Sentey Crimson Pro Gaming Keyboard Review

By David Ramsey

Manufacturer: Sentey Inc.
Product Name: Crimson Pro
Model Number: GS-5920
UPC: 788523059209 EAN: 9771523059202
Price As Tested: $149.99 (Amazon)

Full Disclosure: Sentey Inc. provided the product sample used in this article.

Although they’ve been around since 2001, Sentey Inc. isn’t on many enthusiast’s radars. Established in 2001 and based in Doral, Florida, Sentey manufactures a range of cases, keyboards, mice, power supplies, headphones, and other items that appeal to the enthusiast and gamer. Today we have the Sentey Crimson Pro mechanical gaming keyboard– part of their Professional Gamer Series– in house for some testing.

Like many other companies, Sentey uses mechanical keys for its high end keyboards; they call this MeqTech technology. What is is in this case is red-LED backlit Cherry MX Black key switches. Of course, mechanical keys alone do not a gaming keyboard make, and Sentey includes macro definition software, a two-port USB 2.0 hub, and audio pass-through ports to distinguish this model.

• Cherry MX Black mechanical key switches
• Two-port USB 2.0 hub
• Audio pass through jacks
• Detachable wrist rest
• Media keys
• Soft-touch coating on upper keyboard and wrist rest
• Gaming key caps for WASD keys
• Laser engraved key caps
• 45g key actuation force
• 128K internal memory
• 10 programmable macro keys per profile, with 5 gaming profiles
• 4 levels of key backlighting, plus “pulse” mode
• Included key cap puller
• Dimensions: 44.45 x 14.48 x 2.54 cm (17.5 x 5.7 x 1 inch)
• Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Cable length: 1.8 meters

Let’s take a look at this keyboard in the next section.

Inside the product box, the Sentey Crimson Pro keyboard is packaged in a foam-padded, zipper-closed case that holds the keyboard, wrist rest, documentation, and accessories.

The keyboard itself has a standard 104-key layout, with black keys and a soft-touch faceplate. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the lack of any dedicated macro keys.

A heavy cable sleeved with black mesh terminates in a USB connector as well as 3.5mm speaker and microphone connectors. The connectors are gold-plated.

The keyboard contains a USB 2.0 hub, and unlike other keyboards I’ve seen with this feature, doesn’t require a secondary USB cable to support it. The headphone and microphone jacks are on the back of the keyboard, next to the two USB 2.0 connectors.

A lot of keyboards I’ve seen lately use very tiny labels for the indicator LEDs; some don’t use labels at all! Fortunately Sentey labels each indicator and port clearly. Sentey has eliminated the relatively useless “Scroll Lock” indicator and replaced it with the “Gaming” indicator that’s lit when any of the keyboard’s five macro profiles is active.

Accessories include the wrist rest, a utilities disk, documentation, stickers, a product catalog, and a door knob hanger. Not shown: the key cap puller and extra keys for the WASD cluster.

There’s more in the next section…

The Crimson Pro gaming keyboard backlights each key with a red LED; you can choose to turn the backlighting off, set it to one of three different intensities– the brightest of which is rather bright– or have it pulse on and off. This image shows the backlighting and the WASD keys replaced with the included “gaming keys”. Although the documentation doesn’t mention it, pressing the “Increase brightness” function (Fn-keypad 8) when the keyboard is at maximum brightness triggers a “pulse” mode where the backlight slowly pulses on and off.

Although the Crimson Pro lacks dedicated media keys, you can access media functions by holding down the “Fn” key and pressing one of these keys.

Similarly, you can switch among the five supported macro profiles with the Fn key and these keys. F12– the “G/PC” key– switches between the last selected macro profile and a standard, no-macros keyboard.

The key caps pop off to reveal the Cherry MX Black switches with their integrated LEDs. Sentey lists the actuation force of these keys as 45 grams, which is a figure more typically associated with the much lighter MX Red switches. MX Blacks are normally specified at 60-80 grams. I can’t measure the precise force these keys require but it seems identical to my other MX Black keyboard and much heavier than my MX Red keyboard.

The key caps are molded translucent plastic with a black coating; the actual key legend is laser-engraved through the coating.

The key switches are mounted in a sturdy metal base plate which gives the keyboard a solid and flex-free feel.

Join me in the next section as I take a look at the utility software…

The Crimson Pro keyboard is modal: you’re either in “normal” mode, where no macros are active, or in “gaming” mode (indicated by the “G” indicator light at the upper right of the keyboard). Gaming mode indicates that one of the five defined macro profiles is active, although there are no indicators on the keyboard to show which one is selected. Handily, the Windows key is disabled in gaming mode.

Sentey calls their macro definition software Crimson Pro Config. When invoked, it displays a reduced-size image of the keyboard and some macro definition buttons:

The documentation for this software is poor; I had to experiment with it to figure out how to use it. Fortunately it’s operationally similar to the software I’ve used with other gaming keyboards. At the top of the keyboard window are five buttons labeled Profile 1 through Profile 5. Each profile supports up to 10 macro definitions, which are defined by the M1 through M10 buttons in the separate floating window below. To define a key, you click the label (M1 – M10) that you want to define, then click the image of the key you want to bind the macro to. When you click the key, it will be labeled with the “M” you’re defining– for example, if you clicked the M1 label, then the “A” key, the keyboard image would show the “A” key as “M1”.

