Corsair’s new low-profile keyboard makes me offended

Corsair, you’re killing me right here. After a superb exhibiting at CES, your Stream Deck smashed right into a mechanical keyboard proved me mistaken: a bit display on a keyboard can make sense. And then you definitely determined to do it once more… however worse. The truth is, the small LCD on the brand new Vanguard Air 99 keyboard is precisely why I hate this development and wish it to die.

Alright, let’s again up a bit. The Vanguard Air 99 is a refresh of Corsair’s low-profile design, the K100 Air—and its an enormous enchancment in some ways. You get low-profile mechanical keys to maintain the board slim and trendy, however they’re not so low-profile that you just lose satisfying typing with a 2.5mm journey distance. You can even swap out the keycaps if you’d like, although you’ll want to trace down low-profile plastic to take action.

It’s wi-fi with dongle and Bluetooth choices. It’s full-sized with an additional row of programmable buttons. It’s simply usually aesthetically pleasing—I dig the restricted deployment of clear keycaps to indicate off the lights with out affecting normal typing, for instance. It’s obtained a largely aluminum physique and a gasket mount for nicer typing. The Vanguard Air 99 is, no less than at first look, neat.

However the display. Ugh, the display! Once I first noticed it, I assumed it will be a touchscreen with possibly one or two customizable Stream Deck buttons. Nope. It’s only a standing display, at the moment exhibiting me an animated Corsair brand. You’ll be able to add your personal photographs to it… however essentially the most helpful factor it does is present me a battery meter. It has as a lot utility as the remainder the tiny display brigade you at the moment see throughout Amazon on white-box keyboard designs—which is to say, virtually no utility in any respect. Essentially the most impactful factor it does is drain the battery.

That’s the Vanguard’s first massive whiff. Subsequent, the switches. They’re optical, one thing I haven’t seen for some time, because the trade appears to be transitioning to magnetic switches to realize adjustable actuation. However I assume no matter works… wait, what? These optical switches are not adjustable actuation? They’re simply common Corsair OPX switches. And so they’re not hot-swappable, even if loads of low-profile keyboards try this. (The truth is, Nuphy can put hot-swap and adjustable switches on the identical low-profile board!) One other strike.

The Vanguard does work with Corsair’s shiny new web-based adjustment instrument, which is analogous to VIA and different web-based techniques, like Keychron’s. And it really works… for many issues. On the time of writing, the system does not allow you to change out the photographs on the keyboard’s display, its signature characteristic. The keyboard additionally doesn’t at the moment work with Corsair’s iCue software program, although I’m informed that’s coming in April. Not an enormous loss for me, however in the event you depend on game-specific layouts that launch mechanically, simply know that doesn’t work proper now.

Michael Crider/Foundry

As for the final massive characteristic? I’m a bit cut up. The Vanguard does work as a Stream Deck… kind of. Whereas it doesn’t work with iCue but, the keyboard does interface with Stream Deck software program, and it lets you bind digital Stream Deck buttons to the column of S buttons on the left facet. Sure, these are buttons that activate these capabilities within the digital Stream Deck… which you might already do. And you’ll launch a digital Stream Deck in your monitor. The Stream Deck’s core performance—its capability to vary its visible setup for the keybinds—doesn’t apply. For that, you’ll want the larger, extra useful, and non-wireless Galleon keyboard.

Corsair

All this compromise may be yours for… $259.99 USD. Holy crap. Similar to the K100 Air, this factor is extremely overpriced. If you need a display in your keyboard, get the Galleon 100SD as an alternative. It’s pricier, however not by an enormous quantity at this degree, and it has actual performance in its Stream Deck integration. It additionally has hot-swap switches. (Alternately, purchase a Stream Deck and use it with the keyboard you have already got.)

I’ve had this overview unit for lower than every week, so I gained’t give it a remaining score but. I’ll look ahead to Corsair to wow me with an up to date net configuration instrument and/or iCue integration… however I’m not getting my hopes up.