Introduction

We last took a look at a Corsair keyboard with their flagship K95 Platinum earlier this year, and at $200, it was well outside the price range of most people if our front page poll with over 5000 responses is any indicator. What that poll tells us also is that the $80-$120 price range for keyboards is over twice as popular as anything over $150, so it is perhaps fitting then that we are today taking a look at a new keyboard from Corsair that falls into the cheaper of the two categories. Thanks a lot to Corsair for providing a review sample of their K68 mechanical keyboard.


The Corsair K68 is a full-size keyboard that comes in many different layouts - of which one is ANSI given the sample I have here. It is a mechanical gaming keyboard, which has us infer that it presumably comes with genuine Cherry MX switches because of Corsair's close relationship with Cherry Americas, and it has backlighting with support for CUE (Corsair Utility Engine). The biggest feature here, which the title image above makes abundantly clear, is some form of water-spill resistance, and we will examine this and everything else in greater detail, but let us begin by taking a look at the specs below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Corsair operates a web shop in the USA, and so we begin with a look at their shipping packaging. A good-sized box with a lot of packing air bags all over the product packaging is chosen here, which means I have no complaints, and this makes for a good start already!


A plastic wrap covers the packaging, which I still feel is wasteful and not practical, and removing it shows off the product box in more detail. We have the usual Corsair Gaming black and yellow color scheme with a print of the keyboard, the company and product name, and Cherry MX Red switch label on front, with specs and marketing features continuing on the back and sides in multiple languages. Here is also where we first see what looks like a cover on the keyboard to provide the aforementioned water-spill resistance. There are two seals and a flap to help keep the contents inside in place.


Open the box and we see the keyboard right away, with the accessories in two layers of the cardboard cutout that protects the keyboard from all sides. I would have preferred foam sheets, but this is a more efficient use of space and does the job provided shipping packaging is good. We have two sets of accessories with the K68, and the first set contains a warranty note specific to Australia, the product manual, and a warranty guide.


The second accessory, also in a plastic wrap, is a wrist rest. It is completely made out of plastic with no reversible surface and instead has a dimpled, hard surface with two clips on the back and rubber pads to help prevent the keyboard and wrist rest from moving around on your desk.

No replacement keycaps or keycap puller here; their absence and the plastic wrist rest are two of many ways Corsair has toned down the keyboard to hit a lower price point.