Today we’re taking a look at the MSI Vigor GK71 with the new Sonic Blue Switches. The smooth clicky switches are the result of a collaboration between Kailh and MSI and position themselves in a rather understudied niche with short travel and low resistance, but allow for unexpectedly fast typing. Despite good equipment and interesting features, the GK71 is located in the mid-price segment. Whether MSI has saved in the right places?
At first glance, the new Vigor with the half-transparent keycaps not only looks chic, it also cuts a pretty good figure on paper. Palm rest, aluminum baseplate, multimedia keys and all kinds of lighting modes – plus interesting new switches, it’s bound to get expensive again, right? Indeed not! Or at least not compared to other well-known manufacturers, who often charge 150€ and more even for 60% keyboards with similar features. In contrast, the chic Vigor almost seems like a “bargain” with a price of 109.99€. In order to judge that, we first have to free the good piece from the packaging, of course.
Unboxing and Hands-On
The box is adorned with the usual simple design that MSI has been using for peripherals for some time now.
On the back, some special features are highlighted and more detailed data about the new switches is printed.
Specifically, we are talking about the MSI Sonic Blue “clicky”, which was developed in collaboration with Kailh. Of course, we’ll go into that in more detail later.
Obviously, they are very proud of the switches, because after opening the box, this hard-to-miss embossing smiles at us directly.
The keyboard is protected from dust by an environmentally friendly plastic bag, otherwise there is no plastic whatsoever. Laudable.
And this is how the contents of the package presents itself to the buyer. Palm rest, keycap removal tool, some instruction leaflets and the keyboard itself.
The tool and the guides in paper form are of course not particularly exciting, but for the sake of completeness:
Now let’s take a closer look at the keyboard, because at first glance it all looks very appealing! You quickly notice: The keyboard feels relatively light. Although the scale still displays 850 grams, it looks much more delicate than, for example, the Glorious GMMK2, which already presses a whopping 900 grams with a 65% layout. The base of the GK71 has a very plain design and does not feel particularly valuable either. But before people start complaining: I don’t think the approach is that bad, because you never see or feel the underside of the keyboard anyway.
The fold-out feet are simple but effective and provide a decent grip thanks to rubber coating.
There are still small deductions in the B grade on the side because of the gaps, but what awaits us on the relevant upper side is quite impressive.
On the top right we find a media button and a large volume control.
The base plate is made of aluminum and houses the Sonic Blue switches.
The textile-sheathed cable is quite stiff, but at least it has a ferrite core and a “cable tie”.
Quite funny is the color of the plug that matches the corporate identity of Igor’s Lab.
The illumination is particularly emphasized by the ClearCaps, half of which are made of transparent material.
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