Events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, while devastating on the emotional wellbeing of hardware editors, are as useful for knocking a few more quid off already-cheap bits of gaming gear as they are for saving hundreds on big-ticket luxuries. It’s the re-bargainating aspect we must concern ourselves with here, as the Logitech G413 SE – already a premier choice of affordable mechanical gaming keyboard – is now more attainable still, dropping to £65 / $56.
]]>In many ways, the SteelSeries Apex 3 TKL and Apex Pro TKL are about as different as tenkeyless gaming keyboards get: the first is a budget-friendly membrane ‘board, the second a luxurious all-mechanical number with adjustable switches and its own little OLED display. Yet they’re also both very good at what they do, and are now sharing Black Friday discount honours.
]]>The gaming keyboard market is currently tripping over itself, trying to equip everything with the technology most commonly known as Snap Tap: a feature that promises hyperfast inputs of two alternating keypresses, making you an unkillable side-strafing blur in your FPS of choice. Introduced on Razer’s Huntsman V3 Pro series and quickly followed by Wooting’s (functionally distinct but effectively identical) Rappy Snappy, Snap Tap is now wearing multiple names as it takes over the world of RGB peripherals, from SteelSeries’ Rapid Tap to Corsair’s FlashTap and Keychron’s... Last Keystroke Prioritisation. Which doesn’t sound as sexy, but still.
However, Snap Tap is also drawing a level of ire that exceeds the usual baseline scepticism of hardware marketing. Because it enables a form of input automation – where you can quickly move in two directions by rapidly tapping one key, while holding down another – it’s considered by some as tantamount to cheating, allowing players to cross the line that divides unfair play from the accepted comforts that come with simply using a responsive Hall Effect keyboard or high-refresh-rate monitor. It’s even become a bannable offence in certain games, most notably in Counter-Strike 2.
Neither side is backing down; in an astonishingly worded tweet, Wooting went as far as to concede Snap Tap "should be considered cheating. But if it’s allowed, you need it." But do you?
]]>It’s time for (yet) another of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, days of big Prime deals that have deals on days for Prime. I don’t know anymore, this is like the third or fourth one this year. But I do know a good gaming keyboard when I see one, and this latest sale has the lovely Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL down from £140 to £119. Its first UK discount since launch, no less.
]]>What if the company that sold your cheese also sold your PC gaming hardware? This is not the murmuring of some poor sod on a nineteen-hour Dota 2 binge who’s started thinking that the crumbs in his keyboard resemble a viable snack, but a bold new reality, one I recently found myself staring down during a trip to Asda. The supermarket chain – third biggest in the UK by turnover and purveyors of ill-fitting clothes and surprisingly good doughnuts alike – has added light-up gaming mice, keyboards, and headsets to its mountain of own-brand wares.
Asda being what it is (Americans, if you’re unfamiliar, think Walmart with less gun violence), it’s all dirt cheap as well. £17 for a full-size keyboard. £16 for an FPS mouse. Overwhelmed with curiosity, I ended up taking home a complete starter set (keeb, different mouse, headset, and mousemat) for £45, or about a third of the price of the Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL that I’d shortly kick off my desk. Could this be a new frontier in affordable PC hardware, bringing tech to the masses in a way no specialist retailer ever could, or should supermarkets stick to cereal and meal deals? Surely the Asda Tech (real name) 4-in-1 Gaming Kit would have the answers.
]]>Gaming hardware makers have often walked the line between enabling a player’s true skills, and simply delivering them an unfair advantage. Sometimes, honest accessibility aids are falsely accused of being cheating tools; other times, a monitor will straight-up play League of Legends for you. This week, developments in gaming keyboards have sparked a new debate on what does and doesn’t fall within the scope of fair play, with mechanical keeb specialists Wooting declaring in no uncertain terms that "Rappy Snappy is not the same as Snap Tap." Cool, glad that’s cleared up.
]]>Read enough of our hardware articles and you’ll eventually come across someone, probably me or Katharine (RPS in peace), banging on about the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless. After half a decade on shelves, it’s still the best low-profile mechanical gaming keyboard going, and quite possibly the best wireless keyboard to boot – while the tenkeyless version, the G915 TKL Lightspeed, is just as lovely to use.
Between their nimble performance, crisp mech switches, and impeccable build quality, the only way in which the G915 duo underwhelms is their high pricing – very much the kind you’d want to wait for a Prime Day or Black Friday to dull the pain of. Now, though, there’s an alternative: the new Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL. I’ve been using it. It’s good!
]]>Logitech have kicked off its Playdays event for 2024, with some of their best headsets, mice and keyboards on sale across various retailers in the UK.
]]>Welcome back to Should You Bother With, the RPS hardware column that combs away the fluff surrounding PC gaming gear to reveal a smooth, hairless core of pure consumer advice. This time: Hall effect keyboards, a relatively fresh flavour of desktop peripheral that’s been gaining traction with manufacturers for the switch design’s supposed durability and reliability benefits. These represent perhaps the first major challenge to mechanical keyboard hegemony, but you may be wondering: who’s Hall? What’s their effect? And does it actually make for a better gaming keyboard? Time to found out.
]]>It feels pretty appropriate that my last deal post for RPS is for my favourite PC peripheral: the humble mechanical keyboard. This mechanical keyboard is more humble than its peers too, with a $30 asking price that is absolutely exceptional for a name-brand keyboard that gets rave reviews: the Keychron C3 Pro.
