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Cherry MX 6.0 Keyboard

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#1 ·
Cherry MX 6.0 Keyboard

Description:
Cherry G80-3930 MX 6.0 Keyboard
 

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#2 ·
A confused product that could have been much more

review by geggeg

Introduction

This product was received as part of the OCN Reviewer Program, which has no impact on the review itself. Cherry is not a new name to the PC peripheral market by any means, and their switches are still the standard that most mechanical keyboards aim for. Indeed, the Cherry keyswitch stem has become a universal standard to the point where non Cherry switches- clones or new designs entirely- adopt the stem to allow for a higher degree of keycap compatibility. While Cherry's bulk business is as an OEM in providing switches and solutions to partners including Corsair, Ducky, Cooler Master and so on, they also maintain a portfolio of end user peripherals under the Cherry brand name as well. It is their opportunity to product a reference design that aims to be the best of what can be achieved using Cherry products, and enter then the MX 6.0 keyboard.

Let's begin by taking a look at the specs from the product page:

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and here's a better look at the switch force diagram accompanying the specifications:

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The MX 6.0 comes in an option of different layouts (ANSI, ISO etc) but only one key switch and backlighting option. This was the biggest disappointment to me right away, and even though I understand why they limited SKUs for a reference design, I still don't agree with the choice of MX Red switches (more info on it here). Cherry is aiming this at professionals, and their core business for decades have been the typists rather than the gamers. MX Browns or MX Blues would have made more sense here in my opinion- let your partners handle the gaming market, they are better at it.

Unboxing, Overview and Disassembly

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Cherry has adopted a very clean aesthetic for packaging here, and a black/red color scheme is used to just let people know the main points- the keyboard name, the layout and the key switch used. What you see immediately is just a sleeve, and there is another cardboard box inside. The inside box is all red, and has a subtle Cherry logo on one side. Open it and we get to the contents:

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The inside is as clean as the outside- the keyboard itself comes in a black Cherry sleeve that can be used to cover the keyboard and use it if travelling with it. It is lightly elastic, soft and thick enough to offer some protection- especially against dust- without taking up too much room. On the sleeve is a sticker reminding the users to update the keyboard firmware to the latest version available. Underneath the keyboard is a multi-language manual that describing the basic functionality. In a compartment below this lies the large wrist rest:

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It is easily the largest wrist rest I have ever used, and angled steeply as well. It attaches magnetically to the keyboard which is great to use, but does mean it can slide off easier than most other wrist rests as well if you put a lot of downwards pressure on it (which you shouldn't be). The front surface has a rubber finish with grooves cut into it diagonally to have the MX writing everywhere, and the Cherry name + logo is on the bottom in a brushed finish. While it looks great out of the box inside the plastic cover, the rubber surface is a big dust magnet and even finger oils get on to it very easily. The small grooves make it hard to clean easily as well, so you will want to dry it and then use an air duster for best effect. Not the best implementation of a good concept here.

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The keyboard also comes in a plastic cover on the body and the cable, along with the aforementioned sleeve. Take the plastic off, and you get to see one of the best looking keyboards in the market. I prefer clean designs myself, and a brushed aluminum plate/body with black keycaps is hard to beat in that aspect. The bezel is a good size all around the keyboard as well. There are 4 extra keys here on top of the standard 104 key layout, and these 4 (located above the numpad section) help lock the Windows key as well as work as dedicated media buttons for play/pause, rewind and forward. Other media functions are handled via function keys, as is handling the brightness of the backlighting. Flip it over and you see the cable originate from the middle, appearing as if it was removable. It is not, however, and I felt disappointed again but this time mostly because I thought it was removable. There are some cable management options though:

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3 possible routes, with the side routes having some nubs in the way to help secure the cable in place.


The keyboard is taller than most and angled slightly even without any feet propped up, and there are rubber pads spread out on the bottom to prevent it from slipping off a surface. There are two feet that can be raised on the top, and the underside of these feet have a rubber surface as well. This seems like common sense, but you would be surprised how many keyboards miss this.

