Robi_G
New member
Raptor used to be its own company, producing peripherals for the European market, recently they've been bought by corsair. Corsair have kept the products exactly the same though, using the raptor name for their budget range of keyboards. The Raptor LK1 is the most budget of budget at £11.99 on ebuyer (although the price has floated between £11 and £14 for the last month). Unlike my other reviews, I have something that will compete with this board, the £16 wireless Logic keyboard. Add to that the fact that the only other Raptor product I've owned has been the (terrible) M4 mouse, the LK1 has a fair bit to overcome.
Packaging and a look at the product:
The LK1 comes in a standard cardboard box, nothing fancy just a picture of the keyboard and the accessories that come with it, along with a big, clear title. Note the lack of Corsair branding on the box. On the back there is some basic information that wasn't worth reading, unless you still found yourself wondering what it was in the box after looking at the front.
There is nothing sealing the box so it's one catch on the front and you're in. There's also nothing holding anything in place inside the box either, with the board itself coming in a plastic bag and the cable being held together with some cheap twists, this gets much approval as it meant no time was wasted battling packaging and no extra money was spent on a box that was going to be used once and then never again.
On face value the LK1 makes itself heard, with the red wasd and arrow keys, I'm still confused as to why a gaming board (raptor's words not mine) would have highlighted arrow keys as there's not a person I know who uses them in games. It does even out the colour a bit though so I'm not making a big deal out of it.
In the box comes a key remover (a new toy for me) and some spare wasd and arrow keys, although if you touch type or simply don't care then they can of course replace any key as you can see in the last picture the board uses rubber domes, but surely that was a given at £11.
The keys themselves are basic 'cheap keyboard' keys, they do their job, above is the difference between all black keys and red wasd keys, I like the look of the red ones as they spice up an otherwise dull board.
The cable is very long indeed, I'd guess at 2-3m and is braided! And it's a very nice braid too, not paracord good but it adds an air of quality to the product. The USB plug is a sort of grey black colour but the way they've coloured it makes it look like someone introduced it briefly to a spray can, I can only guess that raptor were either going for an army kind of camo look (but why just do the plug in that case), or as shown in the right hand picture, just want to make it stand out against other plugs in the back of your machine.
In the top right of the board is raptor's site link (which redirects to "www.corsair.com/raptor-gaming") and the 'lock' indicator lights, these are not as intrusive as they look in the photo, in fact, they are very unobtrusive, I can only imagine why they didn't use red LEDs though to match the keys. The actual LEDs are an orange colour.
A couple of features now that don't really fit in anywhere else are the angle adjusting legs that aren't rubber coated like the rest of the plentiful (5 largeish) fixed position feet, they also aren't that interesting. What is a bit more interesting is the 6-key rollover which allows 6 simultaneous key presses. What is even more interesting (and less useful) is the feature whereby if you remove a key, it locks out the button so it's impossible to press. There are two things wrong with this, firstly I've never had fingers so large that when gaming I constantly hit a wrong key. Secondly if the key's removed you'd need a pen to push down the button with or without this special 'feature' so more marketing spiel than actual usefulness I think. What is EVEN more interesting than all those things is the water resistance of the board, in the picture above you can see drainage holes for water to get out and as the keys are removable you can clean up after a sticky drink like juice or coke spills on it. There's a video on Youtube showing someone pour a whole glass of water over the board and it survive, I'm not trying it with mine but it's nice to know that the water resistance is there none the less.
Here is the LK1 next to the Logik wireless board, the raptor is thinner (y-axis as you look at the picture) and would be shorter too if it weren't for the seemingly pointless plastic edge on the right hand side.
Using the LK1:
Bad bits first I think, firstly the board is very slightly warped but this doesn't produce any noticeable wobble when in use. Also, the spacebar is very rattly, making what would be an otherwise quiet keyboard into a less quiet one.
Now for the mediocre bits, there is also a bit of play in all the keys but this is to be expected at the price and also the windows key looks a bit half arsed compared to the other keys' sharp print. Another thing that people may or may not find nice is the texture used on the keys, I like it but I don't know about others, to give you an idea it's a bit like a cheap dell keyboard.
Now the bits that the LK1 does well. The keys are light to press and my typing speed has definitely gone up, maybe only a tiny bit, but a noticeable tiny bit. On a lot of American reviews they moan about the funny key layout but don't worry, the layout is the standard UK one so don't think there'll be a learning curve with this board. In games the board does fine, I mean do keyboards really matter in FPS games? You push a button and the character does something.
Short comparison with Lokic wireless board:
The keys are harder to push on the logik which could be good or bad. The Logik has media keys which the LK1 doesn't. The LK1 has 'lock' LEDs and the Logik doesn't, although the value of these is questionable. The Logik is wireless BUT will not work when anything is being transferred over a network as they work at the same frequency, I don't know if I just got unlucky with my network adapter / keyboard combination or whether this is a problem for everyone but if it's reliable signal you want then the LK1 is the way to go purely on the fact that it has a wired connection.
Conclusion:
There's a certain futility reviewing an £12 keyboard, everything around this price point will have pretty much the same keys and the same buttons and the same build quality. This is almost all true for the Raptor LK1, there is nothing really special about it. Yes it has the water resistant thing and the removable keys but there aren't any really useful and unique features on it. It is better designed than a lot of cheap keyboards out there and it has a nice weight to it, the braided cable adds to the quality.
But overall it's pretty much a basic keyboard that will do a basic job and do it very well, all while looking a bit nicer than it's peers.
Price: 9
Performance: 6
Presentation: 7
Packaging and a look at the product:
The LK1 comes in a standard cardboard box, nothing fancy just a picture of the keyboard and the accessories that come with it, along with a big, clear title. Note the lack of Corsair branding on the box. On the back there is some basic information that wasn't worth reading, unless you still found yourself wondering what it was in the box after looking at the front.
There is nothing sealing the box so it's one catch on the front and you're in. There's also nothing holding anything in place inside the box either, with the board itself coming in a plastic bag and the cable being held together with some cheap twists, this gets much approval as it meant no time was wasted battling packaging and no extra money was spent on a box that was going to be used once and then never again.
On face value the LK1 makes itself heard, with the red wasd and arrow keys, I'm still confused as to why a gaming board (raptor's words not mine) would have highlighted arrow keys as there's not a person I know who uses them in games. It does even out the colour a bit though so I'm not making a big deal out of it.
In the box comes a key remover (a new toy for me) and some spare wasd and arrow keys, although if you touch type or simply don't care then they can of course replace any key as you can see in the last picture the board uses rubber domes, but surely that was a given at £11.
The keys themselves are basic 'cheap keyboard' keys, they do their job, above is the difference between all black keys and red wasd keys, I like the look of the red ones as they spice up an otherwise dull board.
The cable is very long indeed, I'd guess at 2-3m and is braided! And it's a very nice braid too, not paracord good but it adds an air of quality to the product. The USB plug is a sort of grey black colour but the way they've coloured it makes it look like someone introduced it briefly to a spray can, I can only guess that raptor were either going for an army kind of camo look (but why just do the plug in that case), or as shown in the right hand picture, just want to make it stand out against other plugs in the back of your machine.
In the top right of the board is raptor's site link (which redirects to "www.corsair.com/raptor-gaming") and the 'lock' indicator lights, these are not as intrusive as they look in the photo, in fact, they are very unobtrusive, I can only imagine why they didn't use red LEDs though to match the keys. The actual LEDs are an orange colour.
A couple of features now that don't really fit in anywhere else are the angle adjusting legs that aren't rubber coated like the rest of the plentiful (5 largeish) fixed position feet, they also aren't that interesting. What is a bit more interesting is the 6-key rollover which allows 6 simultaneous key presses. What is even more interesting (and less useful) is the feature whereby if you remove a key, it locks out the button so it's impossible to press. There are two things wrong with this, firstly I've never had fingers so large that when gaming I constantly hit a wrong key. Secondly if the key's removed you'd need a pen to push down the button with or without this special 'feature' so more marketing spiel than actual usefulness I think. What is EVEN more interesting than all those things is the water resistance of the board, in the picture above you can see drainage holes for water to get out and as the keys are removable you can clean up after a sticky drink like juice or coke spills on it. There's a video on Youtube showing someone pour a whole glass of water over the board and it survive, I'm not trying it with mine but it's nice to know that the water resistance is there none the less.
Here is the LK1 next to the Logik wireless board, the raptor is thinner (y-axis as you look at the picture) and would be shorter too if it weren't for the seemingly pointless plastic edge on the right hand side.
Using the LK1:
Bad bits first I think, firstly the board is very slightly warped but this doesn't produce any noticeable wobble when in use. Also, the spacebar is very rattly, making what would be an otherwise quiet keyboard into a less quiet one.
Now for the mediocre bits, there is also a bit of play in all the keys but this is to be expected at the price and also the windows key looks a bit half arsed compared to the other keys' sharp print. Another thing that people may or may not find nice is the texture used on the keys, I like it but I don't know about others, to give you an idea it's a bit like a cheap dell keyboard.
Now the bits that the LK1 does well. The keys are light to press and my typing speed has definitely gone up, maybe only a tiny bit, but a noticeable tiny bit. On a lot of American reviews they moan about the funny key layout but don't worry, the layout is the standard UK one so don't think there'll be a learning curve with this board. In games the board does fine, I mean do keyboards really matter in FPS games? You push a button and the character does something.
Short comparison with Lokic wireless board:
The keys are harder to push on the logik which could be good or bad. The Logik has media keys which the LK1 doesn't. The LK1 has 'lock' LEDs and the Logik doesn't, although the value of these is questionable. The Logik is wireless BUT will not work when anything is being transferred over a network as they work at the same frequency, I don't know if I just got unlucky with my network adapter / keyboard combination or whether this is a problem for everyone but if it's reliable signal you want then the LK1 is the way to go purely on the fact that it has a wired connection.
Conclusion:
There's a certain futility reviewing an £12 keyboard, everything around this price point will have pretty much the same keys and the same buttons and the same build quality. This is almost all true for the Raptor LK1, there is nothing really special about it. Yes it has the water resistant thing and the removable keys but there aren't any really useful and unique features on it. It is better designed than a lot of cheap keyboards out there and it has a nice weight to it, the braided cable adds to the quality.
But overall it's pretty much a basic keyboard that will do a basic job and do it very well, all while looking a bit nicer than it's peers.
Price: 9
Performance: 6
Presentation: 7
