As someone who likes having a clean and minimalistic gaming/office setup in my home office, finding a keyboard that not only fits the aesthetics but also feels and sounds right when typing can be a trickier task for me. The new Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard, with its two-tone grey colour scheme and 75% layout, offers a compact solution that might just be the newest addition to my setup.
Coming in at a price of $159.99, the Corsair K65 Plus certainly isn’t on the cheaper side of gaming keyboard offerings. That being said, it has a lot of features built into it that offer a respectable amount of customizability and conveniences that I have found to make my usage much easier in day-to-day tasks.
Unlike a majority of keyboards on the market that come in solid colours like black, grey or white, the Corsair K65 Pro has a black frame with grey keycaps that I feel add much-needed colour contrast to typical boring black office setups. And, of course, what would a gaming keyboard be without its RGB lighting? The K65 Plus offers practically unlimited customizability to this degree with per-key lighting; more on that later, though.
“Connectivity is one aspect of the Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard that shows its value compared to budget keyboards on the market.”
Connectivity is one aspect of the Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard that shows its value compared to budget keyboards on the market. With support for both Mac and Windows systems along with other mobile operating systems, Xbox and PlayStation, there should be no problems finding a system that this keyboard will work on. It also features a special mode to connect to the PlayStation 4 and PS5 via 2.4GHz wireless or USB cable.
While I found myself primarily using it in Bluetooth mode, you also have the option of using the wireless USB module or USB-C cable for systems that do not have Bluetooth on board. The USB module also allows for additional options in Corsair’s iCUE software, where you can set up macro keys, light modes and many more settings. For users who use multiple systems, you can also connect to multiple devices as well.
The Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard I was testing was equipped with pre-lubricated CORSAIR MLX Red linear switches, which I found to be very comfortable to type on in my testing. Keystrokes had a nearly perfect amount of depth, and typing didn’t feel overly exhausting over time from the excess pressure needed like I have experienced in the past from other keyboards. Noise levels from keystrokes were also pleasing to me as I did not find the keys to be much louder than a laptop keyboard. As someone who enjoys working in near silence, I found this to be an aspect I truly appreciated.
“Corsair has integrated not only a handful of selectable patterns but has also allowed for per-key lighting in the K65 Plus Wireless keyboard…”
Battery life is another impressive aspect of the Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard. Corsair states the battery should last up to 266 hours on a single charge, provided you are not using any of the RGB lighting functions while using it. While I was never able to run the battery down to the point where I needed to charge it up, I can’t see many situations where someone would run out of battery before being near a charging port.
Of course, what fun is a keyboard if you can’t show off some RGB in your setup? Corsair has integrated not only a handful of selectable patterns but has also allowed for per-key lighting in the K65 Plus Wireless keyboard, allowing you to truly light up the keyboard just how you would like. However, I found that the iCUE mode per-key lighting was an option that was only when the keyboard was plugged into the computer via a USB cable.
I did find this to be a slight bummer, as it would be awesome to have a custom light setup when using just the wireless module or Bluetooth. One other minor complaint is the fact that the keycaps do not allow any light to pass through them, so low-light typing may be a slightly more difficult task.
All in all, I found that there is a lot to like about the Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard. Battery life and typing experience were among the best I have tried to date. I also really enjoyed seeing an extra splash of colour on this keyboard while still maintaining a professional and clean appearance. I do wish Corsair would allow light to shine through the keycaps in the future for night/low light use cases like competitors do. However, it is still a wonderful keyboard to use when the lighting is appropriate and adequate.
