Cougar 450K Hybrid Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Introduction

We’ve been seeing a rapidly growing range of peripherals from Cougar over the last year, from their high-end 700K Mechanical to their budget friendly 200K. Today, however, we’ll be taking a look at a keyboard that fits quite nicely in the middle, the Cougar 450K Hybrid, a budget friendly, yet rather feature-packed gaming keyboard that we’re hoping will be as impressive as all the other Cougar products we’ve reviewed here at eTeknix.

“COUGAR 450K brings you all the features you would expect from a high-end gaming keyboard. With highly comfortable hybrid mechanical switches, 450K provides the accurate tactile feedback of fully mechanical keyboards and a durability far above other keyboards of its class while at the same time offering a superior level of comfort and less finger strain.”

While this is a membrane keyboard, it’s marketed as a “hybrid mechanical.” Many of you will recognise this as what it really is, a plunger switch. This means you’ve got a tactile pop to the keys that gives them a mechanical feel, but they’re much quieter and cheaper than classic mechanical switches, giving you a nice bridge between standard membrane and mech switches.

“COUGAR 450K’s support for UIX allows you to adjust the functionality of the keyboards’ keys, define macros and modify many important settings of the keyboard. All of this is done with a highly intuitive interface that is shared with compatible COUGAR mice, which means that after you get used to 450K using, for example, 450M will be easy and natural. After configuring all the settings, 450K’s on-board memory will allow you to bring with you up to three configuration profiles anywhere you go.”

The 450K comes well equipped given its budget friendly aspirations. You’ll find three colour LED lighting, on-board memory for macros and profiles, 1ms response, anti-ghosting, UIX software, programmable keys and a 1.8m braided cable.

The packaging is nicely designed, with a cool image of the keyboard on the front, as well as a quick rundown of the main specifications, such as the polling rate, splash proof design, switch type and more.

Around the back, a more detailed run down of the extra features, but we’ll take a closer look at those in just a moment.

In the box, you’ll find the keyboard comes hard-wired with a good quality 1.8-meter black braided USB cable. It’s plug and play ready, but if you want to tap into all the extra features, you’ll also want to download the UIX software from the Cougar website.