corsair K65 RGB mini gaming keyboard critique
Corsair’s getting in on the 60 percent keyboard gold rush. The $109 K65 RGB Mini, a pint-size refresh of the company's K65 TKL design, removes everything but the essentials to create a minimalist mechanical keyboardthat's compact and portable. In a superficial sense, the K65 is a highly successful 60 percent adaptation. The keyboard is small, but the layout doesn’t feel compressed as compact designs sometimes do. At the same time, with a wave of 60 and 65 percent keyboards launching from major manufacturers this year, there’s no feature or component that makes the K65 Mini particularly noteworthy. It’s a solid, but ultimately bland choice in a keyboard category that’s heating up.
First of all, we should point out that the K65 Mini is a 60 percent keyboard. It has 61 keys, which is actually just under 60 percent of a 104-key, full-size layout. To reach that point, the K65 removes the number pad, function row, editing keys, and navigation keys. It also ditches the large spaces between the keys; it’s a single block. The result is a mechanical keyboard that measures 1.78 by 11.53 by 4.00 inches (HWD).
Unlike many 65 percent keyboards that jam five or so extra key into the same quad, the K65 Mini doesn’t rearrange the classic keyboard layout or shrink the samara' size. This eliminate the child, evanesce discomfort of switch to a covenant layout.
To right for all the key that were stinger, almost every key feature a secondary stimulation, activate with the FN key. Every 60 and 65 percent keyboard has these, but Corsair go all out with its shortswerves. inch summation to add the miss samara and medium restraint, it also feature an onboard profile cycle key, light restraint, and button to see your mouse cursor with the keyboard. These remark, criterion and alone, are distinguish with sidecaps on the key' inside edge. That’s important because there are many input to teach.
give that, it may not surprise you to learn that the K65 is a relatively comapparent keyboard. It eschews Corsair’s anodized-aluminum peak panel in favor of a humble, taut, nucleotide without adjustable foot. summation, the K65 feature black, doubling injection keycaps that don't do much to up the keyboard's visual appearance. It also have a detachable USB-C cable, which has rapidly become the standard among little keyboards.
There is one flashy component, however. The space key features a unique fractal design that lets RGB light shine through. While it's look is unlike any keycap design I’ve seen, the concept of having RGB light pierce the spacebar is one already seen in the HyperX admixture beginning 60
.
under the detonator, the K65 Mini feature either cherry MX loss or MX speed silver switch. My review unit have amphetamine silver, cherry’s quick hair-trigger switch. With slightly less travel than cherry Reds—1.2mm to actuation/3.4mm to buttocks, versus 2mm/4mm—and the same coerce, it spirit wish you can crush them with a idea. indium fact, I discovery it’s a fiddling too comfortable to misurge key, and that the short travel isn’t as comfortable as a wax 4mm buttocksland degree.
The K65 RGB Mini has a signature feature, though it isn’t especially helpful. It supports up to 8000Hz “hyperpolling
,” which raises the keyboard’s input report rate to 0.125 milliseconds. The standard polling rate in most keyboards is 1000Hz, or 1ms, so the higher setting theoretically cuts most of the already imperceptible input lag created by your keyboard. In practice, it's impossible to tell the difference between the polling rates. As I’ve said in other reviews, setting polling above the standard 1000Hz delivers diminishing returns, especially on keyboards where your inputs already seem instant. That doesn’t mean it isn’t doing anything, but it’s hard to say that it’s useful when there’s no tangible benefit. It certainly isn’t a good reason to buy one keyboard over another.
The K65 RGB Mini is compatible with iCue, Corsair’s peripheral configuration software. The recently redesigned iCue app Lashkar-e-Taiba you make keyboard profile with remapped key and custom macros, exchange RGB ignition, and adjust other context. With the revision, iCue is easy to take than before thanks to a large, more visually mind interface.
Instead of having a express act of keyboard visibility slot, the issue that you can brand is predicate on what you variety in each profile. Corsair claim you can cause up to 50 profile, but presumably those would each have only a few change key and no macros.
My one issue with iCue and the K65 RGB Mini has to do with the keyboard’s 8000Hz hyperpolling. When you switch to 8000Hz, it triggers a warning that using such a high polling rate should be reserved for “higher-end systems.” Corsair doesn’t provide any information about what that precisely means.
Corsair tell me that keyboard hyperpolling isn't as arrangement tax as mouse hyperpolling, and that the lyric will be change to diminish the concern. still, if the likely affect on performance is big enough that Corsair deems it necessary to include a message, then the company should also be more diaphanous about organization necessity and supply commend specs.
Strictly speaking, the K65 RGB Mini is a good keyboard. It’s well constructed, comfortable to use, and has a few interesting features. At $109.99, the average price for 60 percent mechanical keyboards, it's a perfectly fine choice on paper. That said, its less impressive when you compare it to the rest of the rapidly emerging 60 and 65 percent keyboard field. If you’re willing to spend a little more cash, check out the $175 Kinesis TKO, our Editors' option
pick that brings new features (adjustable feet, dedicated macros keys) to the table. On the other end of the spectrum, the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 delivers a simple, refined 60 percent keyboard experience for just $99.99. Corsair K65 RGB Mini Gaming Keyboard 3.5 See It $99.99 at outdo buy
MSRP $109.99 Pros
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The buttocks line
With the K65 RGB Mini, Corsair successfully psychiatrist its BASIC mechanical keyboard design down to 60 percent comfortably, but otherwise, it's a moment bland.