The best keyboards are the ones that manage to blend style with substance, aesthetics with customization. There is no shortage of mechanical switch-enabled keyboards with RGB backlighting marketed toward gamers these days, but it’s the little things about Thermaltake’s Poseidon Z RGB that make it stand out.
This is a full-size 102-key keyboard with black keycaps and translucent white key markings. We like that even though this isn’t a tenkeyless keyboard, Thermaltake took a minimalist approach to the size of the frame; the Poseidon Z RGB doesn’t take up a large portion of your desk space.
There are RGB LEDs behind each key wired into a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller, which enables several nifty lighting effects, brightness adjustments, and speed effect adjustments, in addition to up to five fully customizable profiles that you can create and save. For instance, the Wave effect cycles the colors in waves from the left to the right; Arrow Flow shoots rows of color originating from the keys you press; Ripple radiates colored patters around each keystroke; Reactive mode emits a short burst of light on each key you press and slowly fades it out. The fully lighted options include an always-on option, a pulse, breathing, or a running spectrum, which slowly cycles through all 16.8 million colors.
There are two reasons Thermaltake’s RGB lighting looks so good (aside from the microcontroller). The first is a mirrored plate that surrounds the switches and generously reflects the light framing each key. The second is in Thermaltake’s design, which features a translucent white housing on either side of the LED to better diffuse light across the whole underside of the key, making the characters really pop.
The Poseidon Z RGB comes with your choice of Tt eSPORTS brown (with a 45cN actuation force) or blue (50cN actuation force) switches, and like those other switches, they translate into a quieter and lighter mechanical response and a more audible and traditional “bump” response, respectively. We’ve had extensive experience with a variety of mechanical keys, and after several extended sessions with the Poseidon Z RGB, we can barely tell the difference between it and similar switch types. The Poseidon Z RGB we tested features the brown keys, and the typing sensation was virtually identical to that of the Cherry MX brown switches in the Cooler Master Mech we use on a daily basis. Thermaltake’s keys were a tad quieter.
The keyboard lets you tweak the color patterns, effects, and manage profiles via a handy Windows-based software utility. Macros are supported as well, but if you’re not keen to launch the software to make a tweak, you can do so using the dedicated macro recording switch in the upper-right corner of the keyboard. There are also five programmable function keys and even a disable Windows key function that prevents game-ending errant taps of the ill-placed key. Multimedia keys are also available as alternate function keys on the top row.
The Poseidon Z RGB is everything a serious gamer wants in a keyboard; stunning customizable RGB backlighting, your choice of tactile and audible feedback, numerous customizations and support for custom profiles, and all backed by a solid 5 year warranty. What’s not to love?
Specs
Mechanical switch type: Tt eSPORTS Certified Mechanical Switches Brown/Blue; 50 Million keystrokes; 16.8 Million color LED backlight; 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller; 7 multimedia keys; 5 game profiles; 510 macro sets; 512KB onboard memory; 100% anti-ghosting with 104 key rollover; 1,000Hz polling rate; USB interface; 5 year warranty