Review of the Sharkoon PureWriter W65 – a small and highly flexible low-profile keyboard for an acceptable price?

1 - Einführung und Spezifikationen 2 - Funktionalität und Taster (Switches) 3 - Software, Latenzen und Sound-Check 4 - Zusammenfassung und Fazit

When it comes to software, Sharkoon offers nothing in most cases. This is a blessing for some and a curse for others. Personally, I can do without dedicated software, because the keyboard offers all functions via various key combinations – which are almost self-explanatory. If not, then a look at the operating instructions will help.

I think that most people only use a few functions at all. In most cases, for example, you set the RGB lighting once and then never again. Before you get to see an audio sample of the buttons (cool paradox), here’s another premiere: keyboard latencies.

Note:

The Sharkoon PureWriter W65 will receive an optional firmware update at launch. You can download this update from the Sharkoon homepage. The update will affect the speed of the RGB effects. In my opinion, the rainbow wave effect in particular runs far too fast, even at the slowest level. You don’t have to install the update, if you’re more into strobe-like lighting effects, you can leave it as it is. I got the update in advance and now the effects are much more relaxed. Many thanks to Sharkoon for taking my criticism seriously and also for solving the “problem” very quickly.

Latencies

Anyone who knows me knows that my motto is and remains: Measure it or forget it! I need to expand on this briefly. Until now, you’ve only ever seen me measuring latency with mice. But LDAT can do more and a few months ago I asked NVIDIA to extend LDAT or the software so that E2E latency can also be measured on keyboards. My suggestion was to trigger the space bar as a trigger via the external micro and the rest works as usual. NVIDIA was kind enough to implement my suggestion. That’s why you can see a comparison of keyboard latencies for the first time today.

Micro oberhalb der Leertaste platzieren

4-Poliges Kabel mit LDAT verbinden und los geht's

The PureWriter TKL RGB

The PureWriter W65 with USB cable

The PureWriter W65 with USB dongle (wireless)

With a USB cable connected, the PureWriter W65 is a whole 8 ms faster than the PureWriter TKL RGB. There is also the smaller range (8.9 ms vs. 12.6 ms) between the min. and max. values. These are not worlds apart, but still. Even with the dongle, the PureWriter W65 is still roughly on a par with the TKL. The range only differs by one millisecond and the average difference is only 3.5 ms. However, it must be noted here: The PureWriter is slower with a dongle!

If you’re wondering why a keyboard with a 1000 Hz polling rate performs significantly worse than a mouse, I have a suitable explanation. You should note that I can and may only make relative comparisons with this method, as the absolute latency I measured is dominated by Windows and the rendering of the application. There is a special mode for mouse latency that measures the latency between click and received packet in PC mode. This is the small but significant difference. A comparison between keyboards is therefore feasible in relative terms, but not with mice, and it should not be understood as absolute and certainly not be judged as such.

Sound check

Let’s start with normal typing.

PureWriter TKL RGB:

PureWriter W65:

Here the space bar, Enter and Backspace

PureWriter TKL RGB:

PureWriter W65:

Personally, I find the sound of the PureWriter W65 a little more pleasant. But I am aware that your listening experience may differ significantly from mine. Everyone has to judge that for themselves. I would say that’s it for today, let’s get to the conclusion.