HK GAMING GK61 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - 61 Keys Multi Color RGB Illuminated LED Backlit Wired Programmable for PC/Mac Gamer Tactile (Gateron Optical Brown)

Good kb for its price. recommended

I bought the Gateron Optical Red keyboard with a black frame for the outside. The keyboard I got is good for gaming but its pretty loud at night when playing your games. It has a good variety of the colors and modes. It also has a good reaction time. I would reamend this keyboard.

This is my first ever mechanical keyboard and so far I love it so much. The feel of it and the compactness of it as well feels so so good. The one thing that I personally dislike about the keyboard is how difficult it to get the software. I wish that there was a simple software to edit macros or my rgb on it but sadly I can’t really. Other than that though I highly suggest getting this

Bought for my step son for his birthday and he loves it

I had never bought a ~60% keyboard before since I work in a pharmacy and the software we use makes heavy use of the nav keys and number pad, so usually I wouldnt have even considered such a board. In fact I came across this board as I was buying the parts to build a 96 key keyboard because I do game a fair bit so I wanted something smaller to give me more desk space while still have the Numpad and arrow keys so I can lug it to work and be as efficient and quick as I am with a full size or enter alt-codes or do taxes at home. This board caught my eyes for two reasons: Hot-swappable and Optical switches. The very small form factor is kind of a turn off for me because I can only comfortably use it for gaming, but I figures the hot-swappableness would make it a good test board the packs of switches Id just bought (more on that later). The packaging was not impressive, not that I care, I just thought Id mention it. I was very surprised by the build and even the fit and finish at this price point, however. The keycaps are the cheap double shots with the stenciled lettering so Im not a fan of the look, but its not too gamer-y and they can easily be replaced if it really starts to bother me. Its a plastic case, but the keys are mounted in a metal plate, and its a minuscule form-factor, so it feels very sturdy; it doesnt flex /at all/ and is heavier than I thought itd be. Thats impressive to me for this price, but what prompted me to write this review was the fact that it sounds /incredible/ because all the stabilizers are lubed /out of the box/ and they dont budge /at all/. That astonished me as I have bought several mechanical keyboards at various price points: An MK Typist with box whites, a Logitech G Pro with GX Blues, A James Donkey 007 with Gat Browns (smoothest cherry brown clones on the market), a Logi G613, a logi 610 Orion with cherry reds, and a few cheap mechs on top of that. None of them came with lubed anything straight out of the box and the result, combined with the Optical Gateron Blacks I opted for making this one of the smoothest, best-sounding and most satisfying keyboards I have ever typed on and Im usually a tactile-switch guy. Really nice bang for the buck if youre into smaller keebs like this. --Side note: I get the impression the switches are less complex and therefore, cheaper, which allows more attention to be paid to fit and finish. HOWEVER. The Board /is/ hot-swappable, but /only/ with other optical switches, which means no traditional mechanical keyswitches, whether theyre cherry, gateron, khail, or a boutique switch can be used at all. Period. The switches are basically just little plastic boxes with a spring that when pressed, block an infrared(?) laser to signal actuation, which is why I think the switches are very cheap to manufacture, and its also why they are so unbelievably smooth, even compared to a lubed cherry red. -- The software was confusing and not that great but I personally didnt feel the need to use it since I dont care all that much about RGB or macros so it didnt bother me too much, though your mileage may vary in that regard. In conclusion, if you are a fan of the form factor and want to try optical switches, buy it. The build is solid and (assuming all boards have pre-lubed stabs like mine did) its lubed! For $50! I personally cant use it for more than just gaming or typing up this review, so its not optimal for me, but if you just need a small board with enough keys for gaming or chatting on discord this will be plenty for you.

The GK61 was my first 60% mechanical keyboard, after about 19 months of using the HyperX Alloy Elite with linear switches. I decided to make the jump to this form factor really because I wanted more space for my mouse movements (I mainly play first-person shooters like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty) and the fact that I rarely used the number pad and keys like Home, Delete, and Page Up/Down. When I found this keyboard, I was surprised that it was this cheap for a 60% with Gateron switches. Upon receiving the keyboard, I immediately tried to customize the lighting on the keyboard, and just like how the reviews I watched on YouTube said - the keyboards software wasnt good. I couldnt put custom hex codes, even though there were places in the software to do so. In the end, I stuck with just a plain white backlight. Another thing that I did was pull out a keycap and switch to figure out how both the keycaps were and how to replace switches. When I pulled out the keycap, I ended up chipping a part of it off and putting a black mark on the white keycap, which is okay because i dont really look at my keyboard a lot. Would I recommend this keyboard? Well it depends. If youre someone who wants to customize your RGB lighting settings a lot, then this keyboard isnt it. If you just want a small form factor keyboard that works for what it is, then yes- I would definitely recommend this.

