Keyboard’s come in all shapes and sizes, from them dastardly touch-input ones on your smartphone up to £200+ beasts. But buying a keyboard often isn’t as simple as just picking one out you like the look of, with a multitude of options of to be thought of from a gaming perspective.
Some keyboards are designed to be small, others had dozens upon dozens of extra keys and make a perfect fit for MMO players. Some have backlit keys, mechanical keys, silent keys, linear keys. The choices are endless. Some come with a wrist wrest, some even attach to your wrist, some are laser projected onto your desk.
Proper gaming keyboards are often thought of as the domain of the hardcore gamer, but there’s lot to be said for the additional functionality that certain keyboards can bring. While hunting for a keyboard all sorts of things are going to crop up, from rollovers to response times, polling rates, and even an anti-ghosting matrix. Delving deep can boggle the mind, but it can be so annoying splashing the cash on a keyboard that doesn’t work as intended.
So what do you look out for most when buying a keyboard, does it need to be wired or wireless? Is it backlit or nothing at all? Would you be able to cope without complex macro functions? What is your perfect gaming keyboard?
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I got my Razer BlackWidow Stealth on sale at Best Buy a couple of months ago and I absolutely love it! As much as I like it though, I dont think its worth the full 150 asking price, if you are thinking on buying it, Id reccomnend waiting.
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Most important feature of a keyboard: It works.
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got my eyes on the Corsair K70RGB. The brownswitch edition is £140, will replace the quite dated Logitech G15.
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For my latest (ducky shine 3) I was looking for a backlit and mechanical one.
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It must be wired, I hate it when things go flat. And then there's the interference problem, which causes input delays, wireless stuff is a pain.
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Extracting my 'Other' vote: ergonomic design
Never really came across backlit keyboards, but I could take that into account when buying a new keyboard.
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Anti-ghosting anyone? Must for couch mp games like 4player rayman coop with only 2 controllers.
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I have keyboard with anti-ghosting for Starcraft 2, its really helpful! :)
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Which keyboard are you using exactly?
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Its on my profile, Razer Deathadder Expert...
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That's one heck of a keyboard. Damn, I want it too.
But I would probably use those 100$ to buy a better gpu. Just my two cents though.
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I was looking for a cheapest price I could get, but now I see that Razer stuff worth every coin that I give. Im about to buy Deathadder, also looking for a best price I can get it for!
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For a whole life, I've been buying those Logitech K120s for like 10 bucks. So I finally decided to break that piggy bank in my closet and buy some real deal keyboard. That's a Strike Pro from OZONE and I couldn't be happier. You must get used to it tho, because it can get really annoying if you're coming from a low budget keyboard. Brown MX switches by the way! ;)
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wow there's sure alot of backlit fans out there. I rarely game in dark room so backlit is a tertiary option for me, rollover and tactile keys come second, first of course price. why there isn't vote options for price?
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As long as it's working, and you can enjoy your gaming with it. Doesn't matter if it cost low or cost much. I mean, if you want a back-lit mechanical ultra-featured keyboard then go. That's your reward for yourself. If it's a normal cheap keyboard but still kicks ass when you use it for gaming, I don't see any reason why you can't use it for gaming. :|
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I use rubber dome keyboards with low profile keys.
Silence is VERY important to me and rubber domes are the only thing that can do it well. Excluding those all rubber roll up keyboards that SUCK.
Not just that, rubber dome keyboards have some of the shortest travel distances to bottom out. Most averaging at 4mm- where most mechanical boards only do 7mm. Scissors can do 2mm- but break easily
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i dont have fanncy keyboard but i think its not bad keyboard :D from logitech k350 wirelles
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I accept any keyboard that has qwerty type... and not a disordered one D:
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thermaltake ttesports posedion z backlit mechanical and i love it
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I love how people think that backlit is important when you need to pay almost 50$ more for it when you can have the samething at lower cost. Yes it gives a look but it's not a necessity. First thing I look is if the keyboard have mechanical or dome keys and if it seems solid for long time use.
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i still use my first keyboard that came with my first computer like 15 years ago.
it is chicony kb 9850
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It's not a look thing (well not for me).
I game in the dark a lot for less glare on my screens. I'll game in living rooms some times to, and it's even harder to see a keyboard in there with the lights off. When I do game with the lights on, most keyboards get glare from the screens themselves (believe it or not).
In any case, having a back lit keyboard is a great benefit for more then looks.
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lol how those that even still work
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Mine is backlit and was the most cheap backlit Keyboard I could find.
If I could list the most important features in order it would be:
Light, Aditional Feats (volume control, stop/pause, etc, No Macros), Style, anything else.
Of course considering if my wallet can handle it.
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That why i bought one without backlit keys, almost $70 bucks less. But it looks way more fancy with backlit :D
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backlit is very important for me,
for people like me who actually use keyboard for typing (and not pressing WASDQER...) having backlit keys really helps typing correct keys without typos especially when it gets darker and I quickly look from screen to the keyboard and I'm too lazy to turn on the lights =P
I have really budget backlit keyboard, less than 30$ and it doesn't even have mechanical keys because I prefer lowprofile "laptop" feel :)
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I agree with everything in your comment.
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Looks like my keyboard in the top picture.
Cyborg V7. Wonderful backlit keyboard with touch-input.
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Still using this one,it absolutely kicks ass :) Such a quality you would not believe for the price,it was around 5-6$
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Working awesome for more than 2 years now
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i use this one
still running great after 15 years :) chicony kb 9850
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I am still using this one
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LOL
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I love how much technology has advanced! :')
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Had a Razer Dealthstalker Ultimate and I absolutely hated it along with the software. It just never worked properly and was not great to type on for me. Decided I was finished with Razer and got myself a Logitech G13 for gaming and an Apple keyboard as a regular keyboard since I find they are nice to type on.
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It has to be BackLit and Silent!!!!
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All I look for in a gaming keyboard is that it has to be mechanical and it has to have LED backlights.