Cherry MX Board 3.0 Review: Great example of its type

Cherry MX Board 3.0 Review – Cherry, based in Germany, is best known as the maker of the mechanical switches used by most top-end keyboard makers, colour-coded (invisible to the user) according to their feel. This is the cheapest product in which the company uses them itself, and comes in four switch options: Black for a traditional stiff sprung key, Blue for a clicky key that takes less effort to press. Brown for a similar feel but without the click, and Red for non-clicky keys that respond more easily. Only the latter two are available in a UK-English layout.

Solidly built will last for years, and it gives huge control over how you type

Often chosen by gamers for their speed. Red switches could be a good choice if you have fond memories of mechanical keyboards but your fingers have got used to modern flat keys, which take much less force to press. Despite how we all complained about them at first, decent tile-style keyboards do make accurate typing possible, but with a very different technique. Swapping back can be surprisingly tiring at first.

There’s not much to say about the shiny black MX-Board 3.0 except that it’s solidly built, with a steel plate in its base and every switch designed to last 50 million strokes. You don’t get any fancy extras like multi-coloured lighting. In fact, apart from the Windows key and the Caps Lock and Num Lock indicators, the only part that’s backlit is the Cherry logo at the top.

We’ll allow them that self-indulgence, because the keyboard is very reasonably- priced for something that should last you a decade or two. The 12 function keys have their standard Windows actions by

SPECIFICATIONS

Wired USB keyboard • Function key customisation via software • Available in Windows PC layout only • 28x446x158mm (Hx WxD) • 0.83kg • Two-year warranty

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Should not buy anything from AudioAffair.

default, but can be customised using Cherry’s KeyMan program. This is a pain to use. but have patience because when you delve deeper into it you can set up macros and key sequences triggered by single function keys, even adjusting the timing between key presses, which can be very useful.

VERDICT:

It’s not a thing of sleek elegance, but this old-fashioned keyboard is a great example of its type (sorry) at a very fair price

5/5

ALTERNATIVE:

Cooler Master MasterKeys MK750

With a similar feel plus programmable backlighting, this may be worth the extra money