I was burned when I picked up a gaming mouse pad from Corsair at Micro Center. The packaging made it look larger than it was and rigid. Instead, it was very thin, floppy, and basically a regular mouse pad only a little bit larger. Major rip-off.
UGH! Those macro keys look like a total afterthought, just slapped on there. Totally un-accaeptable for a keyboard at this pricerange! Oh well, I wouldn't be buying that one anyways, I'd go for the K70.
"Totally un-accaeptable for a keyboard at this pricerange! "
LOL How so? they are the same as almost every other KB with macro keys. They've done them that way for years on their older versions so they are not an after thought but a PROVEN design that is very popular EVEN IN THIS PRICE RANGE!!!! Who made you the feng shui of macro keys?
From the article: "The only dissonance is that the extra area for the macro keys is plastic, not aluminum, and the difference is easily discernible by naked eyes. For these extra keys, Corsair expanded the plastic bottom part of the body, trying to simulate the appearance of the brushed aluminum. With the difference being obvious and considering the immense price tag of the keyboard, we expect that many will not be very happy about this."
Sorry Corsair, I used to split my purchases up between you and Razer. As you are sticking strong to the lobster/heart tramp stamp logo I'll be 100% Razer.
If two products are nearly equal in functionality and one has a trashy juvenile logo it's not getting bought. They might as well use a penis for the logo after abandoning their classic corporate identity for this bro/mates gamerz junk.
If functionality is indeed evenly matched between products, there is no shame in basing your choice off aesthetics. And that logo does look like a tramp stamp.
Razer's logo is basically the same stuff. Just with 3 branches instead of two. Oh, and also Razer's logo is slapped huge on the back of their laptops and lit up like a Christmas tree in puke green. http://nerdreactor.com/2014/09/24/corsair-criticiz...
So the hypocrisy is strong in some. They hate the "tramp stamp" but they love the "puke green manga-tentacle-fetish with fonts only a 13 year old would think is cool". I bought a Razer Blade because it's great device and still had to cover the logo as it looks unprofessional as hell in front of a client. But As long as the product is good and that logo doesn't affect my experience I think it's one of the more shallow things I've heard recently. "Not buying a good product because the logo sucks".
All of Corsair's products are made to be aesthetically pleasing. Premium parts are more expensive not just because of how they work, but because they are as beautiful as they are functional, so obviously how nice something looks is significant. Cases, fans, memory modules, close loop water coolers — if it doesn't look nice it won't sell as well. That's just how it is. I tend to agree. The stupid logo is a minus. I feel the way about Logitech's new "s" update to their gaming peripherals. The G700 mouse looks amazing. G700s? I would imagine the "s" stands for "stupid looking".
I used to own a Corsair K90, and about a year ago, I upgraded to a Corsair K95 (non-RGB). My biggest qualm with the keyboard is that I keep having issues with repeated key presses. My first thought was that maybe my keystroke was lasting a bit too long, but I don't have this problem with any other keyboard.
One thing that I find to be an annoyance is the keyboard firmware upgrade process. Corsair requires you to download an installer, and that may not sound too bad by itself. The problem is that the installer installs a single program that only updates the keyboard to a specific firmware. In other words, you install it, update the keyboard, and then uninstall it. Why in the world do I even have to install it!? At least motherboard manufacturers have installed update software that can check for updates and perform the updates.
Having the same problem with repeated key presses registering, annoying as hell and seems completely random. Did you fix it or am I taaking it back to the store (<---see did it again)
Not only the tremendous ugly non international focus logo (wonder if everybody have such uglys tattoos like the logo, in California), what happened with the Gun Metal colour for keyboards? Only black now? Come on! You are only 12 years old only once in your life....when you are 12 y/old.
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.
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...
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.
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.
