At first, we would like to thank CHERRY XTRFY for offering a sample of their K5 COMPACT RGB Transparent White Mechanical Keyboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About CHERRY XTRFY:

“Following the successful acquisition of Xtrfy by CHERRY, the two renowned brands have joined forces to create CHERRY XTRFY – an innovative powerhouse in the gaming peripherals industry, set to be the new home for all future gaming peripherals, encompassing both existing and upcoming offerings from CHERRY and Xtrfy.

 

CHERRY and Xtrfy proudly unveil their new name, logo, and visual identity, signaling a fresh era in cutting-edge gaming gear and a unified portfolio of gaming peripherals.

 

“The merger of Xtrfy by CHERRY is a prime example of how diversification is crucial in esports. Both companies bring different strengths, networks, and product expertise, which complement each other perfectly. With the fusion of German engineering and Swedish design, this partnership is a match made in heaven, united by a shared love of gaming. As we move forward, we are excited to introduce our new gaming peripherals brand, which is driven by our vision for the future of esports. This vision encompasses diversity and inclusion, as we aim to promote a welcoming and inclusive community where everyone can participate and thrive”, says René Schulz, Vice President Business Unit Peripherals at CHERRY.

 

The revamped identity reflects the brand’s commitment to quality, performance, and the pursuit of next-generation esports equipment.

 

“We’re passionate about esports and after years of collaborating with professional players, we’re putting our hearts into growing our presence in competitive gaming. Ramping up our efforts in esports, we’re committed to creating new products that help gamers win. Our dedication is symbolized by the Winner symbol – X – and verbalized through the CHERRY XTRFY tagline: In it to win it”, says Joakim Jansson, Managing Director and Co-founder of Xtrfy.

 

The new brand and gaming peripherals will be housed under cherryxtrfy.com, and more news will be unveiled at CHERRY XTRFY’s event in Cologne, Germany on April 26th.”

Product Features:

 

A KEYBOARD DESIGNED BY YOU.

Shaped by the community’s input. Trusted by top players. Xtrfy’s 5th-generation keyboard brings you the performance you need. With the customizability to make it yours.

DESIGN YOUR OWN.

Grab one of the pre-built editions or click CUSTOMIZE and create your own using Xtrfy’s custom keyboard builder. Pick a base and add your preferred switches, keycaps, cord, frame, and logo plate. You have more than 150 options.

65% SIZE.

This keyboard comes in a 65% format – bringing you an extremely compact design without sacrificing the convenience of arrow keys.

HOT-SWAPPABLE MECHANICAL SWITCHES.

Out of the box, the K5 comes equipped with Kailh Red mechanical key switches (in our case the CHERRY MX Silent), trusted by pro gamers for their light touch, fast actuation, and durability of 70 million keystrokes. If you’d ever like to change them, they’re hot-swappable so you can easily replace them with any compatible MX-style switches – no soldering required.

HOW TO GET FASTER: SUPER-SCAN TECHNOLOGY.

Your keyboard is never faster than its ability to detect your keystrokes – no matter how many times per second it reports to the computer (Polling rate). The K5 features a new super-scan technology, scanning all keys every half a millisecond. A few years ago, we introduced the fastest gaming keyboard. The K5 is even faster.

UNBELIEVABLE RGB.

“The best RGB experience we’ve had” said one of the UK’s largest tech review sites about the previous generation of Xtrfy keyboards. On the K5, we’ve developed the RGB implementation even further to bring you a more impactful illumination than ever. Connecting the keyboard to a USB 3 port? Switch to USB 3 mode to boost the RGB!

OUR SMALLEST BUT MOST ADVANCED KEYBOARD YET.

Small doesn’t mean less. This keyboard is extremely compact yet fully featured, with per-key customizable RGB illumination, macros, media controls and more. All settings are made using the keys. No software needed.

BUILD QUALITY ON A NEW LEVEL.

Feel. Sound. Durability. It all comes down to build quality. The K5 is built with a metal plate construction, double layers of sound-dampening foam and high-quality PCB-mounted stabilizers – pre-lubed by hand.

