Corsair’s $100 lapboard has a built-in joystick for casual gaming in the living room

The best lapboards tend to integrate mechanical key switches and a built-in mouse pad into a single plank that sits on your lap, but Corsair is trying something a little different with is K83 Wireless. It trades both of those amenities for low profile keys and a built-in joystick.

Corsair definitely has gaming in mind, but in a more casual sense. It's also pitching the K83 Wireless as a command center for smart TVs and streaming media players.

"Browsing large media libraries requires more than keys, and the K83 Wireless includes a wealth of ways to browse content or even play games casually from the couch. An analogue joystick makes easy work of menus and content browsing and plays games like a gamepad when combined with the familiar WASD keys," Corsair says.

Beneath the joystick is a circular touchpad. It looks like something plucked straight out of a DJ booth, only instead of spinning vinyl users can swipe and click similar to using a laptop.

We haven't spent any hands-on time with the K83 Wireless, but we'd be surprised if it proved as good as or better than solutions like Corsair's own Lapdog. It's not entirely unfair to judge the keyboard in that regard, either. While it's clearly designed for navigating menus and apps like Netflix, Corsair repeatedly references gaming.

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"Total entertainment control with gaming at its heart," Corsair states at the very beginning of a 1m34sec promotional video on YouTube (embedded above). Not long after, there's even a clip showing Nvidia's RTX technology enabled. That said, the actors sure look like they're having a grand old time, don't they?

The K83 Wireless connects via 2.4GHz (with the included USB dongle) or Bluetooth 4.2. It also features a white LED backlight, 20-key rollover with anti-ghosting, and a built-in battery that is rated for up to 40 hours of continuous use per charge.

Corsair is taking orders for the K83 Wireless now for $99.99.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).