Turtle Beach Impact 700 review

Turtle Beach impressed us with the Grip 500 mouse, the first PC peripheral from a company best known for console gaming accessories. It was well balanced, had all the features we would expect from a gaming-grade mouse and didn’t cost a fortune. We were expecting more of the same from the Impact 700 keyboard, and it started off well with the same soft-touch finish and rock-solid build quality.

It might be made from plastic, but an underlying steel sheet makes the Impact 700 an extremely rigid board. The soft finish lets your fingers glide across the keys, and a similar texture on the outer chassis won’t make your palms as sweaty as a rubber finish might. It’s also very resistant to scrapes and scratches, meaning it should stay looking tidy after many prolonged gaming sessions.

The Impact 700 is probably one of the most conservative gaming keyboards we’ve seen in terms of looks, with an all-black colour scheme, no extra macro keys and very little in the way of branding. The entire keyboard tray is backlit by red LEDs, with sensible symbol placement on each keycap meaning the underlying LED illuminates the entire key, not just a part of it. You can toggle between three levels of brightness, but if you’re playing in the dark you’ll want to avoid the highest setting – it’s rather dazzling, but ideal for use during the day. You can also toggle two-speed breathing effects, or switch between no light, every kit lit or just the WASD and 1-6 keys lit.

A keycap puller tool and a bag of eleven custom keycaps is a nice extra for anyone that likes to add a splash of personality to their gaming space. We particularly liked the ‘GG’ key, which got frequent use during our lunchtime games of Command and Conquer, but there’s also a replacement set of WASD keys to make them more visible at a glance from the rest of the keyboard tray, along five custom graphic keys.

Two USB ports and headphone/microphone pass-through jacks on the back of the keyboard are another welcome addition, although the USB ports are the slower USB2 version; we would have preferred a single faster USB3 pass-through cable instead.

There’s no wrist rest either, which could be a deal-breaker for some typists, although we could use the keyboard for entire working days without feeling any discomfort.

Unfortunately, not including a wrist rest in the box is just the first of what feels like unnecessary compromises for a top-end keyboard. The Impact 700 only has 6-key rollover, and even though the Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys don’t seem to count towards that figure N-key rollover would have been preferable. Not everyone will take advantage of such a feature, but Turtle Beach’s PC gaming rivals all include it as standard in their flagship keyboards.

The choice of mechanical key switch will also come as a disappointment to some. Cherry’s MX Brown is by no means a bad switch, providing ample physical feedback and a reassuring click sound whenever you press a key, but if you’re after a dedicated gaming keyboard MX Red and Black switches tend to be preferred for their light actuation weight and low noise. Typists will appreciate the tactile response here, but typing at speed can create quite a racket – if you work or play in a room with other people they may find the noise irritating. There are currently no other versions of the Impact 700 for those that prefer other key switches, although this may change in the future based on how well this first model sells.

We’re guessing MMO players aren’t going to be queueing up for one of these, as with no software suite at all there’s no way to record macros or set up shortcut keys. It’s great that you can take the board with you anywhere and always be able to change lighting settings without having to install drivers, but if you only plan on using it in one place the lack of software might be more frustrating.

It might be built to last, but the Impact 700 simply doesn’t do enough to justify its high price. QPAD’s MK-90 has completely customisable RGB backlighting, full N-key rollover and a wrist rest in the box, yet costs almost £50 less. The lack of switch variation will undoubtedly put some people off too. Unless you’re the type of gamer that dishes out as much punishment to their peripherals as they do to their online opponents, the impressive build quality alone isn’t enough to justify a more glowing rating.