Software

The software driver for the CORSAIR K57 RGB wireless keyboard is called iCUE and can be downloaded from their downloads page. The latest public version at the time of release was 3.18.77 and the installer is 338 MB in size. The installation process is fairly straightforward, as seen above, although your mileage may vary on whether you need to actually do a system reboot (recommended) or not to get it operational. The final package takes up approximately 570 MB even though it asks for a whopping ~904 MB for itself, all numbers which are higher from when I last checked out iCUE, which in turn was also higher than previously. When you do open the program, it is best to have the keyboard connected, although you can still play around and get familiar with the program without any hardware connected.


Opening it for the first time with the keyboard connected, we see a homepage that is similar to the iCUE from the previous review, but it has been polished further, and even more devices are now supported, which is why the overall package is heavier on your storage drive. When not in full-screen mode, some of the menu options under the Community tab get placed into the lower-right corner instead. Clicking on a device thumbnail takes you to the device-specific controls, which is as before. iCUE is not the lightest driver I have used in terms of consuming system resources, but it is by no means the heaviest. Given the extent of control and support involved, it does feel justified. The keyboard was recognized immediately in Slipstream wireless mode as seen above, and a notification popped up to let me know that there is already a firmware update available. At the time, I had to connect the keyboard via USB to get the process initiated, which in turn merely took a few seconds to complete.

The dashboard tab allows one to customize previews for devices, which is useful for a quick look at your system's current status. Instant lighting allows for unified lighting across all connected devices, and then we get to the global settings tab that is laid out better than before, especially on a high DPI display. Given this is a review of the keyboard and not the driver, we will focus on the settings available for the K57 RGB wireless, which include the polling rate, LED brightness, and language layout to match your actual version, in addition to the ability to check for and update the firmware if an update is available. Instant Lighting is at the top, allowing for all compatible, connected devices to be on the same color of your choosing in one go.

Given the wireless nature of the keyboard, profiles will still be software-based and need the driver to be running. For most people, however, being able to save onboard key assignments and a lighting effect is plenty enough, and this means you can also take the keyboard over to another PC without needing the driver. There is one limitation here, however, as we no longer have the profile-import function built-in as of this driver version. CORSAIR says they are working on it, and this remains a work in progress even though it was present before.

Actions is the first device-specific menu for customizing the functionality of the keyboard past its global settings, and note the useful pop ups for most menu items to tell you what each item does. By default, the keyboard does what the keycap legends denote, but do not let that stop you. As the video illustrates, you can record a macro, edit it completely, and assign it to a key; make a key stroke input a pre-configured text, re-assign keys in case QWERTY is not your cup of tea, etc. All these software controls make this a fully programmable keyboard within the limits of what is allowed for the device, and changing the language in the settings page opens up more options, too.

As before, we have everything lighting bundled together in an organized, three-column approach in the lighting tab—provided the keyboard is connected via USB. The driver shows a preview of the active lighting scheme, which can include a single layer or multiples as one. The options here are rich, going from preset static and dynamic effects to custom versions taking full advantage of the 16.8 M RGB per-key backlighting.

In wireless mode, however, the lighting options are limited. In fact, the options we see here are the same as those that can be found via the onboard controls as well. It is completely understandable why there is such a limitation in place, and having these itself was a pleasant surprise since I came in expecting next to nothing as far as wireless keyboards and backlighting goes. The Performance tab is very self-explanatory and also has a small set of options, so I added it here for a common discussion.

As it stands, this is a big user experience improvement, and iCUE—at least in the current version pertaining to this keyboard—is easier to use than most of the competition despite being one of the most powerful in terms of customization. Also, it is finally a unified driver for the CORSAIR ecosystem, but that is a topic for another time.