Introduction

After a look at the high-end Cherry MX Board 6.0, I wanted to take a look also at what Cherry offers to other markets. I had also mentioned then that the MX Board 6.0 was not necessarily a new product launch and that I would be covering more recent launches. Well, sometimes in order to go forward, you have to take a step back. Today, we take a look at another keyboard from Cherry that launched even earlier, but is just as relevant today as it was back in 2013. Thanks again to Cherry Americas for providing a review sample for us to examine.


The MX Board 3.0 is from a time when Cherry MX switch clones were barely a thing and Cherry reigned supreme over them in terms of both yields and switch quality. It was a very good time for Cherry, and they had a world-exclusive on the gold crosspoint contacts in the MX switches that were used in this very keyboard - something we now take for granted because it helps reduce oxidation of the metal contact surfaces in most mechanical switches. This is a keyboard that was unashamedly targeted at end users in a professional office environment, with features such as NKRO they hoped would appeal to gamers at the time. The gaming keyboard market was beginning to take off then, and there were even Cherry's own customers with products that had backlighting, flashier aesthetics, and more. How did the MX Board 3.0 do then and, more importantly, how does it fare now given it is still being manufactured and sold? Let us begin our review with a look at the specifications below.

Specifications