Introduction

We just had a new CORSAIR keyboard launch last week, and the company did introduce a few new things with the flagship K100 keyboard late last year, including a standard bottom row of keycaps and stock PBT doubleshot keycaps that necessitated a new mold. Now, anyone with an inkling of how much a keycap set mold costs will tell you that it makes sense to amortize that cost in the form of new products using the same keycap design. Add to this train of thought CORSAIR’s AXON hyper-processing technology, also introduced with the K100, and the likelihood of seeing a revamp of their keyboard lineup sooner rather than later suddenly makes sense. The K65 RGB Mini was a pleasant surprise in the new-to-CORSAIR form factor, and I expected perhaps an updated K70 with these updates next. Instead, some love is given to their budget-friendly membrane keyboard range, and here we are then with the newly updated CORSAIR K55 lineup.

Well, technically, the CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO XT just adds more ammo to my hypothesis that CORSAIR is running out of ideas about how to get out of their self-imposed keyboard numbering scheme that barely holds together logically today. But this time around, the added “PRO XT” makes sense since a CORSAIR K55 RGB keyboard precedes it. What the updated lineup does is offer not one, but two keyboards. The first—not provided as a review sample—is the K55 RGB PRO that builds upon the older keyboard and adds more backlighting zones and Elgato Stream Deck support for the G-keys. This K55 RGB PRO XT also adds per-key backlighting support and game integration with iCUE, but at a slightly higher cost. We will take a look at these features in detail and begin with the specifications in the table below—thanks to CORSAIR for sending a review sample to TechPowerUp!

Specifications