Corsair Makr Pro 75 Review: Not DIY-priced (or DIY)

It's nice to see mainstream gaming companies paying attention to the enthusiast side of peripherals — and some of the best gaming keyboards now are a mix of both — but why are they all so expensive? Corsair followed in Glorious' footsteps last year with the launch of its custom builder and the Makr 75, which started at $140 for a barebones kit and ended up closer to $250 - $300 for a full board, and those weren't even magnetic switches.

Well, now it has magnetic switches (and it comes pre-built).

The Makr Pro 75 is a pre-built wired gaming keyboard with Hall Effect magnetic switches and a premium build. It's the magnetic switch version of Corsair's Makr 75, but while the Makr 75 is a DIY kit, the Makr Pro 75 only comes prebuilt. (It's still upgradable via the Makr 75's modules, however.)

It comes with Corsair's MGX Hyperdrive linear magnetic switches and double-shot PBT keycaps in white, black, and yellow, and it gets up to an 8,000 Hz wired polling rate (which seems to be the hot feature this year). It also features a hot-swappable PCB and a full aluminum case with eight layers of sound dampening. It's a pretty impressive keyboard from a mainstream gaming company, but it's also pretty expensive — $249.99, in one colorway, available now.

Design and Construction of the Makr Pro 75

The Makr Pro 75 is a magnetic wired keyboard with a 75-percent layout. It has alphanumeric keys, a full function row, arrow keys, and a line of navigation keys (Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End) as well as a programmable rotary knob. It features a full aluminum body, a gasket-mounted hot-swappable PCB, and double-shot PBT keycaps, and is designed to be largely customizable.

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The Makr Pro 75's aluminum case is fitted together with hex screws. The top plate has a medium-sized bezel with a mild slope, and is finished in a smooth, slightly glittery black. Corsair's text logo is located on a nameplate at the top center, and the brand's ship logo is printed in light silver at the bottom left. The keyboard has a standard 75-percent layout with a programmable rotary knob in the top right corner — which can be swapped out for an LCD module (sold separately). The shine-through, double-shot PBT keycaps come in a nice, clean colorway of white and black with yellow accents.

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The keyboard measures approximately 13 inches (330.2 mm) wide by 5.59 inches (142 mm) deep, and is 1.85 inches (47 mm) thick at its thickest point (including the keycaps). This makes it slightly larger than the Asus Azoth X (12.81 x 5.36 x 1.57 inches / 325.42 x 136.16 x 40.5 mm), but it's still a pretty compact keyboard overall. It's also decently hefty, weighing in at 2.83 pounds (1.282 kg).

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The back of the board features a geometric design with a round logo plate in the center. It has two removable magnetic "feet" for angling the keyboard toward you as you type, which is a nice touch — most fully aluminum keyboards don't come with any way to adjust the typing angle, as the regular plastic flip-up feet are usually too flimsy. While I would argue that you also don't need to adjust the typing angle on most keyboards, it's still nice to have the option. You'll also find a PC/Mac switch in the upper left corner, which is something we don't really see on keyboards from mainstream gaming companies. It doesn't include any Mac keys, but has Mac legends printed on the sides of the keycaps.

In the box, the Makr Pro 75 comes with several accessories: a 6-foot (1.8m) detachable, braided USB-C to USB-A cable, a dual keycap/switch puller, a screwdriver, a hex key, and extra gaskets and screws.

Specs

Typing & Gaming Experience on the Makr Pro 75

The Makr Pro 75 comes with Corsair's MGX Hyperdrive magnetic switches, which are linear, pre-lubed magnetic switches with an actuation force of 30 - 55 grams and an adjustable actuation point of between 0.1 - 4.0 mm (adjusted in 0.1 mm increments). Like other magnetic switches, they support all the fun gamer-oriented features: dual actuation, Rapid Trigger, and FlashTap (SOCD). They're rated for up to 150 million keystrokes.

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Typing on the Makr Pro 75 is a pleasant experience; The switches are smooth and stable, and the keyboard sounds decent out of the box. The board comes with eight layers of sound-dampening in the case and has a rigid FR4 switch plate (for better switch stability, according to Corsair), which gives the keyboard a bright, crisp typing sound. It's not necessarily my favorite, and I prefer something deeper (and louder), but it does sound better than most gaming keyboards.

In terms of comfort, the Makr Pro 75 is OK, but I expected a little better. I think it's the combination of the keycaps (double-shot PBT in an OEM profile — higher profile, sculpted rows) and the switch plate that bothered me. The typing experience on this keyboard is pretty stiff, despite the gasket mount structure. The lack of flex combined with the higher-profile keycaps just felt a little taxing for me (but, of course, I type more than most).

Gaming on the Makr Pro 75 is similar to gaming on any other 75-percent Hall Effect magnetic switch gaming keyboard — you get all the gamer-oriented features such as Rapid Trigger and FlashTap (I'm still not sure if anyone actually uses dual actuation in gaming or anywhere), along with a lightning-fast latency-free 8,000 Hz polling rate, if that's what you're looking for. (And the 75-percent layout leaves you plenty of room to go crazy with your mouse.) I don't love that there doesn't seem to be a way to easily enable a game mode on the keyboard, however — you can lock the Windows key in the device settings in the Web Hub, but that's not exactly a convenient way to do things.

Features and Software of the Makr Pro 75

The Makr Pro 75 is configurable via Corsair's new web-based Web App (it also seems to be at least cursorily recognized by iCUE, but that's it). You can use the Web App to customize the keyboard's RGB lighting and configure its magnetic switch features, including setting actuation point and dual inputs for individual switches, turning on Rapid Trigger, and configuring FlashTap.

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You can also remap keys and record macros, configure the rotary knob, and change a handful of device settings, including polling rate. The Makr Pro 75 gets up to an 8,000 Hz wired polling rate (but it ships with a 1,000 Hz polling rate). The Web App also has a section for switch testing and calibration — you'll need to calibrate if you decide to swap out your switches, and it handily lists some of the compatible switches (like most Hall Effect keyboards, the Makr Pro 75 can only accept other magnetic switches).

The Makr Pro 75 is part of Corsair's DIY series; while this keyboard comes prebuilt, it's designed to be upgradeable via Corsair's modules. There are only two upgrade modules — an LCD module that you can swap in for the rotary knob, which has a 1.3-inch color screen that can show system stats (or Corsair logos, I don't know), and a wireless module that adds 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity.

Of course, while it's nice that there are options to upgrade this keyboard, they're not exactly cost-efficient. The LCD module costs $49.99 and the wireless module costs $79.99, so a wireless, LCD Makr Pro 75 will set you back $380.

The Bottom Line

Corsair's Makr Pro 75 is a well-built magnetic keyboard that looks and feels like a premium, custom board. It offers a nice typing experience — very bright and crisp, if too rigid for me — and its magnetic switches and 8,000 Hz polling rate will appeal to the gamers looking for every advantage. But it doesn't really have gaming features beyond that (it doesn't even have a conveniently-accessible game mode at the moment), and if we look at it as an enthusiast board with magnetic switches, it's just kind of mediocre. Lemokey's L5 HE 8K has magnetic switches and an 8,000 Hz polling rate, and offers a better, more comfortable typing experience — and it's $50 less ($199). The Magger 68 has a smaller layout, but it's a magnetic switch 8,000 Hz polling rate keyboard, and it's on sale for less than $70. The Makr Pro 75 is a solid board, but you can probably do better.