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For some PC gamers, having the right keyboard attached to your computer can be almost as important as the hardware inside it. However, for the uninitiated, it can be hard to see what all the fuss is about. Is there really any difference between fancy gaming keyboards and a basic £10 keyboard form Microsoft or Logitech?In a word, yes. Different keyboards have different features, of course, but all gaming keyboards come with a battery of extra options and features, and have the potential to improve your gaming experience dramatically.

One of the principal differences is the keys themselves, and whether the keyboard is mechanical or membrane-based. The latter use a layer of conductive plastic underneath the keys which forms an electrical contact when pressed. Mechanical keyboards on the other hand use physical switches underneath each key, which are actuated when pressed. Mechanical keyboards are generally more crisp and responsive and keyboards using the high-quality Cherry MX mechanical switches are a firm favourite of PC gamers, allowing for faster, more precise keystrokes. The principal downside of mechanical keyboards is their more expensive and bulky nature versus membrane models.

Of course, how a keyboard feels is only part of its appeal; you want it to look good as well. Many gaming keyboards now come equipped with backlighting, allowing you to see what your typing even in the dark, as well as often enabling you to program specific colours or patterns for aesthetic appeal. Layout is also an important aspect of gaming keyboards. Many games rely on lightning-fast reflexes, and a split-second can mean the difference between glorious success and humiliating, abject failure. For this reason, gaming keyboard layouts are optimised for maximum efficiency, with ergonomic layouts, programmable keys and

numerous shortcuts meaning that everything you need is always right where you need it. Part of this is macro keys: programmable buttons to which you can assign long, complicated strings of keystrokes. This enables you to execute complex commands and manoeuvres with a single button press, saving time and effort and letting you focus on your gaming strategy. You can even create multiple profiles with separate macros, allowing you to tailor your macro sets to specific games.

Many additional factors can influence a gaming keyboard’s appeal  the design and build quality, the convenience of its configuration software, additional multimedia keys and so on. You may find that if you’re

only an occasional gamer, you’re perfectly happy with the most basic of peripherals. But for those of us that consider gaming a serious hobby, upgrading to a dedicated keyboard will change the way you play.

Storm Quickfire TK

eu.coolermaster.com When we took it out of the box, the first thing we noticed about the Cooler Master

CM Storm Quickfire TK was its tiny size. It’s the smallest keyboard we tested by a considerable margin, but it felt a bit wrong. For a while, we couldn’t put our finger on the reason, until we realised that in order to

save space, Cooler Master has combined the right-hand numberpad with the arrow and command keys to the left. On paper, this seems like a great idea: a lot of those buttons are fairly redundant, and  a substantial amount of wasted space in that area. However, muscle memory plays a huge part in keyboard operations, both in terms of gaming and when just generally typing, and by smashing those two sections together and shortening the form factor, our muscle memory was thrown off in a pretty major way. After spending some time with it, we were able to (mostly) get used to the smaller dimensions, but it’s initially counter-intuitive and uncomfortable.

We can’t understate how small it is, though. You’d have to struggle not to fit this on to even the smallest of desks, and it’s extremely portable. The braided cable is also detachable for even more flexibility, and connects via mini-USB enabling you to swap it out for a longer or shorter wire as needed. Like the Excalibur, it’s basic in terms of design, opting for the basic matte-black square shape. The plastic material of the body feels a little low-quality, but the keys themselves are nice, and the inbuilt steel plate gives it a fantastic rigidity, albeit at the expense of a slightly disproportionate weight. It’s unassuming, but for some

reason, we found it more attractive than the similar looking Excalibur.

One feature it is unfortunately lacking in is macros. We couldn’t find any configuration software, so if you want to rebind any keys or assign any long macro combinations, you’re out of luck with this particular keyboard. This also means that there’s no lighting customisation. While it is backlit, the Quickfire TK only has one colour option (depending on which switch type you opt for), with three lighting modes (including

lighting the most common gaming keys) and five brightness settings. It’s also got a brace of media controls, once again assigned to the function keys. It’s not the most impressive set-up in the world, but it’s at a decent basic level.

The keys used in the Quickfire are Cherry MX switches, available in red, blue or brown. We used the red switches as also seen on the Corsair K70 RGB, and the action isn’t as crisp as we’d like. It’s also not as noisy as Corsair’s keys, but both of these are very minor quibbles. One bonus it does have is a tool for detaching the keys included in the packaging, allowing you to take them out for cleaning or maintenance.

