CM Storm QuickFire Pro – Hardware Review
Recently we’ve had the chance to test a few of the gaming mice Cooler Master offered us, however a gaming set up isn’t complete with the right keyboard to match the rest of your hardware. Cooler Master offered us the CM Storm QuickFire Pro which looks like a sturdy piece of hardware to match our acquired gaming mice.
Again we get a decent first impression of this piece of Cooler Master hardware. The Keyboard looks really solid, with a nice design (as far as designs go on a keyboard) and the clear indication this keyboard is different from a standard keyboard. A removable cable is added to the equation to create a little more comfort when having to transport this piece of hardware.
The QuickFire Pro has a lot of functions many normal keyboards don’t have, like the ‘FN’ key. I reckon laptop owners will immediately know what I’m talking about, but for those who don’t: Activating the FN key will allow you to use several keys for an extra option outside their regular functions. This means a lot of media keys were added for you to use to play music, mess with the sound settings of your PC or simply play around with the QuickFire Pro’s lighting settings. An honorable mention goes to the function key that allows you to turn of the windows buttons which might cause you to go to the windows desktop when you’re in the middle of a gaming session. Forgetting to turn of the key might cause a few mistakes from time to time, but nothing to really worry about.
As mentioned above, the QuickFire Pro has different lighting settings, that can light up the ‘gaming’ are. Wich pretty much means lighting up the arrow keys, and a portion of the left side of your keyboard. The media keys assigned to mess around with these options are again activated by turning the FN button on. When turning different lighting settings on you can also adjust the brightness and so on. Sadly this keyboard does not allow us to light up all the keys, which would be a plus if you’re just using it to type in the dark.
Cooler Master’s QuickFire Pro is a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches, meaning the most sensitive keys on the market. Even though the keyboard has big keys you will hardly have to press em down to activate them. If you’re used to a normal keyboard like myself it will take some time getting used to this device’s high sensitivity degree. Meaning this keyboard will allow you to type softly when you’re fully used to it, but be prepared to go ‘antique typewriter’ on it untill you’ve masted the light Cherry MX keys. The keys on the Quickfire Pro are replaceable and the keyboard comes with a handy tool to do so.
Own opinion:
After getting used to the sensitive keys of the QuickFire Pro, they keyboard’s mechanical keys felt as if I have been using mechanical keyboards my entire life. The sturdiness of the actual keyboard, combined with it’s light touch is something to really appreciate. Sadly not all is well when talking about the Quickfire Pro. Several popular features are left out of the design, like a screen on the keyboard or even macro keys. Don’t get me wrong, this keyboard still has plenty of nice features, but those hardcore gamers amongst us might desire a little more. A more positive note is the actual price of the device itself. The QuickFire Pro doesn’t really come that close to those keyboard which have many of the previously named functions, making this piece of hardware a great example of price/quality. If you’re a casual gamer wanting to upgrade your standard keyboard, this one might be a decent one for you.
Note: a full list of specs can be found here.
CM Storm QuickFire Pro - Hardware Review,
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