REVIEW – Most of my leisure time these days is spent playing Dota 2, so to support my keyboard-mashing habit, last year I bought a really nice keyboard, a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate.  It’s a super study mechanical keyboard that can take a lot of abuse.  It is, however, a wired keyboard.  As a gamer, I am generally skeptical of wireless keyboards, worried about getting lag and running low on battery, so I was excited to test out GameSir’s GK300 wireless keyboard to see how it stacks up against my Razer.

What is it?

The GK300 is a wireless keyboard that is designed for gaming.  It’s a full-sized keyboard with 104 mechanical keys and has a built-in, rechargeable, lithium battery.

What’s in the box?

• The keyboard and a wrist rest
• A wireless dongle
• A micro USB cable
• A user manual with 6 pages of English instructions

Hardware specs

The keyboard can connect to a computer using either 2.4 GHz wireless or Bluetooth 4.1.  There’s a small switch on the keyboard that allows me to choose my preference.

The keyboard is compatible with both PC and Mac.  I tested it on my Windows 10 gaming computer and my MacBook Pro.  Unlike my Razer keyboard, it lacks a USB port and a headphones jack, but this is not surprising, as it’s battery-powered.   Speaking of the battery, the GK300 has an internal, 3600 mAh lithium-ion battery.  GameSir’s website says that it should last 300 hours if you don’t turn on the backlighting, and only 30 hours if you do.  Keep in mind that the battery is not replaceable.

Design and features

The keyboard is a standard, full-sized keyboard.  The unit I tested has white, plastic keys and a white wrist rest.  I can’t say that I’m a fan of white, and I anticipate that it will show dirt too easily.  GameSir also sells this keyboard in space gray, which is probably a better choice for most gamers, as we don’t have the reputation of being the neatest, cleanest people on the planet.

The keyboard is angled at 7.5 degrees and comes with a wrist rest; it’s an ergonomic design that should help to minimize carpal tunnel syndrome.  The wrist rest has 3 notches embedded in, which have corresponding stubs under the keyboard.  The keyboard fits perfectly in them, and this keeps the wrist rest in place.

Additionally, there 6 rubber feet on the bottom of the keyboard and 5 more on the wrist rest; together they did a good job of preventing them from sliding around on my desk.

The top cover of the keyboard is made from an aluminum alloy, while the underside is made from white plastic.  The keyboard is solid and fairly heavy; when I grabbed the ends and twisted, it didn’t flex.  From all appearances, it’s a well-made gadget.

Installation and setup

The keyboard comes with an internal, rechargeable battery, and the first thing I had to do was charge it.  I plugged the micro USB connector into the side of the keyboard and the other end into a USB port on my PC.  GameSir’s website says that it needs 3 hours to charge and recommends that I let it charge fully before playing, so I did.

The keyboard supports both 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth 4.1, but as my motherboard doesn’t support Bluetooth, the only thing I tested was the wireless.  On the bottom of the keyboard is a small slot that stores the wireless dongle.  I pulled it out and connected to a USB port on my PC, and Windows 10 promptly found and installed the driver.  When I tested it on my MacBook Pro, it did the same.

Performance

When it comes to the performance of a wireless keyboard, I admit that I have concerns.  My first concern is obviously, “Is there any lag?”  When playing online, competitive games, there’s no room any amount of lag.  The good news is that I could not discern any lag at all.  I jumped right into my favorite game and began playing.  No lag detected!

My second concern is the feel of the keys.  When pounding away, I want them to be very tactile and give strong feedback letting me know that each key was successfully pressed.  This is why all good gaming keyboards use mechanical keys.  I’m happy to report that the GK300 performed as expected.  In fact, once my game got going, I forgot that I wasn’t using my trusty Razer.

