The Corsair K63 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard Review: PC Gaming Untethered
by E. Fylladitakis on September 16, 2019 10:30 AM ESTConclusion
Corsair developed the K63 Wireless Mechanical keyboard primarily for living room gaming. And while, Corsair has made some trade-offs to get here, when combined with the optional Corsair Lapboard and a wireless gaming mouse like the Corsair Ironclaw, it forms an ideal setup for couch gaming. It can also be used as a wireless keyboard for a gaming laptop while connected to an external 5V power source or to another PC, making it particularly useful to users who want a desktop capable of switching between devices.
In terms of quality, the Corsair K63 is a well-designed, robust keyboard. Corsair mixed the design of the K65/K95 series with that of the Strafe with very good results, creating a solid and relatively lightweight portable mechanical keyboard. Cherry’s MX switches never disappoint, showing exceptional stability and quality over and over again. Aesthetically, the plastic-shelled keyboard certainly loses some points over the aluminum-based designs of the K65/K95 keyboards but, despite that plastic chassis, it remains elegant and ideal for modern desktops and living rooms. The real issue with the design of the K63 probably is the classic recessed keys area that, unlike flat designs with “floating” keys, traps dust and debris and requires frequent cleaning - an issue that will probably be bourgeoned during living room use.
With any wireless product – but especially one in a relatively new field like wireless mechanical keyboards – comes the question of battery life, and here Corsair's keyboard doesn't excel, but it does offer a reasonable compromise. On the whole, the K63's battery life is sufficient and it will easily last through daily gaming sessions, but at the same time it can't match typical wireless office keyboards, whose battery life of which is measured in months, or even years. With the backlighting disabled, you're looking at a few days of battery life, while enabling the beautiful-but-expensive backlighting will bring the K63 down to just a day of battery life.
Overall, the Corsair K63 is excellent quality product, but it is not a keyboard for everyone. Corsair made a gaming-focused keyboard with the K63, and that's certainly where it shines. The tenkeyless design is a trade-off in and of itself, but unless you need it for gaming, then the small size of the keyboard can enhance a gamer’s experience by improving mouse handling and space. On the flip side, however, this isn't a portable version of Corsair's most advanced keyboards – it's a K63 rather than a K95 for a reason – so gamers looking for the most advanced keyboard on the market may find the keyboard coming up short. In particular, the limited number of keys may constrain gamers who are used to having a great number of macros and other advanced functions.
Meanwhile, office/productivity users will want to look elsewhere entirely. The trade-offs made for a gaming keyboard don't make as much sense for general use, especially with the lack of a numpad.
As for portability, the K63 is a reasonably small keyboard; but it is not quite small and lightweight enough for frequent transportation. This goes hand-in-hand with the battery life of the keyboard, which although is reasonable for the segment, it is still is measured in days, making it better than a smartphone, but worse than something like a game controller.
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Lord of the Bored - Tuesday, September 17, 2019 - link
I'm annoyed by new devices adopting USB-C. It is a terrible connector from both a physical and electrical standpoint, and there's nothing wrong with MicroUSB.PeachNCream - Tuesday, September 17, 2019 - link
I like the fact that MicroUSB cables are designed to fail before the port on the device, but still, I do wish the port was a little more sturdy. I also wish there were slimmer or stubbier connectors that hugged up against phones. Even some the compact, 90-degree bend connectors protrude a few millimeters more than I'd like outward from a phone. Those gripes aside, MicroUSB has been perfectly reasonable as a connector standard.Jedi2155 - Wednesday, January 22, 2020 - link
I definitely had failed micro-USB ports on some phones (parents devices so I don't know 100% how it failed) so they definitely aren't always sturdy.MicroUSB was fine, but I much prefer the reversibility of USB-C.
catavalon21 - Tuesday, September 17, 2019 - link
It's tiny, and tiny doesn't go well when teenagers plug phones in to charge. Maybe a lousy implementation of the connectors themselves, but our family had 2 phones where the MicroUSB connector on the phone failed.piiman - Saturday, September 28, 2019 - link
This is not a new productbloodgain - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
The K63 is not available with different switches. It is strictly a Cherry MX Red keyboard marketed toward gaming, though why they didn't install their "lag-free" SLIPSTREAM wireless solution in it, I don't know.More importantly, why are you reviewing a keyboard that was released nearly 3 years ago -- from what I gather from review dates on Amazon? Heck, I bought this with the compatible lapboard back in June because it had at least decent reviews and was one of the few solutions for couch K&M gaming/productivity available.
That is, unless the answer to both of these comments is that Corsair is about to start offering this with Brown switches. I might buy one and flip my Red if they did. But if that was the case, it seems like they would have shipped you a Brown switch review unit. So...?
MadAd - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
Typing this on a K63 now, had it for a month and a half. As far as typing goes its adequate enough, seems a bit less positive tactile feel than the K60 (same reds, should be the same but its not) and the keys feel a weird shape, im still getting used to that. Its quite heavy even for a mechanical, oddly I was expecting less being 10keyless.My main issues with it is how I either have to have the LEDs super bright, or memorize the shifted key character positions as, for some stupid reason, Corsair chose to put the symbols _below_ the numbers on each number key (instead of like every other keyboard in the world having them above the numbers) and then poorly illuminate the character so you have to really blast the lighting to see them. The numbers are clearly illuminated however. Badly thought out IMO.
The software also has an annoying aspect, Why on earth would Corsair put the LED timeout setting in the damn global settings and not per profile? When I play a game I want the LEDs on all the time, when I'm on my desktop I want the keys to time out after 10 minutes. My fav game I play with Mouse and Controller with the keyboard containing the backup keys and typing into chat and its forever going off meaning I still have to guess keys in the dark, or have it on 24/7 on the desktop, or futz with the global setting every day before/after each game. Again another badly thought out aspect.
Overall id give it 6/10
pheno.menon - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
Where did you see it on sale for $50? I think that may be referring to the wired-only version of this keyboard.Also, no mention or pictures of the Lapdock accessory for this keyboard in the article.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, September 19, 2019 - link
"Where did you see it on sale for $50? I think that may be referring to the wired-only version of this keyboard."D'oh!
You are correct. I'd like to pretend that this was all planned, but that's a dumb error on our part. When we went price hunting, the K63-non wired is what came up. So thank you for pointing that out.
The article has been updated accordingly.
Tchamber - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
Why is it so hard to find an economic mechanical keyboard?