Summary
The Corsair K65 Plus Wireless is definitely the smallestkeyboardI’ve ever owned, and the first time I used it I was convinced that was going to be a dealbreaker. I use lots of macros and keybinds, and without a full numpad to put them on I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope.
It took a bit of adjusting, but I’ve fallen in love with this dinky little thing. With its clean, minimalistic design, clever keybinding software, and really luxurious typing experience, who needs poxy numpads cluttering up your desk?
Corsair K65 Plus
Corsair’s K65 Plus is a wireless 75% mechanical keyboard wth MLX Red switches, wireless connectivity via 2.4GHz or Bluetooth, and a multi-function rotary dial.
At 32cm wide, this is a lot smaller than your regular keyboard. However, it’s also a lot heavier than others I’ve used, coming in at nearly one kilogram. All that weight goes into utterly fantastic build quality, with a solid backplate free of any flex, a textured back to keep it in place on your desk, and, of course, the chrome dial that can be reprogrammed to handle all sorts of things.
The keys have the letters printed on them in a process called dye-sublimating. I would have preferred etched letters for long-term durability, but it’s a mechanical keyboard so replacing them is easy.
I’m not a big fan of RGB lighting, and generally turn it off when I get the chance. That being said, the lighting here is very tasteful, with nice gradients between the colours and brightness that doesn’t feel like you’ve been dragged before the committee or Gamers and bashed over the head by a can of Prime. I’m still going to turn it off in the long-term, and I’m not a fan of the faint green glow when I leave it to charge overnight, but this is by far one of the least egregious gamer-focused peripherals I’ve tried.
The big draw for me, personally, was the knob in the top right. It’s weird to say a little dial is what sold you on a keyboard, but it’s more than a basic volume controller. By using the iCue configuration software you can make it control menus, scroll horizontally or vertically, zoom, or control the brightness of the RGB lights. It would’ve been cool to see more involved macro configuration, like holding a button to switch what the dial does, but it’s already plenty powerful as it is.
Speaking of iCue, through it you can control everything from the lighting setups to the keybinds. It can be fiddly to get a hang of, and took me a while to work out how to get all my old macros back with the limited number of keys, but getting the hang of it and really tinkering with what it can do showed this is more flexible than most other keyboards I’ve used in the past.
Connectivity is also a big plus. While you may use the wireless dongle or slap a USB-C cable onto it, the K65 Plus also has Bluetooth support which makes connecting to things like my Steam Deck or Raspberry Pi a breeze. There’s even a switch to swap between Windows and Mac setups to turn the alt keys into Command keys instead.
Of course, a keyboard is only as good as its typing experience. It could be made of the finest materials and have a configuration suite built from the tears of angels, but if it’s mushy to work on then there’s zero point to using it.
Mushy is the absolute last word I’d use to describe the K65 Plus. It usesCorsair MXL Red switches, which have a nice, tactile response to them without feeling too clicky. Travel distance is also excellent, with an actuation point of 1.9mm. The cool bit is you can replace more than just the keycaps – by using the included switch-puller, you can remove the entire switch itself to replace it for a different one if you’re not a fan of linear-style switches and want something with a bit more of a clack to it.
As one of those weirdos who loves keyboard ASMR videos, I can confirm this one is very ASMR-y.
The Corsair K65 Plus Wireless Keyboard feels like a great balance between the raw business of typing and the luxurious bells and whistles you find in standard “gamer” equipment. Even if it doesn’t have a whole flight deck of macro keys or RGB that can light up the night sky, it offers a resilient build, a good suite of features for customising it, and a really stellar typing feel.
If you’ve ever been cautious of trying a 75 percent keyboard, just know what you’re gaining here is well worth what you’re giving up.
