Closer Examination

The wrap the MasterKeys MK750 keyboard comes in is light while also being durable enough to be a travel sleeve, and the removable cable aids here too in case you absolutely must take it around. What does not help in that regard, and makes this a lot more attractive to the mainstream audience compared to smaller form factor keyboards, is the full-size 104 (and more) key layout that offers people a familiar experience. The MasterKeys MK750 has a predominantly black (a gunmetal black, to be more specific) color scheme, and Cooler Master added in a smoked black acrylic panel at the bottom-front where the wrist rest would otherwise go as an accent, which also helps diffuse the lighting added here. There is another subtle logo here, and that is really it for branding as far as the visible sides with the keyboard in use are concerned. The bezels are on the smaller side of average even with the aforementioned smoked panel, and the beveled edges on the plastic case match those on the wrist rest for a matching design scheme.

In place of dedicated indicator LEDs we instead have four tactile keys (non-mechanical) that act as dedicated media-control buttons. Note the absence of legends here, with a glossy finish that contrasts the rest of the keyboard. When connected, the backlighting on the keyboard lights up legends that are inscribed here, and only then will they be visible. I am not a fan of this move, but also understand that it takes a few minutes at most to get familiar with what these four keys do. The rest of the keyboard is fairly standard for a current mainstream flagship keyboard. We have a metal plate with a matte finish, and the absence of a top panel piece here with a standard-height bottom panel that acts as the case means we have floating keycaps, which are getting more and more popular today. This is a departure from the usual Cooler Master two-piece plastic case for keyboards.

Given the nature of the onboard controls here, we have a lot of secondary legends on the keycaps wherever applicable. These secondary legends are placed below or above the primary ones, which will affect uniformity with backlighting. There are also four tertiary legends on the 1-4 number keys in the alphanumeric cluster, which are printed onto the front and correspond to the four keyboard profiles available. Positioning of all the legends is in the center, and the font is of average size for the larger keycaps and larger than average for the single-sized keycaps. The font used is also very clean and goes well with the rest of the keyboard.


Flipping the keyboard around, we see the usual certification sticker in the middle. There are four rubber pads at the top and bottom corners for some friction against a desk's surface to keep the keyboard from sliding around. There are two large case feet at the top as well, and these can be raised to elevate the keyboard. Keeping up with the attention to detail here, the bottom of each foot has a rubber pad as well, so they won't scratch when used. We also see three cable-routing options here (left, center, and right) for the keyboard's cable, and these cutouts have protruding nibs that helps keep the cable in place.


Cooler Master has used a female USB Type-C port inset into the body of the keyboard, and the port itself is flush with the surface with a sufficient gap on either side such that you won't run into any problems when maneuvering the cable into place. I am glad to see the adoption of the Type-C standard here, which means you may be able to use the same cable for even charging your phone if it comes to that. The provided cable is nicely braided; it does not feel like the braiding will come off anytime soon and is color-coordinated with the rest of the keyboard. The keyboard requires a single male USB Type-A port on your computer, and USB 3.0 (3.1 Gen 1) is recommended to ensure no power issues with the RGB LEDs.


Cooler Master is using the tried and tested OEM profile with the keycaps here, with slanted rows and concave surfaces on top. The included keycap puller works incredibly well when it comes to removing even the larger keycaps, and this helps us better examine the stock keycaps. Unfortunately, Cooler Master has not given us the same quality of keycaps as with the replacement ones, with these being out of typical ABS plastic (average wall thickness of 1.12 mm) and with laser etched legends that will show signs of wear and tear sooner rather than later. The keycaps do have a "standard" spacing, including on the bottom row, so you can customize the keyboard with one of many available replacement keycap sets if you so desire. This does help somewhat, but is now the second occurrence (after the PU leather with the wrist rest) of Cooler Master trying to cut corners while still attempting to provide a luxury experience. The LED placement above the switches means that legends below or on front will simply not be as well lit as those directly above. The floating keycap design makes removing the keycaps for cleaning purposes easy, though it does introduce the potential for some light bleed as well.


The sample I received had the Cherry MX RGB Brown switches with a transparent housing and the actual RGB LED underneath the switch. The housing of the switch here acts as a diffuser in addition to allowing light to pass through and out of the keycaps. The larger switches have Cherry stabilizers as well, which further aids in their removal and installation over Costar or other designs, but the space bar here was noticeably mushier even compared to other Cherry stabilizer keyboards.


Here is a look at the keyboard with its replacement keycaps installed, as well as with the wrist rest on the keyboard as it comes out of the box. There is indeed a magnet near the center of the mating surfaces, which does the job well enough. Sure, it is not strong enough to hold the wrist rest in place if you lift the keyboard, but I don't think that is quite necessary either. The wrist rest in action feels quite nice, and showed no signs of wear after the time I had allotted to testing this keyboard.