We love a good Das Keyboard here on PC Gamer. They're well-built, precision boards that are loved by serious gamers and wordsmiths alike. The Das Keyboard 4 Professional has impressed us enough to make it onto our best mechanical keyboard list, which is as good a sign as any.
Das Keyboards can be a bit pricey though, which is why this President's Day deal is so tempting. You've got until February 21 to grab the Das Keyboard X50Q for only $99, which is a solid $100 saving on the normal price of this feature-rich keyboard.
As well as nailing the basics and making for a great gaming keyboard, the X50Q has got a few tricks up its sleeve as well. The main one is the ability to alert you to events by lighting up pre-defined keys. Reminders to stand up for a stretch, alerts of new emails, fave streamers coming online, and CPU usage warnings can all be configured to light up specific keys.
You could accuse this of being little more than a gimmick, but it's the sort of feature that some will absolutely love tinkering with. You also lose nothing from having this here, with per-key lighting, an anodized top panel, macro support, media controls, and full N-key rollover all present and correct as well. It also comes with an extra-long 2 meter braided USB cable and a soft-touch palm, rounding out the specs nicely.
The biggy for any keyboard is of course the switches, and on the Das Keyboard X50Q you'll find Omron Gamma Zulu mechanical switches. These are soft tactile key switches that are quiet in operation and boast an incredible 100 million activation life cycle. That's a lot. You're looking at a 1.5mm actuation point with a total travel of 3.5mm from them too.
The X50Q comes with alternative textured WASD keycaps along with a keycap puller too, for when you're working day is done and you need to make sure that your fingers don't slip off the keys. Not that they will anyway, but sometimes it's about getting in the right mindset.
This is a lot of keyboard for half its usual ticket price, making it a great deal. Even if you don't use the alerts, it's still a quality keyboard from a well-respected company.
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