Gadgetory

we ranked RGB LEDs as the most prolific trend of 2016 following our Computex coverage and it's pretty apparent there everywhere you look now for better or worse and course share was at the front of this trend for peripherals back in 2014 at CES when they showcased their first RGB LED switch for mechanical keyboards and this was a timed exclusive with cherry now cherry and Corsair have teamed up to make the K 65 RGB rapid-fire keyboard which is just a new MX speed switch so this is a brand new switch type for mechanical keyboards the keyboard the K 65 one specifically is the one that we're reviewing today there's also a new case 70 out also RGB and then not to confuse things too much for you but there's also Lux versions of these keyboards so there's a K 65 Lux which is also an RGB keyboard today we're looking at the case 65 RGB rapid-fire keyboard it is priced at $140 and the lux version which does not have the MX speed switch but rather the sort of normal Reds and other switches that one is priced $10 cheaper so that's your difference the rapid-fire one we're looking at was reviewed by Michael Kern's who works for the site you can check out the review link in the description below but we'll run through the same stuff here so first of all talking about switch types we've actually made animations of the various MX switch types you can see one here and these just show how the Cherry MX and sort of kale switch is work they're more or less the same the new speed switch is similar in all ways to the MX red switch but has moved the actuation point and changed actuation force the new MX speed switch is exclusive to Corsair for about six months and markets itself as a means to enable competitive gamers the actuation point is part of this as it is one point two millimeters deep and that's marginally different from a 2 millimeter depth of the MX Reds and is exceedingly easy to press down as a result and also as a result of its low actuation force requirement combining low actuation force and high actuation depth that the keys are pressed by axe and almost constantly but we did eventually get used to it and it's not so bad after a few weeks just moving from one key to the next though you are likely to graze a neighboring key cap and gods input so that can definitely be frustrating it's not great for typing not great for typists for article writers but it's certainly similar to MX Reds in this regard if you like MX Reds you might like these if you dislike or hate MX Reds the same is going to be true here so there's all the speak of the MX speed switches being better than MX Reds for gaming coursers certainly pushing that as an angle but what's the math behind it we're talking point eight millimeters here how much difference does that realistically have for user input well we can run through the math pretty quickly let's take our two actuation points MX Reds two millimeters and MX speeds which is one point two millimeters to determine the switch input timing difference we've got to make some assumptions let's start with the assumption of a moving fingers speed for gamers anyway and within any given second we can assume that a gamer moves their finger about 300 millimeters again per second and that movement speed is something we derive from Logitech's own formulas when making assumptions and doing testing so we are taking what they've given us Logitech says they asked me about 300 millimeters per second that seems reasonable and is what they used when doing math for the Romer G switches so we're going to borrow that assumption so 300 millimeters per second that equates to 0.3 millimeters of movement per millisecond if you divide 2 millimeters actuation depth by 0.3 millimeters per millisecond we come out with 6.7 milliseconds to actuate a red switch of course the millimeters cancel out here in you're left with milliseconds if you look at the speed switch remember now we've got six point seven milliseconds on the red speed switch to 0.3 millimeters of movement per millisecond so 1.2 actuation depth divided by 0.3 both millimeters / or percept per millisecond that equals or milliseconds we've got a 2.7 millisecond difference at 300 millimeters per second the time to actuate again 6.7 on the red switch then 4 speed switches so even with these assumptions we've got a pretty good number here but there's more to it still than that other variables to consider that muddy the advantage include reaction times of the users so between our staff Michael Kern's myself others we've seen a reaction time of about 220 to 300 milliseconds on average depending on the person and even assuming a slightly better reaction time of 200 milliseconds that 2.7 millisecond difference between the switches is buried by human input variability that doesn't even account for network delay and other latency so I would wager pretty fairly I think that almost all users of this keyboard will not realistically feel a difference between the MX reds and the MX speed switches that's not say there is no difference certainly there is it is measurable it exists is scientifically provable but that doesn't mean you can feel it as a user maybe as an eSports pro or some high-level competitive player that's certainly not me I'm not the right person to talk about that but I would say for the average to skilled player you won't realistically feel the difference between the two switches so then the switches are a little squishy like Red's they are easy to type with and aren't ideal for folks doing a lot of typing but might be fine for gaming depending on the person let's talk about key caps now the K 65 rapidfire uses the same key caps as Corsairs strafe keyboards which we previously reviewed the font is a block here and more gamer II and its aesthetic but this does have some function as it allows more light to bleed through from the LED backlight the key caps are ABS plastic and form the legend by a simple absence of paint where the light should bleed through and this is pretty standard courser includes textured WASD key caps for users with strong personal preferences for such things but otherwise sticks to fairly standard key caps in general now I say in general because there's one place that coarser doesn't use standard key caps and it drives me a little bit crazy because I'm not sure why they don't sure there's some kind of reason but I don't think it's a great one so here's here's what's going on the bottom row does not use standard key cap sizes and this has been true of previous Corsair keyboards like the strafe and it's probably a pretty uncommon thing but mechanical keyboards are definitely a sort of enthusiast collector market in some regard there's a lot of really a lot of big drive behind the technology and mechanical keyboard is a lot of interest in it end to that end it would make sense to stick with some standards to enable these sort of enthusiast functions and one of those is replacing the key caps if you want different keys or if something goes wrong and you want to replace the key caps totally legitimate for both of those use cases bottom row is not standard