If full-on RGB lighting isn't your thing, you can either opt for a single block colour, or just turn it off completely by downloading Razer's Synapse software.įortunately, its strange, upper-end membrane-like status is reflected in the overall cost of the thing, with its £59 / $59 asking price sitting roughly in the middle of your typical entry-level £30 / $40 membranes and £80 / $90 hybrid jobs like the Horde Aimo. A sort of quarter-way house, if you will, but one with a greater amount of membrane DNA than anything else. In practice, they're definitely less spongy than the old Razer Arctosa and Roccat Isku keyboards I've still got kicking around, both of which come from the membrane side of the keyboard family tree, but they're also not quite as quick and 'clicky' as, say, Roccat's 'membranical' Horde Aimo.Īs a result, it would appear the Cynosa occupies a slightly weird place on the keyboard hierarchy - somewhere that's halfway between a membrane and a membranical keyboard, the latter of which already being a sort of half-way house between membrane and mechanical. Razer still describes the Cynosa's keys (which are all made in-house) as being 'soft-cushioned', a bit like your average rubber dome setup, but they also say each key has 'better housing support', which is meant to give each tippity tap a more solid and responsive feel. Mechanical keyboards, on the other hand, all have their own individual switches with a bunch of moving parts inside them, often making them feel quicker, sharper and more responsive as a result. Membrane keyboards, in case you're unfamiliar with the distinction, often have a single sheet of rubber domes inside them, which can often make them feel quite spongy and slow when typing at speed or, say, mashing a lot of keys at once in a desperate bid to stay alive in a game like Monster Hunter. Of course, being a Razer keyboard, the Cynosa Chroma is a little different from your standard membrane keyboard.

Is it a better buy than your typical £100 / $100 mechanical keyboard, though? Let's find out. Yep, I've murdered hundreds of Great Jagrases with this £59 / $59 non-mechanical, membrane keyboard, and you know what? I actually had a pretty all right time with it - and it was a heck of a lot easier on my ears, too. Who says the best gaming keyboard has to be a mechanical one? Razer's Cynosa Chroma has been stuck on my desk for a couple of weeks now and hoo boy have I given it a baptism of fire, as this ended up being the keyboard I used to put together my Monster Hunter: World graphics performance article.

Cynosa chroma