Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro M Mechanical Keyboard Review
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
A Closer Look
The keyboard is very neat and tidy looking, with a fairly slim bezel around the edges, it looks pretty slick. Of course, the real interesting thing here is that this isn’t a full-size keyboard, or a TKL, with the number pad crunched right up to the main keys, with the arrow keys integrated into the number pad, giving it a dual purpose and saving a lot of desktop space, without cutting out on functionality.
Down the left side, you’ll find everything is where you would expect, with the addition of some profile keys hiding on the FN-shift of 1-4, perfect for switching between gaming and work profiles for shortcuts and macros.
On the top row, all the usual F-keys are there, but with F1-F4 offering up some master lighting controls for brightness and lighting mode.
F5-F8 have the on-keyboard adjustment for the repeat rate, which could be pretty handy for work and gaming dependant on your style. F9-F12 have the Win Lock, a handy mode for any gamer, as well as lighting and macro recording hot-keys for quickly dialing in your profiles, even when you’re mid-game.
One thing I did notice is the design of the LED indicators in the top right, which are clearly a nod to the design of the QuickFire TK from a few years ago.
There’s a full-size number pad here, which is nice on a more compact keyboard design, and with the numlock just a pinky stretch from the enter key, it’s easy to toggle from numbers to arrow keys and functions in a flash.
The keyboard is nice and chunky, giving it a weighted and durable feel, with a clean look around the edge and a little bit of trim at the back to keep it from looking like a flat block of plastic.
On the underside, some durable anti-slip rubber grips, durable kickstands with extra rubber grips, cable routing channels and a single Micro-USB port for the detachable cable.
The key cap removal tool is a very nice thing to have for cleaning your keyboard, and under the caps, you’ll find those oh-so-lovely Cherry MX Brown switches, as well as a glossy white backplate to allow the LEDs to reflect and give an under lighting effect.
