Today for review I have another product from our friends at Raptor-Gaming, it is their K1 Professional Gaming Keyboard. If you’ve read my other reviews of Raptor-Gaming products you’ll know that I found them all to be excellent quality and great performing products, the K1 is no different in that respect, in fact it has become my main keyboard now I like it so much. That wasn’t the case though originally, at first I actually hated this keyboard, I used it for a while and just found that it felt wrong to me, but after a few days I learned to really like it, and have been using it for almost two weeks and I absolutely love it now. The K1 isn’t a keyboard with all the extra buttons, but it does have manual locks for the keys, Cherry Gold contacts, and replaceable keys, so read on to learn all about this excellent keyboard…
RAPTOR-GAMING K1 Gaming Keyboard
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: RAPTOR-GAMING
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
RAPTOR-GAMING K1 Keyboard
Due to their Cherry Gold Crosspoint contacts and the adjusted coil springs, the buttons of the RAPTOR-GAMING K1 offer a very soft and in particular by 30% shorter stroke than conventional keyboards. This feature maximizes the entry speed and reactivity while playing with minimum fatigue by unmatched velocity and reaction advantages.
The gold contacts extremely low transition resistance of approximately 100 milliohm (buttons with film contact < 200 Ohm) also enables an optimized signal quality, which the computer can process precisely and with utmost speed.
The RAPTOR-GAMING K1 has an extremely high durability. Keyboards are usually designed for 5 to 20 million button operations. The Cherry-Gold-Crosspoint technology of the RAPTOR-GAMING K1 in contrast is laid out for 50 million button operations.
In the delivery content you will find 8 afterglow buttons and all square buttons can be replaced by these. The convenient, non-reflecting light allows for the buttons utmost visibility even in darkened rooms. The lighting power lasts for up to 12 hours. The button light can even be charged with an LED torch.
The Cherry Full-N-Key-Rollover function enables you to simultaneously press all modifier buttons (i.e. Shift key, Ctrl button, Alt and Windows button) as well as 6 additional shortcut buttons, without loosing or confusing any information (ghost button effect).
In addition, the high-tech electronics integrated in the RAPTOR-GAMING K1 guarantees extremely short button scan times and high de-bounce safety. These features provide for an extremely fast and reliable einquiry of each individual button entry as well as a precise identification of button operations.
In order to avoid unintended actions, each square button can be equipped with a lock (8 button locks are included). The button locks avoid the unintended action in the personalized keyboard field and delivers in that way another gaming advantage.
The RAPTOR-GAMING K1 includes a USB hub 1.1 for mouse and headset, for easy installation and avoidance of twisted cables.
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Technical details:
Unmatched velocity and fast reactivity due to Gold Crosspoint contacts
Extremely high durability with up to 50 million button operations
Replaceable buttons with afterglow effect of up to 12 hours of lighting power
Maximum signal processing through Full-N-Key-Rollover no loss of data
Up to 8 buttons can be blocked individually
USB plug for mouse and headset integrated into the keyboard
Offers up to 30% shorter button strokes than conventional keyboards
Delivery Content:
RAPTOR-GAMING K1
8 afterglow buttons
8 button locks (1x in keyboard and 7x in plastic bag) incl. button-exchange tool
Quick Installation Guide (ger., engl., fre., ital. span.,)
Information Technical Details (ger., engl., fre.)
Attention Information
Hardware and Software requirements:
Pentium or IBM compatible PC with Win 98/ 2000/ ME/ NT/ XP or Linux
64MB RAM memory or above recommended
One free USB port
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A Better Look at Things
:
The Raptor-Gaming K1 comes in a box that is the same style as the other Raptor-Gaming products, with the black and silver theme. It is very nicely done and professional looking. The K1s box is wrapped up in plastic, and you can see a nice picture of the keyboard on the front of the box.
The back and sides of the box have all the features and specs, along with more pictures so you know exactly what you are getting. I like when companies make their boxes informative, it’s always nice to know what you are getting…
Opening the box we find some documentation first, under that is the K1 itself all wrapped in plastic for protection.
