The Corsair Gaming Keyboards and Mice Range: An Experiential Test
by E. Fylladitakis on May 14, 2015 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mechanical Keyboards
- Peripherals
- Gaming
- Corsair
- Mice
Several months ago, we had a thorough review of the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB mechanical keyboard. It was perhaps the most anticipated keyboard in history, amassing feverish hype months prior to its release on gaming forums. The release of the keyboard also marked the creation of a subsidiary company which would focus solely on gaming peripherals. The new division was baptized "Corsair Gaming", brought in its own marketing logo and focuses on the development of high performance gaming peripherals. In that sense, Corsair has never seemed to be a company that feared expansion and diversification. They initially started as a memory products manufacturer after all, infiltrating market after market, paving the way to the very broad products lineup and global presence that the company has today. The creation of a completely new division just for the peripherals could depict a demonstration of how much faith Corsair has that they can become a major global player in that segment of the market.
The K70 RGB also was perhaps the only keyboard in existence to collect so many negative comments about the newly found subsidiary company logo. So wrathful were Corsair's supporters regarding the new logo that even petitions pleading the company to maintain the old logo were created. That aside, the K70 RGB for the most part lived up to its hype, which was a serious accomplishment to begin with.
Today, we briefly examine the rest of the Corsair Gaming RGB series: the K65 RGB tenkeyless mechanical keyboard, the K95 RGB mechanical keyboard, the M65 RGB laser gaming mouse and the Sabre gaming mouse. Although they look very similar to the K70 RGB, there are notable differences between the keyboards that this article seeks to identify. The M65 RGB is a high performance gaming mouse designed with FPS gaming in mind, and the Sabre was first introduced shortly after Corsair Gaming was founded, ditching the "FPS-specific" design of the M65 RGB for a universal approach.
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meacupla - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
well, since the aluminum top plate is anodized aluminum, they could make it in almost any anodized color you want.But I think you're best off just taking one apart and going to a car or paint shop that does aluminum anodizing.
meacupla - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
K65 RGB, CANADA, WHEN?delslow - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Wow, not a single comment on the flickering issue!? This keyboard cannot do fluid animations at 16.8 million colors without violent flickering. You are limited to 512 colors if you don't want to have a seizure. I've returned my keyboard to Corsair, but have yet to receive my refund.galta - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Unless programmable keys are really needed, Das Keyboard and Filco are the way to go if you want a mechanical keyboard.As for RGB effects, well, everyone is entitled to have his/her own aesthetic preferences...
RealiBrad - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Did they ever fix the issue that this keyboard had about not outputting more than 512 colors?ShieTar - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
"An Experiental Test" ... Has the title been typed with one of the Test-Keyboards?MonkeyKing01 - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
No Corsair Mac drivers/software for these. I run Windows and Mac, so until it works on both, its a nonstarter.Crack_Shot - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Okay, so I bought the K65 RGB a couple weeks ago and I was really excited to finally have full RGB per-key backlighting capability, but here's how it actually turned out.I had been pretty happy with my Ducky Mini, since it let me keep my mouse hand closer and hold a more natural /neutral posture while gaming. I didn't like the lack of function keys or having to FN+key to do some things (esc / tilde, etc.) so I thought I'd find a slightly larger TKL board to make life a little easier, and it has, but with some drawbacks.
So what's wrong with the K65 RGB? First, I'd gotten really used to the excellent feel of the MX Brown switches in my Ducky Mini, so the completely uneventful Reds used in this K65 were a major dissapointment. I knew that was the only option, so I thought I could learn to love them. I haven't learned to love them yet.
The software for lighting config is pretty straightforward, but take care to understand the basic per-key light settings and the key-group settings. I couldn't figure out why they were all strobing ever so slightly until I cleared all grouping and animation, set all the keys back to white and started fresh.
The number one issue (maybe tied with the crappy Red switches) I have with the K65 is the key height and backlight bleed. Coming from the Ducky Mini, I expected to see light through the tops of the keys (the letters), but with the K65, the keycaps sit up so high and so much light bleeds from the bottoms on the switches, that it all just blends together. You can set the brightness to 3 different levels, but it doesn't really help because it lowers the brightness for all keys evenly.
I finally got my TKL with per-key RGB, but I'll be excited for the Corsair exclusive to be finished so Ducky, Filco and Das can have a try and doing this right with Cherry MX RGB Browns.
maximumGPU - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Agree with you here, i too find the reds inferior to browns. I don't understand why they don't offer other switch types for the tenkeyless model, surely can't be a technical limitation.On another note: why do we have breast augmentation ads in here? Wouldn't have thought of A.Tech's readers as a target audience. Plus makes you quickly scroll away at work to hide the scandily clad women.
DanNeely - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Is that an actual Anandtech ad? It's so off topic my first thought is that you've got some sort of ad dropping malware infection.