Cooler Master Puts Cherry MX Speed Switches On MasterKeys S Keyboard

The small but growing contingent of mechanical keyboards sporting Cherry’s MX Speed (Silver) switches got another member at CES with Cooler Master’s MasterKeys S keyboard.

The MasterKeys S has a compact, tenkeyless design, and it has some higher-end features. For example, instead of ABS key caps, it has superior PBT caps (with a UV top coat), and you can switch between Windows, Mac, and Linux layouts, as well as between QWERTY, DVORAK, and Workman layouts. It does not appear to have backlighting.

This keyboard is, you might say, a minimalist gamer’s dream. Other than the fact that it has the Cherry Speed switches on board, which are really designed for rapid-clicking gamers, the MasterKeys S seems more like a typist’s keyboard.

Other features include on-the-fly macro recording and NKRO/6KRO toggle, but there’s apparently no software support (which is not necessarily a bad thing). There’s no price information available at this time.

Cherry MX Silver (Speed) switches are linear, like Reds, and they require the same light 45g of force, but the former has shallower overall travel (3.4mm versus 4mm) and actuation point (1.2mm versus 2mm).

Other keyboards with these shallow switches include the Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfire and a version of the G.Skill KM570.

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