard. They’re too small and the fn shortcut keys seem annoying to deal with. TKL is the perfect size for me.
If you like TKL you should look into 75% more compact but keeps the function row and arrow keys
@@ZacharyMcClane 75% exploded masterrace
The catch with polling rate above 1000Hz is that it eats up enough CPU resources, that you will get worse PC performance as a result. Basically, it's a detrimental feature to enable.
Bruh you can literally get a wooting keyboard for the price of this lmao
For 180 dollars this is hot garbage.
It sounds exactly like 45 dollars wireless mechanical keyboard I had long ago.
Midroll ads are entirely more tolerable than embedding a "preroll" ad a minute into the video imo.
This seems like it'll hit discount shelves soon after release at $180, I can't see spending that much on a keyboard ever but I'd think a custom one would be better quality for a lower price.
1y later got it for $100, is it worth now?
Corsair and other major manufacturers really need to step up their game and release some 75% keyboards! Just because we have limited space doesn't mean we should have to compromise on keys!
PLEASE just let plouffe go full on keyboard enthusiast in a video series about the mechanical keyboard hobby! A first step in to the beautiful world perhaps?
The quest continues for me. I want hot swappable, but I will not by a TKL.
Just some context here. When Logitech made their first mech board the G710 they bought Cherry's entire production of Cherry MX browns for a year. Keychron and the like dont move anywhere near enough units to make that happen.
even ducky has a lot of enthusiast parts slapped into their keyboards now like more sound dampening foams, lubed switches and stabs. theres absolutely no excuse for logitech, corsair and razer to slack off on the keyboard department since their keybs are hellauva lot more expensive.
Been sitting here, nodding my head along, expecting to hear $100-120. $180? Holy crap
lol the pain in his eyes when he said ''it feels and sounds... okay''
I don't get buying these big manufacturer keyboards when you can buy a preassemble for like half the price with better keycaps.
I wish Mainstream tech tubers wouldn't say stuff like, " if you have five pin switches they won't fit in here because these are three pin sockets." They absolutely will fit...you'll have to clip the two extra pins off, they're plastic and add stability and it won't hurt them at all, but they'll definitely fit.
A lot of the rattle from the case comes from the daughterboard, which they inexplicably decided to hang at a weird angle off of the main PCB, surrounding the battery (which is also attached to the bottom of the PCB). There's no way to easily remove the plate from the PCB without peeling off some copper tape connecting the battery assembly to the main PCB, which I am reluctant to do, because there are two screws underneath that tape. There's no way to put any sort of standard 60% plate foam in here to stop the plate from pinging without undoing those hidden screws. However I was able to reduce the case from rattling by wedging some foam between the loosely attached daughterboard and the PCB.
It's overengineered. Rather than simply putting a battery in the bottom of the case, they split part of the PCB out into this weird daughterboard to make room for the battery enclosure attached to the PCB. They have a precision moulded plastic insert in the bottom of the case which contacts the PCB and has cutouts for the hotswap sockets, which could have easily been made of silicon to reduce sound transmission. I do give them props for at least making the USB port not surface mount, instead in its own enclosure attached to the PCB, to keep it from breaking off, something I wish more keyboards would do.
But this is a gamer keyboard, not a modders keyboard, and not an enthusiast keyboard. 3 pin hotswap eliminates 90% of switch options without modding the switch; north facing RGB eliminates the use of cherry profile keycaps for many switch choices; there's no included foams and no way to mod it with your own foam. It's just a pingy, rattly mess that is annoying to type on, but there's so much going on that you can't do much of anything to fix that mess. It's well-engineered for what it is: it has class-leading low latency even in wireless & bluetooth modes and lots of pretty gamer lights. The software is somewhat useful and quite user-friendly (unlike using arcane programming powers to wrangle QMK). But for $180 you can get a much better keyboard from Keychron or similar that does everything else this keyboard does. If the features this has as a game controller still appeal, there's nothing keeping someone from using it for games while using a proper keyboard for typing. But it is a game controller more than it is a keyboard.
Great video. I agree, I don't think that there's anything particularly too bad on this board but it's hard to justify 180$ on it. For a similar price you can get a wooting with analog contactless switches (wired only, unfortunately), but with better software and stabs. Or you can get something custom for way cheaper.
Or like an APEX pro which also has better switches and stabs and it's TKL, and a (gimmicky) display. And macro and better software.
