DAMN, this keyboard is terrible. The feet
fold out sideways. That’s vaguely neat
from an aesthetic point of view, but the
slightest lateral movement causes it
to crumple to the deck with a whimper.
Don’t use the feet. They’re really bad, and
Corsair’s engineers should flagellate
themselves for designing them. Whether
they choose to break out the birch twigs
before or after they receive the plaudits
for the rest of this keyboard is up to them.
Damn, this keyboard is great.
The K95 Platinum XT is an obvious
evolution of Corsair’s tried-and-true
overall design, which sees a cleverly
folded aluminum base frame forming a
neat dished base for the keyboard, with a
distinct forehead and tiny, functional chin.
Everything that isn’t core keyboard (and
there’s a lot of that) has its own tactile
distinguishing feature: the easy-to-find
ridged buttons of the media cluster; the
physically separated profile, lighting, and
lock controls; the knurled, slick volume
roller; and the macro column, which
deserves further dissection.
Dedicated macro keys are divisive at
best and a disaster at worst, particularly
for those who locate their left hand by the
feel of the left edge of the keys. Corsair
has solved this problem: Not only are
these keys colored differently, they’re
strongly textured, and they’re contoured
in the opposite direction from the Tab
column—we didn’t once, in a two-week
testing period, accidentally hit G6 instead
of Left Ctrl, and that’s about the most
ringing endorsement you’re likely to find.
You have three options in terms of
switches, one clicky (Cherry MX Blue)Fully loaded doesn’t begin to cover it
Corsair K95
RGB Platinum XT
9
VERDICT Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XTPLATINUM Feature-packed;
great key feel; tons of well-
executed extras.
FATINUM Terrible feet; pricey.
$199, http://www.corsair.comSPECIFICATIONSSwitch Type Cherry MX Speed Silver
Form Factor Full size
Media Keys Dedicated
Macro Keys 6x dedicated
LEDs Per-key RGB with 19-zone
light bar
N-Key Rollover Full key, 100% antighosting
Pass-Through USB 2.0
Dimensions 18.3 x 6.73 x 1.41 inches
Warranty Two yearsand two quiet: Cherry’s luxurious Brown
variety, or the Speed Silver variant
tested here, the latter of which appears
to be your only option if you pick up
the alternate gunmetal finish. Switch
performance is often very subjective.
We’ve tried keyboards in which Speed
Silver switches just didn’t feel right, but
Corsair has found the balance. There’s a
minimum of spring ring, and the rigidity of
the base (and high actuation point of the
switches) makes every keypress sharp
and fast. Could the top of the keycaps be
a micron smaller to prevent fat-fingered
mispresses? Sure. Could the contour of
the main key block be more favorable to
help with accuracy when (curses) the K95
isn’t lifted by its useless feet? Yes, yes it
could. But we’re not unhappy with the
way this feels, and it’s a keyboard that’s
sharp enough to help make the feeling-
out period of flipping between keyboards
as short as it can possibly be.
The “RGB” part of the name is so strong
it deserves to be in 72-point bold. Per-
key lighting burns through each keycap,
and glows wonderfully in the gaps and
through the clear bases of the switches.
It’s a feast for the eyes, made even more
impressive by the 19-zone light bar along
the rear, which beams color everywhere.
Rainbow vomit isn’t to everyone’s taste,
but this is equally capable of being subtle,
and easily configured through Corsair’s
iCUE driver, and subsequently stored as
one of five on-board profiles.
Even the little extras hit the mark. We
often rag on Corsair for its brutal wrist
rests, but this one swaps the horrible
textured plastic for a soft, comfortablefaux leather. There’s a USB pass-
through, running through a fat but sturdy
feeling hard-wired braided cable. There
are extra keycaps, textured examples
to cover the WASD cluster, along with
alternately colored “S” key, useful for
marking keys you may have dedicated to
the newly fostered Elgato Stream Deck
integration of the macro buttons. It’s a
strong, strong package, and we have no
d o u b t t h a t i t ’ l l b e r e s i l i e n t e n o u g h t o l a s t a
great many years. That’s handy, because
damn, this keyboard is so expensive.
It’s worth it, but it’s not the only great
keyboard in the world. –ALEX COXin the lab
88 MAXIMUMPC MAR 2020 maximumpc.com