The battle to be the king of the most compact and efficient keyboards continues to grow. Corsair has launched its compact keyboard (65%) called the K65 Pro Mini, a wired keyboard with the necessary features to show that you can be pro and small at the same time.
As its name indicates, this is the more professional version of the one we had previously made (K65 Mini RGB) but in a 60% size version. The focus remains the same, an efficient keyboard for people who demand it. This keyboard not only helps us have more space on our table but is also designed for the competitive gamer who likes to play professionally.
This whole concept about a small keyboard that is quite responsive and fast is thanks to the optical keyboard switches called Corsair OPX (offering up to 150 million keystrokes in terms of durability). These switches combine very minimal noise (literally) and are designed like many other keyboards of this type in that it comes with two layers of keys pre-designed for better use, so we can’t really feel like we’re missing something.
The layout of the keyboard is quite familiar to those of the K65 family, in that we have no doubt, the only difference is that we have some pre-assigned keys on the right that go from G1 to G4. These are shortcuts that we can configure from within the iCUE software itself, which I find quite useful as we still save a lot of space and have keys to hit everyone. I remember when I got my K95 full keyboard, this one on the left has some similar keys and they take up quite a bit of space making the keyboard bigger than normal, now we have them in one layer (pressing the Fn key) which is very useful.
The product specifications are as follows:
- Switches: CORSAIR OPX
- Onboard memory: 8MB
- On-board profiles Up to: 50
- Keyboard Compatibility: PC or Mac® with a USB 3.0 or 3.1 Type A port|Windows® 10|macOS® 10.15 or later|Internet connection to download iCUE software
- Keyboard warranty: 2 years
- Keyboard Layout: NA (North America)
- HID Keypad Report Rate: Up to 8000 Hz
- Keyboard matrix: 67 keys
- Wrist rest: Not supported
- Keyboard Cable Material: Braided
- Keyboard connectivity: Wired
- Wired connectivity: USB 3.0 or 3.1 type A
- adjustable height: yes
- Weight: 0.833
This keyboard is wireless and we have included in the box a braided cable (quite long) although a bit robust for my taste. In addition to this, within the same box there is a space key that can be replaced to give it a little more aesthetics. Something unnecessary but at the same time that we like him.
You don’t have to go far to talk about him RGB de corsair. This has always been one of the most complete for me and it offers a wide range of customization, synchronization and above all good lighting. Each key can be illuminated differently and as expected we have a total of 16.8 million colors available to add to the keyboard in addition to each of these keys being 100% programmable.
The keyboard is designed to be easily transported and with this we have the facility of taking with us a great variety of preset profiles for our liking. We can carry up to 50 profiles if we wish and the most interesting thing is that this keyboard is compatible with any PC/Mac and even Xbox or PlayStation consoles.
Many gamers choose mouse and keyboard but now these keyboards come ready to be used on a console just like we are using them on a PC. With enormous compatibility and of course an excellent response time.
Corsair has a technology called AXON Hyper Processing and I’ll explain quickly. AXON is an embedded system embedded with CORSAIR’s purpose-built real-time operating system running on a powerful MCU (Microcontroller Unit) that delivers unprecedented performance with ultra-low latencies for maximum keyboard performance.
Knowing this, I can say that normally a keyboard can offer you a response time of up to 1 ms, which is equivalent to 1,000 MHz. This technology offers 8 times this speed, giving us a response time of up to 0.125 ms, this being the fastest keyboard that I have tried in what I have been playing on PC.
Every gamer knows that response time is everything, the NVIDIA Reflex does it when it comes to pointing and shooting, now keyboards do it too. Although this is complete or new technology for some. It is always worth trying since the slightest movement can change the fate of a game and more if you do it with a much higher response than the standard one.
I must confess that writing this review with this keyboard is extremely satisfying, I have no complaints and even the sound while typing is as subtle as possible. The switches are quite smooth and I only have to press the key a little so that the computer can detect the letter, something relatively good for those of us who type very fast.
Personalization is everything and the keyboard has enormous compatibility with any PBT key on the market. The ones that come from the factory are 1.5mm thick, being the shortest reasonable to come installed on the keyboard. Obviously in the market we can find many shorter ones but I think that the experience would be ruined a bit.
In conclusion
The Corsair K65 Pro Mini is without a doubt one of the keyboards that offers tremendous performance thanks to that 8000 Hz response rate. While some people might not find this to be a huge advantage, I’m sure others really appreciate the product. competition they will face. Its RGB is quite beautiful and typing with it is quite smooth. Its price is $129.99 which I think is quite acceptable for the technologies it has, the switches and how compact it can be. Carrying a large number of profiles built into a keyboard has never been more necessary, though as I said above. Some users will find this as something exaggerated and unnecessary, on the other hand we have the level of customization and the compatibility with consoles, making it a keyboard that can have more than one specific audience and that is quite good. This review was made with a copy provided by Corsair.
