CORSAIR - VANGUARD AIR 99 WIRELESS Optical-Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Pre-lubed, ultra-responsive OPX Low-Profile Switches - Black

I have a MacBook Pro for work and PC to game. For work, I like this keyboard very much. It is a great typing experience because the keys are not incredibly thin (like the butterfly keys) and they are not overly thick like most gaming keyboards. The ability to adjust actuation makes this a great combo for really quick typing for me. For gaming, it is solid but I prefer my ASUS Rog Falcata and others that I have tried. Mainly because I like the more defined curvature on those keycaps and texture. You can swap those things out I believe, but that isn't something I want to do. The battery life is excellent and the new Corsair web-only iCue is really great so you don't have to download or run actual software anymore. Overall, it fits my use-case for now. I like it, don't love it.

This keyboard is initially great. It feels nice to type on, it's quiet, it's light to respond, but there are some QA/QC issues that never should have allowed this to release yet First and foremost, it doesn't support iCue yet. If you have other Corsair products that you keep unified lighting, this won't talk to them yet Second, this is the first item to use their new Slipstream tech. It's unstable, and only supports one device per USB plug, versus the old Slipstream supporting up to 3 devices per USB. Old devices also don't register on the new one, so you need a dedicated USB port for this. There are also some bugs, like occasionally taking a few seconds after waking up to communicate with your device, or rarely repeating a single key press a dozen times in a split second. The battery is decent, but seemingly worse than most Corsair keyboards The features are nice, there are lots of options for customization, including uploading personal images to the screen. Overall, the bugs and issues happen rarely enough that it's not a massive ding against the keyboard, but for Corsair's standards, it's subpar. They should have ironed out the issues and unified the iCue experience with this, and it would have been a 5/5 for me

