In a world where gaming keyboards have become as popular as gaming itself, it can be a bit daunting to figure out which keyboard is right for you. As someone who spends a good part of their work day and many after hours mashing the keys I can attest to the need to find just the right board for your gaming and daily needs.
Enter Cougar’s PURI TKL RGB mechanical keyboard; a sleek, compact board with all the essentials to fit your high demand gaming needs. With a host of quality of life features, solid build quality and some smart design decisions, the PURI TKl is a board worth considering. So grab that coffee, kick back and enjoy our review of the Cougar PURI TKL RGB keyboard.
Specifications
- Product: PURI TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
- Switches: Mechanical Cherry MX (Blue)
- N-Key Rollover: Yes(USB mode Support)
- Key Backlight: White LED
- Polling Rate: 1000Hz Polling rate/1ms Response Time
- Interface: USB Plug
- Cable Length: 1.8m Braided
- Dimension: 150(L) x 370(W) x 40(H) mm
- Weight: 1.2kg (2.64 lbs)
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Design
I’ve had the opportunity to review Cougar’s excellent Phontum Headphones previously (cough...shameless plug) and, as with the headphones, the PURI TKL is intelligently designed. From the ground up the TKL is built for function and form offering some simple but impactful quality of life design choices. For starters, Cougar has utilized every square inch of this board while never making the space feel cramped or too tight. In addition, the RGB backlighting is handled on a hardware level eliminating the need for additional software downloads.
The board comes equipped with a detachable, braided USB adaptor allowing for easy storage and cleaning. The Cable itself comes in at about 1.8m long and feels sturdy and durable. Gone are the days of fiddling with my tangled mess of cords behind my monitor so I can unplug my keyboard before cleaning (yes I am that guy that doesn’t care about cable management). Now I simply detach the cable from the board and clean to my heart's content. Additionally, it's nice for travel as I can quickly pack it up and store my board on the go.
Speaking of on the go gaming, the PURI TKL also comes equipped with a magnetically attachable protective cover which fits perfectly over the face of the board. It slides on with a satisfying click and holds fairly well while moving it around. I’ve actually found it quite nice to throw on when I’m done gaming for the night as it doubles as a dust jacket in the off hours.
The board itself feels sturdy and at over 2.5 lbs it has a nice steel and plastic construction. Two kickstand style feet are nestled into the bottom of the board along with a cable management tray (which a promptly decided not to use; see above) that allows users to run the cable either out the back or from either side.
The face of the PURI TKL is simple and clean with a couple of small but stylistic features. For starters, the board is lined with eight metallic screws that run along the edge. It gives the whole design an industrial feel with the gunmetal screw heads accenting the otherwise distinctly black keyboard. The screws are more than just a pretty face however, as they also become the attach point for the hard plastic cover that magnetically clips in. The cover itself is a translucent, black plastic that fits snugly onto the PURI so as not to add too much to the keyboards overall footprint.
Finally, the Cougar logo is etched in a piece of clear plastic just above the arrow keys allowing the RBG lighting to shine through. The whole keyboard leans into Cougar’s seeming philosophy of subtle, functional design. It works well in this instance as the PURI TKL is a beautiful looking piece of hardware.
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Rubber Meet Road
Functionally, the PURI TKL is a solid gaming offering. I’ve spent the last week running it through the paces playing everything from intense FPS games to MMO marathon sessions. The board comes equipped with blue Cherry MX keys which, for me, is all the clickity clackity I could ever want in a keyboard. For those that may not be quite up to date on Cherry keys, the blue MX switches lean more towards a more tactile experience. This means that you generally have to push a bit harder on the keys as they are designed to have a more defined point of contact for response. Arguably you can get faster switches (literally measuring past the decimal point) in the Cherry MX line but honestly, I like the click and tactile experience that the blues have to offer.
Don’t fret though as the keys feel responsive. Although I didn’t have a scientific toolset for measuring the 1ms response time, I never missed a glory kill in Doom from input lag and no one died while I healed a Dungeon in WOW due to slow keystroke response time. In my books, that’s a win. Overall the keys feel nice and make that satisfying click that some gamers love.
This version of the PRUI TKL comes with RGB support. As mentioned previously, there is no additional software needed to get the board up and running. I especially appreciate this as someone who runs everything from a Naga to a Stream deck and already has more software management happening than Microsoft. The tradeoff, however, is that there are some limitations to how the RGB functions. For starters, you won’t have access to every colour in the rainbow. There is a wide range of preset colours so you’ll still be able to do a purple or yellow theme but if you’re looking for #667dd4 specifically you might be out of luck.
The other tradeoff is that without software to manage your effects and colours you have to rely on the hardware preset system. If programming things on a hardware level is a new journey for you there is a bit of learning curve. Everything is handled using the function key and the INS and DEL key (for the most part). I have to confess that it did take me a few minutes to get my head around the system and honestly if I ever want to transition away from my sweet blue themed setup I’m going to have to look it up. It’s by no means a deal breaker as I would still rather this than more software to manage but it is something to be aware of.
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Final Thoughts
The PURI TKL RBG Mechanical Keyboard is a sleek, compact beast of a keyboard. It offers all of the function you could ever need and some nice quality of life choices set it apart from similar boards. If you are looking for a new gaming board the PURI checks off all of the boxes and then proceeds to add a couple more boxes you didn’t know you needed. At just under 80.00 USD on Amazon at the time of writing, Cougar’s PURI TKL RGB Keyboard is one of the best options available.
Pros
- Sleek, compact design
- Quality of life functionality
- Responsive keystrokes
Cons
- Hardware-level RGB programming can be a bit of learning curve
- The Blue MX keys aren't for everyone
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