My third concern is battery life.  What happens when the battery gets low in the middle of a game?  The manual says the LED under the wireless/Bluetooth switch will flash red when battery life drops below 15%, but this is not what actually happened.  After several days of playing, about when the battery should have been getting low, the switch started flashing green and red.  This left me a bit confused, because it’s not what the manual says.  Assuming that this was still a battery problem, I plugged in the USB cable, and it charged while playing.  I’ll always need to keep the cable handy because I can’t afford to have my keyboard die during a game.

After many hours of gaming, I can say with confidence that the GK300 plays very similar to my Razer keyboard, and that’s a compliment!

Extras

These days all gaming peripherals come with some sort of extra lighting, and the GK300 is no exception.  Using the function key, I can set the lights to roll across the keys like a wave, to light keys as I touch them, to pulse out in wave from each key I touch, to light all the keys, etc.  Personally, I prefer to leave all the lights on, as the room I game in is a bit dim, but it’s nice to have these choices.  The lights on this keyboard only come in one color, white, and I can control how bright they get.  What I really appreciate is that I don’t have to install any extra software in order to set the lighting, something that I have to do for my Razer keyboard.

I’m not normally a fan of wrist rests, but as this keyboard comes with one, I decided to test it out.  After playing with it for several days, I can say that it’s not bad.  It doesn’t squirm around, and the support it provides is comfortable.  It does push the keyboard a bit further away from the edge of the desk than I prefer, but it needs to have some room.  If having a wrist rest is important to you, you’ll probably like this one.

The GK300 manual notes that the keyboard can use Bluetooth and connect to an Android or iOS device.  While I don’t really have a need to connect my iPad to a keyboard, I decided to test it out anyway.  I followed the instructions in the manual, and while the iPad was able to detect the keyboard, it was not able to pair with it.  I kept getting a “the pairing took too long” error. Just to make sure there wasn’t some problem with my iPad, I tried it on my daughter’s as well but got the same error.  The manual notes that if pairing fails, I should hit the function and reset keys simultaneously; that’s great, but there is no reset button on this keyboard, so I don’t know what the manual was trying to tell me.  I tried to use other keys instead of the mythical reset key, but nothing worked.  If connecting to your phone or tablet is important, you’ll want to look elsewhere, but honestly, if you that’s what you need, there are better keyboards for the job.

Tech Support

GameSir’s GM300 wireless mouse comes with utility software, G-Core, that provides some extra configuration options.  I couldn’t find anything similar in the GK300 manual for their keyboard, so I decided to test GameSir’s tech support.  Their “Ask for Help” page has a form that I filled out with my question.  Although their website guaranteed a reply within 1 day, I never got one.  It appears that GameSir doesn’t actually offer any tech support.

What I like

• Solid, responsive keys
• Sturdy construction
• Good wireless performance

What needs to be improved

• Bluetooth connection to iOS devices
• Inaccuracies in the manual
• AWOL tech support

Final thoughts

I played a lot of games using GameSir’s keyboard, and I must say that I like it; in fact, I am surprised by how much I like it.  As I was comparing it to my Razer, I was expecting it to fall short, but that didn’t really happen.

Do I plan to replace my Razer with GameSir’s keyboard?  No, I don’t.  With a wired keyboard, I have the peace of mind knowing that lag and battery problems just aren’t a thing.  If was I looking to buy a wireless, mechanical keyboard for gaming, would I consider the GK300?  This is tough, but probably not.  If I were only comparing the keyboard to other keyboards, I would consider the GK300; however, when I consider the entire package (the poor manual, the problems with Bluetooth, and the lack of tech support), I think I would look elsewhere.  If GameSir wants to compete with top-tier providers of gaming peripherals, like Razer, Logitech, and Sennheiser, then they are going to have to step up their game.  And I hope they do because the GK300 is a solid product.

