The Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact is the world’s first ultra-wideband mechanical gaming keyboard — and it’s as powerful as it’s flawed

Oh, Cherry, why must you overprice your keyboards so? The Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact is, at the time of writing, the world’s first ultra-band mechanical gaming keyboard, and on paper, it sounds incredible. 8,000Hz wireless and wired polling, useful gaming features like Last Key Prioritization, and up to 1,100 hours of battery life — and when gaming, it doesn’t disappoint.

But the K63W Pro Compact is far, far from perfect. There’s no Bluetooth, and the keyboard isn’t hot-swappable. Some keys feel mushy, and the all-plastic construction simply doesn’t match the premium $179 price tag. To be considered one of the best mechanical keyboards in an overcrowded market, you simply can’t afford such glaring flaws.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact review.

Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact review: Specs

Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The world’s first mechanical keyboard with ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, at the time of writing
• Who is it for? Gamers who need a super compact keyboard and 8KHz polling
• How much does it cost? $179 / £155
• What do we like? The powerful gaming performance, no-frills software, and long battery life
• What don’t we like? The subpar construction, lack of Bluetooth, mushy keys, soldered switches, and the premium price

Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact review: The ups

The Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact excels when it comes to gaming. 8,000Hz polling, ultra-wideband connectivity, Last Key Prioritization, and long battery life — all are winning features.

8,000Hz polling and ultra-wideband wireless

At the time of writing, the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact is the world’s first ultra-wideband mechanical gaming keyboard. Unlike most other keyboards (and peripherals) which utilize 2.4GHz, the K63W Pro Compact operates in a higher frequency band. This means it’s less prone to signal interference and connection dropouts caused by hunting for free 2.4GHz lanes that are being hogged by other devices. In other words, the rest of your 2.4GHz peripherals and home devices don’t interfere with UWB. The downside is short connection range, but there’s enough to cover your desk.

UWB tech has been available on things like AirTags for a while, but it isn’t mainstream yet for gaming peripherals and we’ve only seen it on the SteelSeries Rival Pro mouse. Most competitive or esports gamers will be playing over a wired connection to avoid lag and connection dropouts, and to ensure their keyboard doesn’t die mid-play.

But is it overkill? Keyboards don’t have to transmit data near as fast as a mouse so there isn’t really any risk of connection dead zones (as you’d get on a rodent which has to recognize and report millions of sensor locations per second). SImilar to how 8KHz now feels like snake oil as every brand seems to be adding it to their keyboards — even though it isn’t needed — I fear UWB is going to be the next “big thing.”

Anyway, back to the good things. Thanks to this, the K63W Pro Compact can achieve 8,000Hz polling over a wireless connection (and wired, too, of course). 8KHz is mostly overkill for 99% of gamers, and it’s a drain on system resources as well as the keyboard’s battery life. You can drop this to 1,000Hz through companion software, though, and save it to one of the custom profiles which you can then swap to via key combinations — handy!

On paper, the K63W Pro Compact sounds like a competent and powerful gaming keyboard, but does it hold up in practice? Why, yes it does!

Sublime gaming performance

The Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact, as its name suggests, is a compact keyboard sporting a 70% layout. Measuring just 12.08 x 5.31 x 1.18 inches, it doesn’t take up too much desk space, giving you more room to move your mouse around. Because of the small layout, the arrow keys feature dual functions. Holding Fn and M lets you swap between the Mod Tap layers, giving you access to right control, right shift, menu and Fn inputs. You can also activate both layers at the same time, with the input determined by whether a key is pressed or held.

I don’t have many qualms with the K63W Pro Compact’s gaming performance. 8,000Hz polling means there are no latency issues or input lag (just like over 1,000Hz). I played Counter-Strike 2, Forza Horizon 5 and Cyberpunk 2077 to test the K63W Pro Compact, and I was impressed with the keyboard’s performance across the board. The linear switches felt light enough to activate, thanks to their short 1.2mm pre-travel distance, so I could quickly alternate between keys.

The K63W Pro Compact features ‘Snappy Tap’, or Last Key Prioritization, which works very well. This is a Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Direction (SOCD) resolution which prioritizes the last pressed key when two opposite keys (such as A and D) are held down at the same time. It essentially enables instant counter-strafing, giving you a competitive edge in games with inertia-based accuracy penalties like Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant — though it will get you kicked out of Valve games.

Overall, the K63W Pro Compact is a good gaming deck for mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. If you’re an elite player, though, you may want to consider a highly customizable Hall Effect keyboard, like the Epomaker HE68 ($59) or the Wooting 60HE+ ($174).

No-frills software

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If you want to customize the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact, you’ll need to download Cherry Utility on to your PC. Annoyingly, the app is compatible with Windows only, so apologies to macOS users (even though the keyboard’s keycaps are dual labelled). But it works well on Windows.