]]>Mechanical keyboards can be pretty cheap these days, but I've not never seen one on sale for as little as £4.99 - especially not for a full-size RGB model available for a brand I've actually heard of before! That is indeed the case at GAME though, who are selling the Trust Gaming GXT 865 Asta for £4.99 plus another £4.99 in shipping - that's £20 less than this keyboard normally costs!
]]>The Logitech G915 Lightspeed TKL is a phenomenal gaming keyboard with low-profile mechanical switches, reliable Lightspeed wireless and a compact layout, yet Logitech normally ask well over £100 for it - and double that when it first launched! Today though, the G915 TKL Lightspeed is 55% off, dropping it to the more reasonable price of £99.
]]>Ducky and Varmilo make some of the best keyboards in the scene, and the Miya 69 Pro is a brilliant keyboard that they've each played a part in. This 65% size mechanical retailed at £100 - a fair price for a reasonably high-end model like this - but today it's down to £59.99 at Overclockers, a sweet £40 discount.
This particular model comes with Cherry MX Brown switches, white backlighting and a snazzy 'Holy Flame' colourway that shifts from black to white with thick, premium PBT keycaps arranged in an ISO UK layout. I think it looks great, so if it catches your fancy, the affiliate link below has your name on it:
]]>Listen up: this is one of the simplest and most effective upgrades you can give your mechanical keyboard, and right now it's 50% off, just $12.
I'm talking about a full set of 104 double-shot PBT pudding keycaps from HyperX, which combine the excellent legibility of a black backlit keycap tops with frosted semi-transparent sides. This is the perfect pairing for RGB wave fanatics, but it looks just as nice with a tastefully chosen single-colour or other effects. I am a huge fan of these keycaps, and at $12 they're an almost essential purchase for mechanical keyboard owners.
]]>German peripherals manufacturer Roccat has made some great keyboards and mice over the years, although they're not as well known in the US as they are in their native Europe. Today that could change in a small way, as Roccat's excellent Pyro mechanical keyboard is down to $40 at Amazon US. That's 50% off its original price and a solid $10 off its usual going price, making it well worth picking up.
]]>Keyboard company Royal Kludge aren't doing themselves any favours with that name, but they do make some of the best cheap options on the market. Today their RK61 keyboard is down to $39.99 at Amazon US, a great price for a 60% keyboard with 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth and USB-C connectivity, hot-swappable switches and single colour backlighting.
]]>I know this doesn’t have the clickity-clack, heavyweight mechanical-ness of the gaming keyboards I’d normally be highlighting this time of year, but the Logitech K400 Plus looks like it could be a sweet little Cyber Monday deal. Amazon UK has it down from £45 to £24, a tasty 47% saving.
]]>If you’re someone who struggles with desk space, a tenkeyless keyboard could be a useful way to maximise your desktop area. By slicing off the rarely used numpad keys, a TKL board gives you a little extra room to wiggle your mouse, or actually put a cup of coffee to one side rather than jamming it somewhere between your keyboard and your monitor. The only problem with TKL boards is they tend to be slightly more expensive than their bulkier counterparts, meaning you often end up paying extra money for less keyboard overall. But if you are in the market for a slimmer typing solution, then right now you can get £100 off one of the best TKL keyboards this Black Friday.
]]>I really liked the NZXT Function keyboards when they launched last year, and I still do today: all three are cleanly-designed and responsive gaming keyboards, and their hot-swappable mechanical switches make it a doddle to customise the under-the-finger feel. And speaking of today, it happens to be Black Friday, so we can add "up to 50% off" to their list of qualities.
]]>Logitech's MX Keys S is a nice low-profile keyboard for folks that have tried mechanical keyboards and don't want none of that clicking and clacking in their quiet corner of the home/office, no thank you sirree. The MX Keys S basically feels like the best laptop keyboard you've ever tried, with quiet scissor switches that are quick to operate with precision. The graphite colour scheme looks pretty neat too.
At £85, rather than the regular £110, this is a pretty good value for a full-size wireless keyboard that supports both 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth, making it a good fit for Mac, PC and many more devices besides.
]]>Let's face it, wires are a necessary evil at best, and we should strive to avoid them as much as possible. They get tangled, they trip you up, and they're generally a nuisance. No wonder Darth Vader was grumpy all the time. He was full of wires.
Few manufacturers understand this better than Logitech, whose G915 Lightspeed Wireless keyboard has been the ideal way to type without tethers for years. It combines a slim yet robust build quality with wonderfully tactile keys, incredibly fast response times, respectable battery life, and a truly standout volume wheel. Perhaps for that reason, the G915 Lightspeed has also maintained its lofty price point, with an RRP of around £220. But as part of Amazon's Black Friday sale, you can currently grab the best wireless keyboard for almost half price. It's currently available for £125 in the UK, and $160 in the US, which is 46% and 36% off respectively.
]]>Possibly the single best gaming keyboard deal of the early Black Friday period is, in a black mark for Anglo-US relations, currently only available in the States. But what a deal it is: the Roccat Vulcan Pro, a full-size mechanical board with ultralight half-height keycaps, macro recording, a removable palm rest, full RGB backlighting, and more goodies besides, has plummeted from $120 to $50 on Roccat’s own store. That’s real high-end mech keyboard features for mushy membrane money.
