Performance
Having seen the interesting layout for the number pad I’m sure that some of you are wondering how that worked out for us. Before we get into that, I would like to talk about the keyboards lighting and function keys. We have both photos and a quick video that show how it all works.
First thing first, the function key in combination with the F keys is how you adjust the lighting options as well as how you use the media keys up top. Cooler Master did slip in a feature that I found extremely handy, if you hold the function key down you can lock it on. Whenever the function key is locked on the backlighting for the key turns on, this means that even with all of the lighting turned on, this key is not lit up unless it is locked on.
F1-F4 control the lighting for the TK, with F1 turning the lighting on and off, F2 and F3 adjusting brightness up and down, and F4 changing the lighting modes. There are only three modes on the TK, you have WASD only, all of the keys on, and all of the keys with the lighting “breathing” on and off slowly. I have shown these off in our video that you will see lower down on this page.
The lighting over on the number pad is a little more interesting though. Even with the lighting turned off, turning the number pad OFF will light up 0, 00, period, and 2. These double as a direction pad if you didn’t notice before. This is a cool feature that helps you see when you are in that mode. The downside to this is that when the numpad is on, those four keys are not lit up, EVER. That means that even with your backlighting on, those keys aren’t lit up for easier use in the dark. I would have preferred that they put two LED’s on each of those keys and just had them glow a different color when the mode was on, but I fully understand that doing so would add to the keyboard's cost.
I didn’t mention it before, but the F12 key also has a special function. When you use the function key with it, you will lock out the windows key. Gamers will love this function. Much like the function key, this key is only lit up when in this mode as well. This isn’t a big deal at all though because how often do you use your F12 key anyhow. The one exception is screenshots in Steam and if you are in game you should have the Windows keys locked out anyhow. This is the only key that isn’t effected by changes in the keyboard backlighting though, so if you run your lighting on a low setting, this key will stay at full brightness. I considered this to be a major flaw until I remember that this is the screenshot button in steam, it actually made it easier to track it down and find it while in game. The F12 key isn’t a key I use much, I would normally have to look away from my game to find it.
Beyond the backlighting, what were my thoughts on the Quickfire TK? I wasn’t sure what to expect with the weird key layout. I did end up finding that the keyboard took a little while to adjust to. Much like the Quickfire Rapid, you don’t realize how much you use something until its gone. It was great to have the number pad as I really missed it when using the Rapid, but It only took me to start writing this review when I realized how much I use the delete button and more importantly the direction pad. It took some adjusting to remember to turn the number lock on and off as needed. On the bright side of things, unlike the Quickfire Rapid, it only required adjusting to get used to that change, functionally all of the keys that I need and use are there, I just have to take an extra set every once in a while. Considering the TK’s smaller size and footprint, I was happy with the compromise.
