Corsair's K100 RGB is the new front-runner for premium gaming keyboards. This optical-mechanical powerhouse is a major step forward from Corsair's previous pinnacle product, the K95 RGB Platinum XT, pretty much across the board. Driven by AXON hyper-processing technology, the K100 is genuinely a next-gen machine. While the iCUE control wheel and 44-point LightEdge and by far the most eye-catching new features, the K100 is absolutely packed with ingenuity and thoughtful design everywhere you look.
Wheely Interesting
Innovating in the realm of gaming keyboards can't be easy. There's a clear point of diminishing return when it comes to fancy keyboard features and often times I come away from a new keyboard packed with bells and whistles feeling like less would have certainly been more.
The K100 has unique functions, some of which will be brand new to you, but everything the K100 can do feels well thought out, intentional, and most importantly, useful. There are no buttons or switches on here just for the sake of adding extra buttons. While there's a degree of "I never knew I needed that" to it, I think that ultimately the K100 comes together in a singular and useful way in a package that looks and feels premium and professional.
I say professional not because this is a productivity machine — it's very much a gaming/media controller — but because it's designs and functions elevate it. You can see this in features like the iCUE control wheel. The jog wheel is no doubt inspired by editing keyboards that include control wheels used to scrub back and forth through video and audio tracks. While the iCUE wheel doesn't have that function (though I think it would work great for that) it enhances accessibility by providing quick, customizable controls for things like adjusting the keyboard brightness, rewinding/fast-forwarding through songs, and skipping tracks. Professional inspiration, practical use.
The brightness adjustment alone is enough to sell the K100 and, like the volume roller that has now become a standard on keyboards across many brands, I anticipate the brightness roller will become a standard feature in one form or another as well.
A Speed Demon
I'm sure other reviewers will have a lot more to say about AXON, the onboard system that enhances processing and polling rates to ludicrous speeds (4,000Hz and 4x faster!), but I'm much more equipped to tell you about the hands-on experience. The K100 comes with either Cherry Red MX switches or the brand new Corsair OPX — optical-mechanical switches, 45g actuation force, 1.0mm actuation distance. The switches use a beam of infrared light to detect keystrokes, meaning they have no debounce at all. They are low, incredibly low actually. It took me a while to get used to the travel distance of the keys but yes, the keys are insanely fast.
You have to manually set the polling rate to 400Hz in the iCUE software because, apparently, older PCs simply can't handle how mind-bendingly fast this keyboard is. If you gave me the Pepsi challenge for the K100 and, say, the K95 and asked me to tell you which one was 4 times faster, I would fail. But I still want the fastest keyboard because, well, it's faster.
LightEdge My Life
I've got a lot of friends that think they've outgrown RGB lighting in their PC accessories. For anyone that thinks there's something immature or gaudy about RGB, I'd really like to get the K100 into their hands. There's nothing low brow or cheap about the way Corsair does lighting in their products.
LightEdge is a revelation. Essentially it's a down-facing rim of lights that wrap around the keyboard (11 zones on the left and right side, 22 zones on the back, all fully addressable) but it's doing a lot more heavy lifting than you'd think. A cool rainbow effect looks great on your keys but it doesn't create a meaningful ambient effect — the LightEdge does. It extends your lighting pattern off of the keyboard and into the space that surrounds it, creating an effect you really just have to see for yourself. It turns the keyboard into a visual centerpiece of your gaming space without being distracting at all from your screen. I've got an entire ecosystem of iCUE enabled devices from Corsair and the total effect is really enhanced by the K100's expansive lighting display.
Just A Top Tier Device
I can't possibly mention all the upgrades and "new and improved" things about the K100, but I need to call out a few more. The new memory foam palm rest is heaven and a huge improvement, especially if you didn't love the firmer palm rest on previous models. The brushed aluminum chassis is gorgeous and a lot lighter than it looks. The Nexus does work with the K100, even if you already got one (that's what the extra bracket was for) and when combined with the control wheel and the 8MB of onboard storage for profiles, macros, lighting layers, etc., it really feels like the K100 is an inclusive package where all the controls are physically accessible. You still need iCUE for deep customization, but once you set things up the K100 is really self-contained. I appreciate how much control and customization you have on the keyboard itself for things like macros and profiles. Finally, the G-Keys make a return. As a streamer I found these macro keys to be a game-changer on the K95 and I'm glad to see they're still there.
The only thing I'm disappointed about is that Blue switches aren't an option, but for the fastest keyboard in the catalog, it makes sense. Most people won't miss it, but it may ultimately keep me on the K95 for the time being. Overall, I think the K100 is a worthy upgrade and just a phenomenal piece of equipment for casual and hardcore PC gamers alike. The build quality and list of features more than justifies the premium price. The control wheel is inspired and I'm excited to see where that concept goes in the future, and I'm never going to use a keyboard without LightEdge for the rest of my days.
A Corsair K100 keyboard was provided to TheGamer for this review. You can learn more about the K100 on Corsair's website.