Corsair K83 wireless TV keyboard
THE ALUMINIUM LOUNGE ROOM KEYBOARD THAT CAN TAKE A BEATING.
LOGITECH’S DOMINATED THE media keyboard for the last five years, thanks largely to its cheap-but-well-deigned K400 Plus, and more recently, the slightly sturdier and smart-TV compatible K600.
Corsair’s decided there’s room for a more premium offering in this market and has produced the K83 in response. It’s a robust board that ticks all the basics (decently-sized trackpad, rechargeable lithiumpolymer battery, Bluetooth or dedicated 2.4GHz wireless connection via USB dongle) and adds to that a tough aluminium baseplate alongside a unique, 360º analog thumbstick, which is perfect for navigating ’10 foot’ style TV interfaces – in standard Windows or Mac use, it duplicates the arrow keys.
Despite Corsair having coloured the K83’s WASD keys differently to the rest, this isn’t really intended as a gaming keyboard – it’s aimed at lounge room PCs, smart TVs and streaming media players, like the Nvidia Shield TV – and, like the Logitech K600, has Android shortcut keys; here, they’re mapped as Fn-F1 to Fn-F4.
For typing, its scissor-switch keys are comfortable and well-sized and have longer travel than most media keyboards, but are a bit plasticky in feel and sound. The white-LED backlighting makes it easy to strike the right keys in the dark, however, and the backlight can be dimmed or turned off completely to save battery.
It all works well in its intended environment, and a Function-lock option makes using both dedicated media and those Android/iOS keys easier. The K83 does have a couple of elements we don’t like, however. The underside is plastic, for example, and while that keyboard baseplate certainly adds a lot of toughness, for the $199 asking price in Australia (twice its American price of US$99) we’d expect a product to be premium all the way through.