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Reader Question: Why the hate for "gamerz" mechanical keyboards?


Q: Are Razer switches/keyboards bad? How about Corsair and Logitech? Why do r/mk and other communities hate them?

A: The primary reason is "gamerz" keyboards are overpriced. They are not any better than the Chinese keyboards for half their price, and their design cues are often flashy bling rather than better typing feel.

Let's check a couple examples:

Corsair K70 --$100+ for regular, $140+ for RGB

Razer Blackwidow -- $100 for regular, $160+ for Chroma (RGB)

ASUS ROG Claymore -- $250 for RGB (!!!)

But other than they are Cherry RGB switch equipped, most of their features had nothing to do with a keyboard, but just flashy lights. 

Compare that to, say,

G.skill KM570 -- $80 for regular, $100 for RGB

Ducky Shine 6 -- RGB w/ PBT keys $160 

Ducky One RGB -- RGB w/ PBT keys $140

What's the difference? Corsair wants extra $50 for PBT keys. Razer and Logitech? Don't even offer PBT keycaps.

Suddenly, you realize how much LESS you're getting with the "gamerz" keyboards. Don't you?

But these opinions are not formed in a day. Let's take a little stroll down memory lane...

Back in 2010, Razer launched the BlackWidow series of mechanical keyboards, using Cherry MX Blue switches. This remained so until 2013.

Cherry's MX patents expired in 2014, and Razer was the first to announce a MX-derived switch which became known as the Razer Green switch, which was manufactured by Kailh, and later, also by Greetech. There were various post-hoc reasons given, like how Cherry allowed Corsair to get exclusive on the Cherry MX RGB switches for a long period, Cherry couldn't produce enough switches to meet Razer's demand, and so on. But basically, Razer decided to go its own way on switches, which will support its own Chroma line, and made a break with Cherry completely until 2017.

Razer also went to a different manufacturer in China (some unconfirmed sources claimed it's iOne) to make the Blackwidow keyboards around that time with the new Razer green switches.

Unfortunately, their factory turned out to have some QC problems, and failure rates soared through the roof. A lot of keyboards were returned DOA or warranty (that's why you saw so many 'refurbished" Razer keyboards for sale back then). This lead to Razer's reputation taking a nose dive, and the bad reputation also (unfairly) soiled its proprietary Razer switches.

There is no doubt that Razer switch is an MX-compatible switch, i.e. a clone. The price it charges for its keyboards is similar to keyboards using genuine Cherry MX switches. Many see that as an egocentric move. Add that to the soaring failure rate, and the perfect storm of negative publicity was created and its effects are still felt today, even after the reliability problems had been long corrected.

Corsair's story was similar. As mentioned earlier, Corsair bought exclusive rights from Cherry for its MX RGB switches and introduced per-key RGB backlights to mechanical keyboards in mid-2014.  And the MX RGB Red switches launched without incident. MX RGB Blue followed quickly, then there were a flood of MX RGB Blue failures that MX RGB Blue disappeared from both Cherry and Corsair's website, at least for a while.  This similarly caused Corsair's reputation to take a tumble. Even today, it is not that easy to find MX RGB Blue keyboards.

Logitech did not go the flashy-lights route until late 2014, when it announced its proprietary Romer-G switch RGB with cooperation from Omron of Japan. Before then, it gets by with its G710 and G710+ with Cherry switches, having no need to create more keyboards. Romer-G is usually panned by keyboard enthusiasts as "mushy", and incompatible with Cherry MX-stems.

The price points of these "gaming" keyboards back then were considered quite ridiculous by keyboard enthusiasts, as they often cost same or even more than similar Cherry MX-equipped keyboards. Some joked that instead of Cherry reliability they get flashy-lights as a substitute.

Also, it's worth pointing out that all three "gaming" keyboard companies chose to create their own bottom row with a variety of key sizes (1U, 1.25U, 1.5U...) so even if they are MX-compatible, finding compatible keysets will be difficult. But this is understandable as even Coolermaster's previous product lines had similar layouts (See QuickFire Ultimate, QuickFire TK). But while Coolermaster went to a standard layout (QuickFire Rapid, Quickfire XT) Razer, Corsair, and Logitech stuck with their non-standard bottom row.  (See "What is Standard Bottom Row?")

So to summarize: Razer's bad rep was from picking a bad factory around 2014 which also affect (unfairly) reputation of its clone switches. Corsair had bad luck with first generation Cherry MX RGB Blues, and Logitech is simply late to the game. And even today, gamerz keyboards come with sucky ABS keycaps they want you to pay them extra money for.



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Resource: Visual Guide to Mechanical Keyboards by Size