I haven’t really been happy with the existing online press and YouTube reviews, so thought to a) test my new Corsair keyboard writing something, and b) share my own opinion in case it may be useful.
First, i just went and -purchased- my keyboard. I really doubt most of the current reviews did. Sadly, i’ve been noticing a lot of that in online reviews recently.. look at all the press praise for SWTOR for example.. and then look at what the user consensus of the game is.. anyways..
Quick background.. I like good keyboards. Ever since using those really, perfectly awesome keyboards on the “IBM compatible” pc’s in my year 9 computing class (early 90′s).. then, not appreciating how good the old honeywell keyboards really were when using them later, then really enjoying the first few generations of dell keyboards in the late 90′s early 2000′s.. it was pretty much a downward spiral of crap ever since as far as keyboards went. You’d think that people had forgotten what a good keyboard was. Ok, might not have been that bad.. The keyboards on the IBM/Lenovo thinkpads, and the IBM performance keyboards thinking about it, were pretty nice… And now at last, over the last 2 years or so, mechanical keyboards are becoming available again in the enthusiast market.
And now i’ve got my second, the corsair k90.
Here’s it, coming from the idea of wanting just a very nice keyboard to type on.
Last year sometime, i got a Razer Blackwidow after trading a bunch of stuff in at EB.
- The thing is built well. I reckon its total bullshit when anyone speaks down on that keyboard for the build. The piano finish can get VERY dirty, but the thing is a rock. It is -HEAVIER- than the K90, just is, sorry youtube people. It also feels better built, not in the sense of the missing gutter around the keys, but in terms of the plastic used in the overall body vs the K90. Bullshit that its inferior in build.
- Sadly, the cherry blues are too heavy to type on. I’ve always had a heavy, punchy type action with my fingers, and the extra actuation with they heavy type didn’t work for me. I felt a subconscious pain when typing. Works great for gaming sessions, even longer ones once you get used to it.. but try writing a long document, or coding on it.. and it just didn’t feel as fluid on the keys as i would have liked.
- To the point about the blue vs red cherry switches, you do get a more satisfying punch from the blues when you press the keys, and it is happiness to the hardware enthusiast in me, but that means squat in the middle of typing a sentence, and all you constantly reminded of is the force being too hard.
- It doesn’t have multimedia keys. You’d be surprised at how much you actually miss em once you don’t have them (i was using a logitech illuminated before the blackwidow).
So then i went and picked up a Corsair K90. In short, its a great keyboard. After typing a few sentences, i knew i would absolutely be replacing the blackwidow. But, i DON’T think its as good as the sponsored press reviews and youtube reviews make it out to be.
- Its not as crazy built as people claim. Its a solid build for sure, the metal parts are metal, but the plastic section on the right is not as nice, and well finished, compared to the dense, hard plastic of the blackwidow.
- I might have to wear them in a bit, but the non cherry keys on the K90 feel shit. I’ve used much better feeling membrane mechanisms before. They’re really crap. Does this impact me? Only for the delete, home, end, page up, and page down keys. I think its really strange that they made the num pad mechanical, but made the cluster above the arrow keys membrane. I’m strongly suspect more people use those keys than the num pad. Don’t get it. I mean the delete key is membrane.. you bash that all the time. See, the problem with the membrane keys is.. worse than any keyboard in recent history.. you get NO feedback on the key on when its been actuated. They sort of land in a cheap pillow of force. Not in a good way.
- The cherry reds on the rest of the keyboard are faffin awesome. Its not head and shoulders above the best typing experience i’ve had to crown them king, but they’re up there with the… very best. See how they fare over time. Thinking about it.. they feel like an “above average”, high quality keyboard from the 90′s.
- Multimedia buttons!! Woot! Made of plastic except the wheel, Fail!!!
- I had no problems with my LED’s, unlike the poor few people on amazon. Add one to the good pile if you’re reading around.
- The cord is impressively thick and sturdy lookin.
- Small mention about the handrest, it feels good, but i have big hands.. and it seems to be about 1cm too short for me.
- The keys are also, well, as soft as keyboard keys get. Some sort of rubber coating? Subjectively i really like the feeling, though if your hands are greasy it does wipe off onto the keys easily.
