Weightless Keys for the Win

Professional sports competitors and dedicated PC gaming hobbyists alike invest in premium gear to help consistently win games and rise to the leaderboards. MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic Gaming Keyboard is one such accessory that can help you reach that level thanks to its lightning-fast keys.

Featherweight keystroke

The keyboard's bright RGB LEDs may catch your eye, but MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic's exclusive Sonic Red switches will hold it. Experienced gamers will appreciate quick, almost silent, and consistently smooth jumps across menus with smooth keystrokes and performing game-winning strategies.

At the slightest touch of this extra-click keyboard, performing important action one moment faster than your opponent feels great in the middle of the game. Its hybrid 6 + N-key rollover support ensures that it registers every key you press, even if you press six at once. All of these big dramas could mean the difference between landing and game-breaking near miss.

I found that these boxy raised linear switches were comfortable overall. This model is designed to “reduce finger fatigue” and I can confidently say that after testing MSI Vigor GK71 for long gaming sessions I did not notice any real difference in my hands and wrists.

If you regularly jump into your favorite games, you'll appreciate MSI Vigor GK71's ability to map three custom keyboard profiles directly to its onboard memory. Launching the RGB color profile of your choice and tapping an Assigned Function (FN) key to collect the required macros is a simple touch.

Eye-catching presentation

MSI Sonic Red Switch On the one hand, the first thing you'll notice about this full-size gaming keyboard is the kaleidoscopic appearance of the bright LED keys. The addition of ClearCaps was a brilliant addition, because no matter how you customize the color and pattern of each individual key with over 16 million colors through the MSI Dragon Center app (available for Windows with a weaker version on the iPhone), you'll be treated. Shows a bold and bright light from every angle. Creative minds will take advantage of this app to customize their MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic and create a unique design that matches their desktop setup or favorite games.

The included ergonomic memory foam wrist wrestling is remarkably comfortable, and I'm glad it's designed as a separate piece from the keyboard so I can place it right where I need wrist support for maximum comfort. Its rugged rubberized underside was a nice touch, as fewer PC accessories tend to revolve around the desktop when you use them.

The feeling of a light weight of only 854g will not let you fool this model without thinking it is durable. The MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic's sleek-looking solid aircraft-grade aluminum frame, Sonic Red Switch (rated for more than 70 million keystrokes), and the 1.8-meter strong braided USB Type-A simply show how well this keyboard works.

And speaking of that aluminum frame, if you need a little help managing the tangled mess of your desktop cables, it's a nice touch to include a four-way X-shaped groove at the bottom.

MSI knows it is most appreciated to customize every aspect of their gaming gear, so the bundled key pulling tool was a nice touch for switching individual keys as needed. Unfortunately, this board is not hot-swappable, which means you are stuck with the switches you receive. This feature, which can be found on many other gaming keyboards at or below this price tag, will basically solve the problem of casual typing (more on this later) and greatly improve the application of the board.

The addition of dedicated media buttons is a convenient feature for instant in-game sound adjustment, and I will feel the touch of mashing the stylish volume knob of this keyboard any day.

Best reserved for PC gaming

Although the MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic Gaming Keyboard is actually suitable for battery-smooth gaming, it seems out of place when used for everyday tasks. For example, the use of MSI's Sonic Red switches has resulted in an annoying amount of typing because they are so easy to activate accidentally while typing. It was so bad that I wouldn't recommend the Vigor GK71 Sonic unless you have a backup keyboard for regular typing or objections to the Featherweight Actuation Force.

No one is arguing that this keyboard's bright custom-colored rainbow doesn't look cool, but the extra-bright glow and flashing of its LEDs can be confusing at best and annoying at worst. While the 104 Clearcaps were perfectly designed to pump up an impressive light show, these transparent black-topped red switch keys aren't nearly as stylish when turning off the lights.

It's not a complete dealbreaker, but installing and setting up companion software from MSI was much more complicated than it should have been. I first installed the MSI Center app from the Windows Store, but it didn't work, so I was forced to delete it and set up the Dragon Center app directly from MSI to be able to adjust the required Mystic Lite feature on the keyboard.

An all-in-one app from MSI will be much more convenient than testing which of their multiple programs works best with your gaming peripherals, but you'll discover the best way to access the features you need after a little trial and error.

Should You Buy MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic?

Whether you like action-packed shooters Overwatch Or like crazy real-time strategy headlines StarCraft II, The MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic gaming keyboard and its lightning-fast mechanical switches make it a competitive edge in your gameplay and a top option for bringing plenty of flash to your desktop presentation. Unless you realize that the MSI Vigor GK71 Sonic is a gaming tool and a poor choice for regular typing, this complementary keyboard is worth investing in for hardcore PC gamers.