CM Storm QuickFire TK is a No Compromise Compact Mechanical Keyboard

Unboxing & Closer Look

We see the outside of the box which also describes the QuickFire TK Keyboard’s features.  On the box we see advertised, 1000Hz polling rate, 1 ms, 50,000,000 keystrokes and a two year warranty featured.  

The other side of the box is written in 9 languages.

ABT did not get a retail box so the above 3 images are courtesy of Cooler Master. Ours was received in a white OEM box since we got our evaluation sample two weeks ahead of the launch.  Let’s get the contents out of the box.

Although we did not, you will get a user guide or you can download it here.  The braided USB cable is quite stiff with a nice touch being the gold-plated USB connections.  A key-puller is included.  You can see the blue backplate which adds a nice aesthetic touch and complements the blue LED key backlighting.  Of course, the Red MX switch keyboard has a red backplate and red backlighting while the brown MX switch keyboard has a brown backplate but comes with white backlighting.

All of the keys can light up although there are three modes so that only the gaming keys are highlighted in one of them – the WASD and arrow keys – and the brightness has 5 levels of adjustment.  Here is the brightness on the lowest mode in a dark room.

Now note the brightness set to high in the same conditions.  It’s nearly blinding!

Even in a very bright room, on the brightest mode the keys are still quite noticeable and in a dark room they stand out way too much – unless you are playing with the original 3D Vision – then you will really appreciate the extreme brightness setting.

Instead of lighting the entire keyboard, the QuickFire TK can light up only the WASD and/or arrow keys which is very useful at times.

By pressing the function key, the cursors can show at a glance what mode you are in – gaming or typing.

And of course, the Windows key should be disabled for a gaming session to avoid accidental presses taking you out of the game.

The key spacing is excellent and they are not jammed right next to each other as on many compact keyboards. You have a full-size typing keyboard including a switchable Numpad which makes the QuickFire TK compact keyboard quite decent for typing.  It was very easy to switch back and forth between the QuickFireTK and other standard keyboards for typing and for gaming.

Turning the QuickFire TK compact keyboard over, one can see that it is quite thick and very solidly built. The top rubber feet lie flat but can be extended, and the channels will give you a choice of where the braided USB cable will go.  There are no USB ports built into the keyboard, a feature we miss.

The rubber feet can also be extended, raising the back of the keyboard a bit and giving a very solid and secure non-slip surface to game on.  The bottom of the keyboard has rubber grips which secure it to the desk even in the heaviest gaming situations. Typists need not worry at all.

The QuickFire TK Keyboard is a rugged and solid keyboard with great aesthetic appeal for many gamers.

On the next page are some of CM Storm’s QuickFire TK product features which we will examine one-by-one followed by our conclusion.