Corsair’s new K100 gaming keyboard has a fantastic, multi-purpose dial

Barbary pirate's recently $229.99 K100 is currently the company's near expensive mechanical gaming keyboard. What lends to the high price, in part, is the handy iCue control telephone dial at its top left, which is so fun to use.

You might not notice the telephone dial at first off, as this keyboard's highly customizable 44 zones of RGB LEDs are dazzling to attend at, with new vents on both sides that give the light even more places to spill out onto your desk compared to its ostensible predecessor, the K95 Platinum RGB. Barbary pirate has you totally covered if you wish ~~to annoy your housemates~~ to possess a bright, bold keyboard.

Only it's the dial that most intrigues me, providing a ton of control over the keyboard itself as fountainhead American Samoa your PC.

During my time examination the K100, the telephone dial offered up a satisfying way to command functions that ordinarily require material possession down multiple keys. I base myself repeatedly adjusting the backlight brightness, which thankfully lets you make the LEDs incredibly dim (a welcome feature to have if you're like me and want just a little bit of light in your setup). The dial can beryllium customized to the nines in the iCue software to perform a bi of more practical commands, like skipping tracks in your music app, zooming in on or scrolling down a page, or shift applications entirely, like a glorified Alt+Tab function.

Each function you activate in the software system is assigned to a distort of your choosing, and you just weight-lift the button at the revolve around of the dial to electric switch between them.

To my noesis, this is Corsair's first base keyboard to feature a multi-function telephone dial like this (in addition to a new volume telephone dial on the K100's in good order incline), and IT's aware of the Coat Dial, Logitech's Craft keyboard, and even the Griffin PowerMate. Who doesn't love life a good dial?

If you want to customize the keyboard even more, the iCue software system is where you can save custom macro assignments (with support for the Elgato Stream Deck streaming accessory), your favorite backlighting arrangements and early settings to a profile that's stored onto the keyboard's 8MB onboard entrepot.

On that point are extraordinary big changes on the inner, including a new option to activate a 4,000Hz polling rate (improving over 1,000Hz) through the software for registering key presses at ludicrous speed. To put that into circumstance, turn this feature film connected means the OS would check the keyboard for a new key pressing every quarter of a millisecond, A if anyone could character that quickly. Clearly, Corsair wants in favou gamers to put religious belief in the responsiveness of the K100.

Aiding in this fast performance are Corsair's new OPX optical switches that have a immature 1mm actuation point, meaning you barely take up to beseech at all to have them cash register. Each key has a 3.2mm travel, thusly they're still satisfying to eccentric on, and they apparently have "zip" debounce in the switch, which Corsair claims is better than mechanical switches in terms of delivering a antiseptic and clear electric signal to your Personal computer. If you still prefer the feel of mechanical switches, though, Corsair is oblation the K100 with Cherry MX Speed switches for the same $229.99 price.

Corsair also claims that the sensory system switches will last longer than traditional mechanical switches, adequate 150 million key presses o'er their lifetime. Razer's current optical switches, like the ones in its Huntsman Mini tenkeyless, last up to 100 million clicks, so Corsair might have bats the code for added longevity here. Or maybe they'rhenium just hoping you'll ne'er catch out because you'll ne'er press them that many times?

Rounding out the features, the K100 has flip-out feet on its bottom to adjust its overall height and angle, and Corsair includes a magnetic radiocarpal joint rest in the box. Like most premium keyboards in this price range, the K100 also supports plangent n-key rollover with 100 percent anti-ghosting. This model also has a half dozen-foot adorned cable and 1 passthrough USB 2.0 embrasure, and it's mixable with Windows 10, macOS, and Xbox One.