I am actually looking for a tenkeyless keyboard to give me more room on my desk since I can't even remember the last time i used the numpad. If they allowed me to use Blue, Brown, Green or White switches I'd probably buy it. I'd probably rather have a cheaper mono red backlit keyboard as red is easier on eyes. I'm basically looking for a mechanical tenkeyless mono red backlit 1: Cherry mx blue switches 2: Brown 3: White 4: Green in that order. Haven't done the research yet tho. Just not in the budget yet. Gotta save everything I got for my q3-q4 2016 skylake-e build as it's going to be a 3500-4000 dollar build 1000 for 8 core cpu 1000 for pascal titan 1000 for mobo, ram, case, psu, cpu heatsink, and noctua case fans And the final 500-1000 for ssd and hdd just depending on if I can get motherboard with 2x ultra m2 slots since with 40 lanes I'll only use 16 + 4 + 4 so 24. I rly hope the 1TB 3d v-nand version of the sm951 nvme drive is out by skylake-e then I wont need to worry about 2x m2 slots. These insane game install sizes is making my 512GB 840 pro tight on space for my next pc I rly want 1TB of ssd space.
You might want to check out Coolermaster's lineup. Moderately priced, good build quality and no need for extra software, although no macro or customization either.
I bought a K70. It worked for about 6 months until i got a few drops of water on the keys. Yup, that's all it takes to ruin the keyboard. Some condensation from a drink got on my fingers and got on the keys. The switches are made of a clam shell design which the part where the two halves meet is right on the surface of the aluminum back. Guess where the drop of water goes straight into? Go read the number of complaints about keys repeating and whatnot. That's all due to water.
Was hoping to see a technical review of these keyboards beyond the basic information that bigger keyboards have more buttons, and more buttons are good.
How about measuring response times, or keyboard backlight brightness levels? What are the keycaps made of, do they show wear easily? How about the software to control lighting? How is OS support? Is there Linux support? an SDK?
" The optical version should be similarly priced as well but no major seller appears to have it in stock at the time of this review."
As I discovered a couple months ago when I couldn't decide between the Sabre and the M65 (I eventually went with the M65), the Sabre Optical is a Best Buy-exclusive product in North America. Don't know how you guys didn't know this.
Anyway, the mouse portions review were very confusing to read because the author continually confuses the front and rear of a mouse. Protip: the part of the mouse that's closer to your monitor is the front. Because it's...it's in the front of the mouse when you're using it. How can you confuse this? Was this article translated through a few different languages in Google Translate or something?
Also, as many point out, there is almost no objective data at all in this review. Just some impressions of how the hardware feels. Kind of funny coming from the guy who thought "put a functioning computer in to a case and record its temperatures" wasn't objective enough data. Throw some measurements in here, man. Otherwise this is just a product page.
Hey guys! I just found this fancy device: www.indexmouse.com Seems to be a real game changer to me. It's a wireless finger mouse. You move the cursor just by pointing with your index finger. I definitely want one.
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56 Comments
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NeatOman - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Aww... i was hopping for scientific test of absolute Lag test, and accuracy on different surfaces.TallestJon96 - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Yeah, I thought this was gonna be a bit more scientific :(dsumanik - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
And here we have the first fruits of the purch media tree.Looks like anandtech is now a paid for commercial. RIP.
zalves - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Yeah you're right! Anandtech lost so much with departure of Anand, now we only have the tech and AdsOxford Guy - Monday, May 18, 2015 - link
I was burned when I picked up a gaming mouse pad from Corsair at Micro Center. The packaging made it look larger than it was and rigid. Instead, it was very thin, floppy, and basically a regular mouse pad only a little bit larger. Major rip-off.dvinnen - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Me too. Esreality did it almost a decade ago with their mousescore reviews.Swiper34 - Thursday, January 7, 2016 - link
They look really nice.And they seem to be good, a lot of League of Legends pros seem to be using Corsair.
Source: http://lolsetup.on-winning.com
der - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
I attain 2nd place again! WooooooNotmyusualid - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Cr@p comments like this should result in 'insta-bans'....thetuna - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Only the cräppiest comments will suffice for the cräppiest comment system :)extide - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
UGH! Those macro keys look like a total afterthought, just slapped on there. Totally un-accaeptable for a keyboard at this pricerange! Oh well, I wouldn't be buying that one anyways, I'd go for the K70.piiman - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
"Totally un-accaeptable for a keyboard at this pricerange! "LOL How so? they are the same as almost every other KB with macro keys. They've done them that way for years on their older versions so they are not an after thought but a PROVEN design that is very popular EVEN IN THIS PRICE RANGE!!!! Who made you the feng shui of macro keys?
