6 best gaming keyboards of 2016: SteelSeries, Razer, Corsair and more

For some PC gamers, having the right keyboard attached to your computer can be almost as important as the hardware inside it. However, for the uninitiated, it can be hard to see what all the fuss is about. Is there really any difference between fancy gaming keyboards and a basic £10 keyboard form Microsoft or Logitech? See all keyboard and mouse reviews

See also: 8 best gaming PCs in the UK

In a word, yes. Different keyboards have different features, of course, but all gaming keyboards come with a battery of extra options and features and have the potential to improve your gaming experience dramatically.

One of the principal differences is the keys themselves, and whether the keyboard is mechanical or membrane-based. Membrane keyboards use a layer of conductive plastic underneath the keys which forms an electrical contact when pressed. Mechanical keyboards on the other hand use physical switches underneath each key, which are actuated when pressed.

Mechanical keyboards are generally said to be more crisp and responsive and keyboards using the high-quality Cherry MX mechanical switches are a firm favourite of PC gamers, allowing for faster, more precise keystrokes. The principal downside of mechanical keyboards is their more expensive and bulky nature versus membrane models.

Of course, how a keyboard feels is only part of its appeal; you want it to look good as well. Many gaming keyboards now come equipped with backlighting, allowing you to see what your typing even in the dark, as well as often enabling you to program specific colours or patterns for aesthetic appeal.

Layout is also an important aspect of gaming keyboards. Many games rely on lightning-fast reflexes, and a split-second can mean the difference between glorious success and humiliating, abject failure. For this reason, gaming keyboard layouts are optimised for maximum efficiency, with ergonomic layouts, programmable keys and numerous shortcuts meaning that everything you need is always right where you need it.

Part of this is macro keys: programmable buttons to which you can assign long, complicated strings of keystrokes. This enables you to execute complex commands and manoeuvres with a single button press, saving time and effort and letting you focus on your gaming strategy. You can even create multiple profiles with separate macros, allowing you to tailor your macro sets to specific games.

Many additional factors can influence a gaming keyboard's appeal - the design and build quality, the convenience of its configuration software, additional multimedia keys and so on. You may find that if you're only an occasional gamer, you're perfectly happy with the most basic of peripherals. But for those of us that consider gaming a serious hobby, upgrading to a dedicated keyboard will change they way you play.

Best gaming keyboards 2016 UK: SteelSeries Apex M800

Price: €199 (around £145) to buy from SteelSeries.

The SteelSeries Apex M800 is a relatively new gaming keyboard, announced earlier this year, and is our favourite (and most expensive) gaming keyboard in this roundup. Let’s talk first about the design before we delve into the specifics – it has a low profile design, based lightly on the design of the original Apex gaming keyboard. It’s been built at an ergonomic low angle for extra comfort, and the linear key layout cuts down on finger travel. This means that you’ll be able to reach the keys you need, when you need them, and thus speed up your reaction times.

However, it isn’t the ergonomic design that pleases us most about the M800 – it’s the illumination it offers. It doesn’t just offer standard keyboard backlighting like Apple’s Mac laptops, but offers individual key illumination in a choice of 16.8 million colours. This means that, using SteelSeries software, you can design your own custom lighting schemes for various different games. For example, you can turn off the illumination for all keys apart from the ones you’re using, and make all damage-related keys red, health-related keys green, etc. It definitely makes a difference to the overall gameplay experience, especially with new games where you’re unsure of the keyboard layout.

As well as custom designs, the M800 also comes with a handful of pre-set light effects including Breathe, Colour Wave, Cooldown Timers and Reactive Keys. These really give the M800 the wow factor it deserves, any we can pretty much guarantee that every person that see’s the keyboard lit up will comment on it.

Apart from the aesthetics, the M800 packs some serious technology that’ll give any gamer the edge he/she needs. Firstly, the M800 boasts dual processors, with one CPU dedicated solely to key presses, which effectively stops any ghosting issues. In fact, the M800 can handle up to 256 keys to be pressed at once with no issue – but considering we don’t have 256 fingers or 256 keys on the keyboard, you’ll never have to worry.

