Interesting that Corsair gets an exclusive deal on these even as other companies (eg. Tesoro, Luxeed) are working on their own RGB mech models. I guess those other companies must be using a different system (perhaps LETIS-style switch bypass).
If so, it'll be interesting to see what happens when the different RGB implementations compete.
Its an exciting announcement with more in place for CES so I can't say much at this time. However, any mechanical keyboards that will support RGB will *not* be Cherry MX switches.
What are you guys' input on the other types of mechanical switches?
That sounds a bit of shock to me. I thought Cherry MX RGB was to be based on Cherry MX. Though I am generally open to fancy LED backlighting on other mechanical keyboards. So long as it is still a mechanical keyboard switch with LED backlight, I am not fussy if it was Topre, Matias, etc. I have seen a video of a fancy Korean branded keyboard with LED colours that could change "on-the-fly" so to speak. One could set certain keys to be certain colours however I was told that keyboard is not a mechanical keyboard.
My personal reasons for liking a LED backlit keyboard (especially if it is only underneath the key caps to shine only on the legends and nothing else as well as having different colours) is handy for when I switch between different keyboard layouts. You have keyboards with international legends printed on key caps but to make use of them properly you needed to set your machine up to say that your keyboard is not an English keyboard but say for example a Changjie or Japanese keyboard with each keys represents certain phonetic characters. Then you have customisable firmwares such as hasu's TMK that allows one to even program a 60% board with no dedicated numpads to have numpad feature enabled on the controller level.
An instance to what I said above would be say if I were to input Japanese characters as they were legended on my HHKB, I would like to be able to not only simply switch the controller to start sending out different key codes but to also shine a different coloured LED to remind me (especially when typing in the dark without room light on) that I am using Japanese layout. Then if I were to switch to Changjie layout I press a button on the controller telling it to map another set of key codes and a different colour to again help me typing in the dark as well as reminding me that I am using a different layout. Put simply in practise, ultimately I would like for example a keyboard to shine white at night when I am inputting English, then when I switch to Japanese it will be blue, then switching to Chinese it will be yellow and maybe for numpad access I have certain keys lit up in a numpad sort of layout but in red and all the other keys remains unlit.
There are many ways in which for instance one can make good use of multiple LED coloured keyboards I am sure. Gamers and programmers for instance who make use of macro keys would probably also benefit from such an idea if they are into backlit LED keyboards in general for instance.
In some ways this would be my sort of dream LED backlit setup, the idea that Optimus Maximus keyboard has sort of featured was really lovely but at the same time extremely expensive for an average person's wallet. Then you have keyboards like those holographic (via laser), touch screen keyboard as well for instance which may allow one to have fancy colours but lacking the feeling of being able to "punch" on keys like as if one normally would with a normal keyboard. You have also the Korean branded keyboard (just now I googled up the brand name and it is Luxeed, specifically the U5/U7 keyboards) which has all these fancy baclit colours plus programmable backlighting but rumours say multi coloured LEDs on mechanical keyboard is not possible which in this case would make Luxeed a RD keyboard. A mechanical keyboard multiple LED colour features would be a cross between the feeling of typing on a "real" keyboard whilst bearing various colours to suit one's needs. Hopefully such cases may see one not having to pay through their nose for a multi coloured LED backlit mechanical keyboard.
Overall I like the idea of multiple colouring of LED backlight on keyboards but having more than 100 colours seems to be overkill for my specific requirements. Not to mention that it would most likely not be cheap if that were to ever happen anyway. The idea of strobing and/or various dim levelling capability again is sort of overkill for me but otherwise I welcome the idea in general.
