Gadgetory

finally guys finally we have the most anticipated keyboard that you guys were looking forward to everyone here however connects was excited about this thing when it was first showcased and it's none other than the Coolermaster SK series it's right here I'm holding one right now in my hand which is kind of awesome this thing was showcased or was debuted at Computex last year and almost took them seven months to launch this lineup which i think is quite a long time for a product launch ever since its announcement but I got to spend a good amount of time playing well this keyboard so let me walk you to my experience using this guy and let's find out if the hype was really worth it right after this hello I'm looking for some fans well are you married yeah I have a ring what is your favorite number I would say three do I have the perfect fan for you this is the new thermal tech ring trio 12 fans with good static pressure for radiators it is a beautiful frame with double side and center ring illumination with soft and super bright spill with razor chrome and compatibility control it through your smartphone the RGB plus software on the PC or Amazon Alexa well I'm gonna take these home perhaps you should to check them out in the description below ok guys so I do want to give a little bit of history on the SK lineup because it was initially showcased at CES last year with Coolermaster showing his prototypes and they were asking for feedback from press and just the overall public in general and then we saw a refined version of it at Computex and now we're here with the full production model so what's really new with the SK series is it yet another mechanical gaming keyboard sort of but not fully you see the reason I say this is because coolness just trying to push for a more simplistic insulin design with their SK lineup the main highlight of this keyboard is the inclusion of Cherry MX low profile red switches which I'll talk about a bit later in the video pricing starts $120 for the SK 630 which is the Tikal version and full-size XK 650 goes for around $140 it is an expensive investment friends so let's kick things off with the way how it presents itself first and foremost coolermaster has done everything that they can to minimize the form factor of the chassis to fit as much as possible so there are no signs of aggressiveness or gaming oriented full hair on this keyboard there's absolutely no branding at all which I highly appreciate except for the function key that has been replaced by the subtle coolermaster logo not a deal-breaker the build quality is good there is a solid piece of brushed aluminum on top of the plastic base that adds a structural rigidity I really wished if it was an all aluminum build because the plastic base is pretty cheap and I think the only thing that's actually holding this thing together is the aluminum frame that being said the edges of the frame are chamfer to give it a premium look and honestly this keyboard does not give me any gaming vibes and I think that's a good thing but let me know what you guys think about it in the comments alright so let's talk about the slim factor of this keyboard because the SK series can also be really portable especially if you take the tkl SK 630 also bonus points to coolermaster for including a carrying case so that he can safely transport this thing without the metal surface being scratched up or anything but interestingly enough I decided to compare the height of this keyboard to my G pro and the HyperX alloy elite it's a full-size keyboard and honestly it's not that slimmer as you'd imagine it's the perception of that few millimeters that gives it the slim certification but nonetheless it certainly looks different compared to a traditional mechanical keyboard that's for sure I should also mention that coolermaster will be launching a 65 key version of this keyboard so it's gonna be a lot more compact and it's going to feature bluetooth capabilities so you can pair it up with your Android or Apple devices the one thing that's really disappointing with the SK lineup of keyboard is the lack of angle adjustments you see by design there's a little bit of an angle by the frame but the fact that they weren't able to include those little clips that pop out to give just a little bit of an angle when you're typing is kind of a missed opportunity because I am coming from a keyboard like the G probe that features those clips and I normally leave it at the maximum setting because I like having that extra angle so it's more comfortable for me to type with but the fact that you're actually not getting one and a keyboard that cost so much it just it it's really odd the cable is removable and the best part is that it connects via USB type-c this is refreshing to see since you could travel with just one USB type-c cable to perhaps charge your phone provided that has type c and then use it to connect the keyboard to the computer again depending on your situation this connector can come in beneficial in the future however the cable is braided so expect king formation during long term use especially since this also has a portability aspect to it now the lack of a USB pass-through port can be dismissed here because it requires a lot more bandwidth to transfer data and the cooler USB type-c port can't do all that much so if you were at a USB pass-through port you just have to expect the cable to be a little bit more thicker kind of like what Corsair does with their mechanical keyboards so I'm okay with the fact that we're getting a removable cable that's time C no complaints there now a few things to consider you don't get dedicated media playback buttons or macro keys with this keyboard even the full-size version doesn't have that but it can be done on the fly through the keyboard or through the driver software and the lack of a wrist rest is definitely a missed opportunity for Coolermaster because I feel like paying 120 plus dollars for a keyboard of this caliber should include some sort of a wrist rest it doesn't have to attach the keyboard but something that's very low profile that has the leather wet material would have been an awesome inclusion with this keyboard but perhaps we can see that in the next revision RGB lighting is here and everything from lighting effects to colors can be controlled within the keyboard but Kulu master does offer it drivers software as well if you choose to customize lighting that way now for instance the function + f5 key cycles between different lighting modes like static breathing ripple you can also change the speed of the effects by going through the arrow keys and the lighting effects go really fast so if you really are looking for something that's way too overkill something that's super fancy you can certainly do that with the SK series the media playback buttons are integrated right above the arrow keys but