Soldato
Hey guys.
Corsair have kindly given us a few engineering samples of the K60 and K90 keyboards for testing purposes.
I thought it would be rude not to complete a forum review, especially as I reviewed the Ozone Mechanical Keybaord a few weeks back
Anyway onto the review
Inital Impression
The keyboard was not in a retail box as it was an engineering sample, it arrived in a OEM brown box, which I assume was packed by the manufacturer. I took the K60 out of the box and instantly noticed that the keyboard was cold to touch, but as its Aluminium that was to be expected. The wrist rest on the K60 is clearly aimed at when your gaming with the WASD keys.
The K90 was similiar in design but has a better longer multi use wrist rest.
The same issue as with 99% of keyboards is present in both these units! The cables are at the centre of the keyboard, right where your minotor sit behind the keyboard. Why can manufacturer not put the cables at the right side of the keybaord (or the left too)
Install
The install was quick and easy. You need two USB ports for the power and data, for both keyboards. Windows picked up the keyboards and installed it instantly. No drivers required and all feature buttons/macro keys work from the off. So this was good!
Usage
Well the first thing I wanted to try was the keys as the keyboard have both the switch keys and the membrain keys. Most of you seemed disapointed when this was announced. We firstly the mechanical switch keys seems good and very responsive to the touch and made the lovely clickity click noise. The membrain keys have the same pressure requirement to press them down which is better than I expected however I wish that Corsair had made it 100% mechanical, the difference in the feel is noticable and I am not a fan. The F1-F12 keys are fine to be honest, but after a bit of extended usage in Windows and in games I felt dissapointed with just 2 of the keys being membrane. ESC and the DELETE button on the 6 button cluster above the cursor keys. As I use them in games and in windows a lot.
The keys which are no mechanical are:-
ESC, F1-F12, Prt Screen, Scroll, Pause/Braake/Insert, Home., Page Up, Page Down, End, and Delete. (oh and the macro keys on the bigger K90).
The K60 doesn't have any illumination which is fine as a few of the mecahnical keyboards dont, and I tend to look at the screen when typing or gaming anyway.
The K90 has a backlight, the backlight on the membrane keys is ace! Nice and subtle and works. However the lighting on the switch keys I wasn't too impressed with, and the reaosn is for this is the LED light is behind every key and due to the keyboard being silver brushed aluminium the light does reflect back off the inside of the key and lights up the keyboard base. Some people may not mind, or even like it. But I didn't.
The Illumination does have 3 levels of brightness, and also an off mode. I had to set the brightness to the lowest setting due to my dislike of the light reflection.
The K60 wrist pad. The wrist pad is good for gaming, in fact it is excellent for gaming as it put your hand in the perfect position for WASD usage. However if you are using the keyboard for just typing then the wrist rest is useless and you have to remove it. You dont get the standard rest that the K90 has either, which is a massive shame because I hate any keyboard with out a rest.
The K90 rest pad is much better and is ideal for both gaming and typing.
K60 vs K90 - Macro Keys. The macro keys are an additional feature for the K90n as it's more aimed at being a RPG/MMO type keyboard while the K60 has been marketted as a FPS gaming keyboard. Well I used to play WoW and never used the M keys on my G15 or G19, but I know some people will use them, they have a good amount of keys and there is the option for 3 profiles too, so you get plenty of options for it. All the macros are recorded via the keyboard, no additonal software is required, so they are saved ont he keyboard in case of Windows reinstall or even a new PC which is good.
The orange keys on the K60 whihc allow you to swap the WASD and the 1-6 are great for gaming, they offer a more contoured rubber feel and are angled to your finger have a more natural position for gaming. But they are almost impossible to type on when not gaming. And means you have to keep changing them over.
Conclusion
The K60 is a good keyboard aimed at FPS gamers, however the keyboard does suffer lack of support for normal generic usage as there is no normal wrist rest.
The K90 is the better keyboard of the two with back lighting and a proper wrist rest.
The biggest let down for me is that some of the keys are membrain. After using one I do not see any logic in why Corsair decided to do this? I wish it was 100% mechanical.
Both products are nice to use for their intended purposes, and have great build quality, just as you would expect from them.
At home I use the G19 and at work I have been using the Ozone keyboard.
At home I will continue to use the G19 and at work after using the Corsair keybaord for 4 days I have moved back to the Ozone. Im afraid there are just a couple of things that I wished was different on the Corsair.
If I didn't have access to any keyboard at work for testing and I bought one of the Corsair units I would have been more than happy with the product. If you want one get one, it isn't a bad product!
