Buy! CORSAIR K100 RGB in just $209.99 at Best Buy

The Corsair K100 RGB gaming keyboard is excellent. It’s well-made and comfortable to use, and it includes a detachable padded wrist rest. It works with the Corsair iCUE software, which allows you to customize the RGB backlighting and assign macros to any key. It has dedicated media keys, a volume control wheel, a multi-function iCUE wheel, and six dedicated macro keys, among other things.

Our unit’s Cherry MX Speed switches are light and responsive to type on, and they’re also available in the new Corsair OPX linear switches, which may provide a different typing experience than our unit’s switches. It also has a polling rate of up to 8000Hz, which results in low latency for a responsive gaming experience.

This keyboard is available with either Corsair OPX Opto-mechanical or Cherry MX Speed switches. Both options are designed for quick actuation; our review unit employs OPX switches with a 1mm actuation point, 45g actuation force, and 3.2mm travel. Those distances are significantly shorter than the standard Cherry MX Red switches.

The combination of these fast switches and a new 4,000Hz polling rate is intended to ensure that your computer registers keystrokes as quickly as possible. The combination of a short 1mm travel and a 45g actuation force works well because it reacts quickly but isn’t so easy to press down that we perform keystrokes every time we rest our fingers on the keyboard.

This keyboard performs admirably in gaming, but not outstandingly. A polling rate of 1,000Hz is already unfathomably fast, and increasing it to 4,000Hz makes little difference. Our inputs are certainly quick and responsive while playing Ghostrunner, possibly one of the twitchiest games we’ve played recently, but even at high frame rates and low response times, we’d be hard pressed to notice the difference 4,000Hz made.

Corsair has done something truly admirable with its keycaps. The RGB lighting that illuminates the key legends was a nice touch on its own, but Corsair has stabilized the keys in a way that we don’t often see on mechanical keyboards. They wiggle a little on the X/Y axis, but tilt is almost non-existent, and it’s amazing how much of a difference that makes when typing on them.

When the key we’re pressing doesn’t tilt slightly, it’s much easier to avoid hitting neighboring keys. It should be noted that this may be unique to the OPX model. The stems appear to be the same as most other mechanical key switches, so it’s unclear how Corsair did it. The only inconsistency we’ve noticed is that when bottomed out, larger keys (shift, enter, backspace, etc.) squish a little more.

All of this power is crammed into a keyboard of exceptional quality. For durability, the Corsair K100 RGB is built around an aluminum top plate. Underneath, cable routing makes USB passthrough easier to use. The height adjustment legs have two different height levels and work well together. The palm rest has also been improved over the K95 RGB Platinum, with a more luxurious cushion.

This model has also been upgraded to include more RGB Light Edge. Whereas the K95 Platinum’s light strip ran just along the top edge of the keyboard, the K100’s light strip wraps around the sides as well, creating 44 zones of controllable light. Except that the light is no longer directly visible from above, but is instead spilling out onto the desk surface. When the keyboard is at the edge of a desk, this feature is somewhat lost. Fortunately, the per-key RGB lighting of the keys is more than enough of a show.

Amy Hinckley
Amy Hinckley
The Dell Inspiron 15 that her father purchased from QVC sparked the beginning of her interest in technology. At Bollyinside, Amy Hinckley is in charge of content editing and reviewing products. Amy's interests outside of working include going for bike rides, playing video games, and watching football when she's not at her laptop.

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