if you go on one of the websites that sells custom key caps or you want to customize your own key cap set the standard bottom row will not work on the case 65 RGB rapid-fire keyboard the others will work fine the bottom row you're out of luck so we pick grudged course here for this in the past it hasn't changed I don't know that it will but this is one of the very few points on this keyboard that I would like to see some improvement and it's really not that big of a change once Corsair obviously starts working on future products now it's not going to change on this product line it's not going to change on anything that uses the same tooling as this product line but it's not like some sort of low-level technological change as was the case with the sixteen point eight million color fiasco from a while back which is now resolved by the way but enough on switches and key cabs let's talk lighting now that courser has resolved that flickering issue with RGB lighting the K 65 rapid-fire enters the market as one of the most customizable keyboards available and we do not say that lightly in fact it's got some of the most customizable RGB LEDs we've seen anywhere period and that's a good thing for Corsair in this competitive market there's even got a full csgo suite of lighting to match different skins from the games Gunz Asimov and others they've got complete program ability and use Corsair utility engine or queue to enable that customization further courser is able to front this advanced lighting presence because they don't store the lighting to the keyboard like most other peripheral makers do this means that you can't move your profile from one system to another simply by moving the keyboard unfortunately but you can still export the profile through queue and then import it to a new system so there is still profile management and movement if necessary but it's not as simple as just moving the board instead of supporting that instant mobility courser has opted for more intense software control local file storage on the system and then that applies profiles with pretty deep customization options to the keyboard and it looks really good when it's working so we'd like to see Q improve in a few ways one of those is by allowing full keyboard profiles to apply to tkl or ten keela's keyboard since all they'd have to do is basically cut off some keys but updates are still forthcoming so maybe we'll see that in the future build quality of the case xt 5 RGB rapid-fire is good it is sturdy it's got a metal backplate and no bezel up around the keys like seen on for instance Logitech keyboard so I like that look and feel if you don't that's that's up to you but in terms of the sturdiness it is definitely a sturdy keyboard it's got a pretty rigid backplate so when typing there's absolutely no flex detected I mean it's it's it's a sturdy keyboard but it does lack in a few ways the strafe was really somewhat of a masterpiece when we looked at its internals and the new K 65 rapid fire does deter a little bit from that range I wouldn't use that word for it it's still good but there are some sloppy solder points and things like that there is a stray a surface mount diode that was out of place where switch and was connected with a thin wire to a nearby trace so it's really it's not terrible you're not going to see these things but it is lower quality than we've seen from cores in the past in some very specific and nitpicky ways the board does use that metal backplate at least though so it is a sturdy board at its foundation now here's another thing worth note courser does that sort of push this idea almost like a German carmaker would do and I'm not going to name names but I'm sure most do you know who I'm talking about coarser pushes the same angle of sort of quality over all else and this idea of quality is it's a good marketing approach but there it feels like there needs to be more backing it up so when I say that I mean the new keyboard it does push that quality feel it's expensive it's got this prestige about it but it's got a 2 year warranty and competitors in the market including thermaltake with the really pretty cheap poseidon Zekey board with kale switches they've got a 5 year warranty and yes I know that sort of the response from Corsair may be well it's cheaper so they can afford to do that and it's probably going to break anyway but in response to that I would say of course there's really pushing quality as one of its main selling points and - they're using cherry switches which are also pushed as this sort of high quality component and in that regard I would like to see a bit more confidence behind the warranty but it is what it is hopefully it just doesn't break anyway I mean two years is still reasonable for pretty much everyone so regardless the keyboard is good overall it's $140 it's certainly steep but it's not unfair it's competitive within the market that it fights in the MX speed switch version is 10 bucks more than the lux RGB version with the normal cherry switches the MX Reds and what-have-you because they're all cherry switches but so ten dollars more I would not recommend spending that $10 for the MX speed switches they are just they're almost identifiably different in terms of your actual in-game outputs or inputs as it may be so I wouldn't buy on the idea that the speed switches will make you a better gamer I don't buy into that for this particular device some devices sure I would say buying a good Mouse would make you a better gamer than a $5 Microsoft Mouse with a ball this is not one of those instances it's it's getting a little bit low level and I don't think you'll really feel that switch in your everyday use now that's okay because if you really like this keyboard the $10 cheaper version is the same thing with a different switch that performs more or less the same so that's certainly an option now if you don't like this or you want to look at your alternatives I would recommend the look into the Logitech G 9 10 that's the whatever they call it a Rhine spark or whatever their silly naming is now look into that one it's similarly expensive but good and has a unique switch in it there's the g8 10 if you want something smaller and less bulky and then outside of Logitech and course here there's the Razer chroma for an RGB keyboard it's got sort of that mirrored finish and then Corsair zone strafe keyboard we liked a lot and I would really in some ways I would recommend over this one but it just it depends on what you're going for so do keep that in mind now we like the K 65 well enough the MX speed switches I think are needlessly aggressive on their marketing that they push this competitive advantage when really there's kind of not one unless you're insanely serious gamer and if you are more power to you buy it but those are my thoughts that's more or less what Michael thought as well he can read his article link to the description below as always if you like this content patreon link the post or video to help us out directly thanks to those of you who do support us subscribe for more I'll see you all next time