Cougar has updated their line of Attack X3 RGB Speedy mechanical keyboards for 2018, and the introduction of the Speedy will be met with quite a bit of excitement. The Cougar Attack X3 RGB Speedy retains much of what made it a popular keyboard for the past couple years. The aluminum backplate, solid construction, excellent build quality, and of course, per-key RGB backlighting.
The build quality of the Cougar Attack X3 RGB Speedy overall is excellent, and I’m digging the speed switches quite a bit more than I thought I would. I’m personally not a fan of Red switches or linear switches in general, so I wasn’t expecting much out of this keyboard. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The new Speed Silvers are a joy to both game and type on. One of my biggest gripes with the reds is the low actuation force required caused me to be sloppy when doing anything besides gaming. I’m not sure what the difference was on the Attack X3 Speedy, as on paper these should be very similar, but I was much more accurate on this board than I expected.
The RGB lighting on this board is excellent. There are 9 preset effects accessible on the keyboard through use of the FN and F1-4 keys. These effects are also editable through Cougar’s UIX software. Macro recordings are also available, and up to 30 can be stored on the keyboards onboard memory. And the effects and Macros are persistent to the keyboard. No need to run the software to have access to them. Simply load them onto the keyboard and use them on any computer you’d like.
When you’re shopping for a keyboard, build quality, feel, and consistency are usually the things that will make a keyboard a winner in my book. The Cougar Attack X3 RGB Speedy certainly checks all of those boxes. Sure, there are a few items on the software side of things that could use a bit more polish, but that really doesn’t diminish what is a very good gaming keyboard. And as long as you don’t mind the layout (cough “Windows Key” cough), it should do very well on your desk at home.
Speed silvers? Is that a new kind of linear mechanical switch? I’ve only heard of blacks, blues, reds, and browns.