The Quest for a Budget Gaming Keyboard: A Study of the Redragon S101 and K552 Kumara

In today's gaming market, budget-friendly options are often seen as a way to save money without sacrificing performance. However, with so many cheap keyboards on the market, it's hard to know which ones truly deliver. In this article, we'll delve into the world of affordable gaming keyboards, specifically focusing on two popular models: the Redragon S101 and the K552 Kumara.

The Redragon S101: A Combo Pack of Mediocrity

One of the most notable features of the Redragon S101 is its technical designation as a combo pack. It includes both a centrophorus, centrophorus mouse and a basic membrane gaming keyboard, both wired and equipped with RGB lighting. While this may seem like an attractive feature at first glance, it's essential to examine the quality of each component separately.

The Redragon S101 Keyboard: A Membrane Marvel?

The keyboard itself is built using membrane technology, which means that if any key starts to fail, the entire board will need to be replaced. This can lead to frustration and financial loss for users. Furthermore, the typing experience feels characteristically mushy, and the keycaps may wear out in a matter of hours, making it harder to read the legend. The flip-up feet are a nice touch, but the wrist rest is uncomfortable and tacky-looking.

The K552 Kumara: A Mechanical Marvel on a Budget

On the other hand, the K552 Kumara is a tenkeyless mechanical gaming keyboard that offers exceptional value for its price of $35. It supports hot-swapping the key switches, allowing users to easily replace broken switches or try new ones without soldering. This feature alone makes it stand out from its membrane counterpart.

The K552 Kumara's Backlight: A Showcase of Per-Key Illumination

One of the standout features of the K552 Kumara is its 19 different lighting modes with per-key illumination, available only on the RGB version. The positive reviews for this keyboard focus on its value, backlight, and compatibility with Mac devices. While it may not rival mid-tier mechanical keyboards in terms of build quality, it's a significant improvement over its membrane sibling.