 

Product Specifications:

 

Model name: K5-RGB-CPT

Available layouts: Nordic, UK, US, German, French, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Thai, Russian

Illumination: Per-key customizable RGB strip LED

Keys: 68 (US 67)

Key switches: CHERRY MX Silent

PCB socket: 5-pin (3-pin compatible)

Stabilizers: PCB-mounted, pre-lubed

Keycap material: Thick ABS

N-Key Rollover: Full

Anti-Ghosting: 100%

Special keys/shortcuts: LED settings, Macros, Media controls

Connection: USB plug-and-play

Cable: 2 m braided, detachable USB-C to USB-A

Weight: 841 g

Size: 325 x 110 x 37 mm

Warranty EU/US/ASIA: 2/1/1 years

 

 

It is time to check out another interesting keyboard from the newly-formed CHERRY XTRFY company, the K5 COMPACT RGB Transparent White, which is customizable to an insane level, meaning you can choose the preferred layout, base, the switches, base keycaps, the add-on keycaps, the frame type, the cable, the logo plate, the desired deskpad, the wrist rest, the carrying case and the manufacturer will build it for you (or they will send out the components for building it yourself, in the comfort of your own home!).

 

There are no less than 6 base models we can choose from, our sample coming with the K5 COMPACT RGB Transparent White base, but with CHERRY MX Silent switches; the product was shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, with the main product highlights as small icons on the frontal area; here we will get to see a photo of the chosen model in operation as well!

 

 

 

On the side of the box, we will note some more product features:

 

 

 

If we need more details, we can always check out the bottom area, where the main features are explained:

 

 

 

The keyboard is protected inside with foam material, but also an additional cardboard layer:

 

 

 

Additionally, the K5 COMPACT RGB Transparent White is wrapped inside a semi-transparent paper:

 

 

 

We will receive one XTRFY case sticker, the Quick Start Guide but also a leaflet which shows the assembly instructions, in case you did not opt in for the company to assemble it for you in advance:

 

 

 

As the keyboard before from CHERRY XTRFY, this one is not backed up by extra software, so all actions are performed via keystrokes; we can perform quite a bit of actions in this case!

 

 

 

Here are the steps we need to perform in order to have the keyboard assembled and ready to go:

 

 

 

 

As a hardware bundle, we will receive a switch/keycap combo accessory, the USB cable but also one GGWP logo:

 

 

 

The mentioned logo can be attached to the keyboard with magnetic force, in order to replace the stock one, which is already mounted on the K5:

 

 

 

 

The supplied USB cable is white in our case, but your order can include a cable with the color you choose; it is fully-braided as we noted with many high-end and mainstream mechanical keyboards:

 

 

 

On the computer-side, the connector is USB-A, while on the keyboard-side it is USB-C:

 

 

 

The combo tool is very useful when performing maintenance:

 

 

 

The K5 COMPACT RGB does follow the layout of a regular 65% gaming keyboard, so unnecessary functions/keys are removed in order to offer optimal space on the desk, but is also easy to carry with you. The top cover is semi-transparent in order for the light to shine through and obtain a really nice effect! Via a keystroke, you can switch between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 brightness levels (depending in which port you have the keyboard connected), the USB 3.0 mode being much brighter:

 

 

 

The Function keys can be accessed by pressing on the top row of keys, but actuated alongside Fn:

 

 

 

 

For resetting the complete keyboard and all the available settings, you need to press Fn + Backspace for 2 seconds:

 

 

 

The Delete key does also help with switching between 6-key and N-key rollover:

 

 

 

The Tab key, when pressed along with Fn will open Calculator app; with Q, W, E keys we can control the mouse movements, while R allows adjusting the key response:

 

 

 

The key response can be slowed down by using Fn + T, while Y, U, I, O act as multimedia keys; P does also act as Pause:

 

 

 

The rest of the keys from this row do house regular keyboard functions:

 

 

 

Moving on, we can enable/disable the LEDs with Caps Lock, access other mouse moving keys with A, S, D, while F and G do take care of the adjustable RGB LED brightness:

 

 

 

Fn + H will allow switching between 6 different RGB LED typing effects, while J will enable scrolling between 7 different RGB wave effects. K will allow adjusting per-key backlighting, by using two other keys (K-COLOR and BG-COLOR), while K-MASK will enable only the keys you have colored with K-COLOR, other keys will be completely disabled, a very interesting function for avoiding wrong keypresses!

