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Cougar Puri Gaming Mechanical Keyboard
- CHERRY MX MECHANICAL SWITCHES: The original mechanical switches from Germany are also the best on the...
- MAGNETIC PROTECTIVE COVER: No cloth or mesh pouches here: to truly protect your keyboard both at home and...
- BACKLIGHT EFFECTS (20 PRESET + 10 CUSTOMIZABLE): Start enjoying twenty preset modes that cover the most...
Cougar gaming gives it a go with its new Puri, heralded as a low-end, straightforward keyboard for high-octane gaming. It has an MSRP of $ 80, but offers significantly less in several important ways than Cougar’s own sample of a Product A, the 500K gaming keyboard, which sold for as little as $ 44 online. The Puri has a trump card up its sleeve: It has Cherry MX mechanical switches, compared to the boring membrane switches of the 500K. But that’s still a tough sell for Puri, beyond the competition with Cougar’s own line; one that isn’t helped by competing keyboards like the sporty, feature-packed Cherry-MX Corsair K68 mechanical gaming keyboard, which costs just $ 20 more. The territory of this Cougar lies in the union of design, functionality and price, so while this review focuses on the Puri, we will make frequent comparisons to the Cougar 500K and Corsair K68, as typical examples of what can get close to the price.
Cougar advertises Puri TKL’s 1MS response time / 1000HZ poll rate, which is nice, but most keyboards these days run at 1MS. Interestingly, they list the types of games this keyboard is intended for and include the types of games that users typically use macros with. I’m not saying that Puri TKL can’t be used for MMO and RTS games, it certainly can, it’s just that the products advertised for these types of games tend to have additional macro / button support. The Puri TKL supports n key toggle from the operating system, which means that the operating system can record multiple keystrokes at the same time. Unless you get out of control when pressing the buttons, n-key scrolling isn’t a feature that should come into play, but it’s nice to have.
Cougar ULTIMUS RGB3 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
- RGB Backlight: Customize the color of each key directly from the keyboard and make it your perfect...
- Rock-Solid Metal Structure: Strong like no other, it stays in its place even when you subject it to...
- Stunningly Beautiful, Extremely Useful: Ultimus RGB helps you with that by allowing you to customize its...
Finding a cheap mechanical keyboard usually requires extreme compromises in quality or functionality. And while the Cougar Ultimus RGB lacks elements like USB relay, software, and a wrist rest, the phenomenal build quality makes it a steal for a card under $ 100. It’s easily one of the best mechanical gaming keyboards in this range. of prices, favoring the substance over the adornments.
The keys on the Ultimus have a nice, slightly concave feel and a wide stance that works well when typing. I have never encountered my fingers tripping over narrow, clustered keys as I find them so often on other budget keyboards. The iconography of each key is large, easy to read and reminds me a lot of the Corsair K95. There is no USB relay on the Ultimus, but there is a durable braided USB cable. There are no dedicated multimedia keys either, and that’s a shame because there’s a large open space just above the number pad. However, you can access the media control using function key commands.
The red switches on the Ultimus RGB worked great no matter what game I was playing. Personally, I prefer Cherry MX Red, so the quick switches on this keyboard were wonderful. As mentioned above, these hit a bit more bottom than I would have liked, which made these keys click more than the average linear switch would allow. But the actuation force was still light and fast, and I enjoyed Ultimus’ response while playing games like Overwatch and Destiny 2.