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At KitGuru we consider an excellent keyboard to be essential. After all, we spend a considerable amount of time performing office tasks, gaming and reporting on the latest developments in the industry. To help us pick the right keyboard we look for a number of key criteria such as durability, comfort and responsiveness.
Before we dive into the performance aspects of the keyboard we will break down the Cherry MX switches on offer for those who are unfamiliar with mechanical keyboards.
Blue switches provide both audible and tactile feedback. If a key is pressed and reaches its actuation point (the point where a key is registered and the resulting output displayed on-screen) an audible click is heard in combination with a bump to let the user know the key has been pressed with enough force. Those who favour blue switches claim it makes touch typing more intuitive.
Our review sample uses Cherry MX Black switches. These switches do not provide any feedback to let a user know the actuation point has been reached. However, because they require more force to be activated these switches are less prone to accidental key presses when letting your fingers rest on them. Because the key does not have to travel the full distance to the keyboard it is possible to type in complete silence with black switches. The sound that sometimes accompanies these keys is a result of the switch passing its actuation point and impacting with the keyboard.
Brown switches provide tactile feedback to let a user know the actuation point has been reached but do not include audible feedback. Users who want to distinctly feel when a key has reached its actuation point but prefer silence will often gravitate towards brown switches.
Like the black switches, Cherry MX Red switches do not provide any feedback. What sets them apart is that they require less force to be pressed. The low force required to reach the actuation point of the key in combination with the lack of audible and tactile feedback make red switches suited for those who need the fastest key presses, in silence.
It is important to keep in mind that everyone will have a different preference when it comes to mechanical switches. As such, we are not judging which switch is the best. The choice is simply personal.
At the time of writing the full driver/software suite for the Ryos MK Pro was not yet available. However, ROCCAT's drivers allow for full customization of all keys, separate lighting profiles and will include the ROCCAT R.A.D. system.
The first thing we noticed is that this is not a keyboard made to be carried around from desk to desk due to its weight. Further reinforcing this is the stability of the board, courtesy of the large, thick rubber feet holding it firmly in place. The ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro is, simply put, built like a tank. In fact, we are confident the Ryos MK Pro can be used to fend off any intruders in case of an emergency.
The Cherry MX Black switches in our review sample worked as we expected and using the board to type up various large documents and reviews was enjoyable. We launched a variety of games including MMO's, FPS and RTS to test the Ryos MK Pro's in-game performance. We found the black switches to be more effective in games such as Battlefield 3 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, this remains a personal preference.
What we can say objectively is that the Ryos MK Pro never failed to register a key, regardless of how many combinations we used, nor was there any input lag whatsoever.
Under normal conditions a USB connection supports the use of 4 modifier keys (such as Alt, Control, Shift, Caps Lock) but the Ryos MK Pro circumvents these limitations by emulating multiple virtual keyboards. This method allows for N-key rollover by reporting keys as if they are coming from different physical keyboards.
We confirmed the inclusion of N-key rollover by using Microsoft’s Keyboard Ghosting Demo which can be found here. Managing to press 25 keys simultaneously was a feat in itself, but we are happy to report every key registered correctly.
