Turtle Beach Impact 500 Mechanical Keyboard Review

By Seth Colaner
published

Early Verdict

The Turtle Beach Impact 500 is an attractive option for TKL fans that want a no-frills mechanical keyboard, but the price is a little steep.

Pros

  • +

    Simple, cool and solid design

  • +

    Works with Macs and older PCs (6KRO)

  • +

    Totally plug-and-play

  • +

    Little extraneous key noise

Cons

  • -

    Pricey for a keyboard with no frills

  • -

    Costar stabilizers

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Introduction And Specifications

It's not an insult to say that there's nothing extraordinary about Turtle Beach's Impact 500 mechanical keyboard. In fact, it's almost as if it was designed that way. The all-black tenkeyless Impact 500 features no backlit keys and has a simple and compact rectangular design, almost as if the Das Keyboard 4C Professional and Nixeus Moda v2 got together and had a baby.

Also, yes, Turtle Beach makes keyboards. Like many companies these days, Turtle Beach is testing the waters of gaming peripherals, and the Impact 500 and the higher-end Impact 700 are among the company's early efforts. (There's also a non-mechanical-switch Impact 100 keyboard and two gaming mice from the company.)

Specifications

Note: There are several specifications that Turtle Beach has not published, and my questions to company representatives regarding those details have gone unanswered.

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Seth Colaner
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • avatar_raq
    There are many better or comparable option cheaper. Pass.
    Reply
  • ZeusGamer
    This looks exactly like the Steelseries Quickfire TK that I bought maybe a year or two ago. It was much cheaper than this maybe like ~$70.
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    Did anyone expect something better from TB?
    Reply
  • whimseh
    Yikes, $130 for no backlighting.. no number pad... This keyboard is basic AF.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    Yikes, $130 for no backlighting.. no number pad... This keyboard is basic AF.

    No backlight is indeed strange, but the absence of the number pad isn't a loss for many people - personally, I'm glad to see more and more TKL boards appearing on the market, there's a lot of people that want a quality mechanical keyboard but really have no use for NumPad, so it just forces them to keep the mouse further to the right. I wouldn't call a keyboard "basic" for not having one - it's like calling a car "primitive" because it doesn't come with a trailer.
    Reply
  • bradsctt
    I find the US pricing quite interesting, as i recently saw this KB for only $110 NZD (75 USD). That makes it much more compelling, when other options such as the Corsair K70 are approx $100 NZD more.
    Reply
  • therealduckofdeath
    The price isn't "a little" steep. It's twice the price it ought to be. 6KRO-only, no backlight, no nothing. This is a $70 keyboard.
    Reply
  • Nailli
    There are way better ten-keyless boards out there that are a hell of a lot better than this one. Such as the Filco Majestouch Minila Air for starters.

    I'd only pay $70 at the most for this garbage.
    Reply
  • synphul
    Personally I'd agree, it's as if they waited for years to jump the 'mechanical is the new black' bandwagon (for those who don't know mechanical keyboards used to be the standard before cheap rubber dome membrane switches and didn't cost a small mortgage). The price is a bit overrated for what it offers.

    Granted it's a basic design which can be harder to come by (surprisingly). The cherry mx switches and others like kailh are quite common in $60-80 keyboards many of which have 10key, with or without gaming macros and rgb led backlighting.
    Reply
  • IspotU
    I have always thought that TB was mostly console peripherals. I think I will stick with my black widow keyboard. Sorry can't recommend this product as a viable option to my gaming customers, and friends.
    Reply