Cougar 500K Gaming Keyboard Overview
As I said one of the main differences between the 500K and 700K is that the 500K is not made of aluminum, but rather plastic, so it is not as heavy. Because it is made of plastic it has an all-black design, which does not look bad at all. This 500K is a full-sized keyboard with a full compliment of keys and full number pad.
The second big difference between the 500K and 700K is that the 500K does not have mechanical key switches, but rather is a membrane keyboard. The keys are black just like the rest of the keyboard and are fully illuminated. One interesting part of the keyboard is the space bar, which has more or less been cut in half. So the left half will act as the normal keyboard and the left is one of the six programmable G-keys.
The rest of the G-keys are located at the far left of the keyboard and are actually silver, not black like the rest of the keys. Along the top of the keyboard you have M1-M3 keys, which allow you to switch between three different profiles on the keyboard. The MR key allows you to record macros on the fly. The F1-F4 keys has alternate functions for repeat rate, you can select between 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x. There are also indication LEDs to let you know what your repeat rate is.
On the opposite side of the keyboard are a few more extra buttons. There is the illumination button, Windows lock button, play / pause, stop, back, forward, mute, volume down and volume up. The scroll lock and pause / break buttons have alternate functions to switch between 6-key rollover and N-key rollover.
The keyboard does come with an optional wrist rest. On the left side there is what Cougar calls the FPS palm rest. It is an elevated section that is made to give better support and comfort to your palm and wrist when playing FPS games. It can also be removed.
Taking a look at the keyboard from the side we can see the first row of keys are actually rounded and the rest of the rows have a slight angle down. There are feet on the bottom of the keyboard to give a better angle if you prefer it.
On the top right of the keyboard is a USB pass-through port that can be used for a mouse, headset, or even a USB flash drive.
Flipping the keyboard over we can see the two pop-up feet and 5 more rubber feet that will keep the keyboard from moving around all that much.
The USB cable on the keyboard is very thick and nicely braided, which means it is not going to tear or rip. Also the USB connections are gold-plated.