Here's a look at the wrist rest in action:

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The aluminum used means the keyboard is fairly bulky, and weighs ~1.35 Kg (2.9 lbs) by itself with the wrist rest adding another ~260 g (0.57 lbs). Dimension wise, the keyboard itself comes in at 454 x 147 x 28.4 mm ( 17.87" x 5.78" x 1.1"). The cable provided is braided, but the braiding is tight enough to allow good flexibility. Since keyboards hardly get moved around, this is not a real factor as much as it would be for mice.

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The cable is 200 cm long ,and terminates in a standard female USB-A connector. USB 2.0 is sufficient here as the keyboard only requires 479 mA of current draw, but go with a dedicated USB port rather than from a non-powered hub. PS/2 operation is possible here via an adapter, and actually recommended to get the most of the RealKey technology.

This is the first, and only so far, keyboard using Cherry's RealKey technology (more information here), this is separate from scan rate over USB wherein some keyboards have the option to change it from 200-1000 Hz (5-1 ms respectively). This means every 1-5 ms the keyboard controller checks if a key is pressed. If a key press is recognized, different software routines within the keyboard are processed (i.e. de-bouncing, anti-ghosting and so on). Normally this takes ~ 20 ms before the keystroke is output to the PC and then the display. Cherry's RealKey technology uses an analogue controller which detects current flow from a key press and the signal processing takes ~1 ms instead of the 20 ms most others take. This is one part of the journey from key press to key stroke seen on the screen, and is different from USB vs PS/2 latency, key switch actuation, display input lag and so on. It is a neat technology for sure, and it can potentially confuse key actuation testing programs such as Switch Hitter:

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It "detected" that there was a key chatter on the T key, i.e, a press of the T key resulted in multiple registered inputs. However, that was not the case.

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The MX 6.0 uses a Cherry profile in terms of low profile key caps with the bottom rows having a more pronounced angled top surface. The keyboard itself uses Cherry key switches, of course, with MX Red switches here and a red LED on top of each switch. Some keys have blue/red dual color LEDs (Caps lock, Scroll lock, Num Lock, Win key and Function key). This is their first backlit keyboard, and red LEDs have been a feature on gaming keyboards before RGB happened but in 2016 people want, neigh they expect, the ability to choose the backlighting color they want. For a keyboard touted as a gaming keyboard, this is going to be a negative point.

Here's a visual comparison with the Cherry keycaps (on the left) to a Cherry OEM keycap (on the right):

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The low profile nature of the keycaps is quite evident here. The key caps are ABS and the legends are laser etched on. They are fairly durable and thicker than most such keycaps I have used at 0.97-0.98 mm thick (the walls). Durability has been good in the 5 weeks I have used it so far.

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There is, of course, Cherry MX key cap compatibility but large keycaps will not fit in. The MX 6.0 uses a "standard" bottom row with a 1.25, 1.25, 1.25, 6.25,1.25, 1.25, 1.25, 1.25 u layout (Where 1 u = 0.75") allowing for a lot of options in terms of 3rd party replacement key caps. This is a plus point for sure!

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To no one's surprise, Cherry stabilizers are used here on the longer keys. This makes key cap removal and replacement easier but does give a "mushier" feel to the key caps themselves, especially the space bar.

The latest firmware for the keyboard can be found here, and it is a fairly simple process. Connect the keyboard to a USB port on your computer and initiate the program:

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A status progression bar appears and the entire process takes ~15 seconds or so from start to finish. The latest firmware helps deal with some bugs, and introduces a backlighting time out feature which doesn't make much sense given you can control the brightness of the LEDs to 0 as well.

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The LEDs are fairly bright, and there is good control over brightness control. Fn + F5 and Fn + F6 give a 1% change in brightness, whereas Fn + F7 and Fn + F8 give a 10% change in brightness, and it is possible to turn off all LEDs as well as mentioned.