 

 

 

The Enter key is also dubbed as “K5” and by using it with Fn we will enable Mute function:

 

 

 

Page Down also doubles up as End:

 

 

 

The LED effects will speed up by pressing Fn + Shift, while Z, X, C allow working with the mouse buttons:

 

 

 

The Fn + Version will allow you to find out which version of the firmware is installed on the keyboard (if you have a word processing app open, the keyboard will write it for you), Clear All will reset the LED RGB settings, while the rest of the keys will allow Macro recording:

 

 

 

With Shift key, you will be also able to open the Menu of the current application, while the arrow up key will allow Volume + modification:

 

 

 

The LED effect speed will be decreased with the left CTRL key, next we do have Windows Lock key while the ALT will allow moving the Fn function to it, if necessary:

 

 

 

The inverse action will be available with the Fn key, next we do have the USB 2.0/3.0 RGB LED function switch, the Macro playback speed options but also the Volume down:

 

 

 

The XTRFY logo is pre-attached to the keyboard chassis:

 

 

 

Since we are talking about a semi-transparent chassis, the LED will nicely shine through on all sides:

 

 

 

Here is also a look from the frontal side of the keyboard:

 

 

 

A close look as well at the USB-C port:

 

 

 

The K5 COMPACT RGB comes with a semi-transparent body on the back as well:

 

 

 

The sticker in the middle will inform us of the keyboard serial number, its power rating but also the supported standards:

 

 

 

The corners come with small rubber white feet, while the kickstands do integrate rubber tips as well!

 

 

 

 

With the supplied tool, we were able to remove the keycap of the right key, in order to show the CHERRY MX Silent switch:

 

 

 

Since we are dealing with a hot-swappable board, the switches are easily removable and we can replace it with other models from the CHERRY brand or others; underneath, we can spot the sound-dampening layer, which will further help with muting the sound of keys bottoming out; in the top area, we will observe the bright SMD LED:

 

 

 

After plugging in the keyboard to a spare USB port, the LEDs started showing what the K5 COMPACT RGB is capable of; we were quite impressed to see how fluent the effects are, unlike models from other brands:

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the K5 RGB COMPACT we did write a few documents, but also played some games such as Last Epoch, Destiny 2, Mass Effect Andromeda, System Shock and World of Warcraft; the keys do offer a great typing experience thanks to the CHERRY MX Silent switches, smoother in comparison with the Reds. These come with a 45 cN operating force, a 1.9 mm pre-travel distance, while the total travel is 3.7 mm; the patented damping on this switch is doubled up by the dampening layer included on the CHERRY XTRFY board, so this makes it ideal as a product to be used in the office for productivity tasks as well!

 

CHERRY XTRFY does bring the customization of the K5 series to another level thanks to the online configurator, in order to have a really unique build, while the semi-transparent chassis (which we definitely recommend), does really bring RGB lighting to another level! For custom orders, these may take up to 7 days for processing, while it will take much less for pre-defined builds.

 

Our custom-made design with CHERRY MX Silent switches and completely transparent case and bottom can be had online for about 201 Euros, while the standard XTRFY K5 COMPACT RGB TRANSPARENT WHITE can be had for just about 149 Euros, featuring hot-swappable Kailh Red switches. Thing is we did find online this keyboard for just about 98 Euros while including some discounts, so it is a really killer price for what this model does offer!

 

The CHERRY XTRFY K5 COMPACT RGB Transparent White Mechanical Keyboard is Recommended for:

 

 

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