GTEK Storm TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review: A customisable, compact and budget friendly addition to your gaming setup

Alongside their other premium gaming options in their new premium GTEK gaming lineup, LASER also announced their GTEK Storm TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. We’ve checked out the other options in the range, and now it’s time to give the Storm TKL a whirl.

To start, TKL is ‘tenkeyless’ – or basically a compact keyboard without a number pad. It’s a compact 75-key version of the 97-key GTEK Storm, which comes with the number pad but without a volume dial.

As well as the volume dial, the GTEK Storm TKL Mechanical gaming keyboard also has customisable RGB lighting and of course the mechanical switches on the keys. 

The keyboard comes with everything you need to get going. A sturdy USB-A to USB-C cable, four spare switches and a key cap picker tool.

I’ve been using the GTEK Storm TKL Mechanical gaming keyboard for the past month and here’s how it went. 

The keyboard is surprisingly small, and it sits inside the box wrapped in a cocoon of tissue paper. While it’s small in size, it has full-sized keys with pleasant dish shaped key caps to rest your fingertips while typing. The rear has flip out legs offering a raised angle to suit your preferred typing position.

The layout of the keyboard is standard QWERTY with the Function buttons above the number row. While you don’t get PrintScrn, Insert buttons etc. there is still a Page Up/Down and Delete buttons included on the right to make navigation and typing easier.  They’re just off to the right of the keyboard, right under the volume dial which sits fairly innocuously in the top corner. You can use the dial to raise or lower volume, or press it to instantly mute which is a great feature.

There are indicator lights, Caps Lock, Win Lock and a Windows/Mac indicator. Gamers will be familiar with WinLock – letting you disable the WIndows key to prevent accidental presses during gaming – but I wasn’t able to get the Windows indicator light lit up unfortunately.

Installation is simple, connect the USB cable and plug it in and Windows and Mac systems will just find it and let you start using it.

The removable cable is an attractive feature, with the compact nature of the keyboard, it’s simple to throw it in a backpack, and having the cable removable makes it a lot easier to pack.

The keyboard lights up with RGB lighting behind the keys when you fire it up – including some strips which curve along the side around to the rear. There’s not a lot of frills with the RGB lighting effects, but there’s plenty of options available to cycle through – or you can be boring like me and just switch the white backlighting on.

.One of the attractive bonuses of the GTEK Storm TKL Mechanical keyboard is the hot swappable switches – with the keyboard using fairly industry standard cross-style stems on their switches, allowing you to swap in your own switches, or custom keys if you want. 

Removing the keycaps is easy, and the tool makes popping out the switches very easy – and they can also be removed while the keyboard is in use. 

One of the biggest complaints I, and a lot of people have about mechanical keyboards is that they’re loud – and often louder than the benefits afforded by the more accurate switches. The GTEK Storm TKL uses a gasket-mounted system including foam and silicone noise dampening pads to quieten some of that harsh ‘clacking’ you associate with mechanical keyboards.

Don’t get me wrong, the clacking is still there, just not as harsh – and a far cry from the old IBM clankers!

The keyboard is super responsive with minimal pressure needed to activate the keys making it ideal for fast-paced gaming. LASER has incorporated 1000Hz polling rate, with anti-ghosting to ensure a fast and accurate experience while gaming, or just working. In practice it’s super responsive and barely needs any effort to type or navigate in-game. 

Should you buy it?

For anyone looking to kit out their gaming rig on a budget this is a fantastic option. The customisation afforded by the hot-swappable switches is not to be discounted, though the included switches are fast and responsive.

The keyboard is exactly what it says on the box, just a solid, dependable option that’s responsive and customisable with some neat RGB effects.

You can find the GTEK Storm TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on-sale now at JB HiFi for .