When shopping for a gaming keyboard, most people are looking for mechanical switches. While that is considered the gold standard for a good reason, it’s also a feature that’s priced to match. Those who are looking to stretch their budget a bit more should consider other switch alternatives, including mechanical hybrids and membrane switches, which is what the Cougar 500K gaming keyboard uses. The German company Cougar caters to people on budgets while still trying to provide features that gamers are used to seeing in higher-end mechanical keyboards.

To prepare for this review the Cougar 500K was used for two weeks with games including Borderlands 2, Grand Theft Auto V, and Sid Meyer’s Civilization V, and was the main keyboard for the note-taking and writing of this review.

The gaming keyboard with membrane switches is available on Newegg for 79.99.

Features

Out of the box, there is little in the way of excess. The package comes with the keyboard, the palm rest, and an easy-to-read quick guide. The main features of the keyboard are as follows: N key rollover, up to 1000hz polling rate that can be changed on the fly (you can do this either with function keys or with software), macro recording with 3 separate macro profiles that can be saved to the onboard memory, full key backlight with 5 levels of brightness, additional rubberized FPS palm rest, USB pass-through, and 6 programmable G keys. Additionally, any other 10 keys on the keyboard can be reassigned to the user’s preference.

Compared to other gaming keyboards in a similar price range, this is a fair amount of features despite the lack of mechanical switches on the keys. If mechanical switches are a no-compromise feature and you're looking at this price range, then you’re going to be looking at baseline features for everything else—no macro recording or programmable G keys, for instance. Most will also not feature a palm rest.

If the switches aren’t a deal-breaker, then you can also find competitor products to the Cougar 500K such as the Logitech G70, that also features programmable G keys. However, that board only has 26-key rollover and a different switch style. Similar keyboards at the same price range also do not have USB pass-through.

Design

The keys for the Cougar 500K are glossy back with an orange LED backlight (adjustable to five levels of brightness). The G keys are grey, and the logo for Cougar looks might look suspiciously like another German peripheral manufacturer to you.

The board has a very unusual spacebar design: the spacebar has been divided in half. The right side of this split makes room for the 6th programmable G key.

Set on a flimsy-looking plastic chassis, I have to admit that I wasn’t really impressed at first glance, especially by the quality of the keycaps. They come off very easily, and just by removing it from the box a few of them had come loose. You will not need a key capper to replace these, but then that also means you might have to watch for missing caps if you decide to frequently take it out for LAN parties or gaming tournaments. For everyday use, of course, there is no danger of that happening. The palm rest is also not very aesthetically pleasing, with the backs of the bolts showing through the plastic, which is also pretty thin. It does not feel very sturdy.

Comfort

At first, I immediately felt the difference from the mechanical keyboard I normally game with – I had to press down further to acctuate the key, which took some getting used to, but it only took a short time to adjust to it. I’m familiar with switching between different switch styles because at work I use a rubberdome keyboard. The membrane switches on the 500K were snappier than rubberdome but lacked the distinct clicky feel and sound of mechanical switches.

The additional FPS palm rest was nice, except when I had to use the keyboard to type longer pieces of text (such as this review). The other side of the palm rest was essentially useless because of that – overall it’s too thin. It would have worked better to either have all the palm rest be the FPS height or have none at all. It is removable though, so that is nice if you decide to go ahead and get a separate palm rest for the keyboard. Also, it was easy enough to attach and detach it: just clip it underneath at the bottom until it snaps in. The rubberized FPS palm rest is attached onto the base palm rest with magnets.

Of course, the biggest elephant in the room is the split spacebar. I understand why Cougar thought this might be a good idea – if they can squeeze in another G key without depriving gamers (well, at least the right handed ones) of their ability to jump while playing, then they’ve got another selling feature. However, take a break to write a reply to that Steam message and believe me, you’ll notice the split keyboard right away. It’s second nature for me to hit the right side of the spacebar while typing, and it was impossible to retrain my brain without halting my typing progress to a snail’s pace.

One of the first things I did after plugging it in was downloading the software so that I could change the G6 key back to space. If this is Cougar’s way of getting people to download the software, then well done. However, it was not at all convenient. With the keyboard split in such a way, it is only plug and play if you decide to not respond to anyone at all while playing. Which, I suppose, is how some people like it.

The polling/repeat rate was also something I had to deal with early on. Initially, I had bumped it up, thinking that would help with accuracy, but then when I went to play Borderlands 2, holding the W down to move was a nightmare. I actually slowed down to the point where I thought I had encountered some bad lag. Needless to say, make sure the polling rate is down to 1x when playing.

The keyboard’s texture isgenerally non-descript. There are no raised bumps or other tactile indicators for the WASD keys like I have seen on other gaming keyboards.

If I were to change something major about this board, it would be the palm rest. Everything else is fine. It would also be nice to maybe have some of those tactile differentials so that it’s easier to line up your fingers to the keys in the right order.

Performance

As far as performance is concerned, typing on the 500K is just fine. The n-key rollover was certainly helpful when I was doing typing tests and trying to be as fast as possible. For three separate tests, I had around 93% accuracy at 85 WPM. I did not notice any lag or resistance, even at the lowest pulling speed, when typing quickly. As said earlier though, the actuation isn’t quite as sharp given that they are membrane switches instead of mechanical switches. The macro recording worked fine and was pretty easy to use. Here’s one I just did: I like turtles (You too, can meme by simply pressing 1 button. So easy!).

Final Thoughts

Overall, I felt like the Cougar 500K added a lot of additional convenient features for its price range, although the lack of mechanical switches might turn some avid gamers off at the start. I didn’t feel like the membrane switches were a defect, and I quickly got used to them.

However, some of the “comfort” features that were added – such as the FPS palm rest – should be revaluated or removed altogether. Additionally, the split spacebar might turn customers off immediately when they realize they have to download the software in order to remap the right side of it.

The macro recording and programmable G keys, as well as the adjustable polling rates and N-key rollover, certainly make up for the lack of mechanical switches. Someone who’s looking for a solid gaming keyboard without the hefty price tag should certainly give the Cougar 500K a try. Just understand also that you get what you pay for.