Software

This time last year, there were two separate versions of Cooler Master Portal, the software driver for their peripherals, which bugged me a lot. The MK850 with Aimpad tech was the first to use the newer version, and there are still two versions today. What has changed, however, is that the older version for their older keyboards has not been updated since, and the newer version, only identified by a jump in version number, continues to be. Adding to the confusion is them also referring to it as MasterPlus even though the installed program identifies itself as Portal. The latest version at the time of testing, v1.9.5, can be downloaded from this page, and the installer downloads as a 73 MB archive with the installed version taking up 377 MB. As seen above, installation is smooth.


A firmware update was available manually, which, as with the MK850, no doubt will be automatically seen and done in later drivers. The update was simple and short, and one Cooler Master urges all early recipients of the ControlPad to install.


The driver is reminiscent of the older versions, with a darker skin using the black and purple color scheme Cooler Master has been using with the MK850 and other MK series keyboards. The user experience has improved over older versions, with presumably a list of connected devices in a column on the left and device-specific content laid out in organized tabs on the right. However, support for high resolution/scaling displays has been reduced. It is actually worse than the older version in that regard, and Cooler Master's software team unfortunately has not figured this out in over a year's time. That said, it is nowhere near as bad as some other such experiences I have had, with 4K doable if you push scaling more than usual in Windows 10. Each time you open it with the ControlPad connected, a "Read profile from device" message reminds us that the software team is based in China and has not had a chance to polish things up for launch yet.

As the name suggests, the first tab is all about lighting. The on-screen virtual ControlPad shows some of the effects to give you an idea, but most are not seen or reflected, especially for the dynamic effects, which is a bit of a shame and was the case with the older driver as well. There are multiple effects to choose from, with each mode having further customization options, including color, direction of the effect, and transition speed. You have individual R/G/B channel control for 256 brightness steps each, which gives you the promised 16.8 M colors. Custom mode is where you go for per-key static lighting, and missing here are the multi-zone modes and multi-layer options which allow stacking of different effects, which is likely due to the absence of a dedicated LED hardware driver. There are also separate foreground and background color selection options for applicable lighting effects, and a global brightness slider for fine-tuning the intensity of the backlighting.

The second tab is for key-mapping on all 24 keys and the two wheels, which can take two functions in total each for rotating up or down. So, you can have one be a volume wheel and the other pull up two programs or macros depending on which way you turn it, for example. By default, the left wheel controls backlighting brightness and the right wheel volume control. There is mouse function mapping as well. You can even have the two wheels work as a basic trackball, but with finer (X,Y) coordinate control for programs, such as a plotting tool. In addition to the other typical remapping options, the biggest feature no doubt is game controller remapping, which is based on an Xbox controller layout, and there are enough keys on the ControlPad to map every single function of the controller to the keypad. On the right are also some preset options, including for applications outside of game types, and this works well in combination with the specialized keycap sets for these functions Cooler Master plans to sell as optional accessories.

The penultimate tab is for creating and allocating macros, and it is as complete as I could have asked for. You can record long macros, edit keystrokes, edit the delay between keystrokes, and allocate them to specific keys. No complaints here, but if there were something I would like to see, it would be the ability to add missed keystrokes post-recording. The last tab is for the profiles themselves, and with 24 profiles saved on the device you do not have to worry about the absence of the driver once you set it up to your needs. This also goes well with Cooler Master intending for the ControlPad to be a portable device.

A few bugs and missing features cropped up during testing, which Cooler Master has laid out transparently on Kickstarter (in the absence of a product page). Dual-action functionality is seen in the key-mapping tab, but does not work. We also do not have a lot of Aimpad controls, including sensitivity and a keyboard/Xbox controller toggle. This is a downer for sure, but at the very least the MK850 shows that Cooler Master knows how to get these done. I completely understand this delay given the majority of Cooler Master's software team is based in Wuhan, China. That's right, the same Wuhan that is the epicenter of the 2019 novel Coronavirus outbreak. As I write this, their software team members no doubt have more pressing concerns, and their officers/factories remain closed. So I appreciate these special circumstances and hope it all works out for them.