Monoprice Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

This keyboard features red, independently lit, backlit keys, a 2 port USB HUB, for easy connection of your USB Devices, a headset passthrough, for quick plugin of your headphones, it is rated at 50 million keystrokes to give you a long-life, has a 64 Key 0 Key Rollover, 106 Cherry Red Key Switches, and is double soldered, dual layer PCB. This thing is wrapped in aluminum casing if you open it up inside and would probably be considered a lethal weapon if you hit someone with it!

Mechanical keyboards have a much different feel than your typical membrane keyboard. Each key on a mechanical keyboard contains its own switch and this is what allows it to be so much faster and precise when gaming. Think of it as jumping on a trampoline versus jumping on the ground. on a trampoline, you are going to bounce high before touching the ground. But jumping on the ground, by itself, you will make contact much more often. 

Cherry Red Key switches gained popularity when released in 2008. They did, however, fall out of the market back in 2010 and are only now appearing available again. They offer some of the fastest response times from any type of mechanical, or keyboard, switches. This means you can lightly press each key in order to gain a response instead of having to push it down all the way. This can cause a few typos if you are using the keyboard to write. As I write this review on the Monoprice Backlit Macro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, I got used to it fairly quickly. For gaming, I don’t think I can get used without it though.

The HUB on the Monoprice Mechanical Keyboard is a USB 2.0 device powered by a single USB 2.0 cable. This will allow low-powered devices to be powered up for use. There are a few issues however. Since the ports are so close to each other, you have to be careful to ensure your devices aren’t very thick otherwise two won’t be able to be plugged in. The passthrough ports for headphone and audio are standard and no special enhancements are done. There are cables to plug into your computer on the woven connector cable that reaches out to your computer.

There are a few features that I would like to see added to this keyboard. First, I would love to see it available in more than just red backlighting. It would be equally nice if that could also include multiple backlights in the same package. Second, the wristguard is a beast to take on and put off. I would love to see it easier to pull on and off without feeling I am going to break it. Next, a USB 3.0 feature on the HUB would make this device even better. Being able to quickly plug in a high-speed Hard Drive would be a great inclusion for a LAN party or sharing files out on my computer without reaching behind my desktop/laptop.

Overall though, you will have a hard time finding a better keyboard for the money. At the time of this writing, Monoprice was listing the Backlit Macro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard for $129.80 without any discounts. For a device that is going to last you much longer than the very computer you are typing on, this is a deal. I highly recommend gaming with this keyboard exclusively.