Cherry MX Board 3.0 Reviewed – Sleek and Stealthy

Cherry is known for lot’s of things.  Mechanical key switches, government peripherals, and delicious fruit.  For the uninitiated in the PC Master Race movement, Cherry MX mechanical switches are synonymous with almost all high end battlestation builds on the web.  The switches are so good, many vendors license Cherry brand MX switches to be built into their own keyboards.  This includes Corsair, SteelSeries, Razer, and more.

So what if you want a high quality build without the flashy back-lighting, branding, or aesthetics?  Cherry has you covered with the MX Board 3.0.  With an MSRP of $99, it’s certainly not the least expensive board on the market.  It’s also not the best value when you look at budget mechanical keyboards from SteelSeries or Corsair.  This is plane jane, reliable, black on black basics.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.  Check out the video to learn more:

Features

If you’re a typist or office worker that wants a high quality keyboard that blends in with the crowd, this is a great option.  The MX Board 3.0 can be purchased with MX Blue (bump, clicky), Brown (bump, quiet), or Red keys (linear, quiet).  They all have different pressure, actuation, and noise characteristics which allows you to pick out the one that’s right for you.  With N-key rollover, multiple simultaneous keystrokes are all transmitted to the PC (up to 14!).  That means your occasional gaming sessions will leave you with the same competitive edge the “Pro” gaming boards have.

The keyboard has a metal plate inside which keeps all keys level, even with a heavy hand.  It adds a little weight to it but overall the keyboard is light enough considering its size.  There is no illumination, the keys are laser etched, and the profile is thin.  By profile, we mean the bezel around the board.  Unlike the behemoth that is the Cherry MX Board Silent, the MX 3.0 has a much more graceful and modern presence on your desk.  It feels like something from this era while still having the same excellent components inside the MX Board Silent.

Final Verdict

Would I buy this board?  Probably not.  I’m a sucker for lights and the Cherry MX Board 6.0 is the perfect everything for me (much more expensive though).  The Cherry Board MX 3.0 is a board I would suggest many of my family members and friends though.  It’s a great board for any use case (as long as you don’t need backlighting) and is extremely well made.  This is one of those plug and forget boards that is so good you’ll forget how good you have it until you try someone else’s.  For those reasons, I still recommend it.