Lighting and Performance

The Mountain Everest Max keyboard supports N-key rollover USB out of the box, which tested successfully using Aqua's test. Switch Hitter confirmed no chatter with these keys. Unlike most keyboards today, the R. Win key is also actually kept on the base layer.

When first connected, regardless of whether the software is running or not, the keyboard lights up in a rainbow wave lighting effect. The transition animation is smooth, albeit quite fast, and a good demo to ensure the keyboard is powered on and working properly. I am not sure why Mountain maxed out the speed but not the brightness level by default, so it makes for a less impressive effect than it can be.


There are multiple onboard lighting effects to choose from, including static, dynamic, and a reactive mode. It's certainly not as much as you would get from CORSAIR, ASUS, Razer, etc., and the LEDs also don't seem all that bright even at maximum brightness. The side lighting is very subtle to where I almost forgot it was even a thing. There is light bleed too, with the floating keycaps not helping things. I then switched over to software control and set all the LEDs to white to test for color fidelity since RGB LEDs can have a hard time pulling off a true white with 255/255/255 for the R/G/B/ channels. It ends up being one of the worst whites, with clear signs of the three channels still showing. Unfortunately, this means that the actual lighting with the Mountain Everest Max is worse than with many others, including far less expensive keyboards. This is with the thin ABS keycaps too, so I imagine it would be worse with the thicker PBT keycap option.


Introducing functionality on par with the CORSAIR iCUE NEXUS screen, but using a much better display, the media dock is the biggest USP for me. The screen is also more conducive to quickly checking things and using the wheel associated with the dial to change to something else, which you can select from within the options set in Base Camp, before using the menu buttons alongside. By default, you get volume control too, and the other buttons next to it complete the media playback and volume control set. Oh, it's also an LCD display of sufficient resolution and color depth for this application, so there are no worries about burn-in, either.


The display keys on the numpad further add to the appeal, with the overall effect far more impressive than I thought. You won't see any colors once past, say, 70 degrees either way. In practice, you do lose some of the brightness and colors if you have the keyboard further away from your eyes. Have it set up more ergonomically and things get much better, another reason to practice ergonomic typing and a correct typing posture. Some icons also have a black background to where they look smaller than the Mountain-specific ones, though the ability to use your own images does make it fun, too. These are also keys you can press down to actuate a function, and different icons can be used with different profiles, too.


The onboard memory has Mountain store most things on the keyboard itself, which means there are plenty of pre-programmed controls, too. Five profiles on the device mean you can have one for the base layer, one for productivity apps, one for gaming, one for content creation, and so on. Content creation is made all the better with OBS Studio integration now, which I did try out, but it's not really my thing to where I can't speak much more about it other than to say it works fine. It allows the media keys to be a mini Elgato Stream Deck now, so there is plenty more ongoing to where I would not surprised if the bill of materials for the Mountain Everest Max is north of $200. The modularity is very neat, and the displays allow for so many customizations beyond just going from a TKL keyboard to a full-size one with a right or left-handed numpad.


As we saw before, the Mountain Everest Max comes in five Cherry MX RGB switch options. We get the venerable MX Red RGB here, and in its latest iteration of a lifetime of 100 M guaranteed keystrokes before any drop in specified actuation travel and force performance. This switch is rated for an actuation of 2.0 mm with 45 cN and 4.00 mm total travel and has quickly become the most popular mechanical switch in use today, which can be attributed at least partially to the many marketed "gaming keyboards" using linear mechanical instead of tactile or clicky switches. Actuation and peak forces were well within rated values based on my testing of twenty random switches with a tension gauge. It's not my favorite switch, but Cherry as a brand still sells, and the hot-swappable nature of the switches allows for even more customization.


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 Mountain Everest Max sample at ~95 WPM as it comes out of the box with the Cherry MX Red RGB switches. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with linear switches. I did bottom out more often than not since these switches are lighter than I prefer, but I also did so on purpose some of the time to show you that it is quieter than usual here. Indeed, all the mods by Mountain come to good effect, be it with the clipped and lubed stabilizers or the sound-adsorbing foam between the PCB and case. This makes the keyboard sound quite nice, which I cannot say often about a pre-built using Cherry MX Red switches these days.