After my first XVX keyboard review recently I had a fairly good idea of what to expect from the brand—various different themes applied over a base keyboard, that in turn is available in different form factors. In other words, the other XVX M61 keyboards in the Coral Sea and Izakaya themes—as of the time I write this review anyway—are functionally identically to this special Tiger themed unit created to celebrate the current Chinese Year of the Tiger. What I was not sure about was whether the functionality and software experience with the M84 previously reviewed would be the same here too, but that is not the case.

The XVX M61 Tiger uses a different USB microcontroller with different accompanying software drivers to where the customization program is completely different, for good and bad. The user experience is in dire need of improvement if the poor scaling I've experienced is anything to go by. The overall sluggishness is also not ideal, and the virtual keyboard used only in the custom lighting effect programming should be generally used if possible. On the other hand we get more key mapping options here, in addition to a dedicated gaming mode. The form factor in general is also more conducive to the wireless connectivity option and the battery life here is longer too, owing to the fewer keys and LEDs to light up. I also appreciated that the design is a new take on the Tiger theme and is not just a wrap glued to the plastic case. XVX has put in more thought here to make the M61 Tiger truly an XVX product. Given the $70 price point for the feature set I can certainly see this appealing to those who fancy the theme and its execution here. But there are compromises present, making it hard to wholeheartedly recommend the keyboard.