Corsair Vengeance K90 MMO Gaming Keyboard Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging & Bundle3. Corsair Vengeance K90: Design4. Software and Performance5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

We recently looked at some headsets from Corsair's new Vengeance gaming peripheral range which impressed us … thanks to their solid build quality and excellent in game performance. So we were looking forward to test other products from their gaming peripheral range.

Today we are going to look at the Corsair Vengeance K90 MMO Gaming keyboard which boasts a very impressive specification to rival the best keyboards out there on the market.

The K90 features mechanical keys, which is one of the main selling points of this particular model.

Specifications

• Light, responsive Cherry MX Red mechanical switches for fast, efficient gaming action
  • 45g actuation force
  • 2mm to actuation and 4mm to bottom
  • Rated for 50 million operations
  • Gold contacts
• Tuned silicon dome keyswitches: F1 through F12, Esc, PrtScn, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Insert, Home, Page Up Page Down, Delete, and End
• Three banks of eighteen G Macro Keys with Macro Record and Bank Select hot keys
• 36Kb of onboard memory for storing up to three sets of eighteen G keys for gaming on the go
• On-the-fly, macro recording
• Laser-etched, backlit keys with four illumination levels (off, 66%, 75%, and full illumination) selectable from the keyboard
• Six multimedia keys — Stop, Previous, Play/Pause, Next, Mute, Volume Up/Down — with Solid metal, weighted volume “drum roller”
• Windows Lock key for uninterrupted game play
• Metal top plate for increased strength, durability and rigidity
• USB pass-through connector giving easy access to a USB port on the back of the keyboard (USB 2.0/1.1/1.0)
• USB Connector with gold plated contacts
• 2m non-tangle cable Adjustable feet tilt for optimum personalization and positioning

Corsair supply the Vengeance K90 within a sizeable cardboard box which is decorated in a blue, grey and yellow livery. The top of the box features a small plastic window which gives us a peek at the keyboard within.

While the front of the box is relatively free of information, the bottom and sides of the box give us more of an insight into the particulars of the keyboard. We find a list of specifications on one side of the box, leaving the bottom for a product photo and a short promotional blurb.

Inside the box the keyboard is suspended in a rather substantial cardboard tray that is sure to protect it from most knocks and bumps during transit. Overall we commend Corsair for the packaging used for this product as it is much better quality than what we’ve seen from other manufacturers.

We wouldn’t usually expect a great deal of accessories to be bundled with a gaming keyboard so it came as no surprise when we only found a wrist-rest and a couple of information guides contained within the box alongside the keyboard.

It is clear from a glance that the Vengeance K90 is a premium product. Corsair have used a combination of brushed aluminium black plastic in the construction of the K90 which gives it a sleek, professional visage. While this product is designed for gamers, it certainly wouldn’t look out of place on an office desk.

Rather than surround the keys with the keyboard tray, Corsair have opted for a different approach. The keys themselves appear to float over the aluminium keyboard tray to which the mechanical switches are mounted. This gives it a unique appearance and, combined with the blue LED key backlighting, makes for a very attractive design.

As we have experienced in the past with Corsair products, build quality cannot be faulted on any level and the materials used in construction appear to be of the best possible quality. The aluminium keyboard tray gives the K90 a great deal of rigidity and gives the product a very solid feel. It doesn’t quite match the indestructible feeling of the SteelSeries 7G, though.

While the basic layout of the K90 is more or less standard, Corsair have accessorised it with a series of supplementary buttons. In the top right hand corner of the board we find a limited selection of media controls. There are five buttons altogether including play/pause, forward and back, stop and mute located alongside a volume roller switch.

There are also a few supplementary buttons along the top edge of the keyboard which control some of the extra features the K90 boasts over a regular keyboard. In the top left corner we find a button to record macros on the fly alongside three buttons to switch between the macro profiles. Further along the top of the keyboard, there are two further buttons which control the LED lighting level and the windows button lock.

Over on the left hand side of the keyboard, Corsair has included an array of 18 macro buttons which can be individually configured using the included software package. These aren’t ideally placed for easy access and they aren’t backlit like the other keys so it can sometimes be quite difficult to find the right one in low light conditions.

Corsair include a wrist rest with the K90 which clips onto the bottom edge of the keyboard which can be secured into place using two screws if required. It also has a soft-touch finish which looks and feels great.

The Vengeance K90 isn’t supplied with a software CD so we have to visit the Corsair website to download the software configuration utility. The installation process is very simple, taking no more than a couple of minutes to complete, including download.

On the main page of the software we find the configuration options for the 18 macro buttons. We are able to configure these to a number of preset functions or any keystroke or combination of keystrokes. You can configure up to three hardware profiles which can be switched on the fly using the M1, M2 and M3 buttons along the top edge of the keyboard.

You can also configure software profiles which can be set to activate when a certain application launches by clicking the ‘profiles’ tab at the top of the page. Unfortunately, we are only able to configure the predefined macro buttons and not any button on the keyboard. This would be preferable for some users.

Corsair has chosen to use mechanical switches in the K90 which defines the overall dynamic of the keyboard. Mechanical keyboards are becoming more and more popular as users become aware of the performance benefits over standard membrane keyboards. The switches actually register the keypress when the key has only been depressed half way, meaning that they are registered sooner. This gives gamers a slight performance benefit in game.

Like most other mechanical keyboards on the market, the Vengeance K90 utilises Cherry MX gold-plated switches. But there are a number of different variants of these switches which offer a slightly different feel. For example, the SteelSeries 6GV2 and 7G feature Cherry MX Black switches which offer a smooth action and the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate features Cherry MX Blue switches which give tactile feedback when the keypress has been registered.

Corsair has chosen to use Cherry MX Red switches in the K90 which we haven’t actually seen being used before on a keyboard.  They are, however, very similar to the Cherry MX Black switches, the only difference being the lower actuation force required to depress them.  This means the Vengeance K90 has a much lighter feel than the SteelSeries keyboards we’ve tested in the past.  We highly doubt this would have any noticeable effect on gaming performance but it is preferable when typing.

There is fierce competition in the gaming peripheral market from the likes of SteelSeries and Razer which makes it difficult for a newcomer such as Corsair. Everything considered, however, we are very impressed with what the Corsair Vengeance K90 has to offer.

Despite the competition, Corsair has managed to create a keyboard which is quite different to the other products out there. While the designers of the Vengeance K90 clearly adopted SteelSeries’ minimalist approach to aesthetics, they have actually put some thought into style. The extensive use of aluminum and soft-touch plastic gives the K90 a sleek and professional look which is far more stylish than what SteelSeries have to offer.

As expected, build quality is also fantastic and all the materials used in construction feel expensive. We do question Corsair’s choice to use a combination of membrane and mechanical switches in the keyboard, however, as the membrane switches have a mushy and unresponsive action compared to the mechanical ones. That said, I do favour the Cherry MX Red switches over the Blue and Black varieties used on the SteelSeries and Razer keyboards, as they have a lighter actuation force.

The Corsair Vengeance K90 keyboard can be yours for a price of £98.95 from Amazon.co.uk, which is almost exactly the same price you would have to pay for the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate. Even though Razer is a much more established player in the gaming peripheral market than Corsair, I actually think that the Vengeance K90 is a better buy. The Corsair model feels better built and I prefer the smooth action of the Cherry MX Red mechanical switches.

Pros

• Solid build quality.
• Premium materials.
• Eighteen macro buttons.
• Sleek aesthetics.

Cons

• Use of membrane switches for some keys.

KitGuru says: Another quality product from Corsair that ticks all the right boxes.

Become a Patron!