The Das Keyboard 'Prime 13' & '4 Professional' Mechanical Keyboard Review

Conclusion

In this review we had a look at the new Das Keyboard Prime 13 and the popular Das Keyboard 4 Professional. The keyboards do share a similar appearance and the same quality mechanical switches from Cherry but, to our eyes, each keyboard is targeted towards an entirely different group of users.

The Das Keyboard 4 Professional is a mechanical keyboard that has been clearly designed with professional users in mind, with the company forthrightly marketing it as such a product. Conscious professionals need devices that are aesthetically elegant, productive and durable. We cannot claim that the Das Keyboard 4 Professional will increase your productivity any more than any other similar mechanical keyboard, yet we can state with certainty that it is a very high quality product that will easily last a decade of heavy daily use. The USB 3.0 hub is a useful thing to have, especially in an office environment where devices like flash drives are frequently used.

With its intended primary target group being conscious professionals and office workers, we feel that the Das Keyboard 4 Professional is a perfect match for a modern workspace. We can only negatively comment the lack of programmability, which will be an issue for certain categories of professionals. For example, programmers tend to reprogram certain keys to insert ready, frequently repeating code and CAD users to perform certain repetitive functions. It is an expensive product, yet not overly so for a top tier professional keyboard. Its primary competition is primarily coming from the Cherry MX Board 6.0, a slightly more expensive professional keyboard with backlighting, but also lacks the sound volume knob and the USB 3.0 hub.

A quick glance can easily lead someone to the conclusion that the Das Keyboard Prime 13 is practically the same keyboard as the Das Keyboard 4 Professional, but that would not be a very accurate statement. The company still markets the Prime 13 as a keyboard to "get the job done", hinting that professionals still are a focus group of this keyboard. However, the marketing phrasing and the changes from the Das Keyboard 4 Professional hint that the company is trying to target a wider audience. This becomes clear when one notices that the company is trading features that can be of use in a strictly professional environment (the USB 3.0 hub, the extra buttons, and even the ruler) with LED backlighting, a feature that is generally found appealing by gamers and home users. The inclusion of the keycap puller and the use of Cherry cross-type stabilizers also hints that the designer intended for the user to be capable of removing/replacing the keycaps, something clearly not taken into account during the design of the Das Keyboard 4 Professional.

In our opinion, the Das Keyboard Prime 13 is having a bit of an identity crisis. Due to the proximity of its price to the Das Keyboard 4 Professional, a professional user would almost certainly buy the 4 Professional instead. For home users and gamers, the Prime 13 may be a keyboard of outstanding quality, yet there are several competitive products based on Cherry MX switches, with backlighting, that sell for less than $150. Many of them are offering features useful for gamers, such as extra macro keys and full-layout programmability, which the Prime 13 is lacking. The Das Keyboard Prime 13 could become an excellent choice for users that want a very high quality keyboard for their all-around home PCs, especially for professionals that work from home, but lower retail prices are needed to make it a truly competitive product.