Roccat's first mechanical keyboard has been a long time in the making. Combining signature Roccat styling and many of the features found on the company's other keyboards with your choice of Cherry mechanical switches, the Ryos MK Pro has some serious gaming credentials.

With an angular shape and integrated wrist rest, the Ryos MK Pro is a huge keyboard. The black plastic finish looks particularly menacing paired with per-key blue LED backlighting, which you can turn on and off individually to only illuminate the keys you need when gaming.

There are two USB ports on the right side of the board, and 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks on the left - saving you a trip underneath your desk when attaching a headset or plugging in a flash drive. Unlike on the Cooler Master CM Storm Mech, the headphone and microphone ports are pass-through models rather than USB, so you can still use your PC's own sound card with them.

There are five macro keys on the left of the keyboard, as well as three "thumbster" shortcut keys directly below the spacebar, in easy reach of your thumb. The function keys also all double up as multimedia shortcuts. Everything can be customised through Roccat's comprehensive control panel, and it's even possible to assign special functions to regular QWERTY keys using the EasyShift button.

Holding down the Caps lock key activates EasyShift mode, which gives you an unprecedented number of macros that should satisfy even the most hardcore MMO players. By default Roccat disables the Caps lock key in favour of EasyShift, but this can be changed back in the Roccat software.

As you'd expect from a mechanical keyboard, the Cherry switches are fantastic for typing, with a super-springy action and instant response. Our review sample used Black-type Cherry switches, which are quieter than the Blue types and require a large 60g of activation force; good to help cut down on accidental key presses, but you may find they make typing tiring. Roccat also makes versions of the Ryos with Cherry Blue, Brown and Red switches, so you can pick the switch type that suits you.

At £140, the Ryos MK Pro is very expensive, even for a gaming keyboard. Its main rival at this price is the Cooler Master CM Storm Mech, which has the advantage of a built-in USB3 hub, but if you want to be able to customise the function of nearly every key on the board, the Ryos is the better choice.

