Corsair has repeatedly impressed with its line of gaming keyboards, including the Editors' Choice K95 RGB ( at Amazon) . Its lower-priced model, the Strafe Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ($109.99), maintains the same solid dependability, high performance, and individual key customization enthusiast gamers crave. The Strafe( at Amazon) lacks a few of the premium features of its more expensive stablemates, such as lighting color options and dedicated macro keys, to keep its price down, but it's still a very solid, affordable gaming keyboard.

Design and Features

Corsair has fashioned a sleek, attractive design for its line of gaming keyboards, and the Strafe is no exception. It's not made of aluminum like the K95 RGB and the Corsair K70 RGB ($169.98 at Amazon) , but the plastic exterior still looks and feels high-quality. The keyboard's face is coated in a textured, black plastic, with a striking bed of smooth red underneath the keys.

Each key is fashioned from smooth, contoured plastic, with the exception of the space bar, which is textured, cross-hatched steel. The Strafe is of standard size and weight, at 1.57 by 6.69 by 17.63 inches (HWD) and 2.9 pounds. You can take in on the road in a backpack or larger bag, but I wouldn't exactly call it portable. Unlike the other two Corsair keyboards, the Strafe does not include a wrist rest, detachable or otherwise.

The 104 keys have Cherry MX Red mechanical switches—the same as those used in the Corsair K95 RGB—with 100-percent anti-ghosting and full-key rollover to prevent lag and input jamming. The Cherry MX Red switches offer a smooth, responsive feel without the extra audible click provided by the Cherry MX Blue variant. Every key is individually backlit, though the only color option is red, which matches nicely with the red background beneath the keys.

Through Corsair's Utility Engine software, you can create any lighting pattern you'd like, or choose from six presets. These include a ripple out from each key you press, a wave that dashes back and forth across the keys horizontally, a scattered rain of lights from top to bottom, and several other patterns. You can create for your own effects with a bit of trial and error as you learn the software, but the included presets are very appealing.

You can also create macros through software (and you can record and save any button sequence), and every key on the Strafe is programmable. The Corsair K95 RGB includes 18 "G-Keys" on the left-hand side that are meant to serve as dedicated macro buttons, but you'll have to make do with assigning commands to standard keys on the Strafe. The overall options are not quite at the level of the Corsair K90 RGB, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma ($89.95 at Amazon) ,or the Corsair K70 RGB, all of which offer 16.8 million colors for key lighting, but customizability is still strong for a less-expensive keyboard.

There are two extra keys on the top-right corner of the keyboard, which allow you to switch lighting brightness and disable the Windows key during games. The brightness key cycles the lighting through low, medium, and high intensities (33 percent, 66 percent, and 100 percent, respectively, according to the software), and can also turn it off altogether. The Strafe also includes a USB pass-through for connecting your mouse or another peripheral, a feature missing from both the Corsair K95 RGB and K70 RGB. Corsair covers the product with a two-year warranty.

Performance

I tested the Strafe for several days in general-use and gaming scenarios, and came away impressed. It's easy to type on, and not obnoxiously loud for a mechanical keyboard. The row of function keys is spaced what seems unnecessarily far away from the number row, making you stretch a bit to access the multimedia keys for volume and music control, but that's a relatively minor complaint. The Strafe was dependable during gaming sessions, always responsive and able to keep pace with intense portions of shooters and action games. It feels good to use for typing and gaming, and did not slide or move around during gameplay in testing.

You can't color-code sections of the keyboard for different functions as you would on the Corsair K95 RGB, so the lighting here is largely aesthetic. Still, the lights are bright, and I found the effects easy to set up and change. Combined with the nearly endless macro combinations and programmable buttons, the Strafe can be fine-tuned to your aesthetic and performance preferences to best suit the type of game you're playing.

Conclusion

The Strafe maintains the essential features of a mechanical gaming keyboard while keeping the cost moderate. Certain features in the Corsair K95 RGB and K70 RGB, such as backlighting color options and a wrist rest, aren't part of the Strafe's feature set, but the build quality and high performance required for a smooth gaming experience remain. If you're looking for a straightforward, dependable gaming keyboard with plenty of customization options, the Corsair Strafe Mechanical Gaming Keyboard will not disappoint. The Corsair K95 RGB remains our Editors' Choice for its superior build quality, dedicated macro keys, and color options, but the Corsair Strafe is a great affordable alternative.

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