Hardware Corsair K95 RGB Platinum Review

She's a beaut, Clark.

If it lasts as long as an old skool mech board then the price isn't all that bad really. If of course your extra money does buy the quality you would expect.

I have no problems paying high prices for peripherals, just not things that fall apart after a couple of months and have a high price. That tends to be a bit annoying.

 

But will the LEDs die on you after a couple months like the previous RGB K95. Seems it's shed a lot of button weight too in comparison.

 

Yeah I was taking a very passive jab at that in my post tbh. They definitely need to make sure these things are reliable, or, have a very good warranty in place. I've seen a few of them go down recently.

 

I'm just being direct with them from now on rofl, thrown my K95 RGB in the cupboard for the time being. Can't use it easily as a 'boot-keyboard' either thanks to the software dependence, won't always work right off the bat.

 

£180! Bugger. Gaming keyboards are getting more and more expensive. I'd happily take a simple TKL with single-colour backlighting for a third of this. Come on Corsair, sort it out.

 

Everything is getting more expensive. Redflames asked for PSU recommendations yesterday and I couldn't find one for less than about £70 for something half way decent. That figure has risen by at least £20 lately.

Memory is a joke atm also, and case prices seem to be edging up too.

 

Any Linux users tempted by this should seek out the "ckb" program on Corsair's user forum, which at least partially replicates the CUE program's capabilities.
(I think they use incompatible profile files - Corsair's fault)

 

In regards to the burning-out LEDs, that was generally fixed with the second revision of the K95 RGB. Which, speaking of, why did they have to get rid of the 18 programmable keys and just leave us with six? I had a first-gen Logitech G15 with 18 programmable keys, and I used every single one of them very regularly. That keyboard died, and I have to buy a K95 because it was the only keyboard on the market with the same 18 programmable keys. But now even Corsair doesn't make a keyboard with that many keys anymore.

I'm getting really worried for the day I have to buy an actual programmable keypad to supplement an ordinary keyboard. Problem with that is that those programmable keypads cost a bloody fortune. They cost more than the K95.

 

Maybe you guys can review some of the HHKB (Happy Hacking Keyboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard)? Specifically the HHKB Pro2 TypeS, which apparently I've heard people have put away their mechanical keyboards in favour of these.

 

I would love to try one of these tbh, the topre switches are fantastic, although I have only had very limited time with them. I don't think that I could use them instead of my mechs, but I would certainly like to add it to the collection!

I will have to keep my eyes open at events to see if I can find a sample

 

TKL Mech Keyboard plus https://www.overclockers.co.uk/logitech-g13-advanced-gameboard-kb-25g-lg.html Cheesecake

 

I've considered that Logitech panel, but after ten years dealing with Logitech Gaming Software, I was extremely eager to be rid of it.

 

I love the Corsair keyboards but I can't get myself to ever buy one again after my K70 Vengeance's cable died over two years after buying it (the USB passthrough had been playing up already but the shop claimed it was fine). Contacted Corsair and was unable to buy the cable separately which is silly for a premium product that should be lasting years. Ended up buying a cheap $1 HP keyboard and used the cable from that so at least I still have a functional expensive keyboard albeit with a cheap cable and no USB passthrough. I think if it dies completely I'll get a Ducky.

 

I can't quite distinguish what's different with this iteration of the K95 compared to the previous one, but perhaps that's just me being daft.

 

Hmmmm, do I keep my Qpad MK85, that has not missed a beat in 3 1/2 years and looks likely to last many more years, or do I spend £180 on a flash new keyboard that would appear to bring with it a rather high risk of reliability problems?

 

Did the old one have per key lighting and USB pass-through? Other than that there's the addition of the light bar along the top and the reduction in the number of macro keys on the left, oh and a textured space bar.

 

No USB passthrough but it did have per key lighting yeah. I set the macro keys to be different colours so I could better remember which did what, to think that RGB was genuinely useful for once haha.