Corsair Vengeance K95 keyboard review - Article

Corsair Doin' it really smooth (with a keyboard)

We review the Corsair Vengeance K95 mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Red switches. The K95 is the flagship successor in the popular Vengeance keyboard series and, while it uses the same basis and concept, but it adds some more features, is much more cool looking with full LED lit programmable keys, and has a trick or two encompassed in the new design as well as programmable G keys, a feature much desired by many of you.

Today's tested set of keys for example comes in black anodized aluminum, and it just looks incredible, though I'll immediately acknowledge that taste is a very subjective thing. Still, looking at what Corsair offers with the Vengeance K95 gaming keyboard brings a smile to my face, especially since it now has full LED lit keys. So from an aesthetics viewpoint, Corsair just gets it. The K95 is a mechanical RTS gaming keyboard. The previous series received some criticism on products like the K60 and K90, so the concept was overhauled a bit. For example, every key is now mechanical, using Cherry MX Red key-switches. So yes, the K95 is 100% mechanical. New also is per-key adjustable back-lighting, using white LEDs, so that you can customize which keys are lit, according to the game you’re playing. We received the black anodised aluminum version.

Another change for the K95 is the addition of a full-sized wrist rest which in fact is quite similar to the one used on the K90. The specs overall remain the same, including a 1000Hz polling rate, 100% anti-ghosting, and the media keys and USB pass-through on the rear remain too. Another change is that the K95 is actually a full n-key rollover keyboard now and if you like choice, Corsair will also offer this set of keys only with Cherry MX Red switches .

Also, being a K95 model, the keyboard comes with eighteen G keys that are fully macro programmable.

A funny addition to the K95 is a four way BIOS switch located at the backside of the keyboard. It allows you to reduce the polling rate from 1000Hz to 500, 250 or 125Hz, or even strip it back to a basic BIOS mode. Corsair states that this is basically just to aid compatibility with some Motherboard BIOSes but they want to make sure that this keyboard runs optimally with any PC. But sure, in general very few people will ever need to touch the switch. 

The K95 features a full length wrist rest and white 'colored' LED back-lighting. Let's have a peek at this magnificent set of keys first and then browse our way into the review.