Of all that’s wireless in this gaming life, gaming keyboards aren’t just entirely pointless they’re [expletive deleted] annoying

Dave James, cable guy

Yes, I have been testing gaming keyboards: But I’m also trying to lessen the environmental impact of my home PC setup, while still retaining access to the big ol’ RTX 5090 GPU. Gawd bless external GPU boxes and the Framework Desktop.

Cable-clutter is a pain, and a very real thing in PC gaming. There are a frightening number of things plugged into the back of my PC and then snaking around my desk, yet thankfully most of our day-to-day interactions with our machines can be done wirelessly. Though while some might think the ultimate goal should be to have a completely cable-free setup, with everything floating free across the serene empty space of your desktop, you are wrong.

Wireless gaming mouse, yes. Wireless controller, yes. Wireless gaming headset, abso-damned-lutely yes. Wireless gaming keyboard, oh hell no.

Don’t get me wrong, the aesthetic is peak. There’s definitely something mentally freeing about having a sparse desktop, something a little zen about it. Physically freeing, too, if I’m honest.

I truly hate having my headset wired into my PC, and the wireless audio life is completely ingrained in me now. I spent too many years tethered to my machine, and too many times had the headphones yanked off my head when I foolishly chose to step away from my PC, forgetting to remove them first. I’ve broken more USB cables and 3.5 mm jacks than I can count in my time.

For me, that’s the key one. I can’t go back now, and no matter how much I love the audio quality of my LCD-1 headphones, I am so glad Audeze released the Maxwell so I could unhook myself while gaming with great sound.

I love a wireless controller, too, and not having a tail to my gaming mouse definitely reduces the drag factor. But neither are exactly vital. Sometimes I’ll charge my DeathAdder V4 Pro with the braided cable and forget to unplug it until days later.

Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro gaming mouse

(Image credit: Future)

But screw wireless gaming keyboards. While not having a wire from the PC to my gaming keyboard does make that zen-like desktop pristine, I am more than happy to forgo the pleasure because of the pain that comes with a wireless keyboard.

Now, this is not coming from some place of pro-gaming latency perfection. There are wireless keebs around with 8K polling, and ultra-low latency wireless connections with imperceptible differences between their performance when wireless or when plugged into a PC.

It’s just they’re wholly unnecessary and so damned annoying.

Realistically, a wireless keyboard is purely about the aesthetic of not having a trailing wire. For every other PC peripheral—mouse, controller, headset—the benefits are based around the fact they’re moving devices. The mouse is all about movement in terms of its purpose, while the controller and headset are both devices that allow you to move.

The keyboard, however, is essentially static. Okay, I’ll be honest, I do move my keyboard about my desktop a bit. I’m a bit of a shuffler, which—ergonomically speaking—is the right thing to do. You should be shifting around your positioning at your desk regularly; I learned that from a panel of ergonomists while I was doing some chair testing. And that means I will move my keyboard around depending on where I’m sat. But that movement is between the times I’m using the keyboard, not actually when I’m typing, and that movement’s never been restricted by a wee USB cable stretching out its rear.

Lemokey L1 HE wireless gaming keyboard

(Image credit: Future)

I simply can’t be bothered to plug the wireless dongle back in.

So, there’s no actual benefit to being wireless—unless you’re some sort of sofa-sat living room PC warrior, or distancing yourself from your rig is important to you—but there certainly are downsides. For one thing, when I turn my PC on I just expect my keyboard to be working, and that’s not always a given when it comes to wireless boards. I’m messing around with the Lemokey L1 HE at the moment, and that’s a pricey wireless Hall effect board, but it needs waking up first thing in the morning with a cup of tea and a gentle cuddle before it’ll even register a keypress.

I’ve also had times where I’ve had the full gamut of wireless gaming peripherals plugged into my PC and the various 2.4 GHz dongles can end up interfering with one another. Typing away on the wireless keeb, with a wireless headset and mouse, on my head and in hand respectively, and every now and then, intermittently, unpredictably, I’m getting double-strikes on certain keys, or no response, or just some randommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm rapid autofire of one key in particular.

And you’re going to have to plug them in anyway just to charge because they have to run on a battery. They will generally last longer away from a plug than a headset or mouse, but there have been many times where I simply can’t be bothered to plug the wireless dongle back in afterwards and have simply left my wireless board permanently plumbed in.

I’m not alone either. This isn’t just irrelevant old man shouting at the clouds, here. Our Andy is rocking a wireless Glorious keyboard that is permanently plugged in, and his partner sports an Alienware Pro wireless keeb that is always wired. Both are hooked up via a cable because who wants their stationary slab to run out of power at any point? No-one.

I get there are use cases for wireless keebs, for living room PCs, or those niche times where your machine is a long way from where you are interacting with it. But for a gaming PC, at a desk, in a pretty damned standard arrangement. Nah. Get out. Off with you. Wireless keyboards can really just do one.