Why i bought this keybaord: 1. I wanted a smaller foot print on my desk 2. I like new tech and wanted optical switches 3. The value proposition here was very intriguing. Potential deal breakers: 1. Lighting - If you are an RGB crazed mad man, you might not want this for VERY picky reasons. The rgb used in this keyboard has two leds for each key. I have no idea why they thought this was a good idea or what they were going for but the downside to it is that you can see both leds depending on what color the board is trying to show. 2. Glossy sides of key caps if you are super picky 3. No media or volume control. (Can be remedied if you download and run auto hotkey on startup of windows. this is more of an advanced thing for someone to do, but anyone can do it, even with your keyboard you are probably using now) Pros (in order): 1. Typing experience (Brown switch, this is my second mechanical keyboard) - For those who dont know, the brown mechanical switches have a tactile bump which is felt as a sort of wall on the key press that you break through. Brown switches are not clicky and the sound they make is muted and low tone which I absolutely love. I came from a logitech 810 that has the G Romer switch, which is Logitechs proprietary mechanical key switch. These switches are very similar but I would say that the Gateron optical browns in this keybaord have a slightly more present tactile bump. I was excited to try out these switches and I love them. I have been playing type racer for a couple of hours today just because of the amazing typing experience and the pleasing low bassy sound that comes from these keys. they are also a big reason why have taken the time to write out such a lengthy review for this product because i just enjoy typing on these switches so much. Truly a pleasure. 2. Gaming (again, this is the brown switch) - I am a gamer so this point is either going to be a pro or a con in this review and obviously its in the pro list. As for the optical switches, i think the lack of input delay actually got me confused when i started playing. I read that input on other keyboards are like 30 ms while optical is bassically no input delay at all. I felt weird at first but i got used to it in a couple minutes and use the keyboard as normally would my G 810. I played first person shooter with this today and the tactile bump was a bit more of a hindrance than the G Romer switch on the 810 but i dont really mind it because i will eventually get used to it and wont notice it anymore. It is different but not different enough to were i wont get over it. If you are into linear switches than obviously you wont want anything to do with the brown switches in the first place. 3. stabilizers - the large keys like space, shift, backspace and enter all feel really solid. the space bar in particular on my G 810 along with the other keys was really lousy and am glad to be rid of it. that space bar was ridiculously clacky where the space bar on this keyboard makes a satisfying THUMP. 4. Lighting - it works. im not that picky or an rgb freak. I like a nice per key back lighting and this makes me happy. The double color you get from the weird leds is odd but its not a big deal. The instructions for how to change the lighting effects with the function + (whatever key) is all in the manual you get with the keyboard. (you can do more with the software but its not easily found and do not think most people will download it because of how you go about finding it) Conclusion and take ways for me: I will never buy a high name brand keyboard ever again. For what is 50 dollars, i got everything i could ever need out of a keyboard where high end brands like logitech would charge 100 to 120 or more for similar offerings. For me, spending extra money on anything else would be a 100 percent waste. I would gain nothing meaningful to me or my setup at all. Regardless of price, these switches awesome (ive only had this and the G Romer switch by the way)

Wow! For $50, finding a hot swappable 60% RGB Mechanical Keyboard is just mind boggling! I’ve had this keyboard for a few weeks now, and I must say I’m very impressed with it. The first thing that stood out to me when I used this keyboard was that the Gateron Optical Switches are SOOO SMOOTH. Seriously though, they’re smoother than the regular Gateron Switches (Non-optical) and they put Cherry Mx Switches in the dirt. This keyboard also comes with software to add macros, change lighting, etc. However, I’ve been told that it is complete garbage. The features that this keyboard provides for the price highly outweighs it’s garbage software, which is why I’m giving this 5 stars. The keyboard is only hot swappable with Gateron Optical Switches that you can purchase on epathbuy. The build quality of this keyboard is solid as well, having a backplate made entirely out plastic, it still feels like a premium product. The keyboard comes with feet rests on the back and this allows the keyboard to not move around at all when you’re typing or gaming. My only con is that it only comes with 2 switch options and doesn’t come with more switch options such as the Gateron Optical Reds, Blacks, Yellows, Silvers, etc. Overall, this keyboard destroys any other on this website for the price and I recommend it to anyone trying to find a good quality 60% optical mechanical hot swappable keyboard with RGB backlights for a cheap price.

I love this clacky clacky keyboard , the lighting options are really easy to set up the app is really easy to use and the macros are really simple to set up. Its very very inexpensive for what it is its very well built and I love the feel of it!

Ill start off with saying this is my first mechanical keyboard, and this feels wayyyy better than a rubber-dome keyboard. The RBG doesnt look too bad and I like the feel of it. The Software for customization isnt terrible but I dont have much to go off of. 2 year update: after using this for 2 years Ive begun to see the issues and problems this has such as the wobbly keys and stabilizers. the software which i havent touched in almost a year the software is okay but that is it, nothing too impressive and the profiles are very confusing and pretty useless adding trouble when i try to use the arrow keys and wasd at the same time.