]]>No more umming and ahhing: Black Friday is here, and thus the best Black Friday gaming keyboards have surely cut the deepest cuts and stooped to the lowest of low prices that they’re going to get. Now’s the time to make the call, in other words, if you want to upgrade your current keyboard to something with altogether superior gaming chops.
]]>Sometimes, all you need is a wireless keyboard and touchpad mouse to get things done. Whether it's selecting the next movie on your living room media PC, changing settings on your racing rig or getting your Steam Deck set up just the way you want it, having a convenient, all-in-one wireless option can be just the ticket.
Logitech's K400 Plus is a popular model in this niche category, and normally retails for an affordable $28. Today though, it's down to $19 on Amazon, a sweet 32% discount that makes it near impulse buy territory for anyone that has a PC for which a regular mouse and keyboard setup isn't quite convenient.
]]>Mechanical gaming keyboards used to be premium options available to very few, but now they often go on sale for extremely low prices - even from big names. Today HyperX joins that list of big-name bargains with their Alloy Origins full-size mechanical keyboard dropping to just $32 when bought from GameStop in the US, versus its original price of $109.99. That's a great bargain for a keyboard with red (soft linear) mechanical switches, optional RGB lighting and a high-quality metal chassis.
]]>Glorious, makers of excellent ultralight mice and mechanical keyboards, have kicked off their early Black Friday sales over at their US site (with fast international shipping).
They're currently offering both a range of keyboard-and-mouse bundles and sales on individual products, so I thought I'd take a look at the sale and recommend a few items that I've personally tested and have recommended for Digital Foundry. Let's go!
]]>I always love spotting deals on budget mechanical keyboards, as they bring what is - in my mind at least - the single biggest keyboard upgrade available to prices that you can't say no to. The LTC Neon75 is far from a big-brand choice, but the keyboard ticks all the boxes for me when it comes to features and design. There are beautiful 'pudding' keycaps, a compact and convenient 75% layout, tri-mode wired/wireless connectivity and hot-swappable key switches. Its US MSRP is a reasonable-sounding $70, but now it's available for a 50% off 'overstock' price on Amazon - that's just $35.
]]>Roccat makes some good mechanical keyboards, especially their Vulcan line which combines 'floating' low profile keycaps with pleasant tactile switches, a volume dial and a wrist rest. These keyboards are normally available around the $70 mark, but today you can pick one up from Amazon in black for $48 - a good deal for a full-size mechanical keyboard from a major brand.
]]>Keychron makes some of the very best mechanical keyboards in the world, combining premium components, mature aesthetics and extremely aggressive pricing. Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days kicks that tendency into overdrive, with Keychron's V3 TKL keyboard dropping from $90 to $60.
That's a fantastic price for a keyboard that sports features normally seen on custom keyboards: hot-swappable switches, QMK/VIA programmable firmware and gorgeous double-shot PBT keycaps.
]]>In terms of usefulness to the average PC owner, sales events like Amazon Prime Big Deal Days aren’t just for knocking hundreds off big-ticket hardware. They can also make already-affordable kit even more of a bargain, as is the case with the Logitech G413 SE mechanical keyboard: a snip at £60.
This has been on our best gaming keyboards list for a while now, specifically for delivering all the satisfying finger-feel (and durability) of a true mechanical board with a pricing that puts it closer to high-end membrane and hybrid switch models. The G413 SE employs the bumpy 'tactile' style of mech switches, so it’s good for accurate typing, and it’s easily fast and agile enough for gaming duty as well. I actually ended up using this as my main keyboard for a while, despite having more expensive linear-switch boards piled up in a nearby cupboard, and I’d extra-extra-recommend it at this price.
]]>Razer make some of the best gaming peripherals in the business across a wide range of categories, and now you can take home a whole set of them for 90 bucks over at Woot.
The "Heroic Bundle V2" includes a mechanical keyboard, mouse, grip tape for the mouse and mousepad, offering a 40% reduction on buying these items separately. That's an awesome deal and well worth considering - the only peripheral you'd really need to add is a headset!
]]>Cooler Master probably aren't the first people that come to mind when it comes to mechanical keyboard, but they've produced a fair few models over the years including some rather lovely ones. Today you can pick up one of my favourites from their collection, the SK652, at a decent £15 discount from Scan in the UK. That brings the price of this low-profile, full-size mechanical keyboard to £35, quite a fair price for a keyboard of this size and quality - especially when you get a free XXL mousepad thrown in for free.
]]>Normally you'd expect to pay the better part of $100 for a new mechanical keyboard, if not more, but today you can find a full-size model for just $30. The Pulsar Gaming Gears PK020 Lunar Alloy is down to that price on Amazon USA following a 50% reduction from the keyboard's MSRP, making for a great deal on a keyboard that ticks all the boxes and actually looks cool too.
]]>The SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL is an outstanding gaming and typing keyboard - and now it's $70 off MSRP at Amazon in the US. Over at Eurogamer, this is our runner-up 'best gaming keyboard' pick - and there are strong arguments that it should be our number one option if you prefer a more compact design!
]]>Despite it being several years old, there’s still no clear successor to the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless as the king of cable-free gaming keyboards. The build quality, the feel of the mechanical switches, the complete lack of tangible latency… it’s all just lovely. Historically, its high price has been the sole sore spot, but at least it’s joining in Amazon Prime Day with big savings on both the full size and more compact tenkeyless versions.
