ARCTIC K381 Multimedia Keyboard Review

👤by Vinh Thai Comments 📅25-08-10
Closer Look: ARCTIC K381 Multimedia Keyboard (Part 1)

The ARCTIC K381 is offered in two different colours: white and black. For this review, the black ARCTIC K381 keyboard was chosen. The overall finish of the ARCTIC K381 is matte (we will see later, the back of the keyboard is glossy). As it was mentioned earlier, the ARCTIC K381 has a slim design with almost no bezel. For anyone that has already seen an Apple keyboard, the ARCTIC K381 is very similar in terms of overall appearance.

In terms of connectivity, the ARCTIC K381 uses a 6-feet USB type A connector. The cable length is typical of any other desktop-grade keyboard.


The ARCTIC K381


The ARCTIC K381 keyboard features low-profile keys in order to minimize the travel distance. According to Wikipedia (Link)The travel distance is the distance needed to push down a button for it to register correctly. This should enhance the overall comfort and typing speed.

Unfortunately, as per mentioned by ARCTIC, the keys have a sharp and clear pressure point. In other words, the keys are fairly strong and require a decent amount of force to be pushed downwards. This can make prolong use of the keyboard tiring.


The low-profile keys of the ARCTIC K381 provide a very short travel distance


The keys of the ARCTIC K381 can be removed fairly easily. With an uncovered key, it can be seen that the ARCTIC K381 uses a dome-switch or chiclet switch technology. As far as I know, this keyboard technology is fairly common in today’s market. This technology provides a good balance between comfort and reliability.

In terms of shape, the keys of the ARCTIC K381 are square and flat. Its corners are fairly sharp and they are quite unpleasant to the fingers. For those that type while keeping their fingers close to the keys, traveling from one key to another might hook the fingers. This happens to me sometimes when I am typing slowly.

Also, in order to depress the keys, your fingers must aim the center of the key. I have the tendency of hitting keys at its edges or corners. As such, the keys would get stuck if a more than usual pressure was not applied.


The ARCTIC K381 is a dome-switch or chicklet type keyboard


As it was mentioned, the ARCTIC K381 is offered in different layouts. The one in the picture below has an IBM/Windows US layout. The layout of the ARCTIC K381 is similar to a typical desktop keyboard albeit a few differences. Unfortunately, the function keys are grouped into one. I would have preferred if the function keys were separated in groups of four. This would make typing in low-light situations much easier.

In order to use the 12 custom office keys of the ARCTIC K381, the Fn modifier key must be enabled. These office keys range from the usual ones to custom ones such as Help (F1), Reply (F9), Reply all (F10) and Spell Check (F6).

Furthermore, there is no gap between the typewriter keys and the function keys. The Caps Lock key is also flushed with the rest of the keyboard rather than having its edge near the A key slightly inset.


The function keys of the ARCTIC K381 are grouped together and can be modified by activating the Function key


Moving to the right of the keyboard, we see that the Insert key and its neighbouring keys are not aligned with the row of the backspace key. Initially, I found this quite troubling because I ended up pressing the Scroll Lock key instead of the Home key. I got used to this unorthodox layout after a few errors. Nevertheless, it would have been better if ARCTIC did not change the layout of these keys. If it were up to me, I would have moved the light indicators for the toggle keys to just above the cursor control keys, displacing the other keys towards the top. This layout would have eliminated the short but annoying adaptation period.

The numeric keypad is also slightly different from a conventional keyboard. The major difference is a smaller Plus sign key and the addition of the backspace key. I actually like this change. For anyone that uses the keypad daily, the inclusion of a backspace key is quite helpful.


The insert button and its neighbouring keys are a row lower than on a typical IBM/Windows keyboard. The numeric keypad is slightly different from the conventional layout as well.


In addition to an unconventional layout, ARCTIC has replaced the Windows logo on the Windows key with the logo of the company. The change is quite corny, but it is an amusing one.


The ARCTIC K381 has a custom Arctic Cooling Windows key


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