The M800 also boasts switch technology specifically designed for this keyboard. SteelSeries paired up with experts in switch technology to create the QS1 switch. The improved QS1 switch provides a smooth linear action, as well as 25 percent faster actuation than standard mechanical switches. The keys only require 45cN of force to register a key press, which allows for lighter key presses and faster reactions.

And if that wasn’t enough for you, it even features a USB 2.0 hub and a series of Macro keys which can be programmed via SteelSeries’ software for both PC and Mac.

This is the ultimate in gaming keyboards, in our opinion, and is really only for hardcore gamers. It’s quite a chunky keyboard despite its ergonomic design, but in return you get a powerhouse of a keyboard that can provide lightning fast responses when you need them most. The individually lit keys are also a bonus, as they allow a higher level of customisation than standard gaming keyboards.

Best gaming keyboards 2016 UK: Razer BlackWidow Chroma

Price: £139, available from Amazon

Razer is well known in the gaming world for its peripherals, and a Razer keyboard is the first choice for many. We previously had the Anansi in this list but we've replaced it with the frankly amazing BlackWidow Chroma.

A key feature of the Chroma is Razer's own mechanical switches which feel great to both type and game on. They use a 50g actuation force and have a whopping 60 million keystroke lifespan so you'll be good for a while. You can buy the keyboard in a silent keys option, too.

Lighting has been a staple in the gaming world for a long time, so you can be just as cool at your desk as when driving your modded Citroen Saxo down the highstreet with its underlights.

As the name suggests, the BlackWidow Chrome supports 16.8 million customisable colour options so you can basically do whatever you want with it. You can simply set it to a single colour to match the colour scheme in the room but also much more advances things.

Reactive mode is pretty cool where keys you kit individually light up but you can also set out templates for different types of gaming. For example, FPS mode highlights the 'WASD' keys and you can customise it for your personal set up.

Pretty lights aside, the Chroma comes with a number of features which will help your gaming. A gaming mode stops you quitting to your desktop by disabling the Windows key and can be expanded to Alt+Tab and Alt+F4 (you can use the Chroma on Mac, too)
There is a lot you can do with macro keys. There are five dedicated macro keys on the left side and this keyboard supports on the fly macro recording. The Chroma also has 10 key roll-over anti-ghosting.

The keyboard features a braided fiber cable which requires two USB ports. This is so you can utilise the USB port on the side of the keyboard itself which saves you diving under your desk to plug things in. There's are also headphone and microphones ports which could come in very handy.

Best gaming keyboards 2016 UK: Roccat Ryos MK Advanced Mechanical

Price: £70, available from Amazon. 

It’s painfully evident that Roccat’s strength lies in its range of mice after using the Ryos MK (part number ROC-12-602-MK). For starters, there is no backlighting, a feature now common throughout gaming peripherals. This is disappointment particularly as certain small elements of the keyboard are lit, leading us to question why the rest of it wasn’t. There is a fully illuminated version of the Ryos MK, but it's £120.

The Ryos MK is huge, largely due to the built-in wrist rest. While it’s quite ergonomically comfortable, it increases the size of an already-bulky device – you’ll need a lot of desktop space for this. The keyboard also feels oddly hollow and flimsy, a side-effect of which is that the sound of the Cherry MX black switches is amplified by the echoey body to old-school typewriter levels of clackyness. The overall build quality is average and the plastic feels fairly cheap. The lack of a braided cable also makes the price seem a tad high.

A common feature of gaming keyboards (and many others for that matter) is having multimedia controls bound to the function keys. For gaming, there's the standard set of multiple profiles and the ability to switch between them. It also has a column of five macro keys on the left of the keyboard and thumb modifiers below the spacebar, similar to the Anansi. However, the Ryos has three thumb keys rather than seven, which we feel is a more sensible amount.