Once you do this, you can click on the drop-down menu to select what you want to do with the new macro:

Although the menu items appear to be disabled, with their light gray coloring, they’re not. There are a number of pre-defined functions, specifically:

• Cut
• Copy
• Paste
• Undo
• All
• End
• New
• Print
• Save
• Launch
• Disable

…but the interesting one is Macro. Choosing this lets you assign an arbitrary series of key strokes that will be executed when you press the key. You define the macro with this dialog:

It’s easy: click the “Record” button (which, like the key definition menu items, appears to be disabled, but is not), type the keys you want, and click “Stop” when you’re done. After you’ve defined your macros, you can switch among the five macro profiles by pressing Fn+F7 through Fn+F12.

The software works well, but has several annoying limitations. For example, you can’t use modifier keys in definitions: that is, you cannot define a macro that would be invoked by Control-A. Or Shift-A, or Alt-A (you can, however, assign macros to the Control, Shift, and Alt keys). Second, once you define a macro, it becomes “invisible”: you can export your macros and import them, but you can’t see them (looking at the macro files in a text editor doesn’t help). You’ll know that M3 is in Profile 2 and bound to the Page Down key, but you won’t know anything about what the macro does– you can only press the key and see what happens.

One nice thing is that the macros live in the keyboard: you can define and load a total of 50 macros (five profiles, ten macros per profile), unplug the keyboard and take it to another machine, and all your macros will still be there.

In the next section I’ll give my final thoughts and conclusions about this keyboard.

The Sentey Crimson Pro is a handsome piece: black and purposeful-looking, with a fingerprint-proof soft finish, Cherry MX Black keys, a built-in USB 2.0 hub and audio pass-throughs. If you like the relatively stiff (I think Sentey’s 45 grams spec for these keys is probably wrong; they feel heavier) springing and linear, non-clicky feel of MX Black keys, you’ll like typing on this keyboard.

This keyboard’s weak points are its lack of dedicated macro keys and the software’s inability to bind macros to modifier-key pairs. You can’t define a macro invoked by Ctrl-A; you must bind to the “A” key, and that takes that key out of service for typing the letter “A”. If you’re playing a game where you need to communicate with the game AI or other players by typing, the entire alpha portion of the keyboard is off-limits for macro work. Otherwise, frankly, it’s not that big a deal, since you can instantly switch back to normal keyboard function with Fn-F12. The Windows key is disabled if any of the macro profiles is active– i.e. the “G” indicator at the top right of the keyboard is lit– so you won’t blow out of your game if you accidentally hit it.

It’s a tradeoff: dedicated macro keys increase the size and cost of the keyboard (and some gaming keyboards are huge), but are more convenient to use. Either design is usable, but you should be aware of the tradeoffs with each.

Using the Fn keys to switch between defined profiles, and to toggle the keyboard instantly back to “normal”, non-macro use, works well; I only wish Sentey had added indicator lights to show which profile is in use.

The keyboard’s onboard CPU and memory means that the macro definitions are stored in the keyboard, not in the software…so you can unplug the keyboard, put it in its case, and use it on another computer while retaining all your macro definitions. However, this means that you must manually invoke each profile you want to use; the keyboard can’t detect which game you’re using and select the correct profile automatically as software-only macro implementations can. Some keyboards, such as the recently-reviewed Corsair Raptor K40, allow you to select either hardware or software macro playback, and this is a feature that Sentey should consider adding.

The Crimson Pro is an excellent, high-quality backlit mechanical keyboard whose onboard CPU and memory can store macros independently of your system. The lack of dedicated macro keys may be a turn-off for some gamers, although Sentey makes it easy to toggle between macro profiles and standard keyboard functionality.

There’s not much to say about performance: Cherry MX Black keys mounted to a metal base plate equals typing Nirvana…if you like MX Black keys.

The keyboard has a trim and functional appearance. The casing has very narrow “bezels” making it almost an inch narrower and 1.5″ shorter than a 104-key Cherry MX Black keyboard I have from another vendor. Smaller is good. Still, I’d like my expensive gaming keyboard to have a little more visual “pop”.

With rigid construction and a fingerprint-proof soft touch coating, the construction quality of the Crimson Pro is excellent. The heavy sleeved cable and gold-plated connectors give it a luxury feel.

Functionality as a gaming keyboard is somewhat compromised by the lack of dedicated macro keys. As I explained earlier, this is a price/size tradeoff: you’re getting a small, less expensive keyboard with this design. Still, many gamers strongly prefer dedicated macro keys.

Mechanical gaming keyboard prices and specifications are all over the map right now; you can get keyboards that– on paper at least– have more features than the Crimson Pro for less money; but you can also pay significantly more for 104-key “gaming keyboards” with no macro functionality at all. Available online for $149.99 (Amazon), the Sentey Crimson Pro seems priced in line with most of its competition. And if you travel to LAN parties, you’ll appreciate the very nice included carrying case.

With a good feature set, quality construction, and that nice case, the Crimson Pro is worth your consideration.

+ Backlit Cherry MX Black key switches
+ Soft-touch coating on upper keyboard surface and wrist rest
+ USB 2.0 hub and audio pass-through ports
+ Included carrying case

– No dedicated macro keys
– No indication of selected profile
– Software can’t define modifier-key pairs
– Poor documentation

• Performance: 9.00
• Appearance: 8.25
• Construction: 9.50
• Functionality: 8.75
• Value: 8.75

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.