DeeGee Red Imp GK100 Pro Gaming Keyboard Review

DeeGee Red Imp GK100 Pro Gaming Keyboard Review

Buy it at Amazon: DeeGee Red Imp GK100 Pro Gaming Keyboard [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Decent keyboard w/cool lights, anti-fade keys and anti-ghosting for gaming.

You'll receive the keyboard, a cleaning brush, plastic key extractor, and instruction manual. The keyboard has 104 keys and the keyboard width of 17.5" x 7.5", which is slightly longer than most because it includes an extended wrist rest area in the front. The USB cable is 5 ft long. One key difference on this keyboard is that the backslash is located to the right of the single quote key, rather than at the end of the row above it. This allows the enter key to be extra-large, which some gamers prefer, but for me it is a slight change that I just had to get used to. When the keyboard is plugged in, there are colorful LED lights behind the keys. They display the 7 colors of the rainbow from right to left and the colors do not change. However, you can set the brightness to high, medium or low, or turn the lights off completely, but this makes the lettering on the keyboard hard to see if you rely on them. There's also a "breathing" or pulsing mode where the colors fade and brighten in a loop.

Since the lettering on the keys are simply clear windows, the light will show through the keys and be illuminated in the dark and the lettering will never wear off. They're actually easier to see in the dark than during the day. Pressing the keys makes a moderate amount of noise with semi-soft clicks and good tactile feedback. The packaging states 19 anti-ghosting keys (keys that you can press in rapid succession without any of the commands getting "lost") however the manual shows 21 keys are within the anti-ghosting set. It seems the manual has a misprint and "V" and "F" are not in the anti-ghosting set, though this may be corrected in future versions of the manual.

The keyboard is supposedly waterproof, except for the section with the indicator lights in the top right. While you can't submerse the whole keyboard to clean it, if you spill your coffee over the keys, you should be able to lightly rinse and drain that area (drain holes along the bottom). I didn't have a need to test this feature, but if I do end up spilling something on the keyboard, I'll update the review here on whether or not it survived. The key puller and cleaning brush are pretty unique but good ideas since over time keyboards always build up grime between the keys and this makes it easier to clean them out.

Overall, it's a fine keyboard that's comfortable to use and seems like it would last a while. I didn't think I'd like the wrist rest but it's actually growing on me. The style is cool and would look awesome with a gaming rig.

Buy it at Amazon: DeeGee Red Imp GK100 Pro Gaming Keyboard [Affiliate Link]