Saying the CORSAIR K83 came out of left field would be fair given their stance on RGB and mechanical keyboards for the past few years. But probe a bit deeper and this all makes sense. The company has been wanting to establish a presence in the living room for a while now, be it with the original Lapdog, aforementioned K63 Wireless TKL keyboard that has its own Lapdog accessory, wireless mice and headsets, and even complete systems in small form factors which all form an ecosystem for the living room. The K83 slots in perfectly here, especially when you consider the various other devices it can work with. PC, Apple (computers or TV), smart TVs, receivers, consoles, and effectively any connected device with a spare USB port and/or Bluetooth 4.0 (or higher) will allow the K83 to be used, albeit not necessarily completely.

There is a range of compatibility as it pertains to the host devices, which we discussed on the previous page for those of you skipping over to the conclusions. This does mean that CORSAIR has no way to promise a standard user experience throughout, and that can be a sour point, especially if you have a device the company has not yet tested and verified with the K83. Perhaps it is a good thing then that the K83 is so much more than just a keyboard since that arguably might well be its weakest feature as an input device. The integrated touch pad works great in combination with the left/right click buttons below, similar to that on a laptop, although a rectangular form factor would have worked better and allowed for more space on the touch pad. Gestures especially, native via Windows or remapped on iCUE, can help overcome the loss of some dedicated keys on the 76-key compact keyboard. The joystick and L/R buttons are nicely designed as well, especially in media mode, and can be handy in gaming mode—in specific situations.

iCUE once again comes in strong, allowing the end user to do more than what the keyboard can out of the box, which, to be fair, is a lot. The included manual is a must read to make the most of the device, especially as it walks users through the connectivity, modes, and interface options. But seeing some options listed in the manual and not in the release build was disappointing, though not as disappointing as the battery life, which is really key for a device people will use in the living room with the expectation of multiple months of standby battery life for regular use akin to the average multimedia device. I have little experience with such devices, however, so keep that in mind, noting that my impressions of the CORSAIR K83 are without a lot of direct context. As such, and coming off pleased overall with the feature set, I do recommend it for those who see this fitting into their living room, especially with CORSAIR promising continued device support and additional modes.