Thank you Corsair for sending us this keyboard to review!

Corsair's K55 Core RGB Gaming Keyboard is their most recent refresh of their entry-level K55 series. This model, the Core RGB, is a full-sized keyboard, but is about as small as a full-sized keyboard can reasonably be, while still retaining basic media keys. They did a great job making it look sharp, even if it's made to hit a value price point. It also feels light to the touch for a membrane keyboard, reducing noise and making it more ergonomic.

For those not familiar with keyboards, membranes are the least expensive and most common keyboard type, and are a great idea for someone who is not picky with their keyboards, being used by young kids, or using them in a very dirty environment. Premium keyboards use mechanical keys, which cost quite a bit more, and feel really nice to use. While I personally wish everyone could enjoy the loveliness of a nice mechanical, the reality is many people just don't care, or can't afford luxury for their computer parts. Especially with kids; don't spill anything onto your expensive mechanical keyboard!

The K55 series uses membrane keys, and feels pretty nice all things considered. The main thing I like about this K55 Core is that the keys aren't too difficult to press, and every key seems to work well. The key caps look sharp, with a nice dark gray color on top of a black board. Under the keys is a white tray of sorts, where the RGB LEDs are embedded. If you look closely, you can see that there are four holes near the bottom under the spacebar with three others across horizontally, that poke through to the bottom of the keyboard. This is brilliant, because if you spill something (or the keyboard needs a desperate clean), you can drain that liquid through those holes and down out the bottom of the keyboard. This is quite a smart design.

The RGB LEDs light up in ten zones, which span through vertical columns making up sections about two to three keys wide. Lighting is quite uniform, though certain colors shine through the keycaps better than others; for example, my preferred dark blue makes it not so easy to see all of the letters, while most of the other colors look awesome. I especially like how green and red look, though I suspect my wife would love how purple looks on this thing.

There are several RGB color profiles and lighting effects built into the keyboard, which is great, since some brands require running Windows software to be able to customize anything. In this case, you can press Fn+`/1/2/3/4/5, with Fn+` being the default hardware profile, Fn+1 being rainbow wave, Fn+2 being color shift, Fn+3 being color pulse, Fn+4 being color wave, and Fn+5 being a selectable static color. I prefer static colors, and the default options look great (other than blue), so I chose a static green with this keyboard.