INTRODUCTION

   When out to get a brand new mechanical keyboard your choices may be far from limited (due to the number of available brands, brand switches and switch types) but at the end of the day you need to decide whether or not you want a "basic", no-thrills model or a feature-rich one with everything the gaming peripherals industry can currently dish out. For example, on one of our test rigs we have a rather "plain" non-RGB mechanical keyboard using Cherry MX Blue switches whereas on our other test rig we have a model that features per-key RGB illumination and a large number of other goodies including Gateron KS-9 brown switches. Bottom line it all comes down to what you're needs are or what you'd like to own and if you want to own one of the best keyboards currently in the market then you should really read today's review in which we cover everything you need to know about the brand new K95 RGB Platinum XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by CORSAIR.

   Founded in 1994, CORSAIR has grown from pioneering the high-performance DRAM market into one of the world’s leading providers of high-performance gaming and streaming products. CORSAIR offers a complete range of products to equip gamers, enthusiasts, and esports athletes, including mechanical keyboards, precision gaming mice, wireless headsets, premium PC components, and the CORSAIR ONE fully-integrated gaming PC. With a company-wide commitment to quality, innovative design, advanced features and high-performance, CORSAIR products have won thousands of media and industry awards, earning their place in gamers’ hands and PCs following years of development and engineering by a team dedicated to building great products that they themselves would want to use. In 2018 CORSAIR acquired Elgato Gaming, a manufacturer of streaming products. In 2019 CORSAIR acquired Origin Computers, a manufacturer of custom high-performance gaming PCs and laptops, and SCUF Gaming, an innovator and creator of high-performance gaming controllers.

   The brand new K95 RGB Platinum XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard comes almost 3 years after the award winning (and pretty much excellent) K95 RGB Platinum model making it the 4th model by CORSAIR to bear the K95 classification/name (the K95 Vengeance was released in 2014 followed by the K95 RGB in 2015 and the K95 RGB Platinum in 2017). The latest K95 RGB Platinum XT model keeps some of the features we saw in its predecessor including Cherry MX RGB mechanical switches (unlike its predecessor this model is currently available with Cherry MX RGB Speed, Silver, Blue and Brown switches), brushed aluminum frame, n-key rollover with 100% anti-ghosting, 1000Hz polling rate, 6 dedicated macro keys, built-in media controls, on-the-fly recording of macros via specific keys, per-key RGB lighting, programmable RGB LED strip (19 zone LightEdge) at the front, removable wrist rest, USB passthrough and a 2 meter long braided cable. So, what has CORSAIR changed with the new K95 RGB Platinum XT model? Well four things actually, first they've added support for Elgato’s stream deck software thus allowing you to program streaming commands to the 6 dedicated G-Keys (they've also bundled blue keycaps for that purpose), second the removable wrist rest is now cushioned with a leatherette cover, third they've used durable PBT double-shot keycaps and fourth they've added a total onboard memory of 8MB which allows this model to store up to 5 profiles (instead 3 of its predecessor). So, let's move forward with today's review and see if these 4 additions are enough for you to get the brand new K95 RGB Platinum XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by our friends over at CORSAIR.