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Dual color LEDs on 5 keys are used to signify their activation. So, for example, Num Lock will light up Blue when active only. The brightness of the Blue LEDs can also be controlled now with the latest firmware.

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There is inconsistency in the brightness of some LEDs, however, as some appear orange or light Red even at what should be max brightness. The legends on dual functionality key caps have the secondary function below the primary one and so won't light up evenly, and some such as the Function keys have a 3rd legend that is on the front rather than the top, which again does not light up as well as the primary legend on the top. For a keyboard with just one main backlighting option, this wasn't implemented perfectly either.

That is basically it as far as the keyboard features go, There is NKRO as demonstrated by Aqua's test:

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but so do just about every other so-called gaming keyboards these days. No lighting modes, no macro settings, no reassignments of key functionalities. The Cherry MX 6.0 is a very confused gaming keyboard.

Disassembly is fairly easy with screws holding the bottom panel and the top panel/PCB together from the back, and there is one beneath the Cherry logo sticker on the back as well:

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Now you see what I meant by the cable being non-removable but looking otherwise. Not sure why they have to go with that connector with give in it at all. The bottom panel is ABS plastic, and the action is all in the other piece:

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Cherry has used a plate mounted PCB here with the aluminum top acting as the plate as well- very heavy duty construction here. The main components are all on the other side, however, and I am not planning to de-solder everything to take a look at them. Speaking of soldering:

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The solder quality is so-so, with the solder points terminating every which way. Some get way too close to each other for my comfort too. To be fair, the keyboard was perfectly ok and I would never have noticed it if I had not removed the bottom panel, but solder quality would still merit improvement.

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Some of the components on the other side can be seen here, but the focus is on the PCB. Multiple layers of it, even.

Before we conclude, a note on the switches themselves- Cherry has been the standard for a reason. I tested every single switch with and without the keycaps on, and actuation was at 45 cN +/- 2.1 % as measured using standard US nickels on each. Typing and key actuation + registering was very consistent, and the only reason I could not get to my usual 120+ WPM typing speed was more to do with the MX Red switches in use than anything else- heavier linear switches would have been better, if tacticle/clicky switches were not an option. Then again, Cherry wants this to be their gaming keyboard and MX Reds are very popular for gaming. I had no issues there either.

Conclusion

The Cherry MX 6.0 keyboard costs ~$170-175 in the USA as of the date of this article. It debuted at $199.99 in 2015 and didn't fare well in terms of keyboard recommendations then, and does even worse now despite the price cut. The problem is that this is a confused keyboard in that it aims to be a gaming keyboard but does not execute that well- no software/hardware control on key assignment or macro settings, single color backlighting on most keys which wasn't very even either, and their marketing budget is not high enough to where people can be convinced this is a killer gaming product. Their own customers have multiple products that offer more for the money. The only real exclusive here is the RealKey technology which is neat, but is handicapped by the other decisions made around it.

That being said, the massive aluminum top/plate section has to be a big part of the cost here and it does stand out while still maintaining a very clean aesthetic. The low profile key caps are nice as well, and can be easily replaced- including the bottom row- with your choice of 3rd party replacement key cap sets. The MX Red switches used are also among the best in terms of sample to sample variation in keyboards I have used so far.

This could have been a much better product had Cherry just stuck to their forte and made this a typist's heaven. Make it a reference to your customers- show them how people still want to see MX Clear switches, or even MX Blue switches if it comes to that. Forget about single color backlighting, and spend that money on double shot PBT key caps. I realize a lot of these are going to be quickly refuted, but if one thing is clear it is that the MX 6.0 is not what the market sees as a $170 gaming keyboard in 2016.

ProsCons
Good build quality, Very low switch to switch actuation variation, RealKey TechnologyPriced higher than the market allows, wrist rest is a dust magnet, features and implementation are conflicting each other

Ratings
Overall4
 
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