so you've grown up and you're ready to game on something other than a crusty
dell hand-me-down but you don't want to spend a fortune on unnecessary bells and
whistles so what do you buy
to find out we checked the pricing history of the most popular mid-range
gaming keyboards on amazon and we bought these nine contenders for the
middleweight crown to be included each of our boards had to
be available for between 50 and 75 at
least three times in the last few months so
that's the setup now let's see how they fall into place
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at 75 the razer ornata chromax is one of
the most expensive boards here but not without reason it wins the award for
best unboxing experience and the product itself feels quality too there's well
thought out slots for routing the braided cable on the underside and the
absolutely plush wrist rest stands out
as clearly the best in show it features full RGB lighting under what
razer calls mecha mechanical key switches which
unfortunately is where things start to fall apart a little bit for the ornata
chromax marketing aside these are essentially
rubber dome keyswitches with the large stem of the keys being used to stabilize
its keystrokes that means that there is a squishy bottom out for each keystroke
with a rather heavy actuation force so unless RGB is your top priority it's
hard to recommend because for this price i would have hoped to see actual
mechanical switches which as it turns out isn't just me
being unreasonable because next up is the Corsair k63 a backlit 10 keyless
board with cherry mx red switches that regularly hits just 40 us dollars
now don't expect any extra referrals here the back lighting is only one color
but at least thanks to Corsair's feature-rich iq software the keys are
individually addressable and they're remappable it has flip down legs at the
back if you prefer a slight inclination to your board with that said if you want
a wrist rest you're going to have to shell out another 10 to get the first
party one from Corsair that clips on the cherry mx red key switches perform
exactly as you'd expect with a smooth linear feel and excellent stabilization
and i was really happy to see that even at this price they're still dedicated
media lighting and volume control keys on the board now the casing is plastic
which gave me pause but thanks to the k63's short length deck flex was a
non-issue for it at the end of the day if you don't need
a number pad or RGB this is an excellent choice
next up is a company i had actually never heard of before the game note have
it RGB kb 378l looks great on paper the
cherry mx blue equivalent switches are made by otemu a respected enough clone
manufacturer there's a full array of media keys including a volume roller the
macro keys can be programmed on the fly and the included adjustable wrist rest
is a nice touch even if it is a bit of a grease magnet they also get bonus points
for the braided cable and the integrated 2-port usb hub that's a really nice
touch even if it can't be used for high-powered devices
unfortunately though the switches lack stabilization with the shift key in
particular turning to jello if you so much as bump your desk it's also
the loudest keyboard in our roundup clicky blues are already a bit of a
strange choice for gaming and definitely not recommended for streamers and the
metallic reverb on the return stroke reminds us more of
the build quality we came to expect from entrance in our previous cheap
mechanical keyboards roundup than this one
but it's affordable it looks cool and it
features full perky RGB backlighting so i guess that explains its popularity
even if it's not the greatest typing experience
the red dragon deriver jazz
say that 10 times fast lands in the lower end of our price
range and also has per key RGB backlighting with hot keys to change
between 18 different effects and six levels of brightness including off its
aluminum construction is very stiff this
monster is just a hair over a kilogram and under the hood we find red dragon
branded brown switches with a kale style stem that resulted in decent key
stabilization also in the box are both keycap and key
switch pullers to go with this little pack of four pairs of different switches
now i can imagine a use for this maybe you
want a lighter actuation force on your crouch button or something
but i'm still not sure exactly what their rationale for this particular
loadout of switches was as far as typing comfort goes the lack
of a wrist rest is disappointing but overall i'd say the experience is
solidly average finally one build quality critique the
tolerances on our usb plug caused it to be very very tight almost to the point
where we felt like it could damage the port it was inserted into but your
mileage may vary overall we liked the devargas but its lack of media control
and macro keys and its similar price to game notes offering did put it at a
slight disadvantage next up is Corsair again this time with the k-55
RGB at 50 bucks it won't break the bank
and you get RGB lighting but there's a big catch
this is 2013 grade RGB with only three
lighting zones and no way to highlight specific keys this also isn't a
mechanical keyboard with that said though the membrane
switches here have better than average stabilization even if they lack the
tactility of a mechanical switch what this board lacks in switches though
it makes up for with a full suite of media controls along with six dedicated
macro keys that are programmable through Corsair's iq software the included wrist
rest has a nice soft touch textured feel that doesn't gather fingerprints or
smudges and there is a little bit of deck flex if you're heavy-handed on the
keys but the average person would be hard-pressed
get it to notice anything overall we really liked it for all
around use and if you're a video editor those macro keys can really improve your
process actually we have a video coming up soon on building a budget 4k editing setup so