]]>Every time there’s an Amazon Prime Day, I go rummaging around looking for deals on the PC gear that I use everyday. For the reccs, of course, not because I'm building a collection of identical headsets. I can’t find any formal Prime-specific savings on my current choice of gaming keyboard, the Roccat Vulcan II Max, but two different previous versions are going cheap: the Vulcan 120 in the UK, and the Vulcan 121 in the US.
]]>The HyperX Alloy Origins is a solid keyboard with a minimalist aesthetic, red mechanical switches and all of the features you'd expect from a mid-range gaming board. It normally retails for around $90, but today you can pick one up brand new for just $32 from GameStop, making it one heck of a bargain.
]]>Logitech makes some of the nicest peripherals in the business, from the G502 mouse to their G Pro X headset, but their MX Mechanical Mini keyboard is something special - combining low-profile mechanical switches with a compact layout, 2.4GHz wireless/Bluetooth connectivity and Mac/Windows compatibility, it's a keyboard for all seasons - or at least, a lot of different devices.
I've tested the keyboard for PC gaming, and I've found it quite lovely - so I thought I'd let you know that this model is down to £99.99 at Currys, which is £50 less than its usual price and a good deal for high-grade wireless mechanical.
]]>EVGA's Z20 mechanical keyboard has turned up on the RPS Deals Patch a few times, but always in the UK - and now we've finally seen a decent price drop on the US version over at Best Buy. Until June 1st, you can pick up this full-size optical mechanical keyboard for $59.99, a $115 discount from its MSRP and a great deal.
]]>Logitech make some of the best peripherals in the business, including some of my favourite keyboards. I normally prefer mechanical fare here, but their MX Keys low profile scissor switch keyboard is the exception. It provides a full-size UK layout, pleasant typing experience and long battery life when connected via 2.4GHz wireless or Bluetooth. It's normally at its £120 RRP, or close to it, but today you can pick it up for £81 - the lowest we've seen it since January.
]]>We've covered the EVGA Z20 mechanical keyboard a couple of times here on the RPS Deals beat, thanks to its quality design, full-size layout and extremely low asking price, and now we have an alternative deal for those that prefer the lighter feel and softer sound of membrane keyboards.
The EVGA Z12 is the firm's rubber dome offering, and it's down to £20 at Amazon UK, a heavy reduction from its £60 RRP and a few quid less than it's been over the past few months.
]]>Back in February we posted a deal on Logitech's K400 Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo device, which offered a convenient way to control Steam Deck, media PCs and other gizmos that don't come with built-in desktop-friendly controls.
Today we're back with a similar deal on the Logitech Wireless Starter Kit, which bundles a K380 keyboard and M185 mouse for £40 (down from £50). Both elements are surprisingly high-quality for the price, with a nicer-looking and better-feeling scissor switch keyboard with circular keycaps and a compact 2.4GHz mouse that provides better speed and accuracy than a trackpad.
]]>It's rare to see discounts on compact keyboards, and rare to see discount on wireless keyboards, but today we're got a cracker on a mechanical keyboard that is both compact and wireless. It's the Cooler Master SK622, a gaming-optimised 60% design that offers low profile switches, a UK layout (with optional RGB backlighting) and the flexibility of wired (USB-C), Bluetooth and lower-latency 2.4GHz wireless.
The CM SK622 retailed for over £100 back in the day, but now it's available for half-price: £49.98. That's an awesome deal for any mechanical keyboard, much less one from a name brand with wireless connectivity!
]]>The EVGA Z20 optical mechanical keyboard is a super-solid option with a boatload of features - and it's currently 69% off at Amazon UK, bringing it down to a measly £39.98. This is an awesome price for a keyboard of this size and quality, and well worth picking up even if you've already got a mechanical keyboard - or if you've never tried one before.
]]>A trio of Corsair peripherals has gone on flash sale at the company's US web store, making it a nice time to pick up a matching all-Corsair setup for about 50% off. There are three items included; the HS65 headset, the Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series mouse and the K70 Mini Wireless 60% mechanical keyboard. I've tested all but the keyboard, and they're fantastic pieces of kit - and now at surprisingly low prices.
]]>HyperX's Pudding Keycaps, a popular choice for upgrading mechanical keyboards to blast out the RGB and improve the typing experience at the same time, are heavily discounted at Amazon US today. This full 104-key set normally retails for $25, but today you can pick them up in black for $15 or white for $20.
]]>Logitech make some great keyboards and mice, and now you can get their K400 Plus wireless keyboard/trackpad combo for £25. That's £20 less than its normal price, and a great value for one of the most convenient peripherals for Steam Deck, media PCs, Raspberry Pis and other systems that occasionally need keyboard/mouse input but don't require a full keyboard and mouse setup.
]]>I'm a sucker for mechanical keyboards, but I don't discriminate against high-end membrane or scissor switch boards either. One of the best non-mechs I've tried over the last few years has been the Logitech MX Keys, which is available in a compact MX Keys Mini model or as the full-size MX Keys. Today, the full-size UK model is discounted on Amazon UK, where it's down from £120 to £80 - a nice 33% or 40 quid off.
