Cherry KC 6000 Keyboard and MC 4900 Mouse Review - User Experience

The KC 6000

Really, this is the important bit of the review, forgetting visuals and the like. This is where things 'matter.' We'll start, as has been traditional, with the keyboard.

Everything about this product, so far, has leaned toward use in... well, it's a little hard to put tactfully, but 'creative' environments are as best as I can do. You likely know what I am referring to. Clean, minimalist, open plan office spaces full of iMacs and usually belonging to a digital marketing agency, or graphic design. If you want to broaden this even further, then any reasonably modern office setup in an equally modern industry would likely be interested in such a product. For example, I work for a financial firm during the week, and I can categorically say that these would not be of interest to them.

We're off, happily, to a good start with the KC 6000. The board has almost no flex, so much so that it reminds me very much of typing on a high-end modern ultrabook, and the key type lends itself even more to this feeling I have. However, all of the good points so far mean very little if the keyboard isn't any good at its primary purpose. I have already touched upon the fact that the board contains no feet, meaning - for me - it sits very uncomfortably at a flat angle to the desk. Luckily, a slightly janky workaround of using my regular wrist rest worked wonders, angling the board just enough so that it was at a half decent angle.

Typing, then. In a word, it's great. In many... well, read on for a bit. There are many examples of chicklet style keys, out there, that provide next to no feedback for the user at hand. Whilst one can adjust to this, typing on such a device that offers no feedback or 'anything' to the person using it isn't pleasant at all. Such keyboards often feel very spongy or have no clearly defined 'point' at which the user can feel something. The KC 6000, however, implements chicklet keys excellently. They manage to offer decent feedback, whilst at the same time being soft enough to actuate for long periods of time without some form of finger fatigue setting in. Those who have used cheap/poor quality membrane keyboards, or even mechanical ones that use heavy switches, will know what I am referring to here.

Thankfully, the 6000 remains easy to type on for long periods of time. I did find that the spacing between the keys was a little large, for me, but then again I am coming from a much more compact TKL design that I use at home to type these reviews on if I am not out and about. I quickly figured this out and was up to some form of speed. As a reference, I can average about 105-110 WPM on my regular Topre Realforce board, and - with the KC 6000 - this was down to about 85-90. Not too bad at all. Typing was perfectly pleasant, and whilst there wasn't a whole lot of feedback, there was certainly enough to prevent me from bottoming out the keys with every stroke.

Before I move onto the mouse, I didn't find I used the dedicated shortcut buttons at all. I mentioned this earlier. For me, it would have been better if Cherry had simple removed them (to save space), or just gone with some form of customizable macro key instead.

MC 4900 - User Experience

Understand this. I dislike being negative. I really do. That said, beyond the 'party-piece' feature of the MC 4900, I did not especially enjoy using this mouse day to day. Those in the know will appreciate that mice of all types can have various shapes and sizes, so I really do question what on earth happened here? Not only is the MC 4900 not especially good-looking, in my view, but it also has a very unusual shape that really doesn't lend itself to any kind of regular user grip. Claw, palm, fingertip, etc. None of these worked, and I found myself using a funny hybrid of claw and palm in order to be semi-comfortable.

Given that the shape of a mouse is, essentially, the factor when it comes to the user experience of one, that is all I can really cover. The mouse does track very well, and the non-adjustable 1375 DPI sensor is perfectly fine for use on all types of screen I tested it on, from 14'' 1080p laptop displays, to 27'' 1440p displays. The weight is good, and the buttons feel solid enough to give me confidence that they will last well in excess of the warranty period offered by Cherry.

However, the shape isn't something that is easily avoided. It's there, and cannot be altered. From the photos, you can see that it has an unusually angular design, especially toward the back. This means that - in my case - my fingers couldn't either lie flat and comfortable on the back, nor contour naturally over the mouse and toward the front. Sadly, this means that I was never truly happy when using the product at hand... pun somewhat intended.

However... what of that standout feature? Fingerprint login? I tested this with Windows 10, which - happily - did as Cherry said it would. The driver was in place after plugging the mouse in, and there it is a simple matter of setting up the mouse to use Windows Hello to log in with. Naturally, this is a whole lot faster than typing in a password after waiting for the PC/laptop to wake up. Biometric login, in whatever guise, is the way of the future, and of that, there can be no doubt. Therefore, it's good to see such features making their way onto products as normally 'boring' as mice. No hardware specific setup relating to the MC 4900 is done specifically, as it is all handled through Windows' inbuilt settings application.

It's clear, that with a feature like this, the MC 4900 is meant for enterprise use. No way does a normal home user, unless they are really worried about PC security, need a product like the one we have here. It's not necessary, and I couldn't in my right mind justify paying over £100 GBP. However, as we all know, the inherent weakness of any security system is - usually - the people operating it. Passwords get handed out, spoken about, written down on post-it notes, and so on. Someone's fingerprint, however, whilst still possible to copy or lift off a surface, is significantly more infallible, and I would argue that it is more so than even Face ID unlock.

There really isn't much to say, however, about this point. It works and works damned well. Setting up my fingerprint was exceptionally easy (kudos, Microsoft), and unlocking my PC with it was pretty rapid. All in all, whilst I didn't like using the MC 4900 that much (if really at all), I can certainly and absolutely appreciate the reason behind its existence, and you can bet that will come back around in my conclusion of this review. Speaking of which, shall we wrap up?

Remember, the ergonomics of mice and how they are to use will matter MUCH less to an enterprise or company when put up against the security of their data.