Each LED Driver is responsible for one color, one controls the Red, Green, Blue lighting on the LEDs for the keys. There is no need to remove any keycaps to get the keyboard apart.Īn NXP LPC11U35F 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 controller is used to control the three Macroblock MBI5042 LED Drivers. The keyboard is held together by a combination of three screws and the shells snap together. Structurally, the Poseidon Z is basically two plastic shells that encase the PCB with an aluminum backplate. The stems on the switches are compatible with Cherry MX and other aftermarket keycaps. There is another version of the Poseidon Z RGB that uses blue switches. Thermaltake uses Kailh switches in the Poseidon Z RGB and specifically the brown switches. The Page Down key is used to turn on or off the NKRO function. The INS, Home, Page Up, DEL, and End keys are used along with the FN key to switch profiles. After all, few people have the luxury of blowing off work to game all the time, and swapping out keyboards for work and play is an unnecessary chore when it's possible for a plank to excel at both.Profiles can be switched on the fly as well. We'll be evaluating each of these keyboards both on their overall gaming chops as well as their ability to serve as a daily workhorse. For example, each of them boasts some kind of backlighting effect, while two of the five also make use of dedicated macro keys. None are inherently 'better' than the other it boils down to personal preference and what kind of feedback suits you best.īeyond the mechanical key switches, all the models here are advertised as gaming keyboards, some more feature rich than others. There's little-to-no audible feedback with both of these switches, making them the courteous choice for polite gamers who live with a roommate or don't care to wake up the spouse and kids during those marathon gaming sessions. Cherry MX Blue is also the type of switch featured in the Das Keyboard 4 Pro that we reviewed a few months back.Ĭherry MX Red switches, as found on Corsair Gaming's K65 RGB, are lighter and non-tactile for a smoother typing action from top to bottom, while Cherry MX Brown switches are also light but provide a tactile response. If you take a good look at the spec table above, you'll notice there aren't any duplicate key switches here, though there are some similar styles - the Razer Green, Tt eSports Certified Blue, and Cherry MX Blue key switches all offer tactile feedback and a distinctly audible "clicky" sound reminiscent of the IBM Model M from many moons ago. Did you do it? Great, let's move on, starting with a look at the contenders. We also have plans to supplement this roundup with standalone mechanical keyboard reviews in the future, so if you haven't done so already, go ahead and bookmark. Granted, this is just a small sample of the numerous options available to you, though these are some of the more popular models by recognized brands in the gaming peripheral market. We've gathered up five different gaming models from as many manufactures, three of which are of the compact ten-keyless variety (fancy pants way of saying there's no dedicated number pad), the other two being full size planks. If you're in the market for a mechanical keyboard, don't worry about climbing that mountain on your own-we're here to help. It's not so niche anymore, and if you go out in search of a mechanical keyboard, you'll now find a mountain of options. In turn, keyboard manufacturers have responded by feeding more mechanical models into what was once an extremely niche market. We say "used to" because mechanical keyboards are growing in popularity - as more people use them, word is spreading about how good they are. These are better than the rubber domes found in membrane keyboards that used to dominate the market in a number of ways, including feel, responsiveness, and durability. Of course, we know it's the mechanical key switches that are responsible for elevating the typing experience. The difference may seem subtle to the uninitiated, though even casual typists can recognize that there's something inherently superior about typing on a mechanical keyboard, even if they can't pinpoint what exactly it is. One of those is the difference between typing on a sweet mechanical keyboard with luxurious key action versus pounding away on a run-of-the-mill squishy plank that relies on mushy membranes to register your keystrokes. When you're on the path to becoming a power user, you begin to notice certain things that the average person might not.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |