 On a budget? Trouble typing in the dark? Is there some other reason that you need a cheap keyboard and fast? Well, odds are that you bought this one, or rather one of these ones. And I know what you're thinking. It's cause it's cheap, right? You're only half right, which also means that you're half wrong. So why the the is everyone buying this gaming keyboard? To find out, we bought it, actually them, and poured through the over 30,000 Amazon reviews to see if popular equals good. Spoiler alert, it does not. Sometimes y'all really goof it up, but I would never goof up this segue to our sponsor, Crucial. Step up your game with Crucial's P5 Plus NVMe SSD. You can easily upgrade your new PS5 or your gaming PC with up to two terabytes of additional storage that comes with a five-year warranty. Get yours today using the link down below. The number one bestseller in the gaming keyboard category stood out for one obvious reason. It's technically a combo pack. I mean, who doesn't want to free mouse, right? So it only felt fair to also have a look at the runner up in the category, a standalone mechanical keyboard for around the same price. Starting with the Red Dragon S101, the title kinda says it all. You get a centrophorus, centrophorus, mouse, and a basic membrane gaming keyboard, both of them wired and both with RGB. That's how you know it's gaming. The keyboard has multimedia keys. If you're into those, the backlight cycles through a variety of colors and modes, and it includes a wrist rest. More on that later. As for the mouse, it's got six buttons, five of which are programmable, a nearly ambidextrous design, and a sensor that can change DPI from 400 all the way to 3200 with four adjustable presets for whatever you want in between, and they can even be tuned via software. But that's about it. It's cheap and it works, mostly. While reviews for the S101 are generally positive, 75% of you gave it five whole stars. Most of the praise for the combo seems to be, how do I put this, kind of basic. It's the more critical reviews that really hit the nail on the head for why we don't think that you guys should keep buying this thing. First up, the keyboard is membrane, which for starters means that if any key starts to fail, you're probably gonna need to throw the entire thing away rather than performing surgery on a single switch, like we did in a recent video. It also means that typing feels characteristically mushy, and as for the keycaps, while you might like the soft touch right out of the box, don't be surprised when they start to wear out in a matter of hours, making the legend much harder to read. And this is particularly true if you have more acidic skin oils. The flip up feet are a nice inclusion, giving you two different angles, but while the wrist rest I mentioned before is technically included, that is it. The best thing I can say about it is that it's so small that you're unlikely to actually end up resting your wrists on it, because the textured plastic, especially under the right palm area, is as uncomfortable as it is tacky looking. What's never tacky though, is the quality merch from lttstore.com. Make sure to check out our new RGB diodes t-shirt. On that note, the tiny print manual includes simple instructions for how to cycle between RGB colors and modes, but from some angles, the keys near the bottom seem to shine much brighter than the ones near the top. To be clear, if you get a working one, you'll be able to pull noobs with it just fine, but many of the critical reviews mentioned keys either outright failing after a few months or registering extra characters when pressed. These complaints could be due to Dorito dust, that's on you, but given that the product description boasts that the keyboard is built to withstand the average liquid spill, I think it's fair to expect more. As for the mouse, it's fine. Onboard waits were a pleasant surprise at this price point, but the other glaring issues overshadowed any joy that we could have felt. Both Plouffe and I found it extremely uncomfortable and for different reasons. And even if we had tiny hands shaped like this, the sensor just plain isn't good enough for any serious gamer. Another issue many of the LowStar reviews bring up is how easy it is to hit the side buttons by accident. And we agree, though at least it does have them. The bottom line is while many of our complaints might feel like we're just hating on budget products, that's not the case. In fact, we've got a review coming on the GM X7, the cheapest gaming mouse on Amazon. So get subscribed for that. The issue is just that gamers who are on this tight of a budget, guys, you'd be better off with a basic combo from a reputable brand like Logitech rather than spending twice as much for some tacky RGB. But what if you did have a little more to spend? That's where our runner up gets really interesting. The K552 Kumara is a 10 keyless mechanical gaming keyboard for just $35 US. It even supports hot swapping the key switches. Sort of, more on that later. It's got 19 different lighting modes with per key illumination, as long as you get the actually RGB version, your choice of clicky, tactile