Should you feel that this is insufficient, Roccat’s EasyShift[+] technology allows you to assign a second function to every key, accessed by holding down what would otherwise be the capslock button. However, with over 100 programmable keys already available, we can’t conceive of any situation that would necessitate almost doubling your keyboard’s functions.

Unfortunately, the macro and configuration interface is less comprehensive than some we’ve seen, and it’s definitely less intuitive – programming macros is something of an ordeal. It’s also separate to the Roccat mouse drivers, so if you’ve got multiple devices it’s not easy to share settings between them. We also couldn’t find any option for changing the resolution of the software, which appeared as ridiculously tiny on our monitor, forcing us to squint at the settings.

The Roccat Ryos MK is a decent keyboard, provided you don’t mind the lack of backlighting and the prospect sounding like a 1950s typist. However, there are better options out there, so unless you particularly need the option to have around 200 key bindings, look elsewhere.

Best gaming keyboards 2016 UK: Corsair K70 RGB

Price: £99 available from Currys. 

We’ll say this for the Corsair K70 RGB keyboard: it’s a beautiful piece of kit. Constructed from aircraft-grade brushed aluminium, it’s both reasonably light and impossibly sturdy, on top of looking absolutely fantastic. The design itself is simple and square and a little dull, but we can live with that. It also comes prepackaged with a detachable soft-touch wrist rest, which is a bonus.

It looks even better switched on, too. The chief selling point of this model is the backlighting, boasting 16.8 million colours per key and virtually limitless combinations. Corsair’s cross-device software allows you to build an endless variety of pulse, ripple and wave effects in vibrant rainbow colours, as well as colour-coding specific keys, such as movement controls in green, skill keys in blue and combat buttons in red. You can also assign timers to the lighting, such as having your spell keys change colour when they’re ready to use. The lighting interface is a initially confusing, but makes up for it with sheer unbridled flexibility, and looks absolutely breathtaking in action.

However, although macros and timers are supported within the software and can be bound to any button, the K70 RGB has no dedicated macro keys, forcing you to reassign any macros you build to an existing key. The key switches themselves are Cherry MX models, and the red versions that we used are nice and responsive. There’s not a huge amount of physical feedback and they’re pretty clacky (although not as loud as the Roccat Ryos), but whether that’s a plus or a minus is entirely down to personal taste. For the record, we’re fans.

Rather than assigning music and video controls to the function keys as most other keyboards do, Corsair has opted to give them special little buttons all their own. There’s also a special volume roller, for instant and precise audio control. It’s a small detail, but for some reason, we’re absolutely in love with it.

One thing we’re not in love with though is the two USB ports required to run the keyboard. In this case we can understand why it’s necessary, given the intensiveness of the backlighting, but it’s still a little awkward. The braided cable is also unexpectedly chunky, which is odd.

While it’s not as densely packed with hardware features as some of the other models on this list, in terms of purely aesthetic value it’s the clear winner by an absolute mile. If you desperately need macro keys it’s probably not ideal, but it’s just so damn pretty that we can’t help but recommend it.

Best gaming keyboards 2016 UK: Tesoro Excalibur G7NL

Price: £60, available from Amazon

The Tesoro Excalibur is not an especially pretty-looking keyboard. It’s chunky and square, with the most basic matte-black design possible. It features no fancy aesthetic flourishes, no extraneous wrist rests and no lighting gimmicks – this is 100 percent functionality.

If you’re looking for something that’s going to make your setup look high-end and impressive, this is not it. To the untrained eye, the plastic body and rubber cable make this look like something you could buy in Maplin for under a tenner. The font used is also quite impressively ugly, in that obnoxiously self-conscious sci-fi sort of way. The build quality is better than one would expect from looking at it though; the plastic is good-quality, and it’s solid and weighty without being overly brick-like.

While it doesn’t use Cherry MX switches, the Kailh models used instead come in similar blue, brown and red variations. We tested the blue keyswitches and we have to admit, they’ve got beautiful action. They’re a lovely balance between resistances, with more feedback than the Cherry red switches, but not as much as the black. They also appeal to our soft spot for sharply clacky keys.

