XtrfyCherry K5V2 Compact, Mechanical Gaming Keyboard in 65% Format US Layout Hot Swappable, Cherry MX2A RED Switches (Black)

On its own, this is a solid keyboard, robust, comfortable, and quiet, exactly what you would expect from Cherry. Not wireless so something to keep in mind before purchasing, this connects via USB only. A lot of extras as well like macros as well as mouse movement controls which is neat. There are a lot of options with this keyboard when it comes to things like macros and lighting and to be honest, they're not as easy to figure out. If you're adept at setting up a keyboard the way you like it, you probably won't have an issue, but I was having some trouble comfortably changing the settings like lighting and the like. But all in all, this is good keyboard.

The media could not be loaded. This K5V2 compact keyboard is absolutely gorgeous with the RGB shining through the keycaps and top plate, it’s one of the most striking implementations of RGB lighting I have ever seen on a mechanical keyboard. The whole entire keyboard is a foggy white plastic, which acts as a diffuser for the LEDs underneath. It’s truly stunning, and this is coming from someone who has owned over a dozen mechanical keyboards with RGB lighting. The design itself is a high point and will be appreciated be even people who aren’t into keyboards with multicolor backlights.The keycaps feel very pleasant to the touch, typing on them, combined with the MX2A Switches is really a treat, the ones on my board are red/linear and super smooth with just the right amount of resistance. Everything about the shape and construction of this board just leads to a very accurate typing experience, I can reach as high as 70 words per minute (up from a normal 50-55) because I just don’t make any mistakes like on other keyboards with profiles that are too high or keycap materials that feel slick to type on. After about 5 minutes of using this, I knew it was replacing my Roccat Vulcan II mini as my everyday keyboard.The one thing about it that I don’t love (for the price charged) is that it’s wired only, I would have liked to have had the option to use a 2.4GHz adapter for $130. The other thing which could be viewed as either a negative or a positive feature is that there is no dedicated software for this. Cherry Utility does not support this keyboard, it is designed so that everything can be adjusted using various key combinations and shortcuts using the Fn key with other keys. But everything is intuitively marked with front-facing legends on the keycaps. So this might not be one that you would want to swap out for alternative keycaps, because some of the keys’ secondary functions are unlikely to be found on a third party set of keycaps. It’s possible that you could get this to work with various unofficial keyboard customization software, but just know that Cherry designed it to be controlled physically, not via software.I’m someone who most just uses keyboards for standard windows operation and gaming, I’m not sure how crazy you can go with programming multiple levels of macros and tertiary functions to this board because I haven’t tried it and don’t use those options on boards I have that do support the option.I think this keyboard is for people who appreciate Cherry’s premium build quality and want one of their higher-end products. It’s of course, meant for PC gamers who love RGB and want a keyboard that matches their desktop build (while also still getting an excellent typing experience and responsive gaming experience). I played Doom Eternal, Dusk, Nier Automata, and Cyberpunk using this board and the keyboard had excellent responsiveness and precision. I noticed no input latency or lag, it performed as well if not better than more “Gamer”-focused brands (without needing the companion software that ends up being one more application taking up resources in the background).

If this is ever on sale for those prices then 100% buy it. As it sits, lackluster. Unfinished / cheap / attention to detail lacking. Price tag is way high just for the name.I'm not a hater I just know how amazing of a keyboard kit you could get yourself this day and age for $150-170 and it be in every way possible better than this.Problems I noticed out of the box and during teardown:1) Keycaps look like they were placed on a piece of cardboard and spray painted. The caps aren't fully coated white / black all four sides of every single keycap does not have enough paint on them. You can visually see this as the board sits.2) Font location on the keycaps is weird and inconsistent. Every key has the letter on the top RIGHT side instead of the top LEFT or even dead middle of the keycap. I believe this to be a QC issue along with the paint as mentioned above. all of the modifies the logo is in the middle. There's six total alpha legends that are dead in the middle of the keycap every other one the letter is either off to the right or WAY off to the right.... a bit odd.3) The "Cherry XTRFY" logo / badge above the arrow keys is magnetic. The magnetism isn't strong enough to hold it in place well and they didn't add any sort of provision to make the logo sit in place so no matter what the logo will always become tilted or just sit crooked with the lightest touch.4) I'm shocked this has PCB mounted stabilizers, that being said they have INTENSE amount of weird thick lube in them. The most sluggish stab keys I've felt from a board.5) I'm mid teardown right now but it's nice that the top shroud can pop off easily to then access the internals, you still need to unscrew the plateI'm halfway through teardown I will update more once I've fully inspected.