This version of the Vengeance K95 has white per-key backlighting. This colour may pose a problem for those with corrective lenses, potentially causing considerable glare in low-light conditions and something of a distraction in less than ideal circumstances. Three brightness levels mitigates our concern, but doesn't eliminate it entirely. It could be worse, they could be blue LEDs, but they're far more likely to be dazzling than then red LEDs of the Vengeance K70.
Lighting
If you don't delve into the user guide you might assume that the lighting options for the K95 aren't much more than the basic. However as well as standard control for brightness, the K95 mirrors the K70 in that there are a series of lighting modes determining how the lighting behaves.
Pressing the Backlight Control Key cycles through two modes: full illumination or a specific pattern. Full illumination is self-explanatory, whereas the specific pattern illuminates only certain keys, with 1-6, WASD & Arrow Keys being the default. All lighting configuration is made on the hardware itself, rather than relying on software.
Holding the Backlight Control Key for five seconds causes the outline to flash red repeatedly, during which time pressing any key toggles whether it should be on or off in the backlight pattern. This pattern is stored in keyboard memory, and can be used to highlight specific keys during gaming in addition to or instead of standard WASD.
Finally, by pressing CTRL & the Backlight Control you'll enter a further mode. From that point on any unlit keys you strike will briefly flash on for a second or so. We're not entirely sure why Corsair have opted to include this niche feature, but it's a cool effect which may have a few applications in demonstrations under low-light conditions.
All modes are subject to the three brightness levels selected by the brightness key. The chosen lighting mode and per-key lighting config. is stored along with the key assignments as part of the M1-M3 options.
Polling Rate
USB polling rate - the rate at which the system polls for input from the USB bus - can be altered through the switch on the rear of the keyboard. This switch has five modes: {1,2,4,8} and BIOS. Each of 1-8 determine the response time in milliseconds between updates (polling rate is 1000 divided by this number, measured in Hertz), whilst BIOS sets the keyboard to a compatibility mode to reduce conflicts with older motherboards.
High level professional gamers will tend to have the figure dialled right down to 1ms for optimum performance, whilst us mere mortals will generally feel out a preference over time. We didn't run into situations where the BIOS compatibility mode was necessary, but it's a worthy addition nonetheless.
Windows Lock Key
Often present in software and far more rare on the keyboard itself is a Windows lock key. When pressed it lights up and locks out the Windows key, ensuring that a miss-click doesn't drop you out of your game or worse yet crash it. Note that like the LED Backlight Program Key, when locked it will remain illuminated even if the backlight brightness is set to off.
Although the Vengeance K95 requires software to make the most of the macro editing and profile capabilities, the configuration options available without interacting with software are extremely impressive. We also find it welcome that Corsair have maintained continuity of operation between different keyboard models. Once again, we particularly appreciate the potential of the per-key lighting options, both for practical demonstrations and key highlighting in MMO gaming. With those features outlined it's time to take a look at the software side of the equation.
