Despite the prevalence of touch-screen devices in tablets and portable devices, the keyboard remains a primary input device of the personal computer. However, daily work tasks that involve typing use keyboards in a very different way than games do. In games, keyboards are used more for their convenient, close, familiar layout of keys, which are used more as action buttons, rather than for typing words. Due to this, the gaming needs and the typing needs don't necessarily match up.
Take, for example, the ability to use six different keys simultaneously. When typing, this isn't likely to even have a reasonable expected behavior - which letter should show first? When playing a game, however, this allows you to run (Shift) forward (W) and to the left (A) while throwing a frag grenade (E), reloading your weapon (R) and jumping (space bar)... if you find the need. Sound a bit hectic? Sure. Is that more fingers than I have on one hand? Absolutely. Is it possible to hit all of those keys at the same time with one hand? No problem... just use your pointer finger to press (E) and (R) at the same time.
Another of the Raptor-Gaming LK1's features that has more gaming application than business application is the ability to remove key caps and, effectively, disable that key so it can't be accidentally pressed while playing. Well, actually, I can think of one key that many people would love to be able to banish from their keyboards; I don't know a lot of people who intentionally use the (Insert) key. I'm just sayin'.
Sporting a cord that's nearly 10 foot long and features a woven outer covering is nice; you may find that you need the extra length based on the location of your rig or the shape of your computer desk and, if not, it doesn't really hurt anything, as the tangle-free cord helps to reduce its likelihood of creating an unruly ball of cords under your desk.
There are some nice rubber pads on the bottom of the LK1, which do an excellent job of holding it in place when the keyboard is laying flat. When you use the legs to tilt the keyboard into a slightly angled forward (read, "comfortable") position, however, you drastically reduce the grip, as the rear rubber pads are no longer touching your desk and the short legs have no grip built onto them.
In the snack-filled arena of today's gamers, it's quite possible that your keyboard may come in contact with spilled liquid, be it water, soft drinks, Red Bull or tea. The idea of designing a keyboard to be water-resistant and actually designed with drainage holes is not a bad idea. However, the key caps appear to be part of the design that keeps water out of the inner workings, so if you remove the key caps, per the aforementioned feature, you're defeating the water-resistance on those keys. Once I was able to locate an old computer that was okay to test with, I tested to see what would happen if I spilled some diet soda on it when the caps were off. I removed about eight keys from the center and poured some right on in. Then, I turned the keyboard sideways to dump out the liquid, popped the keys back on and tried typing. Surprisingly, it continued to function! Just to be sure, I repeated the process. After replacing the keys a second time however, it appears that the keyboard shorted out. Not even the indicator lights would turn on. At least the computer didn't seem to be the worse for wear.
Good features are nothing without good implementation and, sadly, there was just too much weirdness with the Raptor-Gaming LK1 Keyboard to use it as a replacement for your existing keyboard - or to suggest it for a new build; water resistance is great if it works, but useless if it's not reliable.
