CM Storm Quickfire Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard Review

Performance

The LED backlighting is really nice, it’s got a lot of rich colour to it and at maximum brightness, it’s clear enough to illuminate your keyboard in a well-lit room.

The keyboard has three lighting effects; a breathing mode, a gaming mode and full illumination, with five brightness levels for each.

Setting the LED lighting to gaming mode will only illuminate the WASD and arrow keys.

Gaming performance on the Quickfire Ultimate is exceptionally good. There’s very little in the way of crazy features on this keyboard, but what it lacks in features such as macro recording, multiple profiles and eccentric lighting effects, it makes up for with solid core performance. The Cherry MX switches rarely disappoint and while MX Brown aren’t my personal favorites (I prefer MX Black), they’re still an absolute joy to use. The keyboard is quick and responsive while working or gaming, and the almost flat layout of the keys gives it a sleek feel, perfect for games that require a lot of left-hand travel.

If you take your gaming seriously at home, or even at LAN gaming events, eSports tournaments, or anywhere for that matter, then you’ll be happy that all the essentials are included. Full N-key rollover is always a welcome feature, especially for those who fire off multiple keystrokes quicker than the flash, as you can be confident the keyboard will never skip a beat keystroke. The polling rate isn’t a setting I require personally, but it’s no doubt a welcome feature for many gamers. What I do like about this keyboard, is that all the settings as right on the keyboard; there’s no software to install on your desktop at all. You can tweak every setting the Quickfire has with just a few keystrokes, so you’ll never have to leave your game to dial in what you need, when you need it.