Price: $69.99
Where to buy:  GameSir’s store or Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by GameSir.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Gaming keyboard

GameSir GK300 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 21, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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I’ve been a gadget geek all my life, and a computer gadget geek for over 36 years. I’ve had so many gadgets that I’m pretty used to everything from the mediocre to the fabulous. I have boxes of old keyboards, and I’m very picky about the kind I like – mechanical clicky of course! It’s not that often that I’m surprised with a gadget being of a very poor quality, but the IOGEAR HVER RGB Aluminum Gaming Keyboard succeeded in doing just that.

What is it?

The IOGEAR HVER RGB Aluminum Gaming Keyboard is an RGB multi-zone backlit keyboard with a brushed aluminum chassis and the ability for 3 user profiles and programmable keys.

What’s in the box?

• IOGEAR HVER RGB Aluminum Gaming Keyboard
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty Card

Design and features

The HVER keyboard has an open frame design with elevated keys that appear to “hover” above the brushed aluminum chassis. In addition to the standard HVER features like 26 anti-ghosting keys, Windows key lockout, and heavy-weight gaming base, the HVER RGB also adds the ability to program individual keys as macros for in-game use or shortcuts to system controls, PC functions, etc.

When I first plugged in this keyboard I wanted to see what I could do before I installed any of their software. Surprisingly all of the special function (FN) key options worked, except for the programmable keys of course. I was able to change all 13 of the backlighting effects. The backlighting was fairly good. I really liked the various options for the lighting:

• Multicolor light dance
• Multicolor breathing
• Multicolor techno beat
• Solid color fixed (7 colors)
• Solid color rotation breathing
• Solid color techno beat
• Multicolor fixed

The lighting can be turned off, or set to one of three levels of brightness.

Then I installed the software. This is where everything went downhill.

First, neither the installer nor the app itself is digitally signed. On Windows, this causes windows to display the “Unknown Publisher” warning when launching, and for limited users, it can even prevent the software from running at all. In this day and age, signed installers and executable programs are a must.

With no instructions on how to use the software, it took me a few minutes to learn that you click on a function, then click on a key to assign it. That worked great. Then it took me a while to figure out how to undo that assignment. Turns out that you have to select Default, then the Default effect, and assign that to the key to restore the original keys function.

I didn’t notice exactly when, but I think when I clicked Apply, the app applied the settings (which is odd, since the changes already worked), but the backlighting on the keyboard stopped working. No amount of unplugging, restoring, rebooting, or resetting made it work again. The backlighting does flash when changing profiles, but it doesn’t stay on.

To make matters worse, the lettering on the keys are barely visible without the backlighting.

What I like

• Function keys for lighting works without installing software
• Windows Key Lockout feature

What needs to be improved

• Software seems broken
• Uneven key lettering backlighting on some keys

Final thoughts

This is a definite “don’t buy” unless you don’t want to customize any of the keys.

Price: $42.97
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by IOGEAR

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Gaming keyboard

IOGEAR HVER RGB Aluminum Gaming Keyboard review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 14, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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I am not a gamer, nor do I play one on TV.  That said, in my day job I write a lot of code, type reports, message data and perform all manner of keyboard-related activities.  It is important to have a comfortable, responsive and well-designed keyboard, so most people in my profession tend to go for mechanical gaming keyboards because they more than meet the stringent requirements.  Not all gaming keyboards are made equal, however.  Does the VAVA keyboard have what it takes to satisfy this code monkey?  Let’s find out!

I started off in the computer business working on IBM mainframes.  That was the birthplace of the mechanical keyboard, and for a very long time, no one did it better than the IBM System 370 keyboard that was transplanted to the first IBM personal computer.  Over time, though, others have taken the ball and run with it – notably manufacturers like Das Keyboard and Corsair.  Today, there are a wealth of mechanical keyboards – some proudly carry on the IBM tradition while others can only look in the window and hope to be that good.

