Review on 💡 CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO: Dynamic RGB Backlighting, Six Macro Keys, Elgato Stream Deck Software Integration, IP42 Dust and Spill Resistance, Detachable Palm Rest, Dedicated Media and Volume Keys by Sherman Lancaster

I am not a gamer, so I cannot judge the suitability of this product for this type of use. I bought this to replace a Logitech MK530 which had worn out the letters to the point that even for my reasonable touch typing skills it was sometimes impractical, especially for night work in my home office where I normally use weaker, have indirect light. After getting used to (or spoiled by) the backlit keyboards on my Surface Pro 3 and other laptops, I thought this was the kind of feature I wanted to see in a new keyboard. With that in mind, I first looked at Logitech's offerings as they already had a unified receiver that I used with my old keyboard and trackball. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that particularly impressed me, other than huge ones like their wave keyboards (which are lovely by the way, but too big for this particular room). Since the keyboard will be used in close proximity to my Surface Dock, I widened my search to include wired keyboards, of which there are many to consider. I didn't want a mechanical keyboard as I find the clicks annoying, especially late at night when others are sleeping in adjoining rooms, so I shut them out beforehand. After reading tons of reviews both here and elsewhere, I settled on this one as it seemed to offer the best combination of typing, light control (okay, big cool factor), and size for my needs. I was very glad that I wasn't disappointed. Typing on this keyboard is a pleasure. The keys are responsive, have good travel, and have my favorite straight Enter key instead of the big inverted L shape some manufacturers prefer. The benefit for me is that all my other keyboards have a direct enter key and a big right shift key, so there was no awkward relearning curve or hassle with switching between keyboards, which I often do with my own and clients' devices. I also liked the fact that, unlike most gaming keyboards, it didn't have overly bold WASD letters, which I just found aesthetically awkward. This keyboard has six programmable keys in a vertical column to the left of the main keyboard area. Although they were primarily intended for gamers, they are also very useful in a more traditional office environment for quickly accessing specific programs or functions. As for me, I used one to replace the "Calculator" shortcut on my Logitech keyboard, and then used the others to bring up my most-used programs like Excel, Word, and my Epson scanner. They work very well for this, but the downside is that I'm retraining my left hand that the top left key is NOT Esc and the bottom left key is not Ctrl. Aside from that minor inconvenience, programmable buttons add an extra level of customization and efficiency, which is very welcome. My only suggestion to Corsair is that they create a program that makes it easier for less experienced users to set up these programmable buttons. I had to research this on the web and found that creating shortcuts to launch programs using these macro keys is a bit of a workaround. Basically, you need to create a shortcut for the program you want to run, assign it a key combination, and then record that shortcut's macro on the key you want to assign. Not the easiest way to do things, but it works. Here's an opportunity for Corsair, or the enterprising programmer. The backlight control is excellent and quite extensive. Essentially, you have three lighting zones, each capable of displaying up to seven different colors. There are some pre-programmed options for color and fade effects, as well as the ability to customize them to your liking. If you're that inclined, you can literally spend 30-40 minutes or more playing around with different lighting combinations and probably still not exhausting all the possibilities. Take some time and enjoy. It's definitely at the top of the coolness scale. One downside (for me) was the size of the letters on the movement keys between the main Alpha keyboard and the number pad. In the interest of continuing their Pseudo-Future font, which seems to indicate that Pseudo-Future users have perfect eyesight, the letters on these keys are uncomfortably small to my sixty-year-old eyes. This should be a relatively easy fix for Corsair and also make these buttons more visible to gamers. All in all, this is a budget keyboard at a reasonable price, suitable for all but perhaps the pickiest of gamers. , and is a great replacement for casual users who want more than a run-of-the-mill basic keyboard. The ease of typing is some of the best I've found in over three decades of working on a computer.