I got this now a year later for 120 bucks on sale and for that price, I'm super super happy with it! Might swap these silvers out for browns. It's super portable for all the travel I do. Has all the wireless features, good battery life. Over all highly recommend!
3 pin only on a hot swappable isn't easy to look over for that price considering the cheap boards that support it for $80 less
Yeah I got mine for 40-50 on an Amazon sale with all of the features of these expensive keyboards. I seriously don’t get it.
You can always clip the legs to get 3 pin, but you can't magically make 3 pin switches into 5 pin. But sure, it's a lot of extra work.
It's really the pricing that made them fall behind the competition imo.
You pretty much can get some cheap 60$ hotswap board and spend the rest of the budgets on custom case and mods these days
I still don't get why the depth of the keyboard is such a big deal to remove the function row. It makes is so much less usable and it usually costs more for less materials, less storage space and less ship[ping costs.
It costs more because people pay more for it.
Cost of a $180 keyboard has less than zero to do with the cost of materials and logistics; only what the market will bear.
@@tim3172 but what is the point of 60% keyboard anyway? TKL, or other narrower designs I get - mouse space, but how is the depth so important for some people? Are they the same sort of people like self proclaimed audiophiles buying expensive HDMI cables for some sense of superiority or something?
I have a corsair K70 keyboard at the moment, it replaced a Razor mechanical keyboard. It's fine... but the keypress always felt quite rough in comparison to the Razor, despite both having cherry switches. If I knew where my keycap puller was, I might try lubing it. I was mildly disappointed after I bought it, given that it cost more.
Even if you are in some Corsair eco system, 180$ is just way too much for no proper dampening, no gasket mounting and no proper lubing of switches and stabs. If you do not get that, you can just as well not buy a mechanical keyboard.
1. Outemu switches does fit in these Kailh type sockets, but switches besides Outemu has thick pins which makes them doesnt fit in Outemu sockets, so it's the other way around.
2. You can use tab + enter to get a new run on monkey type, instead of hitting F5
I imagine that people who demand hot-swappable key switches have no life.
How in the world is this $179!? Makes my customs seems like a damn steal.
Before I knew about the custom mechanical world, I bought the K95 Platinum, thinking since it was the best keyboard they offered, it would be amazing.. It was... not amazing. If anyone is considering buying a Corsair or any gaming brand keyboard, pleaseeeee just look up custom mechanical keyboards, first. They're sooo much better quality in every way possible. If the prices are too high, a hot-swap gaming brand would be your next best option, that way you can buy whatever switch you want and toss em in or switch out individual keys (if you like your space bar to be a different feel, for example) but any keys with stabilizers will have a very high chance of needing to be modded, if you want it to really sound/feel good.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
"You can always buy this board, throw all the switches away and buy a whole other set of switches to replace them :DDDDD"
The white PCB probably chosen to make the most of the RGB.
Hot swap is an interesting option I hadn’t thought about. There are a lot of keyboards that don’t seem to offer cherry mx blue but I like cherry mx blue switches. Maybe this would be an option to widen my range of possible keyboard choices. I’d still rather not do all that work replacing switches though, hotswappable or not!
If you're in the low latency gaming keyboard market Razer's purple optical switches have a similar clicky feel.
@@berkeli383 not really into high polling rates or any gaming features, just want a very nice solid feeling board more for productivity
cherry mx blue are not even good clicky switches... you should test other switches... for example, any of the kailh box would be better or even gateron or outemu blues would be better.
@@ViXoZuDo I’m a keyboard noob but can you elaborate on how those switches might be better? I like the MX blues and don’t really have anything particularly bad to say about the switches themself. I have a Corsair K70 MK2 and the only thing I would improve really is the build quality of the board itself, it feels a little lightweight, the USB passthrough on the back is slow and the keyboard takes up 2 USB ports
i really like my steelseries apex 3 keyboard. fullsize, has a nice wrist rest, decent sound, good feel. the only thing im not a huge fan of is the rgb on it. the zones are huge, so theres only like 7 vertical zones that span the keyboard. is it a dealbreaker? no. i just have it pulse and fade from the center out. it IS kinda hard to see the keys if im in the dark, but im generally not, so its not a huge issue either. quite happy with my purchase. i ran an old microsoft membrane keyboard for like 10 years. i took it apart and cleaned between the layers like 4 times before it started to not take too well to the cleaning. i moved it to the server because i rarely type on the server anyways.