This keyboard is perfect for gamers that have to juggle their hobby with work or education, as it won’t dominate your desktop real-estate and is uber-portable. On the other hand, the lack of modification options and macro support is a little irritating for those of us that like to tweak our settings. Overall, though, this is a great all-rounder for both fast, responsive gaming, and for acting as a typing workhorse.

corsair.com/en-gb

We’ll say this for the Corsair K70 RGB keyboard: it’s a beautiful piece of kit. Constructed from aircraft-grade brushed aluminium, it’s both light and sturdy, on top of looking fantastic. The design itself is simple, square and a little dull, but we can live with that. It also comes prepackaged with a detachable soft-touch wrist rest. It looks even better switched on, too.

The chief selling point of this model is the backlighting, boasting 16.8 million colours per key and virtually limitless combinations. Corsair’s cross-device software allows you to build an endless variety of pulse, ripple and wave effects in vibrant rainbow colours, as well as colour-coding specific keys, such as movement controls in green, skill keys in blue and combat buttons in red. You can also assign timers to the lighting, such as having your spell keys change colour when they’re ready to use. The lighting interface is a initially confusing, but makes up for it with sheer unbridled flexibility, and looks absolutely breathtaking in action.

However, although macros and timers are supported within the software and can be bound to any button,

the K70 RGB has no dedicated macro keys, forcing you to reassign any macros you build to an existing key.

The key switches themselves are Cherry MX models, and the red versions that we used are nice and responsive. There’s not a huge amount of physical feedback and they’re pretty clacky (although not as loud as the Roccat Ryos), but whether that’s a plus or a minus is entirely down to personal taste. For the record, we’re fans. Rather than assigning music and video controls to the function keys as most other keyboards do, Corsair has opted to give them special little buttons. There’s also a special volume roller, for instant and precise audio control. It’s a small detail, but for some reason, we’re absolutely in love with it. One thing we don’t like is the two USB ports required to run the keyboard. In this case we can understand why it’s necessary, given the intensiveness of the backlighting, but it’s still a little awkward. The braided cable is also unexpectedly chunky, which is odd. While it’s not as densely packed with hardware features as some of the other models on this list, in terms of purely aesthetic value it’s the clear winner by an absolute mile. If you desperately need macro keys it’s probably not ideal.

razerzone.com/gb-en

Razer is well known in the gaming world for its peripherals, and a Razer keyboard is the first choice for many. The Anansi is one of Razer’s cheaper models, but remains fairly packed with features. The Anansi uses ‘Hyperesponse’ keys, as opposed to the Cherry MX switches used in every other keyboard we’ve tested here. The difference is definitely noticeable. The action just doesn’t feel as nice as the others on this list. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it is a great illustration of why so many people swear by Cherry keys.

The Anansi also has a gaming mode that disables the Windows and Alt keys, and multicolour backlighting that can be customised for specific colours or cycles, adding an extra dimension to the standard lighting seen in most keyboards. Visually, it’s uninspiring; the plain matte-black surface and gloss edging is pretty run-of-the-mill, and is unlikely to get anyone fired up. It’s at least fairly attractively shaped though, with rounded edges rather than square corners. Razer bills this keyboard as being ‘designed for MMO gamers’, and nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to the amount of additional keys. As well as assigning multimedia actions to the function keys and including five programmable macro keys to the left of the keyboard, it also features a whopping seven thumb modifi er keys below the space bar that can be assigned to macros, multimedia functions or modifiers such as Ctrl-Shift. While a higher number of keys is theoretically good to have (just in case), having seven on top of the macro keys just seems unnecessary.

However, the Anansi does handle macros beautifully, and the Razer Synapse 2.0 software suite is unquestionably this keyboards biggest selling point. Dealing with macro construction and assignment, as well

as lighting, configuration and key-mapping, the software is able to transfer macros and settings between multiple profiles and Razer devices, making it an incredibly efficient tool. One thing that does let the Anansi down is its cable. Although it’s braided, it requires two USB ports, which eats input space, particularly if you’re using a laptop. We can’t quite work out why it needs that much connectivity, but we do know that having to shuffl e devices around to free up two adjoining ports is a little annoying. The Anansi isn’t a bad keyboard, and it does lots of things well, but gamers with more specialised tastes are likely to be unsatisfi ed.

