At first we would like to thank CHERRY for sending out a sample of their MX Board 6.0 Mechanical Keyboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About CHERRY:

"CHERRY GmbH, with its headquarters in Auerbach in der Oberpfalz, Germany, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of computer input devices with an emphasis on office, industrial and security markets, as well as switches for mechanical keyboards among

others for PC gaming. Cherry GmbH is a 100% subsidiary of the technology group ZF Friedrichshafen AG."

 

Product Features:

 

The world's fastest keyboard - with CHERRY MX and CHERRY RK

Mechanics: CHERRY MX technology - Gold Crosspoint precision module for all keys "Made in Germany"

Electrics: CHERRY RealKey technology - fully analog signal processing

Full N-Key rollover - all keys are read simultaneously

100 % anti-ghosting - no inputting errors

Aluminum top housing with sanded finish and grease resistant coating

Bi-color status keys (blue backlight when activated)

Win-Key deactivation

12 double function keys

Red LED key backlight with adjustable brightness (dimmer)

Rubber palm rest with magnetic connector (quick-snap)

200 cm cable with textile covering

 

Product Specifications:

 

Housing colour: Aluminum (Sanded-Finish)

Key color: black

Weight (product): aprox. 1350 g (Keyboard), 257 g (Wrist rest)

Total weight (with packaging): approx. 2300 g

Cable Length: 2 m

Storage Temperature: -20°C to 60°C

Operating Temperature: 0°C to 50°C

Current Consumption: max. 500 mA

Interface: USB

System requirements: USB connection

Delivery Volume:

CHERRY MX BOARD 6.0

Wrist rest

Operating instructions in hard copy

Dimensions (product): approx. 454 x 147 x 28.4 mm (Keyboard)

Packaging dimensions: approx. 482 x 237 x 70 mm

Reliability: MTBF (90) > 80,000 hours

Keyboard:

Key technology: MX

Service life, standard key: > 50 million key operations

Operation characteristics: RED SWITCH Linear (45 cN)

Inscription technology: Laser

Inscription layout: Standard

Number of additional keys: 4

Warranty: 2 years

 

CHERRY is known mostly for their MX switches which are widely used on gaming peripherals all over the world and they come in many flavors:

 

-Linear which are the CHERRY MX Black, CHERRY MX Red, CHERRY MX Silent, CHERRY MX Grey and CHERRY MX Speed

-Tactile, non-clicky which are the CHERRY MX Brown, the CHERRY MX Clear and the CHERRY MX Grey

-Tactile, but also clicky which are CHERRY MX Blue, CHERRY MX Green, CHERRY MX White ad CHERRY MX Grey.

 

The MX Grey switches are available in all variants and are often used in large keys.

 

In this article we will look upon another CHERRY keyboard, but this time a premium version which does integrate CHERRY MX Red switches; these require an actuation force of 0.45N, which makes them a great all-around switch (for both gaming and typing activities). The MX Board 6.0 product is advertised as featuring the CHERRY RealKey technology which uses an analog controller to detect key presses quicker than regular designs, but also eliminates the ghosting issues completely.

 

The MX Board 6.0 keyboard does ship inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, which features a simple box art in order to represent the main product features:

 

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with another all-red enclosure, which does feature the CHERRY logo on top:

 

 

 

By removing the top cover, we will observe that the keyboard does sit in the middle, covered in a soft cloth bag (which is also branded, by the way and is ideal during travels):

 

 

 

As a bundle, CHERRY has also supplied one large wrist rest, along with an Operating Manual:

 

 

 

Inside the manual we will be able to inspect the main keyboard functions, in multiple languages:

 

 

 

The supplied wrist rest features a rubber coating which does seem to collect quite a bit of residues:

 

 

 

 

A closer look does reveal small MX logos on the rubber finishing:

 

 

 

If we do look on its back side, we will be able to spot multiple small rubber feet, which do keep the wrist rest steady on the table; the wrist rest is kept fixed to the keyboard via magnetic force, thanks to the central aluminum component:

 

 

 

 

Besides the soft cloth bag, CHERRY has also wrapped the keyboard in a transparent plastic bag, so it won’t get any scratch during transit:

 

 

 

