Corsair K83 Wireless Entertainment Keyboard Review

Overview

Corsair has really gone out of their way to make something unique here. At the core of it, there’s no technology here that I’m not familiar with. For that matter, I’m sure everyone else would feel familiar with it also. It’s a keyboard, it’s a mouse trackpad, and it’s a controller. Albeit, it’s not a full-size keyboard, it’s not a fully featured tracker, and it’s only a half of a controller. Of course, it’s somewhat greater than the sum of its parts.

Work, Gaming, and Beyond

Would I write a whole review on this keyboard? Not likely, but I have used it to post some stuff on social media and reply to comments on YouTube while sitting on the couch. It’s meant for casual everything, not hardcore gaming and work. If I’m on the TV, using my Shield TV, I can switch from games, to social media apps, to multimedia apps, and for the most part, I can use one controller; the K83.

Practically Perfect, Until It’s Not

I’ve been using this thing all week, and honestly, it’s a very nice tool to have. I didn’t really need one in my life, but now that I have one, I’m finding plenty of reasons to pick it up. Sure, for a bit of Netflix, my TV remote is just fine. However, since you can use this on a PC, a HTPC, Android, and all sorts of stuff really, it does offer a lot of options for you to tinker with. I think it’s great for single-player games, and especially RTS, or sim building games like Cities Skylines. Just don’t expect to be as good at FPS games with this as you are with a full keyboard and mouse.

Should I Buy One?

$99.99 is not exactly chump change, and the K83 is a bit of a non-essential item for most. However, if you’re mixing it up streaming your PC to the big screen, this could be a bit of a Swiss Army Knife of a keyboard/controller for your home theatre/living room setup.