Corsair K55 RGB Pro XT review – too much for membrane

Mechanical switches have become so synonymous with gaming keyboards that it's jarring to see a known gaming hardware brand like Corsair releasing a membrane board as part of its gaming range. Corsair's K55 Pro XT is an upgrade to its 2016 budget offering, which stood out for offering several premium features for an MSRP of just $49.99 / £54.99. Corsair is also releasing an updated version of that $49.99 board as the K55 RGB Pro, so it's important to note that its budget offering isn't going anywhere.

Even by today's standards, $49.99 is impressive for a board with RGB back-lighting, dedicated media and macro keys, a detachable palm rest, and spill resistance. The Pro XT's $69.99 / £74.99 MSRP makes it $20 / £20 more expensive than the standard version, putting it closer in price to some of the best gaming keyboards going, so what's the difference?

You would be hard-pushed to notice a difference when looking at the two die-by-side. Both have the same layout and design, although the palm rest is slightly cleaner on the Pro XT. Likewise, both boards offer seven media keys and six macro keys. Visually, the core difference is in the quality and range of RGB effects each board can achieve. The Pro XT upgrades the five-zone backlighting of the standard keyboard to per-key RGB with crisp and bright colours, which you can easily tweak using Corsair's iCUE software.

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