Finding the perfect keyboard can often feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. There’s no shortage of mechanical keyboards offering a whole range of features and hardware options. While the «perfect keyboard» likely doesn’t exist, there are certainly some good ones to be found.
Finding a solid balance between hardware, features and price can be daunting. While Cherry’s MX 8.2 TKL keyboard delivers fantastic hardware, there are compromises as well. I spent several weeks typing and gaming on it to see if it’s worth it.
What I like about the Cherry MX 8.2 keyboard
There’s not much to make this TKL (or «tenkeyless» aka no number pad) keyboard stand out, but that’s a good thing here. The design is understated but well-built. It’s not a full-metal build, but the plastic doesn’t feel cheap and the metal base board allows for a very solid typing surface. In order to keep it compact, Cherry put the power switch and connection indicators on the back, which might get a bit confusing if you change inputs frequently.
It’s also pretty compact, even for a TKL keyboard. There’s not much space around the sides or even between the keys and rows. I like it, but some might prefer things a bit more spread out, especially if you have larger hands.
The MX 8.2 comes in white or black with ABS keycaps, which are actually nicer than I thought they’d be. I normally prefer PBT keycaps, but these don’t feel as thin as other ABS keycaps I’ve used so they didn’t bother me as much. And, of course, the keycaps are swappable. So if you have a preference or want to try a different type, they’re easy to change.
No gaming keyboard would be complete without RGB lighting, and that’s one place the MX 8.2 shines (pun intended). You can customize the backlight for every key and there are several different lighting effects to choose from. In the Cherry software you can create up to 10 profiles so you can have one for each game (or, you know, for work stuff).
Not every gaming keyboard supports wireless connectivity, but thankfully, the MX 8.2 offers both Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless dongle connectivity. If you’re worried about latency, stick with the dongle, but in truth, Bluetooth was plenty fine for me during my usage.
Great performance
As expected from a keyboard sporting Cherry’s MX switches, the typing experience on the MX 8.2 is wonderful. I’ve used dozens of other keyboards in my time, and every time I come back to Cherry switches I remember why I love them so much. They are clicky, tactile and responsive and give just the right amount of audible «thwack» as I type.
I felt right at home on these switches as shown by my 100 wpm on MonkeyType, which is my typical speed. It helps that the version of the keyboard I reviewed came with Cherry’s Brown switches, which I prefer, but you can get the linear Reds if you prefer. Sadly, they aren’t hot-swappable, so you’ll have to dance with the one who brung ya.
The MX 8.2 is built for gamers and as such, has a few gaming-focused features that are helpful. For starters, if you get the Brown switches you already have a shorter actuation distance. This means you don’t have to press as far down to trigger a command as compared to Red switches. This can help when speed and timing in a game really matters. It also supports full n-key rollover, which means every keypress is registered even when pressing multiple keys at once. It also has anti-ghosting to help avoid weird typos and such.
In my time with the MX 8.2 it was extremely responsive while gaming. There were never any missed keystrokes, and most importantly, I didn’t experience any hand strain during extended gaming sessions. that’s not something I can say of every gaming keyboard I’ve used.
What I don’t like about the Cherry MX 8.2 keyboard
There are a couple of hardware things that are annoying about the MX 8.2, the first being the lack of storage for the wireless dongle. This may not seem like a big deal, but with how small dongles are they’re incredibly easy to lose and annoyingly expensive to replace, and that’s if you can even find them anywhere. Additionally, you can’t connect to more than one device via Bluetooth, so unless you re-pair it every time you switch devices, you’ll want to use the dongle more.
The other hardware annoyance has to do with the RGB lighting, specifically with the white key version. The LEDs are placed at the top of each switch housing, so the bottom two-thirds of the keys are shadowed by the switches. This means the lighting isn’t uniform across the keys. But then again, I don’t know how much time you spend looking at your keyboard so this may not bother you.
Also, the white keycaps sort of make the lighting look a bit muted and washed out, but that’s certainly quite subjective. I ended up leaving the lighting off during the day and turning it on at night and I was gaming.
Frustrating software
If you’ve read any of my (or most any other) reviews of Cherry keyboards, you might have seen that the software is one of the biggest frustrations with Cherry keyboards. Not only does Cherry have multiple apps for performing different – and even some of the same – customizations, not every product they have is supported by the software. It’s mostly hit or miss as to which products get software support.
On top of that, the apps the company does have are just bad. The UI looks like it’s from 10 years ago, and the functionality is quite limited and confusing. There’s no real guide, so generally you just have to figure it out by messing around with it.
The only redeeming qualities about it are that you can customize the lighting effects pretty granularly, and you can program different functions for each key. But again, this process is tedious and frustrating, so I would avoid it if you can. Luckily, most of the basic functionality you should need is bound to a secondary layer behind the function keys, so you shouldn’t have to mess with the software too much if you don’t want to.
Should you buy the Cherry MX 8.2 keyboard?
The MX 8.2 has been out for a while now, and Cherry is asking $210 for it, although I’ve seen it for around $180 on Amazon. While it’s certainly not the most expensive gaming keyboard around, that’s still quite a lot for a keyboard, no matter how good it is. Especially considering how crowded the field is these days. There are quite a few really solid keyboards that can be had for around $150 or even less and Cherry doesn’t really offer much to make it stand out.
That being said, Cherry offers superb craftsmanship and a wonderful typing experience with the MX 8.2. The compact layout means it doesn’t take up a lot of room on your desk while the per-key RGB lighting offers a lot of customization, as long as you’re prepared for an annoying software experience.
If you need a dedicated gaming keyboard that goes all-in on features and performance, there are better options. The same is true if you just need a good budget gaming keyboard. But if you’re looking for a high-quality keyboard that works hard and plays hard, the MX 8.2 is worth considering.
