GROUPTEST
GAMING KEYBOARDS
Our choice for the best gaming keyboard that will let you
dominate the battlefield but avoid penury.
By Alan Bradley
P
C peripherals have
become a hot
market in the last
decade or so, and
nowhere is that
more obvious that in the
gaming sub-sector, which
means anyone shopping for
the best gaming keyboard in
2019 has a massive number of
options at their fingertips.
We’re seeing an incredible
array of products across all
sorts of switches and feature
sets, from keyboards that act
more like gamepads than
traditional decks to boards
that flash a Christmas in
Rockefeller Plaza level of
coloured lighting spectacle.
While this means that there’s a
range of choices at the both
the top and bargain tier, it can
also breed a level of
marketplace confusion, so
we’ve tested dozens of decks
both new and old to help you.
The first step to finding the
best gaming keyboard to fit
your needs is educating
yourself. First, you need to
figure out whether you want
the durability and
responsiveness of a
mechanical keyboard or the
plush softness of a membrane
deck (or some option in
between, like Razer’s mecha-
membrane offering). If you do
opt for a mechanical board,you then need to figure out
which switches you prefer.
Want to type stealthily away in
your office without alerting/
annoying your co-workers?
Try a Razer Yellow, or Cherry
Red or Silent Red. Or, if you
want to replicate the feeling
(and noise) of a traditional
typewriter, something like the
Razer Orange or Cherry Blue
switch will get you the closest.
Outside of those core families,
there are also options like
Razer’s opto-mechanical
switch which ‘actuate at the
speed of light’ and can only be
found in their Huntsman line,
or alternative manufacturers
like Kailh or Logitech.1