Closer Examination

To ensure the iCUE NEXUS can be used out of the box without any other additional accessory, CORSAIR includes a standalone base for the screen. The base is made out of molded plastic, with a CORSAIR logo on the backside of the triangular geometry. The front side is open and hosts the screen itself, and the underside has a rubber base for grip on the resting surface. A braided USB cable comes out the back, all in black to match the base, and it is the usual 6' long and terminated in a USB Type-A connector. USB 2.0 will suffice for power and data, and as seen above, this is a pass-through connection going to a full-size female USB connection inside the base unit.


The iCUE NEXUS itself is just the screen, which we only take a look at now. It comes inside a plastic wrap and has a plastic screen protector over the screen. It is housed in a more petite plastic chassis, which is also molded to allow for fitment in the base and the keyboard mounting brackets we saw before. A short USB cable protruding from the bottom here is for a pass-through USB connection, and it is also braided in black to match the rest of the package, as with the CORSAIR logo on the back. Both connectors have a plastic cover for protection during transit.

Peeling off the screen protector, we see the actual screen is smaller than what you may have imagined during unboxing. There is a significant bezel presence here for the touchscreen drivers, with the screen taking up 5" of diagonal real estate in a 40:3 aspect ratio. It is an LCD screen with 640 pixels horizontally and 48 pixels vertically. The screen refreshes at 24 FPS, and the display is 6-bits (64 colors per R/G/B channel) for a total of 262,144 colors. There is a lot that could be improved with the screen thus, with the pure specifications themselves a disappointment. Despite this, it is actually a better screen by far compared to others that come integrated with keyboards, of which there are very few. The LCD screen on the EVGA Z10, for example, is all of 160 x 32 pixels, and with mediocre backlighting as well.


Installing the iCUE NEXUS into the standalone base is fairly simple. Begin with connecting the shorter USB cable from the screen into the USB port in the base, and then twist the screen to have the cable make a fairly sharp 180 degree turn. The interlocking tabs on the plastic chassis of the screen fit into the receptacles on the base snugly, and the screen is light enough to where it is not going to shift the center of gravity of the base negatively. Indeed, the base of the well is large enough with the rubber lining to where this combination feels solid and will not budge off your desk, and now you have the iCUE NEXUS ready to be placed wherever you want as long as it is within 6 feet of your PC.


When CORSAIR first approached me about the iCUE NEXUS, I was under the impression that the iCUE NEXUS could be installed on any of their keyboards. Then it became any K-series keyboard (in case you still had their older Strafe keyboards, for example). Since I pretty much had none of my gear on hand at the time of testing, they offered to send along some peripherals to test with. I asked for the more wallet-friendly items, and that included the K55 RGB membrane keyboard. Well, as the images above show, and the packaging and product page for the iCUE NEXUS would tell you, not all K-series CORSAIR keyboards are compatible. Even if you do not have a keyboard with a USB pass-through port and use your own pass-through cable, you still need a mechanical CORSAIR K-series keyboard with the newer design that has the trapezoid shape along the side of the keyboard cable. This means no K55, K57, or K83 if that was not obvious already, and CORSAIR recommends using the K70 MK.2, K70 MK.2 Low Profile, or K95 Platinum (XT) with the iCUE Nexus.


So now you know why this review was not published when the product launched, since they realized it at the same time I did and had to send in a second keyboard. This time, it was the K70 RGB MK.2, and now I can also tell you that the three mounting brackets are all different too, if it was not obvious by now. Find the one compatible with your keyboard, which again is based on the location of the USB pass-through port and the design of the keyboard, and stick the bracket to the keyboard after removing the tape covers. CORSAIR recommends having the bracket be in place for ~24 hours for a good fit before placing the iCUE NEXUS on it, but for what it is worth, I had no problem getting everything done in 30 minutes. As with the base, the iCUE NEXUS slides snugly into place, although the bracket is more open, and the short USB cable from the screen takes an even sharper turn into the bracket. So I am a little hesitant about the longevity of this cable, and would have preferred a flat cable instead. Once in place, it looks like a natural part of the keyboard itself and is right up there with any such screen-integrated keyboard ever made.