A great keyboard for heavy macro users, but FPS fans should look elsewhere.

roccat.org

It’s painfully evident that Roccat’s strength lies in its range of mice after using the Ryos MK. For starters, there is no backlighting. This is disappointment particularly as certain small elements of the keyboard are lit, leading us to question why the rest of it wasn’t. There is a fully illuminated version of the Ryos MK, but it’s £120. The keyboard is huge, largely due to the builtin wrist rest. While it’s ergonomically comfortable, it increases the size of an alreadybulky device you’ll need a lot of desktop space for this. It also feels hollow and flimsy, a sideeffect of which is that the sound of the Cherry MX black switches is amplifi ed by the echoey body to oldschool typewriter levels of clackyness. The overall build quality is average and the plastic feels fairly cheap. The lack of a braided cable also makes the price seem a tad high.

A common feature of gaming keyboards is having multimedia controls bound to the function keys. For gaming, there’s the standard set of multiple profiles and the ability to switch between them. It also has a

column of five macro keys on the left of the keyboard and thumb modifiers below the spacebar, similar to the Anansi. However, the Ryos has three thumb keys rather than seven, which we feel is a more sensible amount. Should you feel that this is insufficient, Roccat’s EasyShift[+] technology allows you to assign a second function to every key, accessed by holding down what would otherwise be the Caps Lock button. However,with over 100 programmable keys already available, we can’t conceive of any situation that would necessitate almost doubling your keyboard’s functions. 

Unfortunately, the macro and configuration interface is less comprehensive than some we’ve seen, and is less intuitive  programming macros is something of an ordeal. It’s also separate to the Roccat mouse drivers, so if you’ve got multiple devices it’s not easy to share settings between them. We also couldn’t find any option for changing the resolution of the software, which appeared as ridiculously tiny on our monitor, forcing us to squint at the settings. The Roccat Ryos MK is a decent keyboard, provided you don’t mind the lack of backlighting and the prospect sounding like a 1950s typist. However, there are better options out there, so unless you particularly need the option to have around 200 key bindings, look elsewhere.

tesorotec.com

The Tesoro Excalibur is not a prettylooking keyboard. It’s chunky and square, with the most basic matteblack design possible. It features no fancy aesthetic flourishes, no extraneous wrist rests and no lighting

gimmicks this is 100 percent functionality. If you’re looking for something that’s going to make your setup look highend and impressive, this is not it. To the untrained eye, the plastic body and rubber cable make this look like something you could buy in Maplin for under a tenner. The font used is also ugly, in that obnoxiously self conscious sci-fi sort of way. The build quality is better than one would expect from looking at it, though; the plastic is goodquality, and it’s solid and weighty without being overly bricklike.

While it doesn’t use Cherry MX switches, the Kailh models used instead come in similar blue, brown and red variations. We tested the blue keyswitches and we have to admit, they’ve got beautiful action. They’re a lovely balance between resistances, with more feedback than the Cherry red switches, but not as much as the black. They also appeal to our soft spot for sharply clacky keys. As with most others, the Excalibur’s

media controls occupy function key slots and there’s key shortcuts for switching between the five available profiles, all of which is fairly unremarkable. However, like the Corsair, the Excalibur features macro support without having dedicated macro keys, which could get frustrating if you’re someone that relies on heavy macro use while gaming.

The macro software is simplistic, and it doesn’t look especially fl ashy, but it does its job well enough, and we’ve no complaints. You can also rebind various keys, should you so wish. The configuration software handles the keyboard backlighting as well, which is rudimentary but serviceable. There’s no option for setting up cycles or patterns, but there’s various colours available, and you can switch between various levels of brightness and configuration, including a ‘breathing’ effect and specifically lighting individual sections such as the WASD keys for gaming. This keyboard is about as middleoftheroad as they come; it’s not going to win any beauty contests, but it’s not an eyesore. It’s not dripping with features, but it does what it needs to. And while it’s not going to cost you pocket change, it’s not going to break the bank. It’s unlikely to wow anyone, and dedicated keyboard enthusiasts might resent the features it lacks, but unless you’ve got specific requirements in mind, the Tesoro Excalibur should suit you just fine.

Gaming peripherals are a lot like art  while there are some features that are good and bad, a lot of it is down to personal taste. For those that rely on macros for gaming, such as fans of the MMO and RTS genres, the Razer Anansi is a solid option that you’ll feel right at home with. For those seeking portability, the Cooler Master Quickfi re is perfect for taking to LAN tournaments and the like. However, for our money, the Corsair K70 RGB is a perfect blend of gaming functionality and everyday convenience, all wrapped up in a package that’s dripping with visual flair.