or linear switches, and much nicer key caps than the S101. The positive reviews for this one are pretty accurate and mostly focus on things like value, the backlight and compatibility with Mac. It's still absolutely nowhere near the build quality of a mid-tier mechanical keyboard, but compared to its membrane brother, and for $35, had I mentioned that yet, there's just no contest. By spending the same amount of money, but ditching the mouse from the combo pack, we get a sturdier board right out of the gate, and maybe more importantly, we get options, people. Don't like the key caps? Put on something else. Don't like the switches? The Kumara's hot swap PCB means that there is no soldering required if you wanna replace a broken switch or try something new altogether. So then, why don't they list that as a feature? The Otemu switches that it comes with feel and sound about like we'd expect for a blue-alike switch, but they have thinner pins than your average cherry clone or enthusiast switch. So unless you're using something else, also from Otemu, you'll actually need to file down the pins one by one in order to fit them through the holes. Please don't spend your time doing that unless you really want to. The key caps are double shot, and the RGB shines through quite nicely, though you might not like the font, and while the casing is plastic, it's got way more heft than the S101 at almost two pounds thanks to the higher quality switches and the metal plate. It's not as easy to take apart as a DIY mechanical keyboard, but the K552 can be torn down and upgraded, mostly through lubing the switches and the stabilizers. Switch and Click actually made a video doing exactly this almost a year ago, so if you're looking for some help getting the most out of your Kimera 552, make sure you check that out. Our main issues with this keyboard, aside from being stuck with the Otemu switches, mostly revolve around the non-detachable cable, the attempt at rubber feet, and it hardly helps with sliding, and the overall look and feel compared to a more expensive DIY 10 keyless. But there's one argument that wipes out all of those nitpicks. It's $35. There are competitors in this price range on Amazon, but they're typically either not hotswappable or the LowStar reviews mentioned some pretty rough quality control problems. Though the Kimera isn't entirely free of those either. Most of our LowStar reviews mentioned chatter. That's when the keystroke registers multiple times or the keyboard just dying after a month or two. Ours has been perfectly fine so far, but you should note that your mileage may vary. If you're looking for other options, we haven't actually tried these other keyboards so we can't fully vouch for them, but while they have significantly fewer ratings, we have at least a couple competitor picks for four and a half stars or higher. First up is this mechanical keyboard and mouse combo pack from Havit, which sports 6,500 reviews with 76% of them being five star. It's the same price, but the mouse and keyboard both look a little nicer. There's not as much branding being thrown in your face, and the keyboard is mechanical. So you give up your dedicated multimedia keys, but I think that's a worthwhile trade off to get away from them brain. As for finding an alternative mechanical keyboard at this price, it's pretty tough. Yoshik has a full-size board for $30, and it's got a perfect five out of five stars, but there are only 18 reviews, so that could easily just be the CEO of the company and all their friends and family. If you're willing to up your budget a little bit and you don't mind a smaller layout, the RK61 from Royal Cluj is just $53. It's hotswap, uses a detachable cable, and has a solid rating with over 7,000 reviews. But that's a much higher budget, so I'm gonna say it, screw it, go for the Camara. If you wanna find it or any of the other items that we've been talking about today, we're gonna have them linked down below along with our sponsor, NZXT. With NZXT's build, getting a custom-built PC is easier than ever. Just set your budget, see how your PC will perform in your favorite games, and build takes care of the rest. Build's recommendation engine provides benchmark data for the expected performance of your machine at both 1080p and 1440p, and their FPS estimates are guaranteed to be within 10% accurate. You can customize and upgrade your build from various NZXT case options and RGB lighting setups, and they feature transparent pricing with a flat $99 assembly fee in your local currency, and it'll be built and shipped within 48 business hours. With all your PC's components covered under one warranty plan, NZXT will manage any problems you have, and they've got expert live chat for real-time help and troubleshooting. So go check them out, don't wait, we're gonna have them linked in the video description. If you guys are looking for another video to watch right now, why not check out our mouse version of, why is everybody buying this thing? About the G502 Hero, really great gaming mouse. One of those and this keyboard for like 70 freaking dollars, 80 dump box, you're like loaded for bear. Love it.