Inspired by Chyrosran22 on youtube, I decided to do a mech board review. This one seemed to have an interesting layout, so I thought I'd start with it.
Available in video form here:
Or text below:Cooler Master – Masterkeys Pro M
IntroductionThe Masterkeys Pro is a compact keyboard with a very interesting layout and understated looks in the same vein as their Storm series. This one features genuine cherry MX brown switches, which have an actuation force of 45g, and bottom out at 55g, which makes them good all-round switches for both typing and gaming. You can also get it with blue or red switches. They are rated at 50 million keystrokes, which should last you a lifetime.
The backlight LEDs are white only, so if you are looking for RGB leds, you’ll have to look at it’s pricier sibling, the Masterkeys Pro L.
Inside the boxOpening the box you’ll find the keyboard itself, a wire keycap puller, a quick start guide which explains all the lighting modes and how to setup macros, and a braided USB cable, with gold plated plugs. The keyboard weighs about 1 kilogram, or about 2.2 pounds.
DesignThe Pro M has a very minimalist all black design, with no coolermaster branding except for the windows keys. The case is made of thick plastic, but feels very sturdy, with no flex at all. It’s available in regional layouts, this particular one being the portuguese language model, which has this big-ass enter.
LayoutNow, what’s interesting about this layout is the fact that you get a num-pad AND a nav cluster in a compact form-factor. Usually tenkeyless keyboards will only have a nav cluster, whereas the Masterkeys pro M has 92 keys without being much larger. It achieves this by having many of the keys doubling as function, macro or media keys.
Here is a comparison with a very common full-size membrane keyboard from HP.
This unique layout will take some getting used to, as you’ll need to press the num-lock key to access the num-pad, which will result in you often pressing the arrow keys by accident, which are activated by default. The only thing I would like to see added to the num-pad would be an extra TAB key, perhaps using the function key in combination with the 1 key or something like that. This would be very useful for spreadsheet power users.
GamingAs far as gaming is concerned, you get n-key rollover and a 1ms response time. I would have liked a more extruded guide bump on the F key, to help discern it from the G key, which is the default key for grenades in First Person Shooters, but other than this very minor thing, I had no issues gaming it.
KeycapsThe keycaps are thin double shot ABS, which is a shame for a keyboard of this price. At least being double shot means the legends will stay nice and sharp forever, but the ABS plastic means that overtime the surface of the keycaps will likely become shiny, especially on the most used keys like WASD. I do appreciate the legends, which are center aligned and done in a subdued and clean font.
SwitchesThe switches feel a bit scratchy, especially on the larger keys like the control key and the caps lock. This is normal for cherry switches, so it’s to be expected. At least they feel very consistent through out the board, both in terms of actuation and key travel.
LightingAs far as lighting modes are concerned you get a breathing, wave, ripple, rain, and a few different modes that activate on touch, if that’s your thing, and you can access the coolermaster Maker hub to create or download additional lighting effects. I have to say though, I have never seen white LEDs on a keyboard that look this good. It’s a pure white, and very vibrant, something you can’t achieve with RGB LEDs. It looks awesome and will compliment any setup.
Function keysYou get a metric ton of extra function keys nicely organised and labeled throughout the keyboard:
- Create macros with F11 and delete them with F12
- The F9 key will lock the windows key, so you don’t accidentally press it while gaming.
- The F10 key let’s you record your own LED pattern.
- F5 through F8 let you set the repeat rate.
- To change the lighting modes and adjust brightness, you can use the F1 through F4 keys.
- To switch profiles you can use the number 1 through number 4 keys
- These funny looking alternate functions allow you to switch the speed of some of the lighting modes, as well as the direction.
- The media controls are on the num-pad, which I found a bit awkward to use, but it’s to have them nonetheless.
- And you can set loop and repeat for your macros using the print-screen, scroll lock and pause buttons.
The keyboard has a 32bit arm processor and 512kb of onboard memory to store your profiles and macros, which is great if you are planning to use this as a portable board to take to work, for instance. No software required.
BackLooking round the back there are 4 rubber feet, two of which are flip-out feet so that you can elevate the board. There are 3 gutters to route the USB cable through, which is a really nice addition, but unfortunatly, there are no extra USB ports for you to plug your mouse to for instance. At this price, this would have been a nice extra to have.
The included cable is 1.5 meters long, has gold plated ends, and is removable, which means you can replace it with an aftermarket micro-b cable if you wish.
Typing demonstration
ConclusionIn conclusion the masterkeys pro M is a very solid keyboard with a superb layout, and absolutely brilliant backlighting, possibly the best I’ve seen. It gets a solid recomendation from me, especially if you like compact keyboards
but can’t do without the num-pad. This unit was on sale when I got it, costing just over 100 euros, which is a fair price for it considering what you get, but you can expect to find is usually listed for a bit more.
