Video Games Tutorials and News - Why Is Everyone Buying This $35 Gaming Keyboard. Redragon K552 Kumara
Intro
Step up your game with Crucial's P5 Plus and the mess. You can easily upgrade your new PS5 or your gaming PC with up to two terabytes of additional storage that comes with a five-year warranty. The number one bestseller in the gaming keyboard category stood out for one obvious reason: it's technically a combo pack.
I mean, who doesn't want a free mouse? So it only felt fair to also have a look at the runner-up in the category, a standalone mechanical keyboard for around the same price. Starting with the Red Dragon, s101, the title kind of says it all. You get a Centro Forest centrifuge. Both a basic membrane gaming keyboard both of them wired and both with RGB That's how you know it's gaming.
The keyboard has multimedia keys if you're into those. The backlight It cycles through a variety of colors and modes, and it includes a wrist rest. More on that later. As for the mouse, it's got six buttons, five of which are programmable; a nearly unmuted design; and a sensor that can change DPI from 400 all the way to 3200, with four adjustable presets for whatever you want in between, and they can even be tuned via software.
But that's about it. It's cheap and it works mostly.
Reviews
While reviews for the s101 are generally positive 75 percent of you gave it five whole stars. Most of the praise for the combo seems to be, how do I put this kind of basic? First up, the keyboard is membrane, which, for starters, means that if any key starts to fail, you're probably going to need to throw the entire thing away rather than perform surgery on a single switch like we did in a recent article.
It also means that typing feels characteristically mushy, and as for the keycaps, while you might like the soft touch right out of the box, don't be surprised when they start to wear out in a matter of hours, making the legend much harder to read. This is particularly true if you have more acidic skin oils.
The flip-up feet are a nice inclusion, giving you two different angles, while the wrist rest I mentioned before is, technically, included. That, is it the best thing I can say about it is that it's so small that you're unlikely to actually end up resting your wrists on it because the textured plastic, especially under the right palm area, is as uncomfortable as it is tacky looking.
It's never tacky, though, and the quality of merchandise from ltdstore, com. Make sure to check out our new RGB diode t-shirt. On that note, the tiny print manual includes simple instructions for how to cycle between RGB colors and modes, but, from some angles, the keys near the bottom seem to shine much brighter than the ones near the top.
To be clear, if you get a working one, you'll be able to pull noobs with it just fine, but many of the critical reviews mention keys either outright failing after a few months or registering extra characters when pressed. These complaints could be due to the Dorito dust that's on you, but given that the product description boasts that the keyboard is built to withstand the average liquid spill.
I think it's fair to expect more.
The mouse
As for the mouse, it's fine onboard, and we waited for a pleasant surprise at this price point, but the other glaring issues overshadowed any joy that we could have felt. Ploof and I found it extremely uncomfortable, and even if we had tiny hands shaped like this, the sensor just plain isn't good enough for any serious gamer.
Another issue many of the low star reviews bring up is how easy it is to hit the side buttons by accident. We agree though, at least it does have them. The bottom line is that while many of our complaints might feel like we're just hating on budget products, that's not the case. In fact, we've got a review coming on the GM X7, the cheapest gaming mouse on Amazon, so get subscribed for that.
The issue is just that gamers who are on this type of budget don't You'd be better off with a basic combo from a reputable brand like Logitech rather than spending twice as much for some tacky RGB, but what if you did have a little more to spend?
Runner up
That's where Our runner-up gets really interesting.
The k552, Kumera, is a 10-keyless mechanical, gaming keyboard for just 35 US dollars. It even supports hot swapping the key switches, but more on that later. It's got 19 different lighting modes with perky illumination as long as you get the RGB version, your choice of clicky tactile or linear switches, and much nicer keycaps than the s101.
The positive reviews for this one are pretty accurate and mostly focus on things like value, the backlight, and compatibility with Mac. It's still absolutely nowhere near the build quality of a mid-tier mechanical keyboard, but compared to its membrane brother and for 35 dollars, had I mentioned that yet there's just no contest.
By spending the same amount of money but ditching the mouse from the combo pack, we get a sturdier board right out of the gate, and maybe more importantly, we get options people don't, like the keycaps put on something else, don't like the switches. The Camaros' hot swap The PCB means that there is no soldering required if you want to replace a broken switch or try something new altogether.
Hot swap?
So then why don't they list that as a feature the otenu switches that come with feel and sound about like we'd expect for a blue-alike switch but. They have thinner pins than your average Cherry clone or Enthusiast switch. Unless you're using something else also from otemu, you'll actually need to file down the pins one by one in order to fit them through the holes.
Please don't spend your time doing that unless you really want to. The keycaps are double-shot and the RGB shines through quite nicely, though you might not like the font. The casing is plastic, but it's got way more heft than the S101 at almost two pounds thanks to the higher quality switches and the metal plate.
It's not as easy to take apart as a DIY mechanical keyboard, but the K552 can be torn down and upgraded, mostly through lubing the switches and stabilizers. Switch and Click actually made a article doing exactly this almost a year ago, so if you're looking for some help getting the most out of your Camaro 552, make sure you check that out.
Our main issues with this keyboard, aside from being stuck with otemu switches, mostly revolve around the non-detachable cable. The attempt at rubber feet hardly helps with sliding and the overall look and feel compared to a more expensive DIY 10 keyless, but there's one argument that wipes out all of those nitpicks. It's 35.
Competition
There are competitors in this price range on Amazon, but they're typically either not hot swappable or the low star reviews mention some pretty rough quality control problems. But the Chimera isn't entirely free of those either. Some of our low star reviews mention chatter—that's when the keystroke registers multiple times or the keyboard just dies after a month or two.
