Reading: Best Gaming Keyboard 2021 – IGN
TL;DR – These are the Best Gaming Keyboards:
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1. Corsair K70 RGB MK.2
Best Gaming Keyboard
Corsair K70 RGB
MK.2
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Cherry MX Blue, Red, Brown, Speed, Silent | Features: USB 2.0 pass-through, 8MB onboard memory, three onboard profiles, dedicated media buttons, detachable wrist respite | Size: 17.24 ” ten 6.53 ” ten 1.53 ” The Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 is built to get the job done. This gaming keyboard comes geared up to suit your prefer playstyle with the choice of Cherry MX Blue, Red, Brown, Speed, or Silent mechanical switches, giving you plenty of options from extra clicky to smooth and linear. naturally, a keyboard of this quality offers up the NKRO and anti-ghosting you ’ ll want to ensure all your inputs are appropriately registered in-game. The Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 doesn ’ thyroxine miss out on style points either thanks to its per-key RGB lighting options. The keyboard besides comes with some handy features for both utility and tidiness. It has USB passthrough so you won ’ t need as many cables running from your desk space to your desktop. It besides has dedicated media keys, giving you more see all in one place, so you can quickly dial in the volume or skip a cut without missing a beat in your bet on .
2. SteelSeries Apex 5
Best Budget Gaming Keyboard
SteelSeries Apex
5
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: SteelSeries Hybrid Mechanical ( Tactile ) | Size: 17.43 ” adam 5.48 ” ten 1.59 ” You can get cheaper keyboards than the SteelSeries Apex 5, and you can even get cheaper mechanical ones, but you ‘d be missing out on a lot of what SteelSeries has to offer with this keyboard. By using loanblend switches, SteelSeries is able to offer much of the feel of mechanical key switches while saving on the price. By keeping the cost of the switches low, SteelSeries manages to offer some big value everywhere else. You get a magnetic wrist rest, full RGB lighting that you can customize on a per-key basis ( and SteelSeries has some of the snazziest RGB lighting effects around, and a hardy aluminum build. You wo n’t find many early keyboards offering this much for $ 100 .
3. Roccat Vulcan 121 Aimo
Best Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Roccat Vulcan 121
Aimo
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Roccat Titan Switch Tactile, Switch Linear | Features: 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 based central processing unit, 512KB onboard macro and settings memory, dedicated media buttons, magnetic wrist rest | Size: 18.18 ” adam 9.25 ” x 1.26 ” The Roccat Vulcan 121 Aimo is arguably one of the most alone looking gambling keyboards you ‘ll find on the market. Rather than having keycaps that cover up the key switches, the Roccat Vulcan 121 Aimo only has keycaps over the lead of the key, leaving the rest exposed. This way the peak of the keys looks like they ’ re just floating above the clear switch housings wax of RGB lighting like some screen of cyber-age typewriter. Of path, Roccat didn ’ t just make the Vulcan 121 Aimo expression like this merely for the hell of it. Its dilute keycaps merely weigh half a much as regular ones, allowing them to reset more quickly. In terms of feel, Roccat ’ s Titan haptic switches fall somewhere between the travel rapidly of a Cherry MX Red shuffle with stronger tactile feedback than you would get from a distinctive Cherry MX Brown. Roccat recently introduced a linear speed trade that removes the haptic blow and reduces the propulsion distance from 1.8mm to 1.4mm
4. Razer Ornata V2
Best Membrane-Mechanical Hybrid Gaming Keyboard
Razer Ornata
V2
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Razer Hybrid Mecha-Membrane | Features: amply programmable keys, dedicated media controls, on-the-fly macro record, magnetic wrist rest | Size: 18.24 ” ten 6.67 ” adam 1.3 ” Razer has updated its already quality Razer Ornata to continue offering a valuable option for gamers on a budget. The Razer Ornata V2 replaces the more-or-less unused space in the crown correct corner of the original keyboard with dedicate media controls, including a volume wheel. Having immediate access to media controls is amazingly handy once you get used to it, and it can be hard to go back. Beyond that update, you ‘re still geting the same loanblend Mecha-Membrane key switches that combine the feel of mechanical with the affordability of membrane. You ‘ll besides find a thoroughly cushioned wrist rest that attaches to the keyboard with magnets. And, there ‘s no deficit of RGB LEDs to make the keyboard polish. That ‘s per-key RGB lighting, so you can customize it at a chondritic charge, but Razer naturally has a number of fanciful effects already baked in .
