Deth

It took me until today to realize just why I never liked my current keyboard, the Corsair K95. I mean, that was never my first choice to begin with, but my old keyboard took a crap, so I had to get one. Best Buy was the only place I could think of that had one that was mechanical that I could come up with, so that’s where we went.

Their selection was poor at best and, of course, overpriced because of the name. I wanted a mechanical keyboard, and I thought that the RGB backlights would be nice. Unfortunately, the colors wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do, and their software is one of the most ridiculously bloated pieces of software I ever used for not really doing anything. It only worked on Windows, too. I don’t expect companies to support fringe operating systems (at least on the desktop), but they could do better with the shitty software for Windows.

My old Deck keyboard malfunctioned right at the beginning of the pandemic too, so shipping was really not reliable either. Having Prime was pointless in those days. Waiting until Amazon decided it was convenient to ship wasn’t a suitable option for me, and smaller sellers would have been even worse, probably.

Thankfully, Best Buy did have a few gaming keyboards that were mechanical. I tried a few of the display ones out, and the K95 that I had typed on felt pretty good. I wanted the one with the brown switches. When we got it, I thought that was the box that we picked up. It turns out that I got the silver switches, which is why it never felt right to me from the start. I thought maybe it had to break in or something, but I noticed today that the switches were silver and not brown when a key popped off. That explains why that keyboard never felt right. I went into the attic today to look at the box, and sure enough, it said speed switches, so it was our screw-up and not Corsairs. I can’t even say it wasn’t well labeled because it was pretty clear. Possibly that was all they had in the store at the time? I can’t remember for sure.

The keys have always been a bit wobbly on this keyboard, too. That is another left thing about this keyboard that left me disappointed with it. The wobble isn’t terrible, but it is certainly noticeable on some keys. The cursor keys are the worst. They seem to pop off easily, too. For the price, I’d expect keycaps that don’t feel as flimsy, but people will pay because they say “gaming.”

I ordered a Keychron q6 to have a new toy to play with. I like the idea that I can hot swap the switches and will do that sometime down the line.

I wouldn’t say that my K95 is awful, but I don’t think it feels like it lives up to the price that I paid. I don’t remember what the going price back then for a mechanical keyboard was. If I were asked, I don’t think that I could recommend this Corsair board, but I couldn’t say not to get it either. If I were asked what I thought about it, I would be pretty neutral. A lot of what determines how much you like a keyboard is just a matter of personal preference.