Corsair Vengeance K90 Keyboard

Introduction

Mechanical keyboards are all the buzz recently with nearly every major manufacture releasing their own take on this very old technology. Many of these keyboards are aimed at the gaming community, promising better feedback and usually something along the lines of better performance in games. But the thing is, most are just a standard run-of-the-mill keyboard with mechanical switches. Or if they do offer something a little extra, it may not be enough for what you are looking to do.

Today we are taking a look at Corsair’s top of the line entry into the mechanical keyboard market, the Vengeance K90. This keyboard is the MMO-oriented version of their new keyboard line (the other being the FPS-oriented K60). With this board we get the great mechanical keys we love with Cherry MX Red switches, but also get a massive bank of fully programmable “G-keys” as well as multimedia controls and laser etched backlit keys. The idea here is no compromises. This keyboard offers pretty much every feature you could want in a high end keyboard. Read on the find out if the feature list will translate into a quality keyboard.

Features

• Cherry MX Red mechanical switches
• 18 dedicated, customizable G-keys
• Full key matrix anti-ghosting
• 20-key rollover on USB
• Brushed aluminum chassis with laser etched backlit keys
• 36Kb of onboard memory
• Easy access multimedia controls
• USB pass-through
• Soft-touch wrist rest

Specs

Switches	Cherry MX Red
Programmable Keys	Three banks of 18 G Macro Keys
Memory	36Kb of onboard memory
Multimedia Keys	Stop, Previous, Play/Pause, Next, Mute, Volume Up/Down
Windows Lock Key	Yes
USB Pass-Through Ports	1 x USB 2.0
Cable Length	2 meter braided
Warranty	Two years
System Requirements	High power USB 2.0 port (+500mA); Windows 7, Vista, or XP; 35MB of hard disk space; Two open USB ports. One for board, one for pass-through.

Packaging

The K90’s box is very nice with all of the pictures and specific information you need to know. Inside the box is just the keyboard itself, a wrist rest, a quick-start guide, and warranty information.

Closer Look

The K90 is a very good looking keyboard with dark grey/black keys on a brushed aluminum chassis. As mentioned previously, the keys are laser etched, meaning that rather than being stamped on in ink like a regular keyboard they are burned in with a laser. What this does is firstly, allow for the back light to shine through, but also gives you very long key life. It is very common for the letters on keys to wear out over time, especially the WASD keys on gaming keyboards. The laser etched keys diminish that problem significantly.

Another feature of this keyboard is the keys are basically exposed as you can see in the right side picture. This gives a unique look with the brushed aluminum but why I found it special was because it makes cleaning so much easier. As anyone who sits at their computer a lot knows, you are bound to drop crumbs, hairs, etc in between your keys. This exposed design allows you to just quickly blow them out with compressed air with no need to remove key caps.

Though this is a mechanical keyboard, not every key is mechanical. The F-keys, Esc, G-keys, and the Home/End bank are all your standard rubber dome. Thankfully the most-used keys, including the arrow keys and entire numpad, are mechanical.

The G-Keys are one of the defining features of the K90. You have a total of 18 keys with three different banks that can be quickly swapped on-the-fly through the M1/M2/M3 buttons located above the G-keys. This gives you a total of 54 fully programmable keys, more than enough for almost anyone. We will go over the programming later on in the software section.

The dedicated multimedia keys are another unique and defining feature for this board. The play/pause, forward, reverse, stop, and mute buttons are all plastic and, unlike everything else on this board, feel kind of cheap. The highlight here is the very nice textured metal roller that controls volume.

The included wrist rest is made of a soft-touch textured rubber. It is attached to the keyboard with two small thumbscrews and has rubber feet that really add to the stability of the board.

The backlight has four settings: 33%, 66%, 100%, and off. I found that in a dark room, the 33% setting is plenty and the other two were a little too bright for me and a little distracting.

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Build Quality

The construction quality of the board is excellent. The brushed aluminum looks great and makes the board very rigid and sturdy. The keycaps are a little strange at first because they are extremely smooth with no texture at all but they also feel very solid.

