Audio/Peripherals Keyboard Reviews

Corsair K100 RGB Keyboard Review – noble flagship with new OPX keys in long-term test

I’ll admit, I struggled a little harder than usual this time. Because on the one hand, 249 euros as a price for a keyboard is already a fat chunk and on the other hand, as a frequent writer, I am rather the category MX Blue, so tactile pointy clicker and not a pushing through tempo sinner. But – it is a kind of halo product and at the same time a very feasibility study suitable for everyday use, which then puts the price into perspective again somewhat. Of course, the K100 RGB has to measure up to that, including all the features, whether you need them or maybe not.

That’s exactly why I’ve been using it for weeks on my daily life, writing and gaming. The changeover time was admittedly quite hard, because the typing errors were extremely frequent at the beginning, as the tactile typewriter feeling was simply missing. Gaming was fine from day one, just the typing thing… Now, after almost 4 weeks, I can handle it too, but it also turns out that it remains a really subjective thing which buttons you really prefer in the end. But more on that in a moment.

Scope of delivery

Corsair packs a lot of other things into this input device besides the new buttons, which I’ll go into in detail in a moment, and you’re always amazed at the sense and purpose in between. This extends to the software and in the end you probably need almost ten times as much time for the first exploration as for unpacking and taking pictures. That’s saying something, too. In a positive as well as a negative sense, by the way. So it’s best to unpack the whole thing virtually first.

The keyboard including the connection cable and Y-splitter for the two USB 2.0 plugs are a permanently mounted unit, plus you get an ultra-soft palm rest including a leatherette feel with magnetic clips, a cap puller and two sets of keycaps (4 and 6 caps).  Along with the manual and some Asian air, that’s about it. Packing material times not with inkludiert, because that flies away anyway and could have been also gladly somewhat more pollution free.

Optics, haptics and functionality

The keyboard, which weighs a good 1.3 kilograms, already has quite stately, though not oversized dimensions. With a width of 470 mm, a depth of 166 mm and a height of 38 mm (without the folded out stand), it demands a lot of space on the table, which is mainly due to the additional buttons for macros and media control as well as the iCue rotary wheel and buttons. You have to put it all somewhere.

Of course, Corsair likes to advertise with the “iCue wheel” named part on the left above the keypad. After all, 44 LEDs can be individually programmed and controlled in a circumferential light strip on the chassis, which should put a big smile on the faces of all Christmas tree fanatics. To do this, you can save buckets of profiles, there should be up to 200. I didn’t want to check it now, but if you only save the changes incrementally and not the full data blocks, then even more could fit on it, depending. The buttons to the left and right of the wheel are simple micro-tappet buttons with very small travel and tactile feel.

The usual multimedia keys are different, looking similar but leaving more of a wobbly rubber bell feeling. The mute button is located to the left of the volume dial, which could have been rubberized. This looks like a foreign body and is very cool to the touch.

I consider the magnetic plastic cow palm rest to be one of the highlights, as it is soft, gives way where and when it needs to, and most importantly, is very easy to put in and take out again

 

This results in a very large footprint that must be planned for. But I used this pad all the time, which I rarely do otherwise, because the usual (often bone-hard) pads usually fly into the corner after a few hours because they were either non-functional or annoying. Here, on the other hand, you have an excellent sofa feeling. All the same.

The hyper-polling is more of a calculation trick, which certainly brings certain advantages, but in reality, hardly less than 0.5 ms delay is possible. The layers of Windows can not be completely outwitted. Normally, up to 4 devices help instead of one, so that it is more often the turn of the polling and thus more information can be transported at the same time, here it remains with a technical trick, which of course works, but is by no means a subjectively perceivable dealbreaker. Let’s call it nice-to-have.

The set-up mechanism is simple, but at least stable. For such an expensive keyboard, however, I would have liked to have at least two levels and a much higher angle of attack.

On the back you can find a looped USB 2.0 port. You can take it with you, but you don’t have to. I’ve never used something like that, way too fiddly for sticks and the mouse is on a different port anyway.

I’ll talk about the buttons on the next page, but here is the Quick-Starter Guide and the technical data for an overview:

Manual

 

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About the author

Igor Wallossek

Editor-in-chief and name-giver of igor'sLAB as the content successor of Tom's Hardware Germany, whose license was returned in June 2019 in order to better meet the qualitative demands of web content and challenges of new media such as YouTube with its own channel.

Computer nerd since 1983, audio freak since 1979 and pretty much open to anything with a plug or battery for over 50 years.

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