The K55 is an entry-level membrane keyboard supplied by Corsair. The Corsair Company is known for its high-end peripherals. But this time around, she’s not forgetting those on a tight budget. The Corsair K55 keyboard is available online as well as on the manufacturer’s website for the price of 40$. You will also find it on Amazon like most gaming keyboards.
Let’s start by dislodging our Corsair K55 Gaming in its box. We find with the keyboard the palm rest, the user guide, and the warranty card. The Corsair K55 keyboard has a 2-year manufacturer warranty. There are no additional keycaps. The keyboard has 111 keys in all and measures 480.2mm x 166.3mm x 34.6mm at 820 grams. The keyboard is equipped with an RGB lighting system and is equipped with 6 programmable macro keys. It is a wired keyboard with a USB-A 2.0 connection.
Having a wrist rest provides more comfort. It allows you to play without getting tired quickly enough. It makes us rethink the Logitech G513 keyboard with its palm rest. But the latter costs more, i.e. 140$. The RGB lighting system is 3-zone and not touch-by-touch like the Logitech’s.
The build quality is certainly less good than that of Logitech but let’s not forget that this keyboard is in the entry-level category and there is a huge difference in price. On the other hand, the keys of the Corsair K55 Gaming keyboard are truly silent and responsive. It’s still a gaming keyboard and the finish is more elaborate than most office keyboards.
The material used is all plastic. We are far from the upper range with an aluminum plate as we can get with the Corsair K70 RGB Lux mechanical keyboards and the Corsair K95 RGB Platinium.
Configurations of the Corsair K55 keyboard
The Corsair K55 keyboard has 6 programmable keys on the fly. They are therefore configurable directly without going through software. With the Corsair K55, you can easily manage your multimedia files through its multimedia keys located at the top right of the keyboard. So you can read and control what you are listening to while playing.
As for the RGB lighting system, you can choose from the various lighting modes that are already preconfigured for more immersive gameplay while getting in the mood of the game. If you want to sync the lighting system with your other Corsair peripherals such as mouse, fans, coolers… you can use Corsair iCUE software
The Corsair K55’s keys are raised a bit to let out the RGB lighting. This makes cleaning easier. The keys are membrane and not mechanical. Thus the keys are silent but less responsive. The keyboard comes with its plastic palm rest and not memory foam like that of the Logitech G513. It is also not magnetic like those in higher ranges such as Razer’s Ornata gaming keyboard and the BlackWidow Chroma V2. The wrist rest is attached to the keyboard via a hook system that is easy to handle.
At the back, we feel the fact that this keyboard is in the entry-level category: the screws are visible and the finish is very basic. We nevertheless notice the presence of rubber pads that provide a good grip on the keyboard. Two feet are available for those who want to have a more reclined position when using it. It is a bit of a shame that these feet are not covered with rubber. This makes the keyboard less stable when the feet are extended.
.This software also allows you to program your macro keys more extensively and to deactivate certain combinations such as Alt + F4 in order to avoid accidentally closing a game in progress. With the latter, your game configurations can be saved for later reuse. You can thus configure your own settings for each game.
The Corsair Utility Engine software allows more functionality. With this software, you can create different profiles for each game or application. You can also configure the keyboard keys. All the keys are configurable and not just the 6 macro keys. Different command options are available and you can apply whatever command you want or create a whole new one.
Corsair Utility engine also allows you to apply 4 lighting effects. The ” Rainbow ” effect allows you to have a rainbow effect light that scrolls in ripple on the entire keyboard. The ” Color change ” effect, consists of having a backlit effect with random color variants alternating with 2 or more preset colors. For the ” Color pulse ” effect, it is a backlit effect by a pulse from 2 chosen colors.
And finally, the effect ” Static color» Provides 3-zone backlighting with customizable colors. These 4 effects can be combined with each other. For example, we can have 3-zone static effect lighting and then have a color pulse effect on the central zone. We noticed that the media keys do not have a backlit effect.
How to use the macro keys?
To record a macro, simply press the MR key at the top of the keyboard. The indicator flickers to indicate that the keyboard is in macro recorder mode.
Then press one of the macro keys (G1 to G6). Then use keyboard shortcuts for the commands you want to record. If, for example, we want to launch the notepad application on G1, after pressing G1, we will do “windows key + R”, then type “notepad” and validate. Once the macro is finished, just press the MR button a second time. Thus, when we press G1, our notepad opens directly. Even more advanced macro customization can be done through Corsair software.