- Something that is interesting neat about this keyboard.. the fact that there is no shrouding around the keys.. If you have an older keyboard, turn it upside down and shake it. The stuff, and the quantity of stuff, that falls out is unmentionable to the point of being humerous, usually. When i blow the crap off this keyboard, all the tuft is going to fall out just fine. That’s brilliant.
So its good, but I’m not THAT impressed with it. I can imagine how enthusiastic those people who received one free in the mail would be, but im a paying customer, so feel the urge to be honest.
- If you type lots, cherry mx red switches feel better than the blues (i havent tried blacks, but given they’re a strong force, would be torture for long typing). 45gs of keypress force feels just right for me.
- If you have a use for the programmable G keys, id say the K90 is awesome and recommended, as you get all those, as well as the media keys.
- If you don’t have a use for the G keys however, i’d not get the K90 and go for a fully fledged cherry red keyboard. Not having to deal with the non mechanical keys i reckon would outweigh any other advantage the K90 has. I also just checked my favourite enthusiast online retailer.. and it seems there are some tangibly cheaper boards available that don’t have the extra buttons but are full cherry red.
So closing back on keyboards in general.. are cherry red’s the new typing nirvana from the 80′s and 90′s? Right now, i’d say no. See.. i like the reds. I like em alot. From recent and past experiences… what would be ultimate for me is a low actuation clicky keyboard. Just like the ones that used to exist, lol.
EDIT: After a good session programming, really, really starting to like these cherry MX red switches. There’s sadly no punch to the keys, but when you’re in flight typing, and not thinking about the keyboard, they come accross very well.
And seems like i’m a mechanical keyboard noob also. cherry brown’s are what i may be after, clickly keyboard with 45g force. Will save one of those for the next impulse.
Subjective EDIT2: After 2 more days of usage, personally, I LOVE this keyboard. When you’re not thinking about it, the cherry reds are, well, a real pleasure to type on. While they don’t have a nice click clack, the the responsiveness they provide hold their own surprisingly, delightfully, and consistently well (as a bonus, I think my gf is also having a small party inside her head from not having to hear the loud clicks from the cherry blues). The membrane keys kinda.. become acceptable, but if you happen to think about it, they always come across as a tad shit. Sadly that impression didn’t go away. This is still disturbing as i purchased it because its a mechanical keyboard.
What tipped the scale to positive is the smarts on the board. I’ve got a bunch of uses for the G keys, I use OSX alot, and that is a really keyboard heavy operating system. Its a dream to have the CMD+Q’s etc on one button. I also use the G buttons when trading currencies as well to buy/sell different markets. Now what’s nice about the G keys? First, there’s tonnes of them. As in, 54. Beyond other keyboards (that i’ve seen anyway), the K90 is capable, once setup in Windows, for your recorded macro’s to be played back in hardware. From testing, this feature is absolutely independent of the driver software, so WORKS in OSX! That, and the fact that its one of the few mechanicals with multimedia keys.. wins over the fairly crap membrane keys that are so sadly present on the board. And the plastic silver buttons. And the fact you can tell the G keys were just grafted onto the the end of a K60 body.
But don’t that spoil it for you.. the function of this board (general typing on mx reds, multimedia keys, and hardware smart g keys) is enough to score a win with me. Nice!
Few weeks later edit: I even more so absolutely love this keyboard. Its so damn creamy. Makes me look forward to working on my comp. Being done with initial impressions/review mode, and alot more use, the membrane keys, in short, the cluster above the arrow keys feel alright, quite nice actually. The G Keys feel absolutely crap. But i shouldn’t complain given all the macro love.
Another interesting difference between the K90 and the blackwidow is the distance the keys actually go down. Both these keys are mechanical.. pulling a key off you can see the base which looks pretty much the same on each except for the color of the little plastic bit that goes down. However, the keys on the K90 have a much deeper press to them. As in, the key “goes in” more when you hit it on the k90 than on the blackwidow, which stops much shorter. Not sure if this has anything to do with my satisfaction with the K90.. but..
Also.. sure i’ve only been curious about mechanical keyboards.. but is the k90 identical in buttons to the Logitech G510? Their similarity seems more than a coincidence… almost identical. Aside from the mechanical keys.. i like the looks of the corsair much better.. those logitech gaming keyboards seem too much like some tacky, cheezy, alienware like game toy. The k90 looks like.. well, a slab of hard steel with industrial strength keys laid out.
Anyways. I do love this keyboard, yes i do 
