Corsair K55 RGB Gaming Keyboard – IP42 Dust and Water Resistance – 6 Programmable Macro Keys – Dedicated Media Keys - Detachable Palm Rest Included (CH-9206015-NA) , Black

I am not a gamer, so cannot speak for the appropriateness of this product for that use. I bought this to replace a Logitech MK530 whose letters had rubbed off over time to the point that even for my adequate touch typing skills, it was inconvenient at times, especially working at night in my home office where I usually have dimmer, indirect lighting. Having become used to (or spoiled) by backlit keyboards on my Surface Pro 3 and other laptops, I had decided that this was a feature I would like in a replacement keyboard.With that in mind, I first looked at Logitech's offerings since I already had a unified receiver that I had been using with my old keyboard and trackball. Unfortunately, I didn't really find anything that particularly struck me that wasn't huge like their wave keyboards (which are very good, by the way, but too big for this particular space). Since the keyboard would be used in close proximity to my Surface Dock, I expanded my search to include wired keyboards, of which there were scores to consider. I did not want a mechanical keyboard as I find the clicking annoying, especially late at night with others sleeping in adjoining rooms, so ruled those out early on. After reading countless reviews both here and on other sites, I settled on this one as it seemed to offer the best combination of typing experience, lighting control (OK, big cool factor) and size for my needs.I was very happily not disappointed. Typing is a joy on this keyboard. The keys are responsive, with good travel, and it has my preferred straight Enter key rather than the larger upside-down L shape preferred by some manufacturers. For me the advantage there is that all my other keyboards have the straight Enter Key and larger right shift key, so there was no awkward relearning curve, or challenges with switching between keyboards, which I do frequently with my own and clients' different devices. I also liked the fact that unlike most gaming keyboards, this did not have the extra bold W A S D key letters, which I simply found aesthetically unpleasing.This keyboard has six programmable keys in a vertical column to the left of the main keyboard section. While these were primarily intended for gamers, they are also very useful in a more traditional office environment to create quick access to specific programs or functions. For me, I used one to replace the Calculator shortcut on my Logitech keyboard, then used others to summon my most-used programs like Excel, Word and my Epson scanner. They work very well for that, but the downside is retraining my left hand that the far upper left key is NOT Esc, nor is the far lower left key Ctrl. Other than that minor inconvenience, the programmable keys add an extra level of customization and efficiency that is quite welcome. My one suggestion here to Corsair is that they create a software program to make customizing these programmable keys easier for the less technical user. I had to research this online and found that creating shortcuts to start programs with these macro keys is somewhat of a roundabout process. In essence, you need to create a shortcut for the program you wish to launch, assign it a shortcut key combination, then record a macro of that shortcut to the key you want to assign. Not exactly the most straight-forward way of doing things, but it does the job. There's an opportunity for Corsair or an enterprising programmer here.The backlit lighting control is superb and quite extensive. Essentially you have three lighting zones, each of which can display up to seven different colors. There are quite a few pre-programmed choices, both for color and fading effects, as well as the ability to customize to your heart's content. If you are so inclined, you can quite literally spend 30-40 minutes or longer playing around with the different lighting combinations and probably still not exhaust all the possibilities. Take some time and have fun with this. It is definitely at the upper end on the coolness scale.One (for me) con, was the size of the lettering on the movement keys in between the main alpha keyboard and the number pad. In the interest of continuing their pseudo future looking typeface, which apparently assumes that pseudo future users have perfect eyesight, the lettering on these keys is uncomfortably small for my sixty-something year-old eyes. This should be a relatively easy fix for Corsair to implement, and would also make those keys more visible to gamers as well.Overall, this is a wonderful keyboard at a reasonable price, that will serve well for all but perhaps the most selective of gamers, and is an excellent replacement for mainstream users who desire something a little beyond the ho-hum run-of-the-mill basic keyboard, The typing experience is easily one of the best I've found in over three decades of computer work.

it's good enough. is this going to feel like you got a top tier keyboard on the cheap? no. but for 40 bucks it's probably the best you can do if you want the features this offers. my other, older corsair keyboards are definitely better quality but one is the k63 lapdesk model and the other one was the old silver metal k100. i sold that one a long time ago and while i save up for the new model i decided to give this a try and use my lapdesk model as a lapdesk again for the couch rig. the keys on this feel way more generic, has the old school membrane feel to it. it is quiet, not silent. keys are snappy enough. it's fine for gaming. lets be real you don't react in milliseconds anyways. the cord is long enough. the rgb works well, it is zone based though and the zones are kind of strange. it would make more sense to me to use zones for the f keys, number keys, numpad, arrow keys, something like that. this just haphazardly divides the lighting in random vertical swatches across the keyboard. i don't care because i use solid color anyways. onboard memory means once you set up the light how you want, you can close icue and not have it eating up your ram so that's nice. the media keys work fine, i have had both the volume rocker style on my t100 and the regular control keys on the k63 and it looks to me like the design of the media keys on this is just to save space. it is a small keyboard, no frills. retains the 10keys while still being reasonably compact. it's nice because it saves desk space but isn't one of these new age tiny 10keyless keyboards. that said i feel like the keys are a little smaller than my k63 but i would have to measure it and i'm not going to. it doesn't affect typing. this one has a lot of different lighting level options on the keyboard itself to have the LEDs as bright or dim as you want. that's kind of nice, my k63 only has bright, medium, and off. windows lock key does the job. water resistance is nice. seems like it will be a good keyboard and would be a good full size option for someone who needs something to take around with them but not have to worry about breaking it.tl;dr i really doubt you'll do better than this for 40 bucks.