Cherry Utility sports a clean interface and doesn’t give you much to complain about. You don’t get as much customization potential as on a Hall Effect keyboard (where you can adjust each switch’s sensitivity), but you can enable Snappy Tap, adjust the polling rate, customize the RGB lighting, and record macros. Cherry Utility gets the job done without inundating you with intrusive pop-ups or ads (looking at you, Asus Armoury Crate).

Up to 1,100 hours of battery

For its size, the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact boasts impressive battery life. It packs a 6,000mAh battery that can last up to 1,100 hours. That’s a lot, and the K63W Pro Compact trumps its competition in the battery department. Naturally, your mileage will depend on the polling rate and RGB settings, so if you’re polling at 8KHz, you won’t get nearly as much — though Cherry doesn’t specify exact numbers.

Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact review: The downs

While I was impressed with the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact’s gaming performance, I’ve been left feeling shortchanged by its flaws, like the lack of Bluetooth, subpar construction, mushy keys, and more — especially at its asking price.

Expensive

Before I get into the meat of my issues with the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact, I want to preface them by mentioning the keyboard’s price. This deck, much like many others from Cherry, costs a premium, retailing for $179 / £155 at Amazon. Sure, it’s the world’s first UWB mechanical gaming keyboard, but I’m not sure the price is justified — especially because UWB has niche appeal and hasn’t become mainstream yet.

No Bluetooth

Surprisingly, the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact doesn’t feature Bluetooth connectivity. I can kinda see why: it’s a gaming keyboard. The lack of Bluetooth makes it fine for fixed gaming setups where you’ll have the bulky UWB received plugged in at all times — but it means the K63W Pro Compact isn’t great for gamers on the move (even though it’s super portable).

The omission of Bluetooth also means that the K63W Pro Compact can connect to just one device at a time, so no multipoint connectivity. I don’t know about you, but no Bluetooth feels like a noteworthy flaw, especially given how much this keyboard costs. Much cheaper decks, like the Keychron C1 Pro 8K ($54) and the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K ($114), offer many of the same features as the K63W Pro Compact while also featuring Bluetooth connectivity for convenience.

ABS keycaps, and some flex

One of the things I wasn’t expecting at this price point is the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact’s subpar construction. The keyboard is made entirely of ABS plastic which feels a little cheap, and there’s some flex in its body, too, when you hold it by its sides. I’m used to seeing that on budget keyboards, like the Epomaker EK68 ($89) but I expected more from the K63W Pro Compact.

Adding insult to injury are the K63W Pro Compact’s ABS keycaps. Nope, paying nearly $200 doesn’t get you double-shot PBT keycaps, unlike the aforementioned cheaper Epomaker EK68 and the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K. PBT keycaps are more durable than ABS ones, and they’re more resistant to wear and tear, so the K63W Pro Compact is disappointing in this regard.

Some keys feel mushy

While the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact feels decent to type and game on, some of its keys feel really mushy, and like the switches require a lot more force to activate. That’s surprising because on paper, the Cherry MX Low Profile 2.0 switches have a pre-travel distance of just 1.2mm, so they don’t need to be pressed all the way down for your commands to register. I didn’t notice the mushiness much during gaming, but it became apparent during typing and productivity tasks.

I took a typing test at 10fastfingers.com to see how the K63W Pro Compact fared against other mechanical keyboards I’ve tested. While I was able to achieve 92 words per minute, I wasn’t particularly happy with the accuracy. 88% is quite low by my standards, and I noticed that I was backspacing a lot more than usual, even outside of the typing test.

The K63W Pro Compact is a strange one. Sometimes, I was getting double inputs and other times, my key presses didn’t register at all. This made me wonder if my review unit was faulty, so I reached out to a marketing representative to determine the cause. I’ll update the review as and when I hear back.

Not hot-swappable

Last but not least, I’m very surprised that the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact isn’t hot-swappable. Its Cherry MX Low Profile 2.0 switches are soldered to the PCB so if you want to replace them, you’ll need to de- and re-solder them to the PCB. While it can be done, it requires some technical expertise and specialist tools.

For that reason, and for more versatility, I’d recommend buying a hot-swappable keyboard from the get-go — and there’s no shortage of them. The Epomaker P65 ($119) is excellent and compact, though you’d be sacrificing 8KHz polling. If you need 8,000Hz polling, the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K is a no-brainer.

Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact review: Verdict

You can’t charge a premium and not offer a well-rounded package. Don’t get me wrong: the Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact is a decent keyboard. Gaming performance is superb, and the keyboard’s battery life is impressive. Plus, you get UWB and 8,000Hz wired and wireless polling, although both are arguably pointless on a keyboard.

But I said it before and I’ll say it again: the K63W Pro Compact doesn’t do enough to justify its price tag. The lack of Bluetooth, exclusion of PBT keycaps, and non-hot-swappable switches feel like glaring omissions. The keyboard doesn’t feel very premium either, and the mushy keys aren’t my favorite. In a world where you can buy a competent gaming keyboard for under $120, I just can’t see myself recommending the K63W Pro Compact.