Corsair have kindly given us a few engineering samples of the K60 and K90 keyboards for testing purposes.
I thought it would be rude not to complete a forum review, especially as I reviewed the Ozone Mechanical Keybaord a few weeks back
Anyway onto the review
Inital Impression
The keyboard was not in a retail box as it was an engineering sample, it arrived in a OEM brown box, which I assume was packed by the manufacturer. I took the K60 out of the box and instantly noticed that the keyboard was cold to touch, but as its Aluminium that was to be expected. The wrist rest on the K60 is clearly aimed at when your gaming with the WASD keys.
The K90 was similiar in design but has a better longer multi use wrist rest.
The same issue as with 99% of keyboards is present in both these units! The cables are at the centre of the keyboard, right where your minotor sit behind the keyboard. Why can manufacturer not put the cables at the right side of the keybaord (or the left too)
Install
The install was quick and easy. You need two USB ports for the power and data, for both keyboards. Windows picked up the keyboards and installed it instantly. No drivers required and all feature buttons/macro keys work from the off. So this was good!
Usage
Well the first thing I wanted to try was the keys as the keyboard have both the switch keys and the membrain keys. Most of you seemed disapointed when this was announced. We firstly the mechanical switch keys seems good and very responsive to the touch and made the lovely clickity click noise. The membrain keys have the same pressure requirement to press them down which is better than I expected however I wish that Corsair had made it 100% mechanical, the difference in the feel is noticable and I am not a fan. The F1-F12 keys are fine to be honest, but after a bit of extended usage in Windows and in games I felt dissapointed with just 2 of the keys being membrane. ESC and the DELETE button on the 6 button cluster above the cursor keys. As I use them in games and in windows a lot.
The keys which are no mechanical are:-
ESC, F1-F12, Prt Screen, Scroll, Pause/Braake/Insert, Home., Page Up, Page Down, End, and Delete. (oh and the macro keys on the bigger K90).
The K60 doesn't have any illumination which is fine as a few of the mecahnical keyboards dont, and I tend to look at the screen when typing or gaming anyway.
The K90 has a backlight, the backlight on the membrane keys is ace! Nice and subtle and works. However the lighting on the switch keys I wasn't too impressed with, and the reaosn is for this is the LED light is behind every key and due to the keyboard being silver brushed aluminium the light does reflect back off the inside of the key and lights up the keyboard base. Some people may not mind, or even like it. But I didn't.
The Illumination does have 3 levels of brightness, and also an off mode. I had to set the brightness to the lowest setting due to my dislike of the light reflection.
The K60 wrist pad. The wrist pad is good for gaming, in fact it is excellent for gaming as it put your hand in the perfect position for WASD usage. However if you are using the keyboard for just typing then the wrist rest is useless and you have to remove it. You dont get the standard rest that the K90 has either, which is a massive shame because I hate any keyboard with out a rest.
The K90 rest pad is much better and is ideal for both gaming and typing.
K60 vs K90 - Macro Keys. The macro keys are an additional feature for the K90n as it's more aimed at being a RPG/MMO type keyboard while the K60 has been marketted as a FPS gaming keyboard. Well I used to play WoW and never used the M keys on my G15 or G19, but I know some people will use them, they have a good amount of keys and there is the option for 3 profiles too, so you get plenty of options for it. All the macros are recorded via the keyboard, no additonal software is required, so they are saved ont he keyboard in case of Windows reinstall or even a new PC which is good.
The orange keys on the K60 whihc allow you to swap the WASD and the 1-6 are great for gaming, they offer a more contoured rubber feel and are angled to your finger have a more natural position for gaming. But they are almost impossible to type on when not gaming. And means you have to keep changing them over.
Conclusion
The K60 is a good keyboard aimed at FPS gamers, however the keyboard does suffer lack of support for normal generic usage as there is no normal wrist rest.
The K90 is the better keyboard of the two with back lighting and a proper wrist rest.
The biggest let down for me is that some of the keys are membrain. After using one I do not see any logic in why Corsair decided to do this? I wish it was 100% mechanical.
Both products are nice to use for their intended purposes, and have great build quality, just as you would expect from them.
At home I use the G19 and at work I have been using the Ozone keyboard.
At home I will continue to use the G19 and at work after using the Corsair keybaord for 4 days I have moved back to the Ozone. Im afraid there are just a couple of things that I wished was different on the Corsair.
If I didn't have access to any keyboard at work for testing and I bought one of the Corsair units I would have been more than happy with the product. If you want one get one, it isn't a bad product!
