What’s up guys, in today’s Tech Gear Talk we’re going to look at the Corsair K68 RGB mechanical keyboard. Corsair just released this RGB variant of the very popular K68 Red LED model. I’m going to tell you why this is an excellent keyboard for both gaming and for those of us who also spend countless hours working on our computer. I’m a super heavy computer user, I probably spend around 10-12 hours a day at my workstation so using top-of-the-line accessories is always something that I look for to improve productivity, overall ergonomics and workflow.
My goal with every product review is to give you a detailed overview of the product features as well as hands-on experience so that you can make an informed buying decision. If you find it helpful please let me know by giving it a like and hitting the subscribe and notification button for more tech reviews.
I want to also take this opportunity to thank Corsair for sending me this keyboard to review.
Alright, so let’s looks at some key features of this keyboard and then go into them in a little more detail.
The Corsair K68 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard:
Alright, so let’s start looking at the Corsair K68 RGB in more detail. If you’re looking for a tutorial about how to clean a mechanical keyboard – I’ve got it right here.
Corsair used 100% gold-contact CHERRY MX keyswitches that have been super responsive and accurate for me. The CHERRY MX red keyswitches are rated at over 50 million keypresses so you’re probably going to be good for a while.
The Cherry MX Reds are linear keyboard switches. They don’t have tactile or audible feedback to know let you know that you’re past the actuation point, which is at about 1.5mm. So you’re either bottoming out or with practice, you learn where the actuation point is and get used to it.
I really like the way they feel and they have worked great for me when I’m programming designing and editing.
A super important feature for me is that the K68 is water and dust resistant, with a rating of IP32. This doesn’t mean that you can submerge it or dump gallons of water on it, but it will protect your keyboard against accidental spills that can happen at your workstation. If you check out the Corsair website, there is a cool video where it looks like it’s raining on the keyboard and it’s still working.
I’ve been known to spill a glass of water on my desk from time to time so while I understand that the K68 is not fully waterproof, I love having this extra level of protection for such an important part of my workstation.
Corsair implemented this protection by adding a translucent silicone sheet above the Printed Circuit Board (or PCB). And the way it works is that the silicone goes higher than the bottom of the key cap so that if you splash water down it will deflect down to the rubber and then out through internal channels and drain holes.
Anti-ghosting and full key rollover both have to do with what happens to a keyboard when multiple keys are pressed simultaneously. This can happen when you’re gaming or when you’re typing fast or just working really fast in certain programs.
Some keyboards have a limit of 2 keys, some 6 keys, the K68 has full key rollover or NKRO, so all the keys can be pressed and correctly registered simultaneously (not including modifier keys like shift, ctrl, etc.).
Ghosting refers to what happens when you exceed the concurrent key press limit of your keyboard. So for example, if your keyboard is rated at 2KRO, or 2 Key RollOver, then if you press down 3 keys, the keyboard may register that you pressed a different key altogether. Obviously that’s not something you want in any environment.
Anti-ghosting, like what we have here on the K68 prevents that from ever happening.
So what’s important for you to take away from this is that the combination of anti-ghosting and NKRO ensures that no matter how fast you use this keyboard, every single keypress is registered correctly.
Going back to the Cherry MX Reds, they are also very quiet so they aren’t as clicky as some mechanical keyboards. This is in part due to the silicone guard used for protection from water. Some people like the clickyness some don’t, it’s not something that bothers me at all, I’m just going to say that these feel really nice and that I immediately noticed a positive difference over my previous keyboard.
On the right, above the number pad you’ll find the dedicated media buttons. You have a Stop, Previous, Play/Pause and a Next button. Above that row of buttons you’ll see the Mute button as well as a the Volume up/down buttons. What’s super nice about this is that you can easily have access to this feature.
I use this all the time when I get a phone call and need to quickly mute what I have playing in the background. I don’t have to reach for the physical speaker volume control, use the speaker icon on the taskbar or use a combination of keys like I have to do on some keyboards. The mute button is right there and is easily accessible.
There is also a dedicated key for controlling the brightness of the keyboard. You can use it to alternate between three brightness levels and and OFF state. And finally there is a key that will let you lock the Windows key. This feature is critical for gamers so you don’t accidentally hit it and dump yourself to the desktop in the middle of a game.
The space bar is textured and gives it a very unique look. It’s something that felt a little foreign in the beginning, because I’ve never used a keyboard with a textured spacebar before, but now that I’m used to it I like it.
The K68 uses a fairly large and type face on their keycaps. It definitely looks different than other keyboards I’ve used but I like how much of the led light passes through this wide font.
Which bring me to the colors! The RGB model of the K68 offers per-key RGB backlighting which means you could technically program each key to use a different color. Some people are going to love this level of customization and some are going to be happy with the variety of onboard pre-installed effects.
Using Corsair’s CUE software, you’ll have access to the entire RGB spectrum of over 16 million colors so that you can choose from any hue combination you can think of. Again, if you don’t feel like messing around with it, you can choose from the 11 distinct lighting patterns which include spiral rainbow, rainbow wave, visor and more.
With each preset you can also select the speed and direction of the movement. It’s super cool.
Now, I’m not someone who’s going to spend hours creating and customizing my own lighting effects. I’m more than happy with the provided effects. But one of the things I really like about the Corsair ecosystem is that if you go to their website you can find a ton of profiles that other people have created and uploaded. Then you can just download one that you like and use it.
Coirsair also included a detachable palm rest to add comfort and support. My desk can be moved up and down so I always make sure that the keyboard is at the optimal height, but I like the additional support this clip-on wrist-rest offers. It is plastic and so it doesn’t actually add padding per-say, but if your keyboard is positioned at the appropriate height, there shouldn’t be a lot of pressure on your wrists anyways and it’s extremely comfortable for prolonged use.
Finally there are little feet on the back on the keyboard that can be flipped up to tilt the keyboard a bit. It’s something you may find yourself using if you find that the slight angle change is more comfortable.
I don’t usually use the keyboard that way because I think it adds stress on my wrist and the keyboard, together with the palm rest work great for me.
The Cherry MX Red keyswitches are super responsive and 100% anti-ghosting and full key rollover make sure each keystroke is always registered correctly. I love the fact that it’s dust and spill resistant with an IP32 rating and the accessibility of the dedicated multimedia and volume controls is something that I appreciate much more than I thought I would.
If you’re a casual or competitive gamer, or even if you don’t game but are just a super heavy computer user, I would definitely recommend that you check out both the Red LED and RGB model of the Corsair K68. If you are interested in additional features like a set of programmable macro keys, an aluminum construction with LightEdge technology and onboard storage, check out the K95 from Corsair.
The K68 RGB model sells for $119.99 and the Red LED model sells for $89.99. I’ll put links in the description to both models as well as the K95, because there are always specials and discounts and the links will be automatically updated with the lowest pricing.
I really hope this video gave you a good overview of the Corsair K68 RGB. If it did, please let me know by giving it a thumbs up, tweet it, share it, and if you haven’t yet, hit that subscribe and notification buttons.
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Good luck and see you soon.
