This year, Corsair introduced the K65 RGB which we’ll discuss in our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review today. It’s a diminutive board that does away with the arrow cluster, number pad, and other keys. They chose this layout to occupy as little desk space as possible without compromising the important stuff that gamers need.
What we have today is the K65 RGB Mini with MX Speed switches. And if you’re interested to learn more about this product, continue reading our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review.
Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard Packaging
Our K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard came in a little neon yellow flip-open box. It showcases an image of the product on the front while Corsair and its logo are on the upper-left corner.
The name of the product is found on the lower-left corner, while the opposite shows the iCUE logo.
Inside, you’ll find the keyboard with additional accessories like a USB-C to A cable, plus a keycap puller. There’s also an alternate ABS spacebar featuring a radiant RGB passthrough and an alternate ABS keycap with Corsair’s logo.
Of course, it’s good to note that Corsair also included a user manual for your convenience.
Let’s continue our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review and look at the style and functions of the keyboard.
Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard Review – Design and Functionality
The K65 RGB Mini from Corsair is a 60% form factor keyboard. Its design is ideal for maximising space on your desk. Plus, it has a compact frame but isn’t flat like low-profile keyboards.
Behind the keycaps, there’s a smart white backplate for a better RGB light bleed.
When it comes to the K65 RGB Mini’s build quality, it’s outstanding and feels durable. It features a white metal base plate and a plastic case that doesn’t flex.
The doubleshot PBT keycaps aren’t exactly smooth to prevent your fingers from slipping from the keys.
Under the board, you’ll find our rubber pads that prevent this from slipping if you accidentally nudge it.
To note its onboard memory in our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review, it comes with 8MB of it. This will allow you to program a lot of profiles in the iCUE Software.
You can create and store as many as 50 profiles then easily switch between these by pressing Fn+Z. Using the keyboard alone, it’s possible to record macros on the fly with quick presses.
For the USB-C to A cable, it’s braided and detachable, making it more convenient for travelling.
Key Features of the Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard
This Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review wouldn’t be complete if we skipped on its features. This is to let everyone know what the product has to offer.
Form and Function Combined
The K65 RGB Mini offers big features in its 60% form factor. With its compact size, you can add this to any set-up and enjoy comfortable gaming.
Expansive Shortcuts
This compact mechanical keyboard can access a range of side-printed onboard features. It provides over 30 unique controls for profiles, media, lighting, macros, volume, and mouse cursor.
Onboard macro recording and two-function layers allow recording of macros on the fly. And the best thing is you won’t need to sacrifice standard keys for this convenient access to advanced commands.
Personalise and Showcase Your Style
You can customise the K65 RGB Mini with its dynamic per-key RGB lighting and the swappable spacebar. It also has a standard bottom row layout for swapping in your own custom keycaps.
Fast and Linear
The Cherry MX Speed Silver key switches provide lightning-fast responsiveness with a 1.2mm actuation distance. It’s perfect for competitive and fast-paced gaming.
Powered by AXON
Corsair’s Hyper-Processing Technology delivers faster inputs, 4,000Hz key scanning, and native 8,000Hz hyper-polling. Plus, it simultaneously drives up to 20-layer lighting effects.
Before continuing our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review to see its performance, let’s check the keyboard’s specifications first.
Specifications
The K65 RGB Mini that we have uses the Cherry MX Speed Silver switches. But Corsair also offers this mechanical keyboard with the Cherry MX Red switches.
It has per-key RGB lighting that adds to its aesthetic value. For its keycaps, the material used is doubleshot PBT plastic.
The keyboard features a USB 2.0 Type-A interface with Fn media keys. It also has a braided detachable USB-C to A keyboard. Additionally, its onboard storage capacity is 8MB which can store up to 50 profiles.
Finally, its dimensions are 11.6 x 4.14 x 1.74 inches (L x W x H) and weighs 1.3 lbs.