Keycaps and Switches: A Tale of Two Worlds

The K552 Kumara comes equipped with Outemu switches that feel and sound similar to those used in Blue-alike switches. However, they have thinner pins than average Cherry clone or Enthusiast switches. This means that users who want to use the same switches may need to file down the pins to fit them through the holes. The keycaps are double-shot and shine with RGB light, while the casing has a more substantial weight due to higher-quality switches and a metal plate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when it comes to budget gaming keyboards, not all options are created equal. While the Redragon S101 may offer affordability, its membrane technology and lackluster quality make it a less desirable choice. On the other hand, the K552 Kumara stands out as a mechanical marvel on a budget, offering exceptional value for its price. By choosing this keyboard over more expensive options, gamers can get a sturdy board with options without breaking the bank.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- On a budget? Trouble typing in the dark?Is there some other reasonthat you need a cheap keyboard, and fast?Well, odds are that you bought this oneor 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 (beep)is everyone buying this gaming keyboard?To find out, we bought it, actually them,and poured through theover 30,000 Amazon reviewsto see if popular equals good.Spoiler alert. It does not.Sometimes y'all really goof it up,but I would never goof upthis segue to our sponsor, Crucial.Step up your game withCrucial's P5 Plus NVMe SSD.You can easily upgrade yournew PS5 or your gaming PCwith up to two terabytesof additional storagethat comes with a five-year warranty.Get yours today using the link down below.(upbeat music)The number one best seller inthe gaming keyboard categorystood out for one obvious reason.It's technically a combo pack.I mean, who doesn'twanna free mouse, right?So it only felt fair to also have a lookat the runner-up in the category,a standalone mechanical keyboardfor around the same price.Starting with the Redragon S101,the title kind of says it all.You get a centrophorus, centrophorus mouseand a basic membrane gaming keyboard.Both of them wired and both with RGB.That's how you know it's gaming.The keyboard has multimediakeys if you're into those,the backlight cycles througha 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 400all the way to 3200 withfour adjustable presetsfor 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 S101are generally positive,75% of you gave it five whole stars,Most of the praise forthe combo seems to be,how do I put this, kind of basic.It's the more critical reviewsthat really hit the nail on the headfor why we don't think that you guysshould keep buying this thing.First up, the keyboard ismembrane, which for starters meansthat if any key starts to fail,you're probably gonna need tothrow the entire thing awayrather than performingsurgery on a single switchlike we did in a recent video.It also means that typingfeels characteristically mushy.And as for the keycaps,while you might like the softtouch right out of the box,don't be surprised whenthey start to wear outin a matter of hours, makingthe legend much harder to read.And this is particularly trueif you have more acidic skin oils.The flip-up feet are a nice inclusiongiving you two different angles,but while the wristrest I mentioned beforeis technically included, that is it.the best thing I can sayabout it is that it's so smallthat you're unlikely to actually end upresting your wrists on it,because the textured plastic,especially under the right palm area,is as uncomfortable asit is tacky looking.What's never tacky thosethe merch from lttstore.com.Make sure to check out ournew RGB diodes T-shirt.On that note, the tiny print manualincludes simple instructionsfor how to cyclebetween RGB colors andmodes, but from some angles,the keys near the bottomseem to shine much brighterthan the ones near the top.To be clear, if you get a working one,you'll be able to honenewbs with it just fine.But many of the critical reviewsmentioned keys either outrightfailing after a few monthsor registering extracharacters when pressed.These complaints could be dueto Dorito dust, that's on you,but given that theproduct description boaststhat the keyboard is built to withstandthe average liquid spill,I think it's fair to expect more.As for the mouse, it's fine.Onboard weights were a pleasantsurprise at this price pointbut the other glaring issuesovershadowed any joythat we could have felt.Both Plouffe and I foundit extremely uncomfortableand for different reasons.And even if we had tinyhands shaped like thisthe sensor just plain isn'tgood enough for serious gamer.Another issue, many of thelow-star reviews bring up,is how easy it is to hit theside buttons by accident.And we agree, though, atleast it does have them.The bottom line is whilemany of our complaintsmight feel like we're justhating on budget products.That's not the case.In fact, we've got areview coming on the GMX-7,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 betteroff with a basic combofrom a reputable brand like Logitechrather than spending twiceas much for some tacky RGB.But what if you did havea little more to spend?That's where our runner-upgets really interesting.The K552 Kumara is a tenkeylessmechanical gaming keyboardfor just 35 U.S. dollars.It even supports hot-swappingthe key switches, sort of.More on that later.It's got 19 different lighting modeswith per key illumination,as long as you get theactually RGB version,your choice of clicky,tactile, or linear switches,and much nicer keycaps than the S101.The positive reviews forthis one are pretty accurateand mostly focus on thingslike value, the backlight,and compatibility with Mac.It's still absolutely nowherenear the build qualityof 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 moneybut ditching the mouse from the combo packwe get a sturdier boardright outta the gateand maybe more importantly,we get options, people.Don't like the keycaps?Put on something else.Don't like the switches? TheKumara's hot-swap PCB meansthat there is no soldering requiredif you wanna replace a broken switchor try something new altogether.So then why don't theylist that as a feature?The Outemu switches that it comes withfeel and sound about likewe'd for a Blue-alike switch,but they have thinner pinsthan your average Cherry cloneor Enthusiast switch.So unless you're usingsomething else also from Outemu,you'll actually need to filedown the pins one by onein order to fit them through the holes.Please don't spend your time doing thatunless you really want to.The keycaps are double shotand 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 S101at almost two pounds thanksto the higher quality switchesand the metal plate.It's not as easy to take apartas a DIY Mechanical Keyboardbut the K552 can be torn down and upgradedmostly through lubing theswitches and the stabilizers.\"Switch and Click\" actuallymade a video doing exactly thisalmost a year ago,so if you're looking forsome help getting the mostout of your Kumara 552, makesure you check that out.Our main issues with this keyboard,aside from being stuckwith Outemu switches,mostly revolve aroundthe non-detachable cable,the attempt at rubber feet,and it hardly helps with sliding,and the overall look and feelcompared to a moreexpensive DIY tenkeyless.But there's one argumentthat wipes out all of those nitpicks.It's $35.There are competitors inthis price range on Amazon,but they're typicallyeither not hot-swappableor the low-star reviews mentionsome pretty roughquality control problems.Though the Kumara isn'tentirely free of those either.Most of our low-starreviews mention chatter,that's when the keystrokeregisters multiple times,or the keyboard just dyingafter a month or two.Ours has been perfectly fine so farbut you should note thatyour mileage may vary.If you're looking for other options,we haven't actually triedthese other keyboards,so we can't fully vouch for them,but while they havesignificantly fewer ratings,we have at least a couple competitor picksfor four and a half stars or higher.First up is this mechanicalkeyboard and mouse combo packfrom Havit which sports 6500 reviewswith 76% of them being five-star.It's the same price, butthe mouse and keyboardboth look a little nicer.There's not as much brandingbeing thrown in your face.And the keyboard is mechanical.So you give up yourdedicated multimedia keysbut I think that's a worthwhile trade-offto get away from membrane.As for finding an alternativemechanical keyboardat this price, it's pretty tough.YoChic has a full-size board for $30and it's got a perfectfive outta five stars,but there are only 18 reviews.So that could easily justbe the CEO of the companyand all their friends and family.If you're willing to upyour budget a little bitand you don't mind a smaller layout,the RK61 from Royal Kludge is just $53.It's hot-swap, uses a detachable cable,and has a solid ratingwith over 7,000 reviews.But, that's a much higher budget.So I'm gonna say it, screwit, go for the Kumara.If you wanna find itor any of the other itemsthat we've been talking about today,we're gonna have them linked down below,along with our sponsor NZXT.With NZXT's buildgetting a custom-built PCis easier than ever.Just set your budget,see how your PC will performin your favorite games,and build takes care of the rest.Build's recommendation engineprovides benchmark datafor the expectedperformance of your machineat both 1080p and 1440pand their FPS estimates are guaranteedto be within 10% accurate.You can customize and upgrade your buildfrom various NZXT case optionsand RGB lighting setups,and they feature transparent pricingwith a flat $99 assemblyfee in your local currency.And it'll be built and shippedwithin 48 business hours.With all your PC's componentscovered under one warranty plan,NZXT will manage any problems you have,and they've got expert live chatfor realtime help and troubleshooting.So go check them out. Don't wait.We're gonna have them linkedin the video description.If you guys are lookingfor 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 keyboardfor like 70 freaking dollars,80 duck bucks, you'relike loaded for bear.I love it.\n"