The Corsair Vanguard Air 99 is a feature rich gaming keyboard with versatile configurability, compatibility, and a bright color screen! Design The Vanguard Air 99 feels strong and rigid. The keys don't have a lot of extra play, which is a good thing to me. There's an angled bevel around the edge. They keys have a good feel, with very little play. All the characters on top of the keys are very easy to read. Some keys have other characters or symbols on the slanted, front, face, and those are not so easy to see. I love the way they combined the main keyboard with the letter keys, a full inverted T arrow layout, and the numeric keypad. I also love the six extra Shortcut keys on the left side. There's some empty space between the main keyboard and the six shortcut keys, about the same as between the number keys and the Function keys at the top. There is also a similar space on the right side between the numeric pad and the rest of the keyboard. The narrow breaks help me feel easily and quickly where my I'm at on the keyboard. I love the dial placement and feel as you turn it. It turns easily but there's a clear but subtle bump you can feel with each increment as you turn. The dial is also a button. The screen is bright and clear. See the picture I included from a road trip showing a lake with some mountains in the background. It also displays helpful information like battery life, pooling rate, number/caps lock status, and and more. Typing I like the feel of keys and the travel. There isn't too much play in the key caps, complimenting the overall solid feel of the keyboard. With the default setting (no delay between pressing) I had no problem at all in video games. When just typing I did have a double presses sometimes when I didn't want them. I added a 1 ms delay in the settings of the Corsair Web Hub app and that duplicate character issue went away. Again, I'm glad for the small break on the right before they numeric keypad and the left before the shortcut keys. Function keys work well, though there is no Function/Media Key lock. You can turn on the Mac mode and then you will get the media keys by default, but that messes with or disables some of the buttons on either side of the space bar, like the <CTRL> and <Windows> buttons. I'm hoping they add a toggle for the function row keys that with a firmware update. I like <Fn>-<ESC> if they're looking for ideas. Key Mapping I've had other keyboards that let you map different functions to keys, but usually it's hard to decide which key I want to sacrifice to map a macro to or some other function. Often I end up pairing it with <CTRL> or something like that. With the six Shortcut keys on the left side, that's not a problem. I have a bunch of keys to work with as well as whole new profiles I can create. So you can make separate profiles for specific games, media editing, and other tasks. Just use <Fn>-<Z> on the keyboard to switch profiles. You can map keyboard keys, mouse buttons, media control functions, keystrokes, macros, or just a bunch of text. Then there are more functions available in Stream Deck app if you want to map applications or application specific functions to the six Shortcut keys. There are even six key caps included that you can swap with the Shortcut keys, geared towards the Stream Deck. Profiles You can create different profiles using the Corsair Web Hub app. Profiles have settings for mappings, lighting, etc. You create the profiles using the Web Hub app, but you can easily switch between them, up to 5, on the keyboard using <Fn>-<Z>. That even changes the active screen on display, (Three that it comes with and I added two photos so far). So each profile could have a different picture, for instance. Lighting The lighting is incredibly functional on this keyboard! Sometimes, it's just cool. When you turn it on, you'll see a pattern of lights move across the keyboard. If you hold down the <Fn> key, only the keys that have a secondary, <Fn>, function light up while the <Fn> key is down. When you turn on "Flash Tap" (SOCD), it lights up the and the <D> keys a different color. When you use <Fn> and Num, /, *, - to change the mode of the dial, they change color as you go through options. Press the Game Mode button, and red covers the keyboard. You can also configure the lighting, with lots of colors to choose from and a bunch of customizable animations. You can also change the brightness of the keyboard, it changes the keys and the screen together. On the lowest setting, the keys are off and the screen is on but dim. There are five brightness levels to choose from. Dial The dial is great, but best thing about it is the ways it can be used. Just by pressing the <Fn> key and one of the four keys below it, you can change from the default of volume control to keyboard brightness (keys and screen), vertical/horizontal scrolling toggle, or Zoom. It also functions as button. Polling Rate This is crazy for a keyboard. It support 125 Hz all the way up to 8,000 Hz. That means the PC checked the USB Port 8,000 times a second for new data. Keep in mind, the higher a polling rate you use, the shorter your battery life will be. It can do the 8,000 Hz using either the USB cable or the SlipStream wireless dongle. Compatibility This has excellent compatibility and connectivity. You can go wired or high speed wireless with the included high-speed SlipStream dongle, or you can connect via Bluetooth. Not only that, but you can have it paired with up to three Bluetooth devices at one time and switch between them with <Fn>-<Home>, <PGUP>, or <PGDN>. There's a switch at the top/back-edge of the keyboard the change between the SlipStream USB Dongle, Bluetooth, or off. You can plug in a USB cable and connect that way regardless of the switch position. There's another switch to go into Mac mode - and this is more than just a switch. Six Mac buttons are included to replace six Windows Keys on either side of the space bar. I think that's the best Mac compatibility I've seen. And one last trick, Hold <Fn> and the <Windows> key for 5 seconds and it toggles into (or out of) Playstation 4/5 mode! So if you need a keyboard, this will probably do the job and do so very well! Battery life The Battery life seems very good, especially considering the bright color screen and all of the keys being lit up. You'll do better with your battery life with a lower polling rate. Depending on settings, the keyboard battery life can last up to 55 hours. Expect half that with common settings like a higher brightness or a fast polling rate. I still think the battery life is excellent for a keyboard with lots of bright lighting and a color screen. Summary They Vanguard Air 99 Wireless keyboard is a great keyboard with many very practical features. The compatibility and connectivity is also huge. There are widgets coming in an update to use with the screen. I expect a clock face, battery status, calendar, among others. I'm hoping they'll add a calculator since it just seems right with the numeric pad below it. I also would love to see them add a function row key toggle as mentioned earlier. But if those are not concerns for you, this keyboard is excellent now. Corsair is also continuing to push out updates. I don't even know what they're fixing because I think it works great, but I'm glad to see them actively supporting and improving their product. I highly recommend this gaming keyboard!!!