Subscribe to the magazine here. AOC has consistently churned out some of the best value gaming monitors on the market, offering a fantastic combination of performance and features for low prices. Now the company has entered the peripherals market with a new keyboard, mouse, and headset. So, can it achieve the same great-value excellence? Well, $50/£42, the GK500 gets you a full-sized 104-key keyboard with Cherry MX-style mechanical switches and full RGB backlighting. That’s impressive, even if the switches are clones made by a company we’ve never heard of before – Outemu. Combined with the rather rough-looking legends on the keys – the white painted-on secondary function labels are particularly shoddy – and you have a keyboard that largely looks as cheap as its price suggests. Looks aren’t everything, though, and the GK500 feels surprisingly solid. Despite its slimness, the base is quite rigid, so there’s no annoying bounce while typing. On the underside, a pair of single-level flip-down feet can raise the back edge by around 1cm and they have thick rubber pads on them to prevent the keyboard from sliding around – plenty of expensive keyboards aren’t as surefooted. That said, the keyboard does easily slide around if the feet are stowed. For physical features, the only extra you get is a magnetically attached wrist rest. It’s good to see a magnetic system used on such a cheap keyboard, but the rest itself is hard plastic, so it isn’t all that comfortable. Elsewhere, you get no extra keys, USB hub, or multimedia controls. The cable is also fixed rather than detachable. It’s a chunky, braided cable with an ample 6-foot length. Media playback and lighting controls are available via secondary functions of the F keys and cursor keys, while further keys can be programmed via AOC’s G-Menu software. This software package also lets you set the polling rate, repeat delay, and repeat rate (when holding down a key); disable the Windows, Alt-Tab, and Alt-F4 key shortcuts; set n-key rollover; and adjust lighting. The latter only has preset lighting effects or a full static color, not individual key control. The keys are quite noisy, with the lightweight housing doing little to absorb the key hits. However, you could quite easily tone down the worst of the noise with rubber ring dampers on the switch stems, or by adding some noise dampening or weight to the base. As this keyboard is so cheap, it could be a great starter project for getting into mechanical keyboard modding. A quick paint job on the base and a new set of quality keycaps would give you a passable custom keyboard for less than the cost of most pricier models. VERDICT The GK500 is a very cheap mechanical keyboard but its sturdy base and responsive keys mean it nails the essentials, making it a decent option for those on a tight budget. Plus, there’s plenty of scope for modding it. PROS SPECS Dimensions (mm) 431 x 124 x 36-50 (W x D x H) Weight 1.9 lbs with cable FormatFull-size – 104 keys Connectivity Fixed 1.8m USB cable Switch life50 million key presses Backlighting 6-zone RGB Polling rate 1000Hz Keyboard rollover 25-key ExtrasMagnetic wrist rest