Wwhat - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
From the article:"The only dissonance is that the extra area for the macro keys is plastic, not aluminum, and the difference is easily discernible by naked eyes. For these extra keys, Corsair expanded the plastic bottom part of the body, trying to simulate the appearance of the brushed aluminum. With the difference being obvious and considering the immense price tag of the keyboard, we expect that many will not be very happy about this."
Wwhat - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
They should have made it a function by allowing the macro key block to be moved to the other side for lefties.Gunbuster - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Sorry Corsair, I used to split my purchases up between you and Razer. As you are sticking strong to the lobster/heart tramp stamp logo I'll be 100% Razer.Notmyusualid - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Don't forget you'll have to register seven credit cards to be able to use or update your Razer product.:)
Tunnah - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
You won't be a product because you don't like their..logo ?Hands down, stupidest reason ever
hughlle - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Probably buying it to show off to his mates, not because he needs any of the functionality.Gunbuster - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
If two products are nearly equal in functionality and one has a trashy juvenile logo it's not getting bought. They might as well use a penis for the logo after abandoning their classic corporate identity for this bro/mates gamerz junk.angerZen - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Because Razer's three-penis logo is so much better.Dapper Gentleman - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
If functionality is indeed evenly matched between products, there is no shame in basing your choice off aesthetics.And that logo does look like a tramp stamp.
DanNeely - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
So does Razer's; but at least theirs goes mostly invisible if you turn the lighting off.close - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Razer's logo is basically the same stuff. Just with 3 branches instead of two. Oh, and also Razer's logo is slapped huge on the back of their laptops and lit up like a Christmas tree in puke green.http://nerdreactor.com/2014/09/24/corsair-criticiz...
So the hypocrisy is strong in some. They hate the "tramp stamp" but they love the "puke green manga-tentacle-fetish with fonts only a 13 year old would think is cool". I bought a Razer Blade because it's great device and still had to cover the logo as it looks unprofessional as hell in front of a client. But As long as the product is good and that logo doesn't affect my experience I think it's one of the more shallow things I've heard recently. "Not buying a good product because the logo sucks".
nmm - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
All of Corsair's products are made to be aesthetically pleasing. Premium parts are more expensive not just because of how they work, but because they are as beautiful as they are functional, so obviously how nice something looks is significant. Cases, fans, memory modules, close loop water coolers — if it doesn't look nice it won't sell as well. That's just how it is. I tend to agree. The stupid logo is a minus. I feel the way about Logitech's new "s" update to their gaming peripherals. The G700 mouse looks amazing. G700s? I would imagine the "s" stands for "stupid looking".meacupla - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
razer blackwidow tournament edition, worst keyboard ever.way too easy breaking the USB connector on the keyboard side.
close - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
You know that you can twist the Razer logo a bit and it will look just the same. Also, you can tape a $100 bill over it to soothe the bleeding heart.Dorek - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
Luckily I was able to buy a flag-logo M65 RGB from Corsair's site a couple months ago. I too hate the new logo.Aikouka - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
I used to own a Corsair K90, and about a year ago, I upgraded to a Corsair K95 (non-RGB). My biggest qualm with the keyboard is that I keep having issues with repeated key presses. My first thought was that maybe my keystroke was lasting a bit too long, but I don't have this problem with any other keyboard.One thing that I find to be an annoyance is the keyboard firmware upgrade process. Corsair requires you to download an installer, and that may not sound too bad by itself. The problem is that the installer installs a single program that only updates the keyboard to a specific firmware. In other words, you install it, update the keyboard, and then uninstall it. Why in the world do I even have to install it!? At least motherboard manufacturers have installed update software that can check for updates and perform the updates.