]]>The EVGA Z20 is part of a new breed of mechanical gaming keyboards that use optical switches, reducing the latency of inputs and raising longevity to seriously silly levels. It normally costs £130, but its price has been dropping steadily on Amazon UK - and now it's reached a new low-water mark of £52.79.
]]>I'm a big fan of mechanical keyboards, so when I saw this unusual keyboard discounted on Amazon, I needed to write it up for RPS. The idea here is that it's more or less a 60% size mechanical keyboard, but with two useful additions: arrow keys and a numpad. This makes it about the same size as a tenkeyless keyboard, but without the (lesser-used) navigation keys.
Combined with an asking price of £42, down from a usual price of £50, I think it's well worth considering - whether you're looking for an interesting mechanical keyboard for your growing collection (I see you there) or a first cheap mech to give the whole idea a try.
]]>It’s Cyber Monday, all you computing peripheral fans, and that means you’ve got one last shot at many of the best gaming keyboard deals to come out of Black Friday. Looking back over this list of discounted wares, which includes several models to have graced our best keyboard rankings, it does seem that most of last week’s highlights are still available.
]]>Sometimes you just gotta play the hits, which Amazon are very much doing with their early Black Friday keyboard deals. The Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless is an enduringly comfortable, responsive, and strikingly slim gaming keyboard that’s a regular feature of sales events like Black Friday and Prime Day, and once again it’s on sale now – both in the UK and in the US.
]]>Here’s an early Black Friday deal for anyone still prodding at a mushy membrane keyboard: in the UK, you can get the all-mechanical Cooler Master SK652 for just £45. If you go for the black model, that’s a £65 saving off the RRP, and it’s £95 off if you opt for the white version, which is £45 as well.
£45! And it's full-size to boot. There are always nice savings to be had among Black Friday’s gaming keyboard deals, but even then, the only way you’d normally see a mech board this cheap was if it was secondhand. And had keycaps missing. And was haunted, possibly by some kind of dismembered hand ghost.
]]>Mechanical keyboards are brilliant. If you agree, you probably have one on your desk right now - and we have just the deal for you. SteelSeries' PrismCaps are an awesome upgrade over your stock keycaps, offering high-quality PBT construction, backlit legends and a beautiful two-tone 'pudding cup' design that looks great, especially with an RGB keyboard.
Normally a full keycap set of PrismCaps will cost you $30, but as an early Black Friday deal you can find these keycaps for 50% off - just $15. At that price, these are in impulse buy territory for me, as they'll provide an immediate uplift over your existing keycaps and last for decades.
]]>Horror games, you say? Feh, hardware can be scary too. One time I turned on a power supply and it literally went up in a cloud of smoke. Last year I cut my hand on a CPU cooler radiator. And did you see how dusty my PC was before I cleaned it? That’s basically body horror.
Apparently ignorant of their products’ ability to frighten and maim, PC gaming hardware makers sometimes try to manufacture an imposing aura by giving them big, bad names. You’ve probably seen these already: keyboards named after swords, laptops christened as mythical animals and the like. But some go full spooky, consulting the Halloween kids’ costume pantheon of creatures and creepers. Is an eerie moniker enough to strike fear, even before it has the chance to cause minor injuries or force you into a tedious warranty replacement process? Let’s find out.
]]>We’ve never ran a full review of the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless TKL keyboard – my bad – but all you really need to know is that it’s the G915 Lightspeed Wireless, one of the best gaming keyboards ever, without the number pad. That, and it’s currently a lot cheaper than usual in the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale, which runs until midnight tomorrow (October 12th).
]]>I'm a sucker for a pretty mechanical keyboard, but usually the keebs I'm most enamoured with have price tags to match - think £100 to £200 minimum, and think the upper end of that scale if you want a keyboard that looks like a giant ice cube or weighs a solid 2.3kg. Happily though, there are also now a range of much more affordable keyboards that still include the unusual colour schemes, high-quality components and brilliant typing experiences that make mechanical keyboards so fascinating to me. One of the best makers in this space is Akko, and today a range of their best full-size and compact keyboards are on sale at Amazon UK.
]]>The Razer Huntsman Mini Analog is one of a vanishingly small number of keyboards with analogue switches, meaning each key knows exactly how far down it's being pressed. That unlocks the door to some unique capabilities, from adjusting the sensitivity of the keyboard on the fly to using the WASD keys as a thumbstick replacement in racing games. It's also just a damn fine mechanical keyboard, with a comfortable 60% size, bright RGB lighting and premium PBT keycaps.
You normally pay a lot for this kind of quality and functionality - £150, in fact - but today the keyboard has dropped to its lowest ever price of £97.94 over at Amazon UK.
]]>Logitech have launched the Aurora Collection, a set of bright, customisable PC gaming peripherals built to be “gender inclusive”. Fortunately, that seems to be more than just pastel colours and cynical “For girls” marketing – the G375 headset, G705 mouse, and the G715 and G713 keyboards are all proper gaming-spec accessories, and they’ve been crafted by mostly female design and engineering teams based on feedback from women PC players.
The G705, then, is a wireless mouse designed for smaller hands, while the G375 headset – also wireless – is proportioned to fit smaller heads and has more space in the earcups to accommodate earrings. It’s safe to say I’m not the Aurora Collection’s target audience, but having used the G705, the G375, and the G715 wireless keyboard as my main peripherals for a few days, I can say all three are pretty swish playthings regardless of how you identify. What’s more, their light, soft-cornered aesthetic is a nice break from the blacks, greys and harsh angles that have become standard design language for gaming gear. Anyone who’s ever cringed their face inside out at a peripheral resembling Megatron’s running shoe may indeed find these more to their tastes.
