A good looking keyboard that sacrifices everything for a sleek design. It features low profile switches but it's not really that low, the stabilizers are custom so you can't change the rather uninteresting default keycaps.... and it costs an arm and a leg.
Video at the bottom
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What's in the box
The box features a nice "Cherry MX Low profile Switch" sticker and possibly that is all what this keyboard is about. Inside you'll find a rather sexy "low profile" keyboard a keypuller and a braided USB cable.
The top frame is brushed aluminum while the bottom is unfortunately plastic. The top for some reason doesn't feel like a solid piece of metal, but I opened the keyboard and it is indeed a block of aluminum, so peace of mind.
The keycaps are pretty bulky bits of plastic. They are not low profile by any means, I guess Cooler Master had to deal with the huge Cherry MX stem but still the shape and general feel of the keycaps are... mediocre.
The keyboard is backlit so keycaps are painted black and the legend lasered over. The paint job is good and it doesn't seem easy to scratch. Still, your greasy fingers will wear off the legends sooner or later.
The legends are simple, well positioned and the typeface a bit boring but better than anything you would see on a gaming keyboard.
The branding is basically inexistent, only the FN key features a trimmed down Cooler Master logo, the design is sleek the keyboard indeed looks small but with calipers at hand the SK630 is just 4mm shorter than a standard tenkeyless.
This is certainly a keyboard that likes to be looked at. The only shortcut they took is the plastic on the bottom. It's a pity, but I can understand why they didn't go full metal jacket.
- featured
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Under the hood
Removing the keycaps you are presented with the long waited Cherry ML successor... that very originally is called "Cheery MX Low Profile".
It's a red stem, so light and linear, but it feels slightly stiffer than a regular MX Red. The travel is of course short but the stem is what we all know and love. I believe Cherry is also working on a brown low profile and possibly blue (my speculation) so I guess this year we'll see more slim boards and --who knows-- laptops.
Typing on this baby is a mixed experience. On one side the sound is good, there's no rattling or wobbling, just a nice deaf "tock"; on the other the keycaps are not very comfortable to type on. The keys are flat and close to each other. There's a very light depression in the middle but not enough to be of any use.
While typing I missed quite a few keys and pressed two letters by mistake. I'm sure that it's just a matter of getting used to the new shape, but right out of the box the experience is not the best.
Also, the keycaps are not really thin, so why not go with a more sculpted design? I feel they just wanted to do it pretty or resemble a laptop keyboard at the cost of functionality. From the few hours on the SK630 I can say that it's not a keyboard you'd want to use as a daily driver, but maybe as a small companion on that secondary workstation you use for porn... or whatever.
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Dismantling it
Of course I opened it. Inside you'll find the classic Cooler Master design with an extension cable that goes from the side panel USB to the main PCB. The USB connector on the PCB alone is 5mm tall and again I don't understand the design choice. If they put the USB-C port straight on the main board they could have spared 5mm making it a really low profile keyboard.
Maybe the purpose was to just use the new Cherry switches, maybe they wanted to do a "gaming" keyboard with very light switches with a short travel. But why bothering trying to look like a low profile keyboard then? Why designing unpractical and uncomfortable keycaps?
They would have better just built a standard tenkeyless with low profile switches, standard keycaps and standard stabilizers.
Yep, because stabilizers are custom. So if you were thinking to replace the shitty defaults with something of your own, think again. Nope, can't do. The stabilizers are very good, they don't rattle and overall they do their job egregiously, but you still have standard MX stems and you can't change the keycaps. If they were good that wouldn't be an issue, the problem is that they are definitely nothing special.
Also, they absolutely needed to add a "lightbar" all around the case. The only purpose of it is to have the backlight bleed on the sides of the keyboard and doing so they managed to have an even taller keyboard.
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Features
It's all about backlight of course. The keyboard lights up in ways you humans can't even start to fathom.
Apart from a dozen custom effects you can customize your RGBs in any way you want, directly from the keyboard or --I'm guessing because it's not available yet-- from a standard Cooler Master application.
The reflective aluminum plate and the open frame design, though, make the light bleed pretty strongly from all sides. If you like sharp and unobtrusive backlighting the SK530 is not for you.
Macros and media keys (activated with the FN key) are between the feature list. Apart from that there's nothing else to report.
Only annoyance is that the USB port slot is rather slim and it only fits small cables, I had a couple around that I couldn't actually use.
Conclusions
I must say --and I can't believe I'm going to say it-- the switches are very good. Short travel, light, rather quiet and well engineered, but Cooler Master does a terrible job at taking advantage of the great switch.
The only reason to use low profile switches is to do a low profile keyboard, but the SK630 can be barely considered low profile. They didn't go the extra mile to make it really flat when they totally could... and should.
Let's say that what they really wanted to do was a gaming keyboard. Short travel switches are always longed by gamers. Why trying to do an hybrid low-profilish keyboard with weird and not replaceable keycaps then?! Don't forget that this is a premium priced keyboard, well over today's average for a TKL. So who is this aimed to?
I feel it's a missed opportunity for Cooler Master because the keyboard is well build, solid, with a good sound and a good feel but as it is now it's just pretty, almost a proof of concept for rich trendy people who use the PC very little.