Along with the K1 Keyboard, are two small bags with special parts in them which we’ll take a closer look at shortly. There’s also a user’s manual, and some other information for you to peruse.
The Raptor-Gaming K1 keyboard itself is smaller than your standard desktop keyboard, you’ll notice the block of buttons that is normally above the cursor keys is located above the keypad, doing this allowed for a shorter keyboard but yet still basically full sized. Having a smaller keyboard is great if you need to travel with it, to lan parties or wherever…
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A Better Look at Things
Continued:
Here’s a close up shot of he setup I was talking about, where the keys are relocated to.
The bottom of the keyboard isn’t to special, it does have four rubber feet and two collapsible feet on the back edge to raise the angle if you wish.
Here’s a couple shots of the back feet, folded and unfolded.
The two little bags we saw earlier contain the parts to replace your keys with glow in the dark keys, key locks and a special tool to help remove the keys.
The glow in the dark keys are actually a little bit higher than the standard keys, they are meant to replace your most commonly used keys in gaming so in low light conditions they will be very easy to find. The locks themselves are small plastic ‘U’ shaped things that fit under the keys, we’ll get into the installation of those in the next section. Included is seven locks in the bag, but there are eight actually, one is already pre-installed in the K1 keyboard, it is locking the left Windows key.
The tool that comes with the K1 is basically a piece of metal with small clips on each side that lock under the key to allow them to come off very easily.
One note is that I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the two additional USB ports located on the back of the K1 keyboard, you’ve all seen USB ports anyway, they are located in the center on the back edge.. they are to be used for your mouse and a headset, or whatever else you want to stick in there. Sorry about that… I’m a bit behind in my work, snowstorm/icestorm hit here, kids off school, power outage, just messed my schedule all up…
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Installation, Testing and Comparison
Ok, installation is easy, you have to have a free USB port as there is no option for using a PS/2 port as the K1 keyboard has built in USB ports making it a USB hub. Windows had no problem recognizing and installing the K1, took a minute or so to do it. Since this keyboard has no fancy extra buttons there is no need for any software or special drivers, it is really a plug and play keyboard.
First thing I wanted to do was to use those keylocks, the K1 does come with a ‘left-click’ button, or menu button on the bottom row next to a blank key which is your Windows key.
Don’t like that key so it has to go, as does the Windows key, I never use them but I always end up hitting them accidentally. To lock a key you need to remove the keys above it, this is done with the special tool that comes with the K1, it is very easy to use, just push down, it clicks in place and you gently squeeze and pull the key or keys off. You slide the lock under the key you want to lock and it clicks into place making it so you cannot press the key.
The lock is fairly easy to install, the first one took me sometime trying to get it in, but after I figured it out the rest were easy to do. Here’s a picture of the lock in place, normally the key is on top of it of course, but I popped the key off to show you how the lock is placed. I like how each key base has the Cherry name and logo on it, looks kinda cool….
I also locked the Caps Lock key, I constantly accidentally press it, and I never use it so it can go as well, I also locked the right side Windows key as well, don’t use it but I do hit it on occasion by accident so it had to be locked as well…
Next up would be replacing the keys, this is done the same as removing the keys to lock them, but you are removing the actual key you want to replace. Using the special tool is very easy, and makes removing keys a snap to do. I replaced my main gaming keys, the cursor keys for movement, jump, crouch and prone, I also replaced the ‘delete’ key as well as the different keyboard configuration is still a bit hard to get used to. Having the glow in the dark key for my delete key makes life much easier. The glow in the dark replacement keys are actually a bit taller than the standard keys on the keyboard and I didn’t find any problems with that at all.
Of course here is a picture of the keys in the dark, even in low lighting they do glow a bit and stand out from the rest of the keys.
