Cooler Master CK552 review: A fantastic RGB-backlit budget keyboard - griggsentionsm

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Vibrant per-key RGB lighting at a buy Price
Gateron Bloody switches are a great Cherry alternative
Sagittate, clean flavor

Cons

Corduroy attachment seems subtle
No pack-in wrist rest
Loud for a keyboard with linear switches

Our Finding of fact

Cooler Surmoun's CK552 has to make a couple of compromises to hit its entry-level price tag, but away from the absent carpus rest it's a superior budget keyboard.

Mechanical keyboard prices maintain dropping and dropping. The latest miracle deal? The Cooler Schoolmaster CK552, a fully RGB-backlit robotlike keyboard retailing for a mere $90—and frequently on-sale for cold to a lesser extent. That's even more affordable than the Puma Attack X3 RGB, our preceding "How is this possible?" recommendation.

But as with anything in life, you (to an extent) get what you pay for. Let's dig into the CK552, both its many strengths and a few noteworthy weaknesses.

Note: This review is part of our best gambling keyboards roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.

Be-cutting done right

Cooler Surmoun's done a pretty great job scheming an entry-level keyboard that still looks high-end. I'm incredibly impressed with the CK552's aesthetic, which easily competes with keyboards twice its price. It's simple only stylish, featuring an exposed brushed aluminiferous backplate and a minimalist perpendicular shape with the left and right edges aslant slightly outward.

Nothing garnished, but that's precisely what makes it work. It's a timeless, bare-down elan, right down to the simple sans-serif typeface used on the keys. Apart from the RGB lighting, the CK552 seems like it'd fit in at the office just as well as the home, and would look great in either surround.

It really is an entry-level keyboard though, lacking many of the frills I typically look for these days. There's no wrist rest, for instance. Ice chest Master dispatched us its WR530, a whopping rubber wrist rest that pairs alright with the CK552, merely it's not a pack-in item. Those who bring their own articulatio radiocarpea perch (or preceptor't use one the least bit) potential won't mind, but IT means the CK552's non quite as budget-well-disposed as it first of all appears.

[It's also worth noting that the WR530 stinks initially. The smell's worn off the longer I've spent with it, just for the first a few years it emitted an overwhelming rubber-tire odor that also ended upwardly all ended my manpower and wrists. This ISN't a WR530 reexamine but…gross.]

The CK552's cable is thin and fragile-tactual sensation, which is perhaps my biggest complaint hither. I prefer detachable cables, and failing that, I prefer a close and big-boned, fabric-shrouded cable with heavy-duty strain relief like the ones we find on Razer and Corsair products. The CK552 is plain ol' rubber, and attaches to the keyboard with a delicate-looking nub. It doesn't feel like it'd support up to a good deal abuse, and I wouldn't urge throwing the CK552 into a haversac operating room anything very oftentimes.

IT also lacks sacred media keys. That one's less amazing at this price dot, only Charles Frederick Worth noting for anyone who's grown accustomed to them. Media keys are double-mapped to the Home block instead, with volume controls on Page Up and Page Down. It's not my favorite placement, though I was able to use them one-handed at to the lowest degree.

Why not put the media keys on the Function wrangle? Well, the CK552 loves double-mapped commands. It's absolutely full of them. F1 done F4 allow you to line up the backlight color, F5 through F8 net ball you alteration lighting effects along-the-fly, F9 through F12 grant for big recording and disabling the Windows key, 1 through 4 on the number row let you switch profiles, and the pointer keys also adapt lighting effects happening the fly aside speed them up or deceleration them down.

Point being: You take a good deal of control, all without the need for software system. Those who are fed up every encircling beingness tied to a software utility will probably equal excited, though the bevy of secondary commands (and even tertiary) does leave the CK552 looking for a moment cluttered.

If you do decide to choke the software itinerary, Cooler Master's utility is pretty simple and visceral. And at 64MB, it's as wel one of the most lightweight programs I've seen for peripheral management. Congratulations to Cooler Master for that. Inside you can do entirely the usual tweaks, from per-key backlighting to general personal effects, macro transcription, key remapping, and visibility management.

The CK552's backlighting is the standard Cherry MX-mode, with a single RGB LED placed at the top of each key and refracted through a semitransparent switch chassis. It's not the most elegant solution, just Cooler Master makes the most of it. The CK552 is colorful, with excellent colourize accuracy—though like some Cherry-style board, the unchaste does tend to fall off as it approaches the bottom edge, most noticeable here along the Cooler Master logotype and any double-mapped keys.

You'll also placard I keep saying "Cherry-style." Yes, ilk many recent keyboards—specially entryway-level ones—Ice chest Master's opted for a Cherry-compatible competition, in this showcase Gateron. It makes sense. They're cheap!

But as uttermost as cheap rivalry goes, Gateron's are in reality a jolly pot. The CK552 I've been using is improved around Gateron Reds, a Cherry MX Marxist ringer. Gateron Reds feature the one linear action, the like 45 gram pull off requirement, and are generally smoother-feeling than Cherry MX Reds—though you'd probably have a rough sledding noticing in a touchstone typing environs. They're well-regarded by mechanic keyboard enthusiasts though, and if you'Re going to deviate from Cherry then Gateron is an excellent call.

That said, the CK552 is roaring. I don't have some other Gateron Ruby board to equivalence to so it's hard to say whether it's a event of the switch itself or the CK552's construction—though I'm list towards the last mentioned. A great deal of people choose Colored switches because they'ray quieter than the tactile Browns and Blues, but the CK552 is almost as loud as some of the MX Blue keyboards I type happening. Each stroke hits the backplate with a insincere thunking randomness that prat comprise distracting even for me, a old automatonlike keyboard drug user. If you're looking to buy a CK552 with Reds because they're touted as "Dumb," just know this particular model is anything but.

Bottom line

Cooler Master's got a pretty sweet submission-level board happening its hands though. Sure, $10 Oregon $20 more can get you the Painter Attack X3 RGB, which has a many traditional placement for its media keys, a pack-in wrist rest, and Cherry MX switches. But the wrist eternal rest is the only when have I truly uncomprehensible while bounteous the CK552 a spin, and that's well remedied with any phone number of third-party options (or Cooler Master's, if you can stand the odor). Let alone the fact that the CK552 is a lot prettier than the Attack X3's faux-highly-developed look.

Forget fans. Maybe Cooler Master's got a new niche.