Hands-on with the Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard
Our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review will now discuss the software and performance of the product.
iCUE Software
The software is Corsair’s utility suite for managing all iCUE-compatible components and peripherals. It’s where various configurations and customisations are made. Here, you can also monitor various stats like real-time temperatures.
For the K65 RGB Mini, it offers customisation for key assignments, lighting effects, and other settings. It also allows saving some onboard settings so you can use custom profiles even without the software.
The latest update of iCUE Software has completely changed. It’s now simplified to make it more user-friendly. The interface displays all the connected iCUE components for easy access.
In the Key Assignments section, iCUE software lets you select a key to configure. You can remap it, create a macro launcher program, and a lot more.
For Hardware Key Assignments, you can easily set all your macros and profiles. With that, you can run and use these settings whether you have the software installed or not. It’s a great feature to take advantage of if you’re bringing the keyboard somewhere else.
The Lighting Effects section is where everything is layered. It lets you configure your WASD keys, create different profiles for the top, and more. iCUE software offers a cool way to customise the keyboard’s lighting since it allows individual configuration.
The Performance tab is where you can select what is disabled when the Windows lock is on. This section is also where you can change the indicator colour. When you customise this, the Windows key will light up with your chosen colour once you enable Windows lock.
Finally, we have the Device Settings section. This is where you can change the K65 RGB Mini’s polling rate which ranges from 1,000Hz to 8,000Hz. Take note that the keyboard will restart when you change its polling rate.
This section is also where you can find your onboard memory and select profiles.
As we mentioned earlier, the iCUE Software was simple and easy to use. In fact, we liked this new and updated version since it provided us with easier access to all the settings.
Continue reading our Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard review to see how well this product performed.
Performance of the Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard
The K65 RGB Mini offered great typing quality. The spaces between the keys felt normal despite the compact size.
For the keycaps, these have a bit of texture which gave us a pleasant feeling when we tried typing. All the keys were stable and they also actuated evenly.
Now, let’s talk about the Cherry MX Speed Silver keycaps. These have slightly less travel than the Cherry Red keycaps. So, it can be easy to mispress the K65 RGB Mini’s keys.
If you’re not used to these, you’ll need to slow down while typing to avoid registering unwanted keystrokes.
We had no problems with the K65 RGB Mini’s keys, so we were able to use it seamlessly. It didn’t register incorrect keystrokes which is something we liked. Also, the keyboard was able to keep up with fast typing and rapid WASD movements in various games.
In all the games we played, whether it was FPS, RPG, or real-time strategy, it offered impressive response times.
Like other 60% keyboards, trying to use the function keys can be a challenge. That’s because some of these were combined to fit in the K65 RGB Mini’s compact form factor. But despite that, Corsair made sure that all functions important to the users are present.
The learning curve can be an issue for those who are accustomed to using full-sized gaming keyboards. But it wasn’t a problem for us since it was also like using virtual keyboards on mobile. Plus, the K65 RGB Mini is highly customisable via the iCUE Software, so we were able to set our configurations.
With the K65 RGB Mini’s 8MB onboard memory, we were able to store a lot of profiles. In fact, it can save up to 50 profiles, but we only needed a few for typing and gaming uses.
For its overall performance, the K65 RGB Mini worked excellently for both typing and gaming. It was highly responsive and precise, making it one of the best 60% keyboards we’ve used.
Corsair K65 RGB Mini Mechanical Keyboard Review Summary
The K65 RGB Mini is another impressive keyboard from Corsair. Despite its compact size, it’s packed with the company’s excellent features that make it a great product. Plus, it comes with a more simplified yet comprehensive utility suite for customising its settings.
From customising to using the K65 RGB Mini, we enjoyed our entire experience while using the product. The keyboard worked excellently with its high responsiveness, and we didn’t experience issues with it. Even the onboard profiles worked well when we used the keyboard on another computer.
Overall, we were satisfied with the K65 RGB Mini’s performance, and we highly recommend it. If you want to purchase this keyboard and add it to your setup, it’s available from the company’s official website.