Razer Cynosa Keyboard Review

What do you do when you want a keyboard that looks 'gamer' but you don't want to pay for it? Well my friends, that's when you start diving down the rabbit hole of cheap keyboards, and boy is it a nightmare down here. When you're going bargain basement mode, you're essentially deciding just how bad you're willing to accept. All of the keyboards from major manufacturers that are below $80 use rubber dome switches, which in varying degrees feel like typing on wet toast.

Enter the $60 Cynosa, Razer’s entry into the wet toast bracket of keyboards. It has no features, no pass-through USB for your mouse and no media keys. It’s only redeeming feature is RGB lighting, which is lackluster and muted compared to the brightness of most RGB keyboards. Like all Razer products, it integrates into the Synapse management software, and it can synchronize with any other Razer devices you might have. That said, if you can afford a suite of Razer products, you can afford a better keyboard than the Cynosa. It’s unimpressive in its physical design and its illumination, and given that ‘looking gamer’ is its only selling point, I can’t help but to wonder who this keyboard is for.

Being a rubber dome switch keyboard does present it with one advantage over its mechanical counterparts – the membrane can provide a layer of spill resistance. If you’re a bit clumsy, a cheaper, more resilient rubber dome switch keyboard can be an option, both for surviving the spills and being less of a money hole if it doesn’t. But the Corsair K55 and the Steelseries Apex 3 are both in the same price bracket, actually have features, and have IP ratings for liquid/environmental resistance (IP42 and IP32 respectively), meaning that they’ve been tested to certain conditions and passed. The Razer Cynosa does not, and simply claims to be ‘spill resistant’. While it’s good that the electronics might be preserved in the event of a spill, what this doesn’t protect against is the keys themselves becoming sticky. In the event that you do damage the key mechanism with a spill, Razer does not recommend removing the caps as they are prone to breakage. If you desperately want a keyboard that’s spill-resistant, go for the SteelSeries or the Corsair – they’re both cheaper, feel better, and have more features.

Whenever I’m reviewing something, I generally try to figure out who it’s for, and put myself in their shoes. I evaluate that hypothetical person’s needs and priorities, and try to find where in the market it makes sense for them to spend their money. Usually, there’s a subset of users for whom a particular product is right for. I simply cannot find that use case. No-one should buy the Cynosa. It’s bad, and every other option is cheaper and better. Either buy one of the competing options, or save up the extra $20 to get yourself to the $80 market where the mechanical switches come in.