With the MX Board 6.0, the manufacturer has maintained a standard layout, an exception being the four extra keys in the top right corner; the top layer is made from aluminum and the sanded finishing gives it a unique look. The ABS keycaps are laser-etched so LED light can shine through:

 

 

 

Some of the function keys do also have additional mappings attached to them; first we will see the Mute, Volume Down and Volume Up buttons:

 

 

 

Next we do have two types of LED light intensity adjustment buttons; the first group does adjust the LED light intensity by 1% (for a total of 100 levels), while the next group does adjust the LED light by 10% if you wanna speed things up:

 

 

 

The F9 key can help turn the LED light off completely:

 

 

 

The last set of keys is composed from the Windows Lock key (designed with the CHERRY logo), but also three multimedia buttons:

 

 

 

Around the directional keys, the top aluminum layer is a bit recessed for more comfort:

 

 

 

A closer look also reveals the cut-out where the wrist rest aluminum layer gets attached:

 

 

 

 

 

If we concentrate our attention on the keyboard sides, we will spot that the top aluminum layer is combined with a black bottom layer:

 

 

 

No extra USB hubs are present in the frontal keyboard area:

 

 

 

If we do turn over the keyboard, we will be able to spot a CHERRY authenticity logo sticker, but also a central sticker with more product info:

 

 

 

The small rubber feet also doubled on top by kickstands:

 

 

 

We really appreciate that CHERRY has used rubber on the tip of these too:

 

 

 

A central USB connector is placed in the middle and the cable can be routed in three separate directions, via the included channels:

 

 

 

The central sticker does reveal the product code name, serial number but also its power rating:

 

 

 

The CHERRY MX Board 6.0 keyboard does come with a two-meter long USB cable, which should be more than enough in most applications:

 

 

 

The other end of the cable has a gold plated USB connector ready:

 

 

 

The supplied wrist rest is quite large in size and requires quite a bit of space on the desktop:

 

 

 

Right after connecting the keyboard to a spare USB port, the LED lights will start shining through the keycaps. The LEDs are very bright at their maximum setting and can be easily spotted even during daylight:

 

 

 

Several function keys can also be lit in blue so we can distinguish their current status:

 

 

 

 

After connecting the MX Board 6.0 to our gaming machine, we navigated to the CHERRY website in order to check out what software is in store for this particular keyboard. We were quite surprised to see that there is no additional GUI for remapping the key functions or for adjusting the LED lighting, we did only find a new firmware along with a firmware update tool, which we did launch right away. The update process went very smoothly since no additional steps from the user are required.

 

Our game choices for the CHERRY MX Board 6.0 were DOOM, Mafia III, GTA V, Carmageddon: Max Damage and Paragon. Since we have jumped from the Corsair STRAFE RGB Silent which makes use of the Cherry MX Silent switches, we felt right at home again with the CHERRY MX Red (the switch MX Silent is based on), but with the added noise. The keyboard felt very response to key presses, while the low-profile ABS keycaps are a nice addition to the design; RealKey signal processing is meant to reduce key lag from the usual 20ms to just 1ms, but in our testing it was almost impossible to tell if there is a difference; while this feature adds a lot of value to the keyboard, we feel that it is quite overkill for casual gamers. If the customer does play for professional gaming leagues, he/she may spot a difference versus other high-end keyboards.

 

Another high-end feature is the frontal aluminum cover, which feels nice to the touch and we really prefer it to a cover with rubberized paint, which would pick up quite a bit of lint and skin oils (like we have seen with the Razer Blackwidow Chroma.

 

Since this is a full-sized keyboard, we would have really liked for CHERRY to add an USB pass-through, but also the RGB assortment of the MX Red switches and not only red LEDs. Extra configuration software could add quite a bit of customization to the keyboard and if CHERRY won’t like to go on this route, we propose that they would release a new firmware for this model which could make Macro recording possible on-the-fly as seen with the last Cooler Master keyboards we have tested.

 

MX Board 6.0 used to be quite expensive at launch, but now the prices have stabilized to more affordable levels so it can be found at about 160 Euros.

CHERRY MX Board 6.0 Mechanical Keyboard is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to CHERRY for making this review possible!