Introduction

While it is that time of year where companies bring products to market in the post-Computex launch window, nothing about this year is normal. Most companies are still figuring out a work-from-home schedule for employees, which of course does not help when you have to mass-produce items in Asian factories. Larger companies, including CORSAIR, have more leverage and business units to pull from, however, with special edition RAM, lighting towers, and pre-built PCs all launching recently. Today, we take a look at another new CORSAIR launch, and one that is not an update to a pre-existing product either. Enter the iCUE NEXUS companion screen, and thanks to CORSAIR for sending along the review sample to TechPowerUp.


The CORSAIR iCUE NEXUS launched earlier this week, with reception ranging from high interest to high skepticism from those thinking a second monitor would be better for the money. There are a few things, at the very least, that the iCUE NEXUS does which a second monitor does not. For one, it can clip on to a compatible keyboard and have touch-screen functionality supported by their iCUE software. This makes the combination a more powerful version of standalone keyboards with integrated LCD screens, such as the EVGA Z10 RGB we checked out earlier this year. We will aim to address the value proposition of the iCUE NEXUS in this article as we go over it in more detail beginning with a look at the specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

International travel limitations and lockdowns due to COVID-19 meant that I was residing temporarily in Taiwan and without access to my usual photography setup at the time of testing. Packaging for the CORSAIR iCUE NEXUS is actually different from other recent CORSAIR products. This is indeed the first product to come out with what appears to be an unofficial new branding exercise, which no doubt the company will talk more about when they have other products come out. The older discrete black and yellow color scheme is ditched in favor of a more lime yellow color that permeates throughout, with lines on the otherwise black front as well. If I can be brutally honest, it looks like someone took the old box, spilled some paint, and left it out in the sun for a few weeks. It's not going to be as big a deal as the CORSAIR "tramp stamp" logo ordeal from a couple of years ago, but I personally do not understand why they felt they had to change what was quickly becoming a unified branding approach across all their product lines. CORSAIR representatives refrained from making an official comment on this at this time.

That said, the functionality of the packaging remains identical, and you can still easily place this as a CORSAIR product. On the front is the company and product name along with an illustration of the iCUE NEXUS in action and mounted on a keyboard. On the back are more illustrations of the various possibilities with the screen, including product placement with CORSAIR's sponsorship of the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League making for a custom game screen. Specifications and marketing features in multiple languages are also present here and on the sides, with two seals keeping the outer sleeve in place over the inner box.


The inner box is more plain, with function taking precedence over form. A notch helps open it easily, revealing paperwork inside an otherwise small box. We see the usual CORSAIR warranty guide with their usual two-year warranty for most regions and a handy manual that goes over the finer aspects of setting up and controlling the iCUE NEXUS screen. I highly recommend going through it to make the most of your purchase, especially if you are new to their iCUE ecosystem.


The accessories are seen underneath the cardboard layer, with the actual product and base in between. These accessories include three mounting brackets for installing the iCUE NEXUS to a compatible keyboard, with the same 3M double-sided tape as on the headset holder provided with the iCUE LT100, and a plastic prying tool to help remove the bracket after it has been taped onto the keyboard—should you want to remove it for whatever reason.