oddly enough I think Coolermaster forgot to include a mute button I'm dead serious guys it's the one thing that I just tried looking through the manual I tried you know just going through the key caps to find it but I just couldn't find that on this keyboard and even the full-size version so kind of sucks I hope that they perhaps you know fix that in the next revision the also and under the odd thing is that I wasn't able to find LED brightness adjustments within this keyboard you really can't control the brightness even to the drivers software which is also kind of disappointing and the fact is lighting is also not bad bright enough so that's something to consider there are four profiles that can be saved within the keyboard and recording can be done on the fly another thing that I noticed is that these secondary letters in the function grow and the number o are not consistently lit there's a little bit of a gradient to it so it might not be as visible and darker scenarios so be mindful of that honestly I prefer lighting disabled on this keyboard because it just looks a lot more cleaner and minimalistic very industrial so that's just my personal preference but again if you really need RGB lighting on a minimalistic keyboard go announcer does offer that all right so it's time to talk about the low profile Cherry MX switches so to get the specs out of the way they feature a total travel distance of three point two millimeters with an activation point at one point two millimeters for comparison a traditional MX red switch has roughly four millimeters of travel distance actuated at two millimeters now at first it didn't really feel like a mechanical keyboard and I think part of that is due to these shorter travel distance we're so used to mechanical keyboards with larger key camps and a variety of switches and this MX low-profile switch feels a lot different so when you hit a key it's in and you won't even feel the actuation point another thing that I noticed is the spacing between the keys are a lot shorter compared to a standard key count found on a mechanical keyboard so it took me a lot of time or took me at least some time to get used to this keyboard initially I started making I started making a lot of typos when I was composing emails and whatnot but over time I slowly started getting used to it I should also mention that they are fairly silent so if you were to use this in an office setting you really won't be annoying your co-workers at all because again they're fairly low profile gaming on it was a pretty good experience the keys are actually faster to actuate and I didn't experience any finger fatigue after playing overwatch from 30 minutes or so the best part is that the lata force is also very minimum and keys of course very fast to respond it's not going to make you a better gamer overall I mean when you're coming from a traditional mechanical keyboard of course you have to consider the fact that you've to get used to the keys and the spacing but you know just overall I didn't feel a significant difference gaming on a traditional mechanical keyboard to something like this here's a quick sound test lastly I do want to talk about the drivers software but before I get into it I have to mention that I've run into a few instances where the keyboard will be detected by the software itself I tried multiple use reports I haven't tried reversing a USBC plug tried restarting the computer didn't really work out that well so last it was obviously to uninstall the driver and then reinstall that back seemed to have worked it's working right now so looking at the UI in general it looks fairly clean I like what cooling master is done here with the overall you know just design in general so you're greeted with a physical overview of the keyboard you can also just elé the effects right over here I think there are a total of 21 effects which is probably the most I've seen on a keyboard so far you can also just a speed and the direction as well macro commands can be monitored in a separate tab the key map tab allows you to map any of these keys to a command that you prefer the only thing I wish coolermaster did was to include or preload a bunch of presets that we can take advantage of for example you know opening up a certain application would have been nice with a certain key but that's unfortunately not possible with this program I don't think it's even added in this segment here and of course there is the option to switch between different profiles within the profiles tab so guys I think it's time to wrap up my thoughts on cooler masters SK series and I personally think it's safe first good try for the company and don't get me wrong I love what cooler masters done here in terms of design the keyboard looks very clean and minimalistic it actually look kind of amazing in certain angles especially when you pair it up with especially if you have a very clean set up at your space I think this will perfectly blend in with that but it's not fully polished for instance I think the lack of implementing a mute button also you don't get you know proper angle adjustments lack of including a wrist rest again these are all missed opportunities for pool master especially for a keyboard that costs well over a hundred bucks and also the lack of LED brightness adjustments that's definitely something that I found to be really odd on a keyboard that happens to feature RGB lighting as well the Cherry MX low profile switches are pretty good and they do offer adequate amount of travel distance and if there's someone who's coming from a laptop keyboard and if you're thinking about upgrading the SK series would certainly be a pretty good option to look into it because first and foremost you still get the same chiclet layout with almost the same amount of spacing I think and I think that's a good thing but if you're coming from a traditional mechanical keyboard this my friends is gonna take quite a bit of time to get used to especially since it's a completely different set of key caps and you have to get used to the shorter travel distance so yeah I think this is a try it first and then buy it kind of a product so if you happen to find this and you know in your local stores definitely give it a try perhaps buy it online and if you don't like it you can always return it and rock your old-school mechanical keyboard so that's it for me let me know what you guys think about the SK series from Coolermaster would you be interested in something like this and would you actually consider trying the Cherry MX low-profile switches and we guess think by the design if you have any feedback I'd love to know that in the comments down below I'm Eva with hybrid connects thank you so much for watching make sure to check out some relevant content over here subscribe to our boot sequence channel I'm signing off and I'll see you guys in the next one