]]>If the Roccat Vulcan 120 is a bit too wide and/or cabled for your gaming keyboard tastes, Prime Day 2022 has a pretty compelling alternative in the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless TKL. This is the more compact, tenkeyless version of the G915 that lives in our best gaming keyboard rankings, and those with Prime accounts can lop huge chunks off its retail price.
]]>If there’s a US-only Prime Day 2022 deal I wouldn’t mind seeing over here, it’s the Roccat Vulcan 120 for $88. That’s nearly a full 50% off the $160 RRP (I believe you aluminium mispronouncers call it “MSRP”), for a full-size mechanical keyboard that’s sat atop our best gaming keyboard rankings for ages.
]]>One of Logitech's best keyboards is going for better than half-off at Amazon today. The G613 Lightspeed is a wireless mechanical keyboard that offers a full-size layout with six macro keys, so a premium price of $130 isn't surprising - but today, this keyboard is retailing for just $62 at Amazon US. That's a historic low price.
]]>Our pick for the best wireless keyboard is heavily discounted at Amazon today, with the Logitech G915 Lightspeed dropping from £170 to £120. That's a historic low price on a keyboard that editor-in-chief Katharine called 'probably the loveliest keyboard I've ever used'.
High praise indeed, and it was enough to earn a coveted RPS recommendation - even at its original price. Now you can pick up this delightfully clicky keyboard with low profile mechanical switches, a full-size UK layout and a beautiful metal build for £50 less.
]]>One of my favourite gaming keyboards is discounted at Amazon UK today. The Logitech G915 Lightspeed TKL is an ultra-slim, low profile mechanical keyboard that feels like the best laptop keyboard you've ever used. Lightspeed means Logitech's reliable 2.4GHz wireless, while 'TKL' stands for tenkeyless, a compact design that ditches the numpad for superior ergonomics and longer battery life.
Altogether, it's a beautifully-designed mechanical keyboard, with a high price point being the only strike against it - and despite that, the full-size G915 has been our 'best wireless keyboard' recommendation for three years running. Today though, the G915 Lightspeed TKL is down to £109 after a £90 discount, making it an excellent time to upgrade your setup with a swanky new keyboard.
]]>The Razer Huntsman Elite is one of the company's best mechanical keyboards, courtesy of advanced opto-mechanical switches, a comfy palm rest and full-size UK layout, but its RRP of £200 is enough to put off even the most craven mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. Today though, Amazon UK has discounted the board to just 80 of your British pounds, a 60% reduction that brings it below some of the best value gaming keyboards. That's an awesome price for a full-size UK layout with this kind of tech on board.
]]>Right, this is a bit of a weird one - a potential misprice at Currys sees two Halo Infinite branded peripherals made by Razer going incredibly cheap. Right now, you can pick up a full-size mechanical keyboard with Halo branding for £32 (was £120!) or a high-end gaming mouse with Halo branding for £20 (was £70).
]]>PC component makers NZXT continue expanding beyond the confines of cases, having just launched two lots of desktop peripherals: the Function mechanical keyboard series, and the Lift gaming mouse. Thanks to a shipping slip-up I’ve only been getting acquainted with the Function family, but so far its three models have proven to be adept at games and typing alike – with a big bonus for customisation in the form of easily hot-swappable switches.
]]>CES is a gloriously mad hodgepodge of different tech fields; the kind where smartphone chip makers share floor space with car manufacturers and sex toys. It’s also one of the biggest showcases of PC gaming hardware in the calendar, and CES 2022 has been no exception, with major component reveals from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia along with loads of gaming laptop, peripheral, and monitor announcements.
This year’s show is technically still going for another day, but like a Foo Fighters album, CES tends to front-load the good stuff. As such, it’s basically safe to start rounding up any PC gaming kit highlights. Some of these have been a long time coming – like the GeForce RTX 3050, Nvidia’s first XX50 desktop GPU with full ray tracing and DLSS support – while others might be pleasant surprises or eye-catching, if likely to be witheringly expensive, new concepts.
]]>They say the best things come in small packages, which is clearly nonsense in a world where giant novelty cheques exist but giant novelty bills don't. When it comes to price tags, however, the smaller the better rings true, especially when it's a full 50% off a quality gaming keyboard like the Corsair K65 RGB Mini.
]]>Buying a new keyboard isn’t always as simple as it should be, especially in this age of online shopping (and respiratory illness pandemics, don’t forget those) where it’s harder than ever to try before you buy. Still, you can at least ensure that when you do buy, you're getting a bargain. Just use this handy guide to the best gaming keyboard deals on the market, created and curated by RPS’ biggest mechanical switch nerds.
]]>You might be familiar with the Fnatic Streak65. Very small? Lives on our best gaming keyboards list? Answers to “Fnatic Streak65”? Whether it rings a bell or not, there’s a new version of this low-profile mechanical keyboard out, adding a handful of hardware enhancements. It’s brilliant.