make sure you get subscribed so you don't miss that the italbot athletic gaming keyboard is
targeted squarely at gamers and features an anodized aluminum chassis with cuano
blue mechanical switches it's an affordable route to mechanical switches
and full individual key RGB backlighting however
while there are a handful of hotkey combos for enabling canned effects
customizing the lighting is next to impossible because the config app is
really bad like really really bad incomprehensible
translation unscalable tiny window bad d
minus for effort moving on the double shot key caps allow the RGB nus to shine
through the back of the rather large legends but unfortunately the keycaps
were poorly enough stabilized particularly the larger ones to earn
this board a solid meh in our roundup
changing gears completely the logitech k840 mechanical stands out right out of
the gate with its bead blasted aluminum top plate and sharp professional looking
gray aesthetic inside it packs romer g switches which
due to their large box profile have very good stabilization
but they're not for everyone if you've never felt one they could probably be
best described as a mushier mx brown the keycaps themselves are abs with pad
printed legends but other than cheaping out there the build quality is what
you'd expect from logitech and we didn't have any complaints
until we noticed that at the same price as the other keyboards we featured today
it has no backlighting whatsoever and you can hate on RGB all you want but
when you're in the dark it can be pretty useful to be able to see what you're
doing and it also has no numb lock and no
scroll lock indicators for some reason also the leading edge of the deck rather
than tapering down towards the desk has a really sharp design to it that wasn't
super comfortable without a wrist rest so we'd recommend adding one of those
for optimal comfort unfortunately that pushes the total cost of this solution
to the high end of our lineup but what this board lacks and frills it
makes up for with top quality software and a clean aesthetic
mostly the lack of any media controls is a serious bummer
again from Corsair man these guys have a lot of keyboards now we've got the k68
RGB it's equipped with cherry mx reds has a full selection of media keys over
the numpad and includes a wrist rest to boot what's not to love
well there are a couple of things starting with the dust and water
resistance that's built into the board it consists of a silicone membrane
around each switch and you might think huh heck yeah a keyboard that's finally
cheeto dust proof but while that may be the silicone takes
the normally silky smooth linear feel of an mx red and adds a bit of a cushion at
the end of each stroke while that might not be the end of the world to you and in fact gamers who want
the absolute best responsiveness out of their keyboard avoid bottoming them out
the silicone also diffuses light under the keys so if you say selected a
different color for your wasd keys it will bleed out into the surrounding ones
with that said Corsair's build quality doesn't disappoint here we observe very
little deck flex even if you're a key smasher the wrist rest has a nice soft
touch stippled finish that doesn't smudge with hand oils and
silicone key booties aside it actually types pretty well
as it should considering that it only hits our 75 target when it's deeply
discounted finally the logitech g610 orion is a
sturdy no-nonsense board this time with
backlighting and your choice of cherry mx reds or browns and a two year
warranty with logitech's outstanding customer service it has a nice rigid
chassis with a braided cable and three angle options for the integrated
kickstands it weighs in at over 1200 grams so if you're looking for
portability this might not be the best choice but that weight is used
effectively as there is minimal deck flex allowing its cherry switches to
perform as intended where the g610 really shines though is in the extra
controls with a nice big volume roller and dedicated media keys
even if there's no RGB the lighting controls can be changed with the
dedicated lighting button plus the number row for effects while this key
cycles through five steps of brightness including off typing on this board was
quite enjoyable in our testing with excellent key stabilization but the abs
keycaps were a little bit sharp on the edges and prone to gathering finger oils
so if you want the logitech experience but you don't like roamer g switches
this is your go-to now to crown a champion if we had to
pick just one the Corsair k63 stands out
for its combination of gaming performance key feel build quality
software quality and price when discounted to around 40 bucks which
happens with reasonable regularity it is just
really hard to beat if you must have individual RGB
backlighting on the cheap the game note have it and the red dragon devara rara
darva ras are our co-picks
the key stabilization on the game note did give us pause but this is a truly
feature-rich board at a price that even four or five years ago i would have said
was impossible for a full RGB mechanical keyboard the reason that we're including
the red dragon is that what it lacks in extra features like media keys and macro
keys it makes up for in noticeably better build quality and to
my eye a cleaner sharper aesthetic
finally if you're not trying to win a spot on your local esports team and you
care equally about the typing experience we've got to give the nod to the g610
orion it's a straightforward well-performing board with a clean
design and cherry mx switches it's got all the right features like media keys
backlighting and angle adjustment while still coming in as low as 65 bucks on
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so thanks for watching guys bye if you enjoyed this video maybe you'd
also like our cheap high refresh rate monitor roundup to go with your
you know affordable mechanical keyboard
for the middleweight crown to be oh no
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