puppies - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Having the same problem with repeated key presses registering, annoying as hell and seems completely random. Did you fix it or am I taaking it back to the store (<---see did it again)Mkii - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
Not only the tremendous ugly non international focus logo (wonder if everybody have such uglys tattoos like the logo, in California), what happened with the Gun Metal colour for keyboards? Only black now? Come on! You are only 12 years old only once in your life....when you are 12 y/old.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.Laststop311 - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
I am actually looking for a tenkeyless keyboard to give me more room on my desk since I can't even remember the last time i used the numpad. If they allowed me to use Blue, Brown, Green or White switches I'd probably buy it. I'd probably rather have a cheaper mono red backlit keyboard as red is easier on eyes. I'm basically looking for a mechanical tenkeyless mono red backlit 1: Cherry mx blue switches 2: Brown 3: White 4: Green in that order. Haven't done the research yet tho. Just not in the budget yet. Gotta save everything I got for my q3-q4 2016 skylake-e build as it's going to be a 3500-4000 dollar build 1000 for 8 core cpu 1000 for pascal titan 1000 for mobo, ram, case, psu, cpu heatsink, and noctua case fans And the final 500-1000 for ssd and hdd just depending on if I can get motherboard with 2x ultra m2 slots since with 40 lanes I'll only use 16 + 4 + 4 so 24. I rly hope the 1TB 3d v-nand version of the sm951 nvme drive is out by skylake-e then I wont need to worry about 2x m2 slots. These insane game install sizes is making my 512GB 840 pro tight on space for my next pc I rly want 1TB of ssd space.meacupla - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
You might want to check out Coolermaster's lineup.Moderately priced, good build quality and no need for extra software, although no macro or customization either.
Laststop311 - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
Ye I dont use macros just want a nice small tenkeyless mono red backlit with the right cherry switches for a moderate price.dvinnen - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
From the article title I thought you were going to start doing legit mice tests like esreality did years ago. Kinda a disappointmentBrutuski - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link
And I'm confused as to why this wasn't a pipeline story.rowny - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
Anandtech used to be the technical reference on all topics, now it's becoming flashy and shallow.i7 - Saturday, May 16, 2015 - link
Man, spelling mistake in the title. Someone didn't proof-read their article lol.I have a regular Corsair K70. Love it a lot, Really wanted a RGB model but the issues are a turn-off. Refuse to waste my time.
TheSlamma - Sunday, May 17, 2015 - link
The Software for the keyboards is complete garbage. Passhypergreatthing - Monday, May 18, 2015 - link
I bought a K70. It worked for about 6 months until i got a few drops of water on the keys. Yup, that's all it takes to ruin the keyboard. Some condensation from a drink got on my fingers and got on the keys. The switches are made of a clam shell design which the part where the two halves meet is right on the surface of the aluminum back. Guess where the drop of water goes straight into?Go read the number of complaints about keys repeating and whatnot. That's all due to water.
paulemannsen - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link
i want lag tests with different drivers and operating systems. sry, but reviews like this are useless to me.RavnosCC - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
I really can't believe they didn't just make a more awesome sailboat for the the logo... what a disappointment :(aapocketz - Thursday, May 21, 2015 - link
Was hoping to see a technical review of these keyboards beyond the basic information that bigger keyboards have more buttons, and more buttons are good.How about measuring response times, or keyboard backlight brightness levels? What are the keycaps made of, do they show wear easily? How about the software to control lighting? How is OS support? Is there Linux support? an SDK?
LostTech - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
No mention what-so-ever of all the problems people are having with the RGB keyboards.1) The 16.8m colours were not there at launch and they have had to issue a fix which causes severe flickering...
2) Lots crashing in games (especially via steam)...
3) PC & Corsair's own software having trouble detecting the keyboard...
The list goes on... Corsair seem to think all of this is irrelevant and have buried a lot of the posts in their forum to try to hide the issues!
Dorek - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
" The optical version should be similarly priced as well but no major seller appears to have it in stock at the time of this review."As I discovered a couple months ago when I couldn't decide between the Sabre and the M65 (I eventually went with the M65), the Sabre Optical is a Best Buy-exclusive product in North America. Don't know how you guys didn't know this.
Anyway, the mouse portions review were very confusing to read because the author continually confuses the front and rear of a mouse. Protip: the part of the mouse that's closer to your monitor is the front. Because it's...it's in the front of the mouse when you're using it. How can you confuse this? Was this article translated through a few different languages in Google Translate or something?
Dorek - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
Also, as many point out, there is almost no objective data at all in this review. Just some impressions of how the hardware feels. Kind of funny coming from the guy who thought "put a functioning computer in to a case and record its temperatures" wasn't objective enough data. Throw some measurements in here, man. Otherwise this is just a product page.Volker - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
Hey guys! I just found this fancy device: www.indexmouse.comSeems to be a real game changer to me. It's a wireless finger mouse. You move the cursor just by pointing with your index finger. I definitely want one.