]]>Well, chums, Black Friday itself has been and gone. I’m still here though, highlighting deals for you, because we’re in deals season now and the ride is going to continue all through to Christmas and the New Year beyond! The whole Black Friday phenomenon is very weird if you’re old enough to predate online shopping and not from the USA. Feels like just yesterday that everyone was terrified of using their credit cards online, Amazon was just a book shop and Thanksgiving was just something you only heard of on American TV shows. Now it’s another huge American export, allowing retailers to extend their discounting shenanigans for a whole extra month. The worst thing about it is that our colonial cousins keep some of the best bargains for themselves, as is the case with this Razer BlackWidow V3 mechanical keyboard.
]]>Black Friday has flooded us all with a multitude of deals on everything from mice to micro SD's - so why stop now? Another saving has popped up for the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless keyboard - saving a sweet $50 for anyone in the US.
]]>I recently spent a couple of weeks with the Roccat Pyro as my main work and gaming keyboard, and it was a lovely bit of kit for the price; full-size mechanical keyboards rarely cost under £100, yet here was one that started at £90 and had everything a typical PC gamerist could ask for. Now, what with it being Black Friday and all, it’s hit a new lowest price of £60 – a 33% saving.
]]>Keyboards are one of, if not the most, integral part of a PC set up. Second only to the monitor. Therefore, finding a good one is imperative - especially for anyone spending long stints gaming while using said keyboard. Within the stellar range of gaming keyboards on offer, there are a few different types: ones with lights, mechanical, compact, wireless - I could go on. The beauty of Fnatic's offering is that it covers most bases, so you really can't go wrong with it.
]]>The holiday season, heralded by Black Friday, is often a time for reminiscing about the past. For instance, I remember a time, a few years either side of 2000/Y2K/The Willenium, when really big pockets were a thing. Particularly if you were a bit nu-metal or a bit goth. They were great. There’s nothing like walking down the street with your Gameboy banging against your knee. Sadly, as technology shrank faster and faster, so did trousers, until everyone was stuck with skinny jeans that you can’t even squeeze a bit of change into. It’s especially frustrating as I reckon you could happily fit the lovely Logitech G915 TKL Lightspeed Wireless into one of those big pockets.
]]>With Halloween behind us, it's time to ask: is the 1st of November too early to put up Christmas lights? Is it a grim sign of ravenous consumerism, or a welcome respite from the watching the year die slowly and painfully in its final months? As I untangled my strings of LED lights this morning, I realised that PC gaming is the most Christmassy of gamings. The colourful LEDs people cram into their PC's every orifice and pore aren't just any decoration, they're Christmas lights. That's their purpose. It always has been. Christmas is year-round for PC gamers. So here it is: merry Christmas.
]]>Razer is a familiar name on our best gaming mouse and best gaming keyboard lists, but it turns out these serpentine peripherals have a rather unnerving hiden talent: simply plugging one in, and installing the Razer Synapse software, is apparently enough to grant admin privileges on any Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC.
]]>One nice thing about a computer rather than, say, a dog, is that it doesn't rot. No secretions, no shedding, no decay. A computer will still happily sit in a corner of a room, chirping and whirring and bringing you joy as you play with it (look, I don't know much about dogs?), but ultimately it's an entity of silicon and copper and plastic and electricity and almost no goo. How fascinatingly horrible, then, to find myself being showered with goop from an orifice opening in my dying gel mousepad.
]]>Mechanical keyboards are wonderful. They will last for decades with minimal maintenance, they can be customised with new switches or keycaps, and they just feel fantastic to type on. However, they're also normally quite expensive - most of the mechanicals we feature at RPS cost $100 or more. Today though, that changes - as we highlight a Monoprice mechanical keyboard that's dropped from an MSRP of $100 to just $42.99.
]]>Roccat's excellent Vulcan 100 mechanical keyboard is 50% off at Amazon UK today, dropping from £140 to £70. That's an outstandingly good price for a full-size UK keyboard with an aluminium chassis, per-key RGB backlighting and tactile Titan switches.
]]>The Razer BlackWidow V3 TKL is a great compact mechanical keyboard from a major brand, so I'd normally expect to see it selling for £80 to £100 - so when I saw that it was discounted to £55 at Currys PC World, I was shocked to say the least. Thankfully, my spit take didn't destroy my own keyboard, so I can tell you exactly why I reckon this is a Deal Worth Knowing About.
]]>The Logitech G915 Lightspeed, 'the holy grail of wireless gaming keyboards', has hit an all-time low price at Amazon UK. The ultra-premium keeb, which normally retails for £210, is down to £149 - a savings of around £60.
]]>The original Asus ROG Claymore was my gateway to the world of mechanical keyboards, converting my love of soft, squishy membranes into a new currency of cold, hard clackedy clacks. I still look back on it with great affection, even though its high price prevented it from joining our list of best gaming keyboards at the time. Now, Asus are back with the ROG Claymore II, a new and refreshed wireless take on their classic compact keyboard.
]]>Drop.com, the website formerly known as Massdrop, has taken on Amazon with its own Prime Week of deals. There are around 30 discounted items in all, including headsets and headphones, amps, mechanical keyboards and accessories, with some nice savings on a range of high-end PC gear. Here are some highlights from the sale that might be worth knowing about!
]]>Like many old people with a passion for PC gaming and a flair for foolish stunts, I have bad wrists. I can click these suckers at will, to the surprise and horror of everyone around me. While I've found a mousepad with a wrist rest can help my aching joints, it's hard to find a good one - and especially one suited for gaming. Please, won't someone make a good wrist rest mousepad? Won't someone think of the elderly?
