Qisan BOLON LED Gaming Keyboard

The BOLON keyboard does almost everything a budget keyboard can to satisfy gamers, aside from anti-ghosting. It offers a solid design, sturdy manufacturing, and a useful set of features to help with gaming. The LED lighting adds both utility in lower light, as well as a style option with a variety of colors to choose from. So while it’s not the perfect answer for a gaming keyboard, it offers a lot for a relatively low price.

Pros:
– Quiet but responsive keys.
– Solid, sturdy construction.
– Various LED backlight options.
– Macro keys.

Cons:
– No Anti-Ghosting feature.
– Keys provide little tactile response.

This might be a budget keyboard, but they didn’t cheap out when it comes to the quality of the components. The frame is sturdy with reasonable weight. This certainly isn’t one of those flimsy keyboard with a weight under one pound. It’s not heavy, but it won’t be sliding around your desk while you play. And while the extendable legs don’t have a rubber bottom on them, there are anti-skid rubber pads at the front end of the keyboard. The cable has a braided cover, which not only helps protect it, but actually reduces the chances of tangling and kinking as well. There really doesn’t seem to be anywhere they skimped when producing this keyboard.

The keyboard boasts 6 macro keys for setting up additional gaming commands or assigning whatever function you prefer. There are also media control keys for sound and music along the top. So you can raise and lower volume, as well as control your music even while in a game. There are also shortcut keys on the opposite side for quickly opening things like your web browser or email. I don’t often use those, but for people who like to keep things simple, they’re a nice addition. The keys themselves are very quiet. In contrast to mechanical keys, these provide very little sound, but that means they also lack the tactile response you get from keypresses on mechanical switches. These have a good response and don’t require excessive pressure to use, but there’s no sound or click to provide feedback.

The LED lighting is obviously both functional and stylistic. There are a variety of options both in terms of color as well as brightness and pattern. You can have the light breathing/pulsing, or solid. And there area a few brightness settings to choose from as well. The 7 colors offer a lot in terms of either matching the existing color of your other accessories, or just picking the color that suits you best. It’s also nice to see a simple white backlight option for people who want the added visibility but aren’t fans of colorful lighting.

The only thing this keyboard lacks to make it an absolute hit in the budget keyboard category is some type of anti-ghosting. This feature ensures your key presses make it to your computer, even when pressed simultaneously. Some keyboards offer this on certain often-used keys, and the highest end offers a fully anti-ghosting board. And while I didn’t experience noticeable key drops when using this keyboard, I simply couldn’t say it can’t or won’t happen with someone else since they don’t have that feature. You “could” lose some button presses…

Final Score: 4/5Overall this keyboard does a lot for gamers. There are few that I think wouldn’t be satisfied with this option, leaving only the most demanding players wanting more. But at that point you have to look at a different price point to get higher-end features like on-board displays, anti-ghosting, or mechanical keys. In this range, the BOLON delivers some serious competition.

Qisan BOLON LED Gaming Keyboard: $35.99 – Amazon.com