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Corsair has created a mechanical keyboard for laptop computer keyboard lovers, however will it have the ability to flip us?
Up to date: Oct 4, 2022 4:11 pm
The Corsair K100 Air is likely one of the most unusual wi-fi keyboards we’ve obtained for overview in a very long time.
It seems prefer it was ripped straight out of a gaming laptop computer, however beneath its anodized brushed aluminum pores and skin, there are some attention-grabbing elements at play.
Essentially the most attention-grabbing of which is Cherry’s all-new ultra-low-profile mechanical swap expertise, which hasn’t been seen on a Corsair gaming keyboard but.
Regardless of our enthusiastic mechanical keyboard evangelism right here at WePC, we’ve got to confess that there’s a important quantity of individuals on the market preferring laptop-style keyboards, so with that in thoughts, let’s see if the Corsair K100 Air is the reply they want.
Corsair K100 Air specications
Corsair K100 Air wi-fi keyboard
Change sort
Cherry MX Extremely Low Profile Tactile
Kind issue
100% Full-size
Connectivity
USB Kind-C, 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.2
Execs
-
Tremendous clear design -
Excellent construct high quality with little or no flex -
The most effective low profile switches we’ve examined -
Tremendous skinny, 10mm at it’s thickest level
Cons
-
Far too costly -
Some would possibly discover the design uninspired
Cherry MX Extremely Low Profile Tactile
USB Kind-C, 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.2
Cherry MX Extremely Low Profile fashion
What’s within the field & setup
- Corsair K100 Air wi-fi keyboard
- Corsair Slipstream wi-fi dongle
- USB-Kind C cable
- Instruction handbook
- Guarantee data
Given the $279.99 value, we anticipated extra from the K100 Air packaging. You get no foam, no protecting bag, and the cardboard is fairly fundamental. Our pattern arrived in good situation, but it surely’s nonetheless value mentioning.
Opening the field you discover the K100 Air beneath a plastic shell to guard it from impacts and scratches and beneath the board, we discover a USB Kind-C charging cable.
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The shortage of a dongle initially confused us momentarily, till we found it hiding in slightly alcove on the high of the keyboard, which is useful for portability.
The keyboard involves life as quickly as you plug the dongle into an empty USB port and switch it on with the swap on the highest on the left-hand facet of the board.
It really works effective as is, however if you wish to play with the RGB lighting, you’ll want Corsair’s iCUE software program, which can be useful because it means that you can mess with different settings too.
Design
It’s flat, like actually flat, in truth, the keyboard is 10mm at its thickest level and about 4mm at its thinnest. The spectacular engineering work to make this occur ends in a considerably villainous look.
It’s because every part is sharp, the corners of the board, the perimeters of the keys, and the shallow angle of the board. It’s all very extreme, and wouldn’t look misplaced being slapped by Christian Bale within the Batcave, whereas Robert Pattinson would in all probability paint flames on it.
Sharpness apart, the K100 Air superficially resembles most of Corsair’s current full-size keyboards in design. With the traditional sails brand entrance and heart, surrounded by a shiny clear ‘window’.
Beneath that is the place the indicator lights for stuff like caps lock and scroll lock reside, however even when all these are illuminated, it’s a reasonably empty house general.
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To the appropriate of this space, you get a full complement of media controls: play/pause, ahead/again, mute, and the shallowest quantity curler we’ve ever encountered, however that’s form of the entire level with the Corsair K100 Air.
You additionally get bodily buttons to lock the keyboard, cycle by way of profiles, and alter the brightness of the RGB lighting, which is useful as locking all these controls behind the software program is a cardinal sin in our books.
Construct high quality
The construct high quality of the Corsair K100 Air would possibly go a way towards explaining the excessive value as, regardless of the thinness of the board, it feels actually impressively stable.
That is thanks in no small half to the aluminum high plate, which doesn’t look very substantial, however when you think about the general measurement of the board, it’s undoubtedly creating plenty of further structural solidity.
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The equipped cables and dongle are nice too, the cable particularly is braided with tremendous tender black material that enhances the stealthy vibe of the K100 Air.
We are able to’t communicate to the standard of the switches themselves as this board is not hot-swappable, nevertheless, we’re sorry to report that the keycaps are lavatory normal ABS, so you may anticipate them to wear down and turn out to be shiny earlier than you’d like.
The K100 Air does exhibit slightly little bit of flex when urgent on the middle of the highest plate, however general, the development could be very inflexible and our complaints in regards to the construct high quality are restricted to the ABS keycaps solely.
Typing and gaming efficiency
We talked about originally of this overview that there are lots of people preferring the flat chiclet-style of keyboards usually present in laptops, so we’re going to aim to place away our desire for thocky mechanical keyboards for this part.
For such a thin board, the switches really feel fairly good, with a reasonably heavy actuation power that offers approach with an impressively tactile thunk. There isn’t any audio suggestions for the switches on this board, however Cherry additionally makes clicky variations of its ultra-low-profile switches.
So, for individuals who choose a laptop computer keyboard, that is the best possible you will get as Cherry has executed an incredible job of miniaturizing their mechanical swap expertise, and Corsair has executed an equally commendable job of integrating them into the K100 Air.
Relating to typing, these of you who’re used to an everyday keyboard would possibly discover the pre and complete journey of the switches too quick, leading to bottoming out approach too early and approach too exhausting, which initially led to some fatigue for us.
After a number of days, nevertheless, our keystrokes softened and the Corsair K100 Air grew to become completely ample for day-to-day workplace use, and that fatigue went away.
We don’t assume that this board is right for avid gamers, nevertheless, because the very quick pre-travel implies that the keyboard isn’t tremendous exact, so customers could be topic to a very drastic studying curve in the event that they selected to change to this board.
Regardless of this, we will’t fault the K100 Air when it comes to velocity as Corsair’s 2.4GHz Slipstream wi-fi expertise ends in no noticeable latency, and you’ll join as much as 3 units to a single dongle, so in case your setup is predominantly Corsair already, you aren’t dropping any extra USB ports.
Corsair K100 Air overview: Remaining verdict
Sure, we choose huge chonker mechanical keyboards right here at WePC, and this isn’t going to vary with out a appreciable paradigm shift in keyboard expertise.
Nonetheless, Corsair and Cherry have executed inarguably spectacular work right here in creating the K100 Air because it’s far and away essentially the most tactile laptop-style keyboard we’ve skilled.
So, for the individuals on the market who actively choose this fashion of keyboard, the Corsair K100 Air wi-fi is the perfect you will get, however the $280 value is perhaps exhausting to swallow, no matter how good the keyboard is.
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