MSI Forge GK600 TKL Wireless review

The MSI Forge GK600 is a non-numeric keypad (TKL) gaming keyboard, which means it lacks a numeric keypad. But Katie, I hear you say, if a normal keyboard has all the keys you could want, what’s the point of getting rid of them in favor of a TKL board? Well, my friend, it all depends on real estate and maneuverability. And of course cash. But isn’t that everything? Let’s say you spent all your cash on the best gaming PC and now you have a diminutive desk. The TKL board gives you more space on your desk, so you can stack plates and coffee cups side by side as much as you want, or anything else you hang above your fighting station.

With the MSI Forge GK600, you can kill two birds with one stone: you save space on your desk while protecting your dragon’s gold treasure trove. Let’s get into what makes the Forge GK600 special and what doesn’t.

Fitting somewhere around the 75-80% layout, the Forge GK600 takes up less space without sacrificing as much performance as the super compact layout of something like the 60% NuPhy Air60 HE. Dedicated navigation and directional keys aren’t taken up by a bunch of other keys, so you don’t have to fumble around looking for them, and the two-column layout of the navigation sections means they don’t take up valuable space on your mouse pad. There are no programmable macro keys, but you can still employ the 12 F keys on the top.

I’m not a huge fan of the Delete key sitting right in the middle of the left column because I spend most of my time re-hashing walls of text. Initially, it caused many paragraphs to be lost due to mispressing the page scroll/insert key, but it didn’t take long to get used to the strange positioning.

Instead of dedicated media controls like the Corsair K65 Plus’ adorable programmable dial, MSI has opted for a striking little display in the top right corner. I thought it was just a neat solution for LED indicators so you know what you’re connected to, whether it’s Bluetooth, wireless or wired, and if you’re going to type in all caps or accidentally locked the Win key.

The display seemed completely unnecessary to me until I realized it contained a full menu of lighting profiles and other gadgets. There are tons of great lighting effects to scroll through. While this makes the screen a bit more usable and eliminates the need to install software, I personally would prefer not to waste such low battery life. Especially since for me this is the main drawback of the entire packaging.

For the Forge GK600, battery life with RGB lighting is just 24 hours – or about three days of gaming and work, with breaks. It’s not the worst battery life I’ve seen on a gaming keyboard, but it’s a hell of a lot shorter than the 74 hours on the Keychron K2 HE with RGB enabled. Turn off the lights and MSI estimates you’ll get 20 days of it. Assuming you spend 8 hours a day at the keyboard, that’s about 160 hours, which is still less than half of the 240 hours without backlight that the Keychron offers. On the other hand, prices scale accordingly.

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Unfortunately, MSI has opted for muddy lettering on the Forge GK600 keys, which means the board is virtually unusable in the shadowy. However, everything else about the keys is fantastic, from the lovely three-tone color scheme, to the OEM profile that gently cradle my fingers, to the subtle non-slip texture of the keys. The fact that everything can be hot-swapped is just icing on the cake, or on the keyboard if you want it. If MSI’s patented linear mechanical switches aren’t to your liking – and they won’t be for everyone – they’re simple to replace with select third-party switches.

For many people, the hot-swappable switches will be the main attraction, but since the Forge GK600 sits close enough to the budget range, it may happily appeal to users who aren’t interested in keyboard mods. That said, the lack of alternative switching options for the motherboard is more likely to turn off anyone who isn’t a modder longing for clicks or something more tactile.

When hitting the board, linears are brisk and offer a lot of resistance, although at the level of bounce they can feel sticky. It’s obvious that some effort was put into dampening the sound. With a layer of IXPE foam, a silicone pad and various additional layers added for noise reduction, it does a good job of mitigating the clatter. Unfortunately, all this padding affects the board exponentially in terms of weight and thickness.

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At its thickest point, the Forge GK600 measures 34mm, and I wouldn’t call it a lightweight board either, weighing in at 943g. Weighing in at 56g less than a full kilogram makes it strenuous to call it a portable keyboard. Sure, you save a little more desk space and declutter your battle station by eliminating wires, but portability is something all wireless cards should strive for in the age of gaming on the go. Weight will also be a factor in the decision of anyone who changes connections frequently.

While it’s possible to connect it via a USB Type-C cable, a 2.4 GHz wireless connection via a suitably compact dongle, or up to three machines simultaneously via Bluetooth, the Forge GK600 hides the switch directly under the keyboard. This is a dead spot, with the label upside down if you lift the keyboard vertically. It’s not even close to access, so if you change connections frequently, this probably isn’t the board for you.

When all is said and done, the Forge GK600 TKL is a relatively good price for what you get. This is part of the budget Forge line, which honestly shouldn’t be as cold as it is. And so much for the pink tax, because purple Forge GK600 TKL it actually works out cheaper.

At this price, it’s all about what you can afford to miss as to whether this board is for you. If you’re not concerned about movement and don’t mind spacing between keys, the Gamakay x NaughShark NS68 offers hall-effect switches with programmable actuation for half the price of the GK600 TKL. Apart from that, the budget Forge GK600 TKL still offers a lot for stationary gamers who mainly play indoors with the lights on. However, we goblin moderators could look elsewhere.

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