CONCLUSION

   COUGAR has come a long way from being a new player in the PSU industry to one of the leading gaming peripheral manufacturers in the market today and so it’s always nice to see what they have up their sleeve. Still when I heard they’d release a Hybrid Mechanical Keyboard I was really hoping to see their very own mechanical switches like Logitech, Razer and SteelSeries did before them. This is something that may come later on (hopefully) but for now as you all saw in this review the Hybrid Mechanical Switches are actually based on a plastic/membrane design which although nowhere close in terms of quality and durability still it does a good job in mimicking the popular Cherry MX switches (it lands somewhere between the black and red ones). Overall quality is quite good for a hard plastic keyboard and the splash proof “bonus” is certainly a feature we hope all keyboards had. As for the lighting system well with so many RGB keyboards in the market as we speak it seems a bit “old” but for an entry-level keyboard I think it’s more than what we could had asked.

   So how much does the 450k Hybrid Mechanical Keyboard by COUGAR cost? Well the 450k currently retails at a very attractive price set at around USD65 inside the USA and 62.22Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Still although it doesn’t have much competition in that area you don’t have to spend much more to get a real mechanical keyboard so in the end it all comes down to your needs and available features since only stripped down mechanical models can come close in terms of price. Overall we all enjoyed using the 450k and even though it’s far from the best keyboard in the market it still packs enough features to get our Golden Award.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- Hybrid Mechanical Keys (Mimic Cherry MX Characteristics)
- Splash Proof
- 26 Key Anti-Ghosting Technology
- Illumination System (3 Colors / 2 Effects / 3 Brightness Levels)
- 3 Available Profiles
- Built-In Memory
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Durability? (Compared To Mechanical Switches)