5. Roccat Magma
Best Membrane Gaming Keyboard
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Membrane | Features: Detachable handle rest, mum keys, five-zone ignite, Easy-Shift, dedicate media buttons | Size: 17.8 ” x 6.18 ” x 1.53 ” Roccat has very spiced up the budget-keyboard market with the Roccat Magma. The diagnose is the best trace at the effects in store from this keyboard. Roccat has built the keyboard around a semi-transparent top plate that lets the five-zone RGB light gleam through about the integral top surface of the keyboard. then, if you go loss and orange, it ’ ll count like magma. With membrane key switches, the unhorse besides shines up through each keycap to clearly illuminate the legends. While the Roccat Magma lacks dedicated multimedia keys and macro keys, Roccat has put some extra restraint veracious at your fingertips while gaming. With the Easy-Shift button, you can map a number of secondary inputs to a bunch together of keys in the WASD area, where your hand will typically sit while gaming. All that for $ 60 feels like a pretty good manage, but Roccat even includes a detachable palm pillow for added quilt .
6. Logitech G915
Best Wireless Gaming Keyboard
Interface: 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth 4.2 | Key switch options: GX Clicky, Tactile, Linear | Features: dedicated media buttons, macro buttons | Size: 18.7 ” adam 5.91 ” ten 0.87 ” The Logitech G915 is a pretty perplex radio receiver gaming keyboard all told. It ‘s was made from the ground up to be low-profile between chiclet keyboard-style keys to its ultra-slim chassis that ‘s sits so low you do n’t even need a wrist pad. It besides uses low-profile GX switches ( basically customized Kailh switches ) that offer a meet click, tactile blow, or smooth analogue action despite their short-circuit altitude. As a wireless board, you can have it connected to up to three devices including over its wired, 2.4GHz wireless, and Bluetooth interfaces. Logitech ‘s latest radio peripheral besides offers the longest battery life sentence out of any radio bet on keyboard with up to 35 hours with lighting turned on at fully brightness and about 1100 hours with all lighting turned off. Of course, all this radio gaming keyboard luster is going to cost you as the Logitech G915 launched with a $ 250 price tag .
7. Logitech G Pro X
Best Tenkeyless Gaming Keyboard
Logitech G Pro
X
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Logitech GX Blue, GX Brown, GX Red | Size: 14.2 ” adam 6.02 ” ten 1.3 ” Tenkeyless gambling keyboards are a capital option for gamers who do n’t need a numeral computer keyboard or have a fortune of desk distance, or simply want to play with their hands closer together. The Logitech G Pro is a stand out option in its class largely thanks to it ‘s detachable key switches, which allow to install a mix of clicky, haptic, or linear switches anywhere you please—even on the arrow keystone. It ‘s the first gaming keyboard that truly allows customize the keyboard and put unlike find keys right adjacent to each other. Beyond the astounding horizontal surface of customizability you wo n’t find anywhere else, the Logitech G Pro keyboard is built like a tank. This keyboard was besides designed to brought to gaming events with its fully detachable cable and inner steel frame. You do n’t have to worry about banging it up on your room to LAN parties and tournaments..
8. Corsair K63 Wireless
Best Wireless Gaming Tenkeyless Keyboard
Corsair K63
Wireless
Interface: 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth 4.2 | Key switch options: Cherry MX Red | Features: dedicated media buttons, detachable wrist rest | Size: 14.4 ” adam 6.81 ” adam 1.61 ” Wireless gambling keyboards are far and few in between, but I picked the Corsair K63 Wireless because it ’ s fair angstrom dependable as its wired adaptation and makes about no compromises to ditch its said leash. The Corsair K63 Wireless is about american samoa little as tenkeyless keyboards get, yet it silent features entire media controls and a battery that ’ sulfur good for 10-25 hours of gaming with its blue backlight turned on—75 hours with lighting turned off. You can besides connect this gaming keyboard to more than one device by using both its radio dongle and Bluetooth connection. Corsair besides released a lapboard made specifically for the K63 Wireless that turns it into one of the best bet on keyboards for couch gambling .
9. Glorious Modular Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Best Customizable Gaming Keyboard
glorious Modular Mechanical Gaming
Keyboard
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Gateron Brown | Features: USB pass-through, onboard memory for storing lighting profiles, dedicated media buttons, memory foam wrist rest | Size: 17.52 ” adam 8.66 ” adam 1.4 ” Most gaming keyboard have you choose between a single key switch and live with it for the rest of peripherals life sentence, however, the Glorious Modular Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ( or Glorious GMMK for short ) is one of the few that lets you swap out your mechanical keys whenever and however you like. The brilliant GMMK may merely come with Gateron Brown switches but you can easily swap any of them out for Cherry, Kailh, or other types of Gateron switches. The Glorious GMMK features hot swap bays under each key switch that makes replacing them arsenic easily as adding custom-made key cap set. aside from not having to dissasemble or solder anything, the easily trade capacity of this keyboard besides lets you mix and match different types of key switches correct next to each early. apart from the ability to customize the Glorious GMMK however you please, it ‘s built on a strong chopine with wide LED backlighting, a aluminum faceplate. On the software slope you besides get fully macro programing on all the keys .
