Roccat ISKU Keyboard Review

Gaming is serious business.

This being my third and final Roccat accessories review, I've come to the conclusion that the German engineers behind these things can't decide if they want to focus on comfort or technology, and end up throwing everything they've got into both.

The Kave 5.1 headset is really comfortable and the Kone+ mouse is really comfortable. Here's a keyboard, one of the most basic components to computer usage, and I'm yet again falling in love with the comfort of Roccat's product line. The ISKU Illuminated keyboard is the most comfortable keyboard I've ever used.

That's mostly thanks the mechanical keys and extra large wrist-pad. Ever used one of those keyboards that has that spongey material where your wrists land? Those things are bull shit. They get super dirty and grimy from your sweat, ultimately resulting in a disgusting end-user experience. The ISKU keyboard forgoes this and instead proposes a nice, sloped incline up to the keyboard.

Once you've got your fingers on the keys, it's hard not to fall for the way things click and react definitively to your inputs. As someone who types all day professionally, I can't overstate how nice the ISKU's mechanical keys are.

The illuminated keys have 3 brightness levels, and even though it's purely an aesthetic bonus, it's one that'll make all the difference when you go bragging about your gaming set up. Perhaps more important is the included driver software and macro support.

Right from the keyboard itself you can record macro key inputs, but if you want to get really technical, Roccat's driver software offers up a visual representation of your macro programming. You can even download macro sets for popular games, making macro switches almost unbelievably easy.

The true strength in the Roccat ISKU isn't all of these features or the Roccat Talk functionality that allows Roccat mice and keyboards to work together. In reality, the real strength of this unit is that everything is so stupidly easy that I don't know how I lived without the functionality before hand.

The Roccat ISKU is priced at $90, making it a little difficult to stomach an all out switch. However, much like the Kone+, I recommend tossing one of these into your cart when you're picking up components for your next brand new build. Why not treat your fingers to some new hardware while you're at it?