Corsair Raptor K40 Gaming Keyboard Review

Introduction

When it comes to the peripherals market it can be easy to get lost in a sea of high-end, high performance and typically high price tag gaming hardware. With the rise in popularity of e-Sports and PC gaming in general, there has been a huge wave of new keyboards over the last couple of years, covering all budgets and needs and while the new Corsair K40 is targeted at the more budget friendly end of the market, it does still promise a wide range of features that should appeal to both gamers and general PC users.

For a little over £50 the K40 isn’t exactly expensive, but it’s still a big enough investment to have you expecting something a little special given that this is a membrane keyboard. Promising a bunch of cool features such as macro keys, on-board memory, customisable LED back-lighting, dedicated multimedia keys and more, it certainly sounds like a tempting option for gamers who don’t want to invest more for a mechanical Corsair keyboard, which are typically more than twice as expensive as the K40 model we have here today. Being feature packed and budget friendly is obviously going to make the K40 very appealing to a wide audience, plus the Corsair brand name is well-known and well trusted by a large portion of the gaming community, so let’s get right to it and see what else this keyboard has to offer.

Specifications and Performance

• Rubber dome keys
• RGB 16.8 million color backlighting with three levels of illumination
• Six dedicated macro keys
• 36KB of onboard memory
• Seven easy-access multimedia keys – STOP, PREVIOUS, PLAY/PAUSE, NEXT, MUTE, VOLUME UP, DOWN
• Windows Lock key for uninterrupted game play

The 16.8 million colour claim is nothing new, but it’s always a welcome addition to a peripheral to have highly customisable lighting.

The packaging is nicely design and features a good image of the keyboard on the front, as well as a quick run down of features such as full key rollover and anti-ghosting via USB.