The bottom of the board has a rubber foot in each corner to help keep it from moving during an intense gaming session. One problem that I noticed was that when the feet are flipped up like in the right side picture, you lose the rear rubber contact. And because the feet are not rubber coated, the board has a much higher tendency to move around. This is greatly reduced by using the wrist rest which also has rubber feet.

The mechanical switches are obviously the big draw of the K90. Corsair decided to go with the Cherry MX Red switches which are basically a “lighter” version of the more popular MX Black switch. The Reds require very little force to push, a constant 45 grams, as opposed to the Blacks which are 40g at the top and 80g at the bottom of the stroke. Which switch is the best is purely personal preference. We will discuss more on this is the testing section.

The USB cord is 2 meters long and fully braided. One thing that surprised me when I pulled the K90 out of the box was that it has two USB connectors, one for the keyboard itself and one for the pass-through port in the back. The cable and connectors, like the rest of the board, is very high quality.

Software

In order to program the macro keys on the K90, you must download the Vengeance Gaming software. The program is very clean and easy to use. It’s main function is to help you dial in your macros exactly the way you want. Programming a key couldn’t be any easier. Just hit the MR button the on the top of the board, press the key you want to program, type whatever you want, and then press the MR button again when you are done. The best part is that you can do most of the programming in-game. But if you want to customize the macro a bit more with rapid fire or more advanced delay settings, you must open up the program.

Gaming

The K90 is oriented mainly toward MMOs or other games that require very large amounts of macros. I have never been one of those players who macros every single thing they do but with the K90 I was able to experiment a little. Because the G-keys are a little out of the way, they aren’t really that great for macros that you need to access quickly or often such as a spell. Macroing things such as text or strings of spells and actions that are only occasionally used seemed to be my preferred use.

Outside of MMOs, where having a ton of macros isn’t really a priority, they K90 still performed great. In a FPS or any game that requires very quick input, the MX Reds really felt great due to their light actuation force. The 20 key rollover seemed to work perfectly and I never experienced a situation where a key was pressed but not registered. The easy to access Windows lock button at the top of the keyboard is nice to have and the backlight really is a necessity for people who like to play in a dark room.

General Use

In just general typing and internet browsing, the K90 is great to work with. The backlight is obviously very useful for typing in a dark room and the multimedia keys, especially the volume wheel, will get a lot of use.

In my testing comparing this board to the Tt eSports Meka with MX Blacks, I preferred the Red switches because they felt more consistent to type on. The Blacks found in many mechanical gaming keyboards get progressively harder to press as you reach the bottom of the stroke which can lead to fatigue if typing for extended periods. One issue that I had with the Red switches in the beginning was that I was making more mistypes because the keys are so light and I would accidentally slightly press a wrong key. After a day or two I got used to the difference though and now can even type a little faster because it takes less force to press the keys.

The last gripe I have with the K90 is that the keys are pretty loud when you are typing normally. Because the switch is so light, the keys will bottom out very easily and make a very audible clack as they hit the bottom of the stroke. There are some user created mods that significantly reduce this problem such as putting small rubber o-rings under each key but there are drawbacks to this and it is not for everyone. If you are getting any mechanical keyboard though, even one with non-clicky switches, you can expect it to be louder than a standard rubber dome keyboard.

Conclusion

Pros:

• Looks great
• Mechanical switches
• Backlit
• More macro keys than you would probably ever need
• Multimedia keys
• Very high quality construction
• Competitive price

Cons:

•  A little louder than a standard keyboard

The Corsair Vengeance K90 really is the complete package. You get all of the stand-out features of the best mechanical keyboards put into one great looking, solid package. The K90 can really do it all, FPS gaming, MMO gaming, multimedia, and typing, and it can do them well. The G-keys, the prominent feature of this keyboard, are simple to use and work extremely well. The backlight is very nice to have for those late night gaming sessions and the multimedia keys allow you to control your music without even minimizing the game.

The name of the game here is no compromises. You get the mechanical switches, macro keys, backlight, and multimedia keys in that beautiful brushed aluminum chassis and at only $130, the K90 is priced very competitively. Between the mechanical switches, laser-etched keycaps, and long-list of features, the K90 will not only physically last a very long time, but you will have no need to replace it. There really isn’t anything bad to say about this keyboard and therefore we have decided to give it our editors choice award.