]]>The ultra-premium Logitech G915 TKL Lightspeed is £50 off today, bringing it to £149 - the cheapest we've ever seen this compact wireless keyboard. That's still a lot of money, but for critically acclaimed and well-built mechanical keyboard that will last you years, we'd argue it's worth the money if it's in your budget.
]]>Esports legends Fnatic make some truly high-grade gaming peripherals, and their full-size Fnatic Streak mechanical keyboard is more than 50% off today. In fact, you can pick up the Streak from Best Buy for just $50, a $60 reduction from its normal price of $110 and the lowest price we've ever seen by a long shot.
]]>Razer's Blackwidow keyboard has been given a fresh lick of form factor paint today, losing both its wires and its number pad to become the (breathe in) Blackwidow V3 Mini Hyperspeed. This new, wireless 65% version of Razer's popular mechanical gaming keyboard takes everything you know and love about the original Blackwidow, including those all-important arrow keys, and shrinks it down into a more compact chassis. It comes in both linear Razer Yellow and clicky, tactile Razer Green switches, and offers both 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity for up to 200 hours of use. I've been testing the yellow switch version over the last week, and if you're looking to save some space on your desk, this is definitely worth considering the next time you need a new gaming keyboard.
]]>Whoa - the Xtrfy K4 TKL was already a great value mechanical keyboard at its original price of £90, but today Amazon are selling the UK model for just £36.59. That's a titanic reduction and a truly wicked deal for a high-grade mechanical keyboard.
]]>SteelSeries is currently running one of their seasonal Member Madness Sales, which offer up to 40% off their rather excellent peripherals in exchange for signing up for an account on their site. We've done just that to bring you word of the best sale items available inside...
Before we get into the highlights, please note that this sale is available to the US, UK, EU and many other regions that can access the SteelSeries global store - but for the sake of convenience we'll just share the UK prices. You should see similar discounts in the currency of your choosing!
]]>Razer's Power Up bundle includes a Cynosa Lite keyboard, Viper mouse and Kraken X Lite headset, and right now you can pick it up for $69 / £69 - compared to $159 / £139 if you bought each item separately. That's a great deal, and a perfect budget pickup for anyone new to PC gaming.
]]>Good news, everyone: the Fnatic Streak65, one of the best compact mechanical keyboards, is 20% off at Amazon UK today. It's dropped from its usual price of £110 to just £87.99; for reference that's within £3 of the lowest price that we've ever seen for this model.
]]>Ebay are running one of their perennial 20% off promotions at the moment, making it a good time to get games, peripherals or PC hardware below the normal going rate.
]]>Today is the last day of Amazon UK's Spring Sale, so here's one final round-up of all the best PC gaming deals that are up for grabs. Whether you're after a cheap SSD, a new gaming headset, or a new gaming monitor, these are the deals to consider before they disappear.
]]>We love a good mechanical keyboard here at RPS, but until recently our desire for non-stop clicky clacking has only been sated by full-blown desktop keyboards. There have been a handful of gaming laptops released over the last few years that have come with varying degrees of mechanical keyboard, but most haven't held a clacky candle to their desktop counterparts. Happily, Alienware have just announced the world's first gaming laptops designed in collaboration with renowned switch maker Cherry, bringing a new ultra low profile switch to their refreshed Alienware m15 R4 and m17 R4 laptops for 2021.
]]>Amazon US have slashed the prices of dozens of HyperX PC peripherals today, including several of their wired and wireless gaming headsets, three keyboards and two mice. Chief among them is the Cloud Flight, their excellent wireless headset which is currently $40 off right now, matching its Prime Day price of $100 to boot.
]]>The K70 RGB MK.2 gaming keyboard is one of Corsair's best and most popular mechanical gaming keyboards, and the Cherry MX Red model is currently £50 off over at Amazon UK. Normally £150, this keyboard is now down to £100 at the moment, which is the cheapest this particular model has ever been, according to my Amazon price tracker.
]]>If you've ever wished your keyboard could offer the same degree of control as the analog sticks on a game pad, then Razer's newly announced Huntsman V2 Analog could be just the keyboard for you. It's the next evolution of their optical-based Huntsman keyboard that came out a couple of years ago, only this one has Razer's new analog optical switches, which Razer say can mimic the feel of an analog joystick input. This allows for a "true" 360 degrees of motion, according to Razer, and removes the limitations of being stuck to the old 8 degrees of movement we've grown so used to with our WASD keys. Intrigued? Here's what you need to know.
]]>Everyone say hello to the newest member of the best gaming keyboards club, Logitech’s g Pro X TKL. It’s one that’s rekindled my specific love for tenkeyless ‘boards, that welcoming, temperate middle ground between compactness and the actually-having-real-function-keys quality of fullsize models.
Still, regardless of the form factor, I will maintain to my hopefully distant death that a well-crafted gaming keyboard will always serve its owner better than the plasticky office peripherals that many of us start out with. As is often the case with the best gaming mice, it might not even come down to games-specific features; it’s just that more specialised hardware usually puts more effort into tactility, ergonomics, and customisation. All universal qualities that you’ll find in abundance below, in our guide to the absolute best gaming keyboards we’ve tested.
]]>