As I mentioned in the intro I originally hated this keyboard, why? Well it’s loud for one, and the keys are smaller than other keyboard I’ve used, and also for the different key placement as well. I’ve been using the K1 for almost two weeks now and I’ve found that I love it, my typing speed has actually increased while using it. The keys on the K1 seem more responsive, and I found they are noisy because I am not used to quality key contacts, I still press them a bit to hard, more than I have to so they make a loud clicking sound. The Raptor-Gaming keyboards, both the K1 and K2 have the Cherry Gold contacts in them and I have found that they really do make a difference, it just seems that it takes less effort to press the keys and they are more sensitive, I guess it is true what they say about not knowing quality until you actually have/use it.
I’m really into BF2142, I’m ranking up almost every other day it seems so I’ve been playing quite a bit and using the K1 for gaming is great, especially for the way I have my keys setup, the distance is now shorter between my main keys making gaming much easier and more enjoyable.
There are a couple bad things about this keyboard, the first is that I think that Raptor-Gaming did not include enough glow in the dark replacement keys, (not really a bad thing, but I think others might feel the way I do) the second bad thing is something I found very bad, a bad design flaw actually. The legs on the back of the keyboard will collapse with even the slightest forward movement, when typing I like to have the keyboard at an angle and while gaming I like it flat, but now I really have no choice, I have to use the K1 flat all the time. I’ve gotten used to it now, but why have legs that just don’t work? Using it I found that even bumping the keyboard just slightly will cause one or both legs to collapse, imagine having a lopsided keyboard, or typing and having the entire keyboard just fall, it got annoying real fast. If you read my review the Raptor-Gaming K2 keyboard (find it HERE) you’d know that it also had the collapsible feet, but those feet were made correctly, they fold to the side so the keyboard would not collapse, that should be how the legs on the K1 were designed. I’ve used flat style keyboards so it wasn’t to big of a change for me, but to those that are used to angled keyboards you will have a hard time using a keyboard flat.
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Another small problem people might not like is the lack of multimedia and/or internet buttons, pretty much all keyboard these days come with those extra buttons and I think many people have gotten very used to them, they might miss them on the K1. For me though, yeah I like the extra buttons, but never really relied on them, except maybe the calculator button which I used quite a bit…and I’ll be honest with you, I am still kind of getting used to the differnt key layout, but thiose keys aren’t used that much so it’s not that big of a problem.
For the most part though the K1 is an excellent gaming keyboard, and a great all around keyboard as well. Depending on your personal preferences, you may or may not like this keyboard. If you do a lot of gaming then this keyboard is great, and after all it is a professional gaming keyboard, it’s not an office keyboard, or multimedia keyboard after all. If you want a dedicated gaming keyboard then here it is, it offers some great features that you can’t find anywhere else.
So far I’ve reviewed Raptor-Gaming mousepads, a mouse and a couple keyboards and I have to say they are all great products and used in combination with each other you cna have one killer gaming setup.
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Summary:
The Raptor-Gaming K1 keyboard is truly a great gaming keyboard, it’s features are excellent, including the locking keys, replaceable keys and of course the Cherry Contacts makes this one awesome keyboard for gamers. The K1 could have gotten a perfect score, except for that one glaring design flaw, the collapsing feet, it’s just too annoying to miss, it actually made me angry after ten or so times, but still I only took of a point off as the rest of the good qualities are very good, and since it has now become my main keyboard I give it my Editor’s Choice Award as well. In this review I truly learned that you can’t really judge from first impressions, in the beginning I hated the K1, but now I honestly love it…
DragonSteelMods gives the RAPTOR-GAMING K1 Keyboard a 5 out of 5 score and my Editor’s Choice Award.
Pros:
-Manually locking keys!!
-Replaceable keys that glow in the dark
-Mechanical key mechanisms
-Great all around keyboard
-Extra USB Ports
-Small, and portable yet full sized
Cons:
-No extra buttons for special things, some people might care about that…
-Legs design need lots of work
-Need to include more replacement glow in the dark buttons
I would like to thank Raptor-Gaming for the chance to review the K1 Gaming Keyboard and for their continued support of DSM.
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