I'd be really interested in hearing what this keyboard sounds like with a set of really nice switches
Put some glorious pandas on mine sounds like sex
paying 180$ for a 50 $ keychron knockoff
This guy has convinced me to search for a better keyboard than my K55 - but I refuse to get another keyboard without hot-swappable switches now. Just seems like a logical thing manufacturers should be doing, along with replaceable mouse switches.
My keyboard bought a year ago cost 45 bucks. Is a led full hot swappable 100 keys. Can work at wired, Bluetooth, and 2.4ghz dongle.
The short coming is the control software is proprietary, and the chassis is made of plastic.
These large brand is falling wayyyy behind the game.
You don't need that many key switches or key caps or keyboard sound profile but consumerism via social media talked you into it.
I dunno how people have keyboards without a numpad. Maybe I'm biased as someone who uses a keyboard to work but using a keyboard without a number pad is excruciating
It's pretty nuts that this is $180 when there are tons of prebuilts out there for cheaper that don't sound like maracas when you're typing on them
I feel like I'm the huge oddball out on keyboards. lol I've had mechanical keyboards and never got as good at typing on them as I can the low profile keyboards (I don't mean low profile mechanical, we're talking something like the Apple keyboard). Back when I got into computers these low profile thin things didn't exist but that's what I've ended up using now.
Maybe it's because of the consistency when I go between my desktop keyboard and my laptop that makes me prefer the thin jobs over the big mechanical units.
What I would actually prefer is Corsair just sell a barebones set, with no key caps, switches or stabs for a cheaper price. That way, I can just customize it to my liking for cheaper. But we all know that’s not gonna happen lul. Corsair wants you to pay for everything cause money.
While I'm happy that more manufacturers are building mechanical keyboards, the price here is a joke. This has less features than my basic $60 Royal Kludge RK84. Add an additional $35 for Akko Jelly Black switches (or whatever you prefer) and krytox and you've got a vastly superior keyboard for half the price.
why the hell would corsair go for a 3pin PCB here? I won't mutilate my switches just so they fit in here.
I don't think you should complain about $179 price tag when you've spent as much as you have on boards sir. We've seen your dedicated board building desk.
man why do all these customizable keyboards have these stupid compact layouts, i dont care how good your switches are its gonna be absolutely awful to use.
Would love a customizable board, TKL but otherwise full width, and separate numpad, individually wired. Nothing too fancy with the super thicc, wide and heavy metal gimmick cases, just something decent but not needlessly expensive. Dont particularly need backlight I can type blind, no fancy graphics or knobs or macro buttons or other crap. I just want a bloody quality keyboard. Something mundane, but just a bit better.
Aside from being able to use their software and 3 pin switches, I don't see how this is any better than the Huntsman mini that is less than half the price. A lubed silent Huntsman is tasty on the ears.
I’m a simple man, all I want is a gasket mounted 5pin hotswap pcb, screw in stabs with per key north facing rgb lighting without keycap interference. Made out of quality material.
LTT keyboard when? You guys already invested in keyboard testing equipment. May as well design a high quality board with all the right features and materials to put it to good use.
1:03 Anything container rechargeable batteries inside is dangerous
Does corsair know Keychron exist?
Or they are coming up with pricing while drunk?
is Keychron in Best Buy or equivalent? Different market entirely.
Rather them than Keychron. Can't stand Keychron keyboards.
There's not much reason to buy a keyboard from Corsair when you're initially getting into the mechanical keyboard space, unless you specifically like their software.
Might as well buy a cleaner, sleeker looking board for cheaper without the Corsair bloat.
These f-ing keyboards are so big. When will they finally release one that only has letters and numbers on it and I need to put one hand above the other to use it?
I'm a firm believer in reviewing the product for what its meant to be and not what you want it to be. Those are two completely different things. Im not saying you cant comment on that but you cant call a product bad because it doesnt do something it was never intended to do or doesnt compete in a market it was never a part of.
Imagine paying 180 for north facing switches and plastic chassis! Btw this guy knows what he’s talking about
Yeah I don’t get keyboards without arrow keys. Seems overly minimalist. I have a keychron TKL that seems a good compromise for a desktop to me.
you dot need to move your hand to use the arrows since they are in a layer.
white pcb actually helps with the rgb, the rbg itself will be much clearer with it
$180 wtf? I got a Rk100 direct from China shipped for $35 + another $20 for 2 sets of double shot PBT key caps