Corsair crams 4 extra keys into an extremely thin wireless mechanical keyboard
There are people who prefer a more compact keyboard, be it for portability, a preferred aesthetic, or saving space. There are also those who prefer keyboards with as many keys as possible. We're not just talking about full-size keyboards with numpads. We're talking about the kind of extra programmable keys that can store macros, launch a favored app, or input a complex string of characters with a press. Corsair's K100 Air, in a way, seeks to address both groups. The mechanical keyboard has a small bank of macro keys inside an incredibly thin 0.4-inch (11 mm) thick frame.
The K100 Air manages to be just 0.4 inches at its thinnest point, according to Corsair's announcement Thursday, with Cherry's MX Ultra Low Profile mechanical switches. The keyboard will use the clicky version of the switch, which has 1.8 mm of travel and actuates at 0.8 mm with 65 g of force.
A profile view. (credit: Corsair)
Even by low-profile standards, that is some shallow typing. For comparison, the MX Low Profile Red switches in keyboards like the Das KeyBoard MacTigr we recently reviewed and Razer's DeathStalker V2 Pro have 3.2 mm total travel, 1.2 mm pretravel, and actuate at 45 g of force. Those keyboards are thicker, naturally, at 1.06 inches and 1 inch tall, respectively. And full-height Cherry MX Blue switches are specced at 4 mm/2.2 mm/60.