Gadgetory

hi and welcome back to hardware unboxed I'm your host Matt and today we've got our hands-on corset gaming's new strafe RGB MX silent mechanical keyboard not too long ago we reviewed the standard straight from Corsair and we were reasonably impressed it's a really nice keyboard to use and the only thing we thought it was lacking was a wrist rest proving that corsair love and watched my videos religiously they've decided to include one in this new RGB model as well as a few other distinct changes first of all the RGB model is just that RGB each key is individually lit and can be tuned to any color on the ITV spectrum via the Corsair Utility engine software the CEO is software also allows you to create and save different profiles assign actions and micros fully customize the lighting and control other device and software settings there's a variety of pretty cool standard lighting effects that you can easily select from the front page although personally I find most of them pretty distracting perhaps the biggest point of difference on this board compared to at least the rest of course as range is the inclusion of style in Cherry MX switches announced in August these switches claim to feel and function exactly as the standard Cherry MX switches however with much reduced noise there are two varieties of the solitary MX switches one is a modification of the chair mechs black switch and the other is a modification of the Cherry MX read our strafe RGB spots the red variety cherry informs us in their own words that in order to suppress noises optimally the precision switching slide has been supplemented with the TPE elastomer component the result is less noise as the case hits the bottom and spring back up while I can admit that they are definitely a bit quieter than the standard switches I'm not sure that it's going to be enough to satisfy users who are picky about the noise that mechanical keyboards make I can't say that the noise of even my blue switches at home bothers me at all in fact I kind of like it so I definitely wouldn't be personally showing our extra cash for an MX silent keyboard however it might be the compromise that some people need in order not to get jangled in their office this keyboard is very similar to the original strafe aside from an illuminated Corsair logo at the top left and a wire base underneath the keys it really reflects the RGB lighting well you've still got USB pass-through a Windows lock key brightness key and alternative function media keys on top of the included wrist rest course are also kind enough to include two sets of texture key caps WASD for FPS gamers and qwa IDF for mobile gamers along with a key cat removal tool physically it's a really great looking keyboard the straight design is refreshingly flat and low-profile with sharp corners and edges for the most part the build is the all-around black plastic aside from the white baseplate I mentioned and wipe sides it also have an RGB light strip running through them for effect overall I really like the appearance of the keyboard it feels nice too considering the exteriors all plastic it's quite weighty which gives it a premium feel but might not be suited to gamers on the go as standard the only textured key was the space bar which I'm honestly not sure I liked it wasn't a deal-breaker Qi is the only non-standard keys on this keyboard are the function key which replaces the second Windows key on the right the windows lock key and the LED brightness key at the top of the board the function key is tied to media functions from f5 skipping f6 and then through to f12 but these can all be customized in the CEOs software as mentioned the USB pass-through is a very welcoming clusion we'd love to see the courser have included this the cable is not braided rather just a thick rubber cable and USB connectors are in corsair gaming's yellow and black overall the strafe RGB is a great keyboard and combines sleek design with longtime usability I love to see the inclusion if the full-size wrist rest and gamers will enjoy having two sets of texture key caps included to the fully customizable perky RGB lighting is fun to play an experiment with and for those that want a quick result there are plenty of cool presets to choose from at an MSRP of 149 the pricing is appropriate for the strafe RGB which for me it takes all of the important boxes thanks for joining me for another episode of hardware unboxed I'm your host Matt and I'd love to hear from you in the comments or on our forum at Hardware unbox calm don't forget to hit like hit subscribe and I'll see you next time