As with most others, the Excalibur’s media controls occupy function key slots and there’s key shortcuts for switching between the five available profiles, all of which is fairly unremarkable. However, like the Corsair, the Excalibur features macro support without having dedicated macro keys, which could get frustrating if you’re someone that relies on heavy macro use while gaming.

The macro software is pretty simplistic, and it doesn’t look especially flashy, but it does its well enough, and we’ve got no complaints. You can also rebind various keys, should you so wish. The configuration software handles the keyboard backlighting as well, which is rudimentary but serviceable. There’s no option for setting up cycles or patterns, but there’s various colours available, and you can switch between various levels of brightness and configuration, including a ‘breathing’ effect and specifically lighting individual sections such as the WASD keys for gaming.

This keyboard is about as middle-of-the-road as they come; it’s not going to win any beauty contests, but it’s not an eyesore. It’s not dripping with features, but it does what it needs to. And while it’s not going to cost you pocket change, it’s not going to break the bank. It’s unlikely to wow anyone, and dedicated keyboard enthusiasts might resent the things it lacks, but unless you’ve got very specific requirements in mind, the Tesoro Excalibur should suit you just fine.

Best gaming keyboards 2016 UK: Coolermaster CM Storm Quickfire TK

Price: £75, available from Amazon

When we took it out of the box, the first thing we noticed about the Cooler Master CM Storm Quickfire TK was the absolutely tiny size. The Quickfire TK was the smallest keyboard we tested by a fairly considerable margin, but it felt a bit wrong. For a while, we couldn’t put our finger on the reason, until we realized that in order to save space, Cooler Master has combined the right-hand numpad with the arrow and command keys to the left.

On paper, this seems like a great idea: a lot of those buttons are fairly redundant, and there’s a substantial amount of wasted space in that area. However, muscle memory plays a huge part in keyboard operations, both in terms of gaming and when just generally typing, and by smashing those two sections together and shortening the form factor, our muscle memory was thrown off in a pretty major way. After spending some time with it, we were able to (mostly) get used to the smaller dimensions, but it’s initially counter-intuitive and uncomfortable.

We really can’t understate how small it is, though. You’d have to struggle not to fit this onto even the smallest of desks, and it’s extremely portable. The braided cable is also detachable for even more flexibility, and connects via miniUSB enabling you to swap it out for a longer or shorter wire as needed.

Like the Excalibur, it’s incredibly basic in terms of design, opting for the basic matte-black square shape. The plastic material of the body feels a little low-quality, but the keys themselves are really quite nice, and the inbuilt steel plate gives it a fantastic rigidity, albeit at the expense of a slightly disproportionate weight. It’s unassuming, but for some reason, we found it more attractive than the similar looking Excalibur.

One feature it is unfortunately lacking in is macros. We couldn’t find any configuration software, so if you want to rebind any keys or assign any long macro combinations, you’re out of luck with this particular keyboard. This also means that there’s no lighting customization. While it is backlit, the Quickfire TK only has one colour option (depending on which switch type you opt for), with three lighting modes (including lighting the most common gaming keys) and five brightness settings. It’s also got a brace of media controls, once again assigned to the function keys. It’s not the most impressive set-up in the world, but it’s at a decent basic level.

The keys used in the Quickfire are Cherry MX switches, available in red, blue or brown. We used the red switches as also seen on the Corsair K70 RGB, and the action isn’t quite as crisp as we’d like. It’s also not quite as noisy as Corsair’s keys, but both these things are very minor quibbles. One bonus it does have is a tool for detaching the keys included in the packaging, allowing you to take them out for cleaning or maintenance.

This keyboard is perfect for gamers that have to juggle their hobby with work or education, as it won’t dominate your desktop real-estate and is uber-portable. On the other hand, the lack of modification options and macro support is a little irritating for those of us that like to tweak our settings. Overall, though, this is a great all-rounder for both fast, responsive gaming, and for acting as a typing workhorse.