So what makes a good keyboard?  First and foremost, the feel of the keys on your fingertips as you type.  Too slick and you make lots of typos.  Too rough and you lose speed as your fingers drag across the keys.  A good keycap with an anti-slip coating is an absolute necessity if you want to outlast the ogre in battle or your boring manager Bob.  Next up, the key switch itself: membrane-style keyboards just feel mushy and do not provide a lot of tactile feedback, the kind necessary for the muscle memory that lets you know you pressed the key.  Mechanical keys provide that kind of feedback.  Finally, a good backlight on the keys, because most gaming and coding take place in darkened rooms.  Something that lets you know the keyboard is there without appearing like a spotlight shining in the corner of your eye.

Unboxing the VAVA keyboard you are immediately greeted with a solidly built product.  It has the right “heft” – not too heavy, but substantial enough not to move around willy-nilly on your desk.  As you unbundle the USB cable connected to the keyboard you will find a welcome surprise – a connector cable that can manage to power the backlight with a single USB connector.  Far too many keyboards require 2 USB connections, one to handle the keystrokes and the other to power the lighted keys.

The out of the box lighting mode for the keyboard is a wave-like light changing effect.  This stock photo from VAVA gives you an idea – color-changing waves roll across your keyboard.  An interesting effect to be sure, and probably great for an in-store demo but probably not what you would want for everyday use.

It is easy to miss the instruction card as it sits at the very bottom of the box below even the side supports for the keyboard.  This thin piece of paper has the instructions on how to change the lighting effects to something you can live with day to day.  In addition to the default ripple mode, there are snake, starlight and breathing modes which have various effects.  Again, interesting options for a demo, but probably not what you would want in everyday operation.  There is also an option for fully lit mode – this is how I run, with a nice cyan backlight.

Maybe of more interest, though, is a custom mode that allows you to set up each key individually.  For example, you can set the numeric keypad to glow red, the direction arrows and page up/down to be green, the function keys yellow and main body of the keyboard cyan.  This custom mode is retained when power is off, so you can pretty much set it as you like and then forget it until you want to change.  Be warned, though, that creating a custom configuration can be a tiring process as you must press each key multiple times to arrive at the color you would like.  Cyan, for example, is the sixth color in the cycle, so in order to customize to this color, you would have to press each key 6 times.  That is a lot of keystrokes on a 104-key keyboard.

The keyboard itself has all the right moves.  The keycaps have the right amount of stickiness so you know when you have pressed a key and your fingertips can quickly move to the next key.  The travel distance for each key is perfect for touch typists, and the keys immediately spring back into position.  The keys use the blue key switch which is rated for millions of key presses – but more importantly, it is a rapid-fire switch which reduces ghosting (when you press multiple keys simultaneously but one or more keys are not registered – usually a sign of a switch on a key which blocks the other switches from registering because of the length of time it takes to register the press) and can keep up with the fastest typists.

A hallmark of the mechanical keyboard is the “clicky” sound it makes, and the VAVA keyboard lives up to the standard.  It makes an obvious sound but thankfully there appear to be dampeners which mute it more than most.  In our home office my wife and I sit about 10 feet apart, and in the past, she has complained that my typing sounds like a woodpecker on speed.  She has definitely noticed a change since I have been using the VAVA keyboard – the sound isn’t gone, but she can live with it.  The experience in your office may vary.

Where the rubber meets the road is in pricing.  A great mechanical keyboard can cost a couple of hundred dollars, and even the so-so ones can be over $100.  In my use case, the VAVA is on the upper end as far as functionality and features go, yet the retail price is $79.95.  Very definitely a bargain.

Is this keyboard for everyone?  No.  If you are a light computer user, a less expensive membrane style might be all you need.  And if you really want wireless peripherals, you will have to look elsewhere.  But if you type for a living for fun, this is one of the best available keyboards, and the price should help move it to the top of your list.  With the holidays coming up, this might be a great gift for the code monkey on your list.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by VAVA.  Please visit their site for more information and Amazon to order one or to get additional reviews.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Gaming keyboard

VAVA Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 1, 2017 at 11:00 am.

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