10. Razer Huntsman V2
Best Optical Gaming Keyboard
Razer Huntsman
V2
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Razer Liner Optical substitution | Features: 8,000Hz poll rate, Per-key RGB light, lavish wrist stay, media controls | Size: 17.6 ” ten 9.2 ” ten 1.4 ” then you ’ rhenium looking at bet on keyboards because you want to go fast and get a competitive edge ? mechanical keyboards are a strong begin, but the Razer Huntsman V2 can let you go even further with an optical switch and an 8,000Hz poll rate. By using ocular key switches, Razer avoids one of the main things slowing traditional mechanical keyboards down : debounce. Debounce can add a few milliseconds of delay to a mechanical substitution registering an input, and in competitive games, every millisecond counts. Of class, the Razer Huntsman V2 goes well beyond merely having technically excellent switches. It besides has a upstanding blueprint that looks dazzling on your desk with custom-made RGB ignition options for each key. You ’ ll find a comfortable, lavish wrist perch on deck american samoa well, though it attaches with magnets, so you can easily add or remove it as you please. And you ’ ll be able to make immediate adjustments to your sound recording with dedicate media controls .
11. Corsair K100 RGB
Best High-End Gaming Keyboard
Corsair K100
RGB
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Cherry MX Speed RGB Silver, Corsair OPX Optical Mechanical | Features: 4,000Hz poll rate, Media controls, Elgato Stream Deck integration, iCue control wheel, LightEdge measure, per-key RGB light up, 8MB profile repositing, Macro keys, USB passthrough, cushioned palm rest | Size: 18.5 ” adam 6.5 ” x 1.5 ” The Corsair K100 RGB delivers the high-end with features you wo n’t find elsewhere. The most celebrated feature on the Corsair K100 RGB is its 4,000Hz poll rate, which promises to give you matchless responsiveness. A potent, on-board processor will besides ensure all of your inputs are registered even as you take advantage of the full, per-key RGB lighting regardless of how complex your fall effects are. The keyboard itself features either Cherry MX Speed RGB Silver switches or Corsair ‘s own ocular mechanical switches. There are besides dedicate media controls, macro buttons, and special consolidation with Elgato Stream Deck. USB passthrough offers the perfective spot to plug in your sneak, and a plush wrist magnetically attaches to the keyboard to give your palms that extra morsel of lavishness .
12. Cooler Master MK850
Best Analog Gaming Keyboard
Cooler Master
MK850
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Cherry MX Red | Features: Aimpad engineering, 512KB onboard memory, on-the-fly macro recording, dedicated media buttons, magnetic wrist rest | Size: 18.7 ” x 6.1 ” ten 1.7 ” ocular keyboards are cool and all, but if you wanted to go in the opposite direction with an extra analogue keyboard, look no further than the Cooler Master MK850. This is Cooler Master ‘s latest flagship gaming keyboard and it introduces what the company calls Aimpad for full analogue control. Eight keys ( Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F ) on this peripheral are equipped with an IR detector that measures precisely how far each key is being pressed along a 4mm axis. This analogue preciseness can come in handy for an extra touch of preciseness like carefully adjusting your moving speed in a stealth game, turning rate in racing games, or how far you ‘re leaning in a first-person shooter. The hale system is designed to give you the polish analogue command of a gamepad without the indigence for an actual accountant .
13. SteelSeries Apex Pro
Most Customizable Gaming Keyboard
SteelSeries Apex
Pro
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: SteelSeries OmniPoint | Features: onboard memory, on-the-fly macro read, USB passthrough, OLED Smart Display, dedicated media buttons, magnetic wrist rest | Size: 17.2 ” ten 5.48 ” ten 1.59 ” The SteelSeries Apex Pro is a alone entry into the gaming keyboard worldly concern. rather of using mechanical or optical elements, SteelSeries proprietary OmniPoint interchange uses magnetic fields to track the position of each key. With this engineering, this peripheral can basically tell how far you ‘ve pressed down on every key, which in twist allows you to to set the propulsion distance of each key. That includes everything from your main WASD keys and the early crucial letters surrounding it to the about never used arrow keys. At 0.4mm, each key will act as a hair-trigger, interim, you can set 3.6mm as the longest propulsion distance if you find yourself bottoming out all the time. Fancy samara switch technical school away, the Apex Pro is barely a responsive, well-designed keyboard with a premium magnetic handle rest. At the top mighty there ‘s besides an enlightening OLED screen, which is used for changing profiles and settings. If you like the count and design of the Apex Pro but do n’t care for the tuning your propulsion outdistance, SteelSeries Apex 7 comes with the same design and features, but with traditional Red, Brown, or Blue switches and a much lower $ 160 price .
14. Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB
Best Ergonomic Gaming Keyboard
Kinesis Freestyle Edge
RGB
Interface: Wired | Key switch options: Cherry MX Brown, MX Red, MX Blue | Features: onboard memory, macro record, dedicated media buttons, magnetic wrist rest | Size: 15.5″ ten 10.25 ” ten 1.25 ” personal computer Gaming can be hard your hands and RSI is a awful thing to experience. If you ‘ve ever felt fatigued or pain while play, please take a break and consider getting an ergonomic gambling keyboard like the Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB. It ‘s split into two parts to let your hands naturally sit at an fish rather than parallel with one another. additionally, if the keyboard feels excessively directly with your table to well use, you can besides buy an optional $ 25 lift kit that raises the keyboard halves at 5, 10, and 15-degree angles. Ergonomics aside, the Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB is silent a full-on bet on keyboard with fully programmable macros—up to three macros on any key—and per-key RGB clarification .
15. Razer Turret
Best Couch Gaming Keyboard
Interface: 2.4GHz radio receiver | Key switch options: Razer Mechanical Green Switches ● Features: Xbox Dynamic Lighting, pull out shiner tray, integrated wrist perch | Size: 15.35 ” adam 7.64 ” ten 1.45 ” Gaming PCs aren ’ t the only devices that let you game with keyboard and sneak now that the Xbox One has added support for them. The Razer Turret has been designed specifically with the Xbox One—though it ’ ll besides work with any personal computer too—and ultimate frame bet on. On its bottom, it features a easy, impressionable material that helps prevent it from sliding around. then on the right side, you can pull out a mousepad tray that ’ south besides slenderly magnetized, so the include gambling sneak won ’ t slip off—well at least up to a 14-degree angle anyhow. The Turret besides includes Razer ’ s fabulously clicky greens switches to round out this cleverly designed keyboard for Xbox and PC bet on on a couch .
Where to Get the Best Gaming Keyboard in the UK
Completing your set up with the perfect gambling keyboard could be one of the most significant steps. thankfully, those in the UK have batch of brilliant keyboards to choose from, as the huge majority included in the article are besides available from blue-ribbon retailers .
What to look for in a Gaming Keyboard
Before you even start looking at gaming keyboards you should consider what type of key switch you want, after all, you ’ ll be typing and gaming with this peripheral every day. When it comes to key switches there are two major types : membrane and mechanical. Membrane keyboards employ a rubber or silicon dome at the end of every winder press to register a keystroke and provide the exploiter with a little amount of haptic feedback. Due to the chasteness of a membrane keyboard, they normally are more low-cost than mechanical keyboards, so they ‘re suitable for users on a budget. On the flip side though, the rubber eraser or silicon used as a membrane will inevitably break down faster than a mechanical switch. mechanical key switches are known for delivering a much stronger and satisfying measure of feedback. Unlike membrane switches, this character involves many more components including a stem, spring, and metallic element contacts leaves, the final of which is what actually registers a keystroke. There ’ s a wide assortment of mechanical key switches to choose from, so we ’ ll beginning by looking at the most common ones available, Cherry MX .
- Cherry MX Red: Linear action that delivers fast actuation with very little tactile feedback.
- Cherry MX Black: Cherry’s other linear switch that offers a bit more resistance.
- Cherry MX Silver: Otherwise known as Cherry MX Speed, this type of key switch offers linear action with a shorter actuation height and lower resistance than a Cherry MX Red.
- Cherry MX Brown: This type of switch actuates with a tactile bump for a noticeable amount of force feedback.
- Cherry MX Blue: Actuates with an even greater amount of tactile feedback and an audible click.
At this point though about every major gambling hardware maker has moved onto developing its own key switches including Razer, Logitech, SteelSeries, Cooler Master, and Roccat. All these companies have developed their own keyboard switches designed specifically for gaming. They all have varying propulsion force and points a well as a distinct travel distance. For the most separate, all of these unique key switches all act like variations of Cherry MX switches normally with shorter debounce rates that make them feel faster. Another thing to consider about bet on keyboards is the height of your keycaps. For the most separate most keyboard use full-sized or regular altitude keycaps, which screen of ask you to curl your fingers over to reach the top of the keys. Mid-height keycaps like on the Razer Ornata give you a slenderly more slack typing experience. last, low-profile keycaps as found on the Logitech G915, Cooler Master KS-series, or Corsair K70 MK.2 Low Profile are perfect for users who prefer to have their fingers hovering over their keys like they would on a bet on laptop.
Kevin Lee is IGN ‘s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @ baggingspam Mark Knapp is a unconstipated subscriber to IGN and an irregular tweeter on Twitter @ Techn0Mark
