Manufacturer: Raptor-Gaming
MSRP: 34.99

The Raptor-Gaming LK-1 is a gaming keyboard produced, appropriately enough, by Raptor-Gaming. Their slogan is “Ultimate game devices designed by gamers for gamers…sooner or later, we get u!” The unit advertises itself as a high-end gaming keyboard, designed to avoid signal loss from multiple simultaneous keystrokes and built with a water-resistant frame. This keyboard aims to make itself part of your gaming arsenal.

The keyboard utilizes standard WASD configuration and has no extra function keys (none of that annoying “control pointless Windows features from dedicated hotkeys” nonsense). It plugs into any USB port via a lengthy nylon cord. That’s right, the cord is not encased in cheap plastic, but in a kind of nylon fiber that moves easily and is resistant to animals chewing on it. It is long enough that you can sit across the living room from the desktop, and it bends so freely that you almost don’t notice it is there.

To test its claims of performance, I ran about 120 hours of Skyrim on this keyboard. I have no real complaints. It seems to never lose a keystroke, even when pressing half a dozen keys at one time. What I did not test was its claims regarding water resistance. I was unable to test this because I wasn’t entirely sure what water resistant means in this context. Can I spill a drink on it? Drip some condensation on it? Sneeze on it? Since my goal was not to completely destroy the unit they sent me, I didn’t go the distance. I figure that water resistant doesn’t mean “submerge in bathtub while playing Skyrim,” so in lieu of a fair test, I will just accept on its face that it is water resistant, and I will tell everyone that you should still avoid flinging your drinks around the computer desk in a fit of anger.

While it is not personally my favorite keyboard, it isn’t a bad one, either. The catch is the price. This keyboard is priced at $34.99 at Amazon. Depending on your budget and preferences, there are other keyboards with similar features for better prices available even from big box retailers, to say nothing of looking for nice deals online. So, if this price works for you based on your location and available deals, go for it. But expert bargain hunters and the truly hardcore gamers who want a billion extra features on their input devices should probably look elsewhere.

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