Performance

Though you would be hard pressed to make full use of it in the living room, the CORSAIR K83 Wireless supports 20-key rollover USB out of the box. Switch Hitter confirmed no chatter with these keys either, and you can see which keys are active on the base layer out of the box. The Fn keys are replaced by the pre-programmed hotkeys, as we saw before, which is an easy toggle away in iCUE to change. Fn + relevant key helps actuate the second function tied to the key, as seen on the keycaps themselves.


When powered on and a key/touch pad is in use, the keyboard lights up white for a few seconds before lighting turns off to preserve battery life. You can configure static white lighting in 256 brightness steps in iCUE if needed, and as would be expected from single color LEDs, it is a true white. The power button also lights up white to indicate the keyboard is on, and there are indicator LEDs on the front to show the type of connection employed (white for 2.4 GHz, blue for Bluetooth connection 1, cyan for Bluetooth connection 2). A dedicated Caps Lock indicator LED is also present on the front, and there is a status LED indicator that provides visual information on the battery level as indicated in the manual. There is also a dedicated brightness control that goes through the three (four if 100% brightness is enabled in iCUE) brightness steps.

The status LED indicator also comes in handy when charging, should you happen not to have it connected to a PC with iCUE running to see the battery level in the software driver. Green, amber, and red are the colors employed for this LED, and you will get used to seeing these often. Fn + Enter will show the battery life if needed, and unfortunately, battery life on the K83 Wireless is less than satisfactory for an input device intended for the living room, even compared to similar options in the market. CORSAIR rates the device to provide 8-40 active hours of battery life depending on backlighting intensity (100% to 0% respectively), and I noticed an average closer to 35 hours with backlighting off, which is how I ended up having it more often than not. The default setting of a temporary light when the keys are in use definitely comes in handy at night, however. Note that these are active hours; actual stand-by time depends heavily on how much you use the device. Charging is on the slower side of things because the device and provided cable are rated for the default 5 V/0.5 A draw, so it is best to charge this overnight or when you have a few hours to spare.

Wireless connectivity was mostly fine. I actually had two separate units of the K83 available, which is why I felt better about going through with the potentially destructive disassembly before. That particular unit was flawless in both 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth, and the actual unit sent for review was perfect as a Bluetooth device. However, it had severe issues when paired to the dongle it came with and in 2.4 GHz mode. Indeed, I experienced lag galore, which in turn caused issues ranging from repeated keystrokes, missed keystrokes, and random space/tab entries between keystrokes. CORSAIR helped troubleshoot what was going on, and it seemed clear that the dongle was the likely culprit because I had the same issue on multiple systems. No amount of keyboard resetting or firmware flashing solved this either. I spoke to others who had this device in hand, and it did seem that I was the only one to experience this issue. I am willing to give CORSAIR the benefit of doubt in that this is likely a one-off issue, but will still fault them for lack of quality control since this should have been caught well before packaging. They have offered to replace this unit, mostly so they can examine what went wrong and ensure it does not happen to other units.


The bread and butter with the K83 Wireless is the ability to easily use it on multiple platforms outside of just the PC. In a living room, the target audience might well have an HTPC and a smart TV, or perhaps a device adding said smart functionality to a TV. The K83 Wireless works in all modes and connectivity options on the PC and macOS, and has varied compatibility with other devices as listed above. Touch pad gestures are the least compatible, which makes sense, and the joystick is rated to work more often than not. There are operating modes to consider as well; media mode when F-lock is off and gaming mode when it is on, which dictates the default program of several keys, including the L and R buttons, and the joystick itself that goes from a standard navigation option to a mouse cursor. There are also device-specific modes, usually accessed when F-lock is off, which opens up more options. One can change the mode when F-lock is on to allow for two media modes; say, for media control over two devices connected via the two Bluetooth connection options.

I tested the K83 on my 2016 Samsung K-series smart TV, and it was really nice to be able to use a single device rather than rely on the small remote and onboard keyboard for everything. I do wish gaming mode were possible here, although quickly opening the smart hub and going through it makes up for it personally. There will be a complete list of compatible devices on the FAQs page here, which should be active when the product is launched. Having spoken to a few others with access to the K83, it seems to work fine with recent products from brands not listed in the manual, including LG, Panasonic, Hisense, the NVIDIA shield, and HUMAX. In fact, any device with HID support and an available USB port and/or Bluetooth 4.0 (or higher) should offer at least partial compatibility with the K83 Wireless. This does mean that the Roku device family is out of luck since they do not support HID devices at all. CORSAIR says they are looking into additional device support and modes, which makes this a product they are invested in for the longer term as well.


Onboard functionality is extremely strong here. I appreciate how the default settings for the function key row are the respective hotkeys instead of F1-F12, which makes sense for this environment. Even outside of the keyboard section itself, gestures come in very handy if you have an HTPC in the living room. Windows 10 has excellent 2/3/4-finger gesture support, and then iCUE picks up to allow for even more customization. Windows 8.1 and 7 get some love too, as seen in the default list above. The joystick and L + R buttons ended up being used more often than I thought initially, especially in media mode for my smart TV. The keyboard is light and low enough in profile to where my right hand was naturally gripping it at an angle to use the R button on the back without it feeling awkward. Left-handed users may find this a touch wanting, but unfortunately, they will also have to become accustomed to this treatment. The various indicator LEDs are functional too, especially if you end up using two Bluetooth hosts and switch from one to the other, or simply to keep an eye on battery life.

The keyboard section in day-to-day use outside of the hotkeys is, well, wanting. A compact keyboard with 76 keys is always hard to get used to, and the use of scissor switches with a short travel distance and predominantly flat keycaps does not help. Sure, there is a "gentle concave center", as CORSAIR puts it, on the keycaps, but going from taller profile keys to this can be jarring. Even low-profile mechanical switches offer a more satisfying typing experience. I do understand why CORSAIR went this route, however, so the use of scissor switches is somewhat justifiable. What is not, at least for me, is the choice of some discrete keys over others and the awkward placement of the arrow keys. Good luck trying to use the Up and Down arrow keys, and be glad there are other navigation options on the device! I also do not really recommend changing language or typing layouts via iCUE on the K83, especially given the fewer number of keys and lack of keycap swapping.


As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the CORSAIR K83 Wireless sample at ~70 WPM as it comes out of the box. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with scissor switches. I did bottom out, which is a must with these switches, and the typing noise is on the lighter side of average.