Cooler Master Trigger Review

Spending more than a few hundred rupees on a pair of headphones, mice or keyboards might seem like a waste of money to the layman and the Cooler Master Trigger is one such, high-end gaming keyboard, which might come across as such as a product. Ask a gamer and he’ll extend the budget for a keyboard or mouse several folds to get the right feel and performance he’s looking for.  The Tactics keyboard is likely to be one of the keyboards a gamer is likely to consider. 

Design and build quality

The first thing that strikes you about the Storm Trigger is its weight. It’s a lot heavier than the everyday plastic keyboard that you buy for a few hundreds. It’s chunky, sturdy and the keys on it have little lateral play. The keyboard is almost entire made of plastic

More from Reviews

Best phones under Rs 75,000 (March 2025): Apple iPhone 16, OnePlus 13 to Google Pixel 9 Apple iPhone 16e First Impressions: The budget gateway into Apple Intelligence

A large keyboard with the option of adding a palm rest

Cooler Master bundles an additional detachable palm rest pad that attaches to the bottom of the keyboard using clips. The quality of the bundled cable and the additional palm rest is great. The finish of the keyboard is of a non-glossy, rubbery kind. The keys also have a matte finish and don’t collect grime or sweat. The feel of the keyboard is good and it also helps maintain a stylish look. The style of fonts for the characters are also different than those used on other keyboards.

Each of the function keys have large icons that describe the function.  For example, one set of keys allows the user to adjust the volume level while another set are meant to control media playback. The base of the keys have a red colour and the setup appears very clean - this should make cleaning out dust from in between the keys easy. 

Features

The Cooler Master Trigger is unlike most other keyboards. While most of the keyboards in the market use membrane layers and most of these keyboards will lose their feel after a few months of use, mechanical keyboards are more reliable and maintain their feel and performance for years. The Cooler Master Trigger connects to the PC using a gold-plated detachable mini-USB cable.There are also two host USB ports that you can use to connect external storage drives or other peripherals to. The bundled mini-USB cable is well sheathed and is relatively long, so you’ll be able to run it easy to the rear of any cabinet kept on your desk or under it. 

USB ports at the rear for connecting other devices

The layout of the keyboard is no different than most other conventional ones, except for the five additional macro keys to the left. The top line of function keys have additional features that can be accessed by using the Cooler Master 

The keyboard seems to lack a Windows key, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s a bad thing if you’re used to using the Windows key as part of shortcuts to launch applications quickly. On the other hand, it’s a good thing because you can’t press it by mistake in the middle of a game causing your game to minimize. However, it’s possible to enable the Windows key through the drivers.

Missing Windows key

The keyboard has a full backlit panel that lights up all the keys. The backlighting is of red colour and it adds to the aggressive gaming feel and look of the keyboard. There are several modes of course, which allows you to light up certain areas of the keyboard. For example, if you’re gaming, you can choose to light up only the WASD keyws and the macro buttons as well as the directional keys. There are different modes to the kind of backlighting and you can choose to have a slightly fading effect to it as well. This helps with the look of the keyboard and it’s also handy, if you’re having late night gaming sessions in the dark.

Performance

Mechanical keyboards are loud usually - they have the nasty click sound that some people like and many others hate. The Cooler Master trigger isn’t the most silent of keyboards in the market, but it’s a lot quieter than most of the mechanical keyboards. It doesn’t’ take too long for one to get used to the layout and spacing of the keys on the Trigger. 

Controls for the backlight

There is a good amount of travel in the keys and there’s very little or close to no effort while using them. There seems to be some kind of buffer that stops the keys from being noisy. Switching between profiles is quick using the profile switch buttons. Load the large 100 MB software for the keyboard and you’ll be able to access the extensive customization options. Pretty much every key on the keyboard can be accessed. Custom macros can be setup and profiles can assigned to specific game titles, so those settings are automatically loaded. 

Customizations include the ability to do an advanced Windows function, start a program, fire up a macro function or even disable a key entirely. The user interface is really simple to understand and get used to. Once you have the customizations done, you’ll no longer have to play around with it. The keyboard has internal memory where all the macros and settings are saved.

Verdict

Priced at  8,500, there’s no denying the fact that the Cooler Master Trigger isn’t expensive. If you’re looking for just any mechanical keyboard, there are a few cheaper options. They’re noisy and crude, but they offer good value for money. Remember that you won’t get any of the customizability or the solid build quality of the Trigger.

An all rounder keyboard

If you’re looking for a reliable, good performance gaming keyboard that makes for a good companion when you’re off to LAN gaming parties, then this is one of the best you’ll find. The Cooler Master Trigger might use mechanical keys, but it’s one of the more refined keyboards ones around.