Gravastar Mercury V60 Pro Review

Design

• Sleek, sci-fi style design
• Durable aluminium chassis
• Smaller layout may not suit some

In terms of aesthetics, the Mercury V60 Pro pares back the zaniness of previous Gravastar models I’ve tested, ditching some, but not all, of the sci-fi aesthetic. It’s comprised of a durable aluminium shell that looks and feels excellent, retaining the core of the brand’s unique design.

Where this ‘board isn’t quite as interesting as others is with its decision to remove aspects such as the bright pink keycaps or the spider leg-style feet, which I don’t necessarily mind. It makes this Gravastar option look a lot cleaner, especially with matching silver doubleshot PBT keycaps that feel excellent under finger. They also have dual-printed legends for Windows and macOS by default, which is a welcome addition.

There is also an extra set of keycaps in the box, so you can change the look of the keyboard if you want to with the Deluxe Edition variant I have, virtually at will, plus a keycap and switch puller, and even a neat keyboard brush for keeping it clean. I must commend the accessories, as they form part of the whole package.

As the ’60’ in the name may suggest, this is a much smaller form factor choice than the other models, too. It’s a 65 percent layout, which features alphanumeric keys, plus the benefit of arrow keys in the bottom right corner. It’s a functional and space-saving layout, although if you use the F-row a lot and the nav keys, you’ll get on a 75 percent or TKL layout, then it takes some getting used to.

The Mercury V60 Pro also omits extras such as a volume rocker and any media keys, and in the absence of the spider leg-style feet, hasn’t replaced them with more conventional ones. This means its typing angle is fixed, although there is a natural rake to the ‘board to help with comfort.

The interface around the back is a USB-C port on one side for wired connectivity with its detachable, braided cable, plus on the other side there’s a profile switch for on-the-fly swapping between different modes you may have customised in the keyboard’s software.

Performance

• Smooth and slick switches 
• Very powerful rapid trigger functionality
• Analogue inputs were touted, although they didn’t work

Inside, the Mercury V60 Pro utilises Gravastar’s own UFO switches, which, oddly, have a circular housing, perhaps hence the name they carry. It’s a 40g linear Hall effect switch, meaning it’s light and snappy for general use, while retaining some very powerful innards for some potentially potent gaming performance, thanks to adjustable actuation points and more besides

Hall effect switches in some keyboards I’ve tested can feel quite soulless and feel like ‘nothing’ under finger against more traditional switches, although for typing, I think the UFOs are some of the better I’ve used. Being lubricated means they’re super smooth, plus, along with the five layers of sound dampening inside the keyboard, it aids in providing lovely acoustics right out of the box with no modification.

If you’re unaware, the benefit of Hall-effect switches is thus; with there being adjustable actuation points, you can change how far up or down the travel you want an input to be registered. For where you need speed and responsiveness, such as for movement controls or a reload in FPS games, you can set it to high. Conversely, if you want to avoid pressing a key, you can set it as low down the travel as possible to avoid potential mis-hits.

That’s just one part of the story, though, as the Mercury V60 Pro also has rapid trigger functionality. With this, you can adjust the actuation and reset point of the switch for immensely responsive inputs, as there isn’t any need to wait for the switch to bounce back up before you can register another input. 

For instances such as directional movement and reload in Counter-Strike 2, in my testing, it makes this keyboard especially fast and responsive – there’s even a CS2 preset in the keyboard’s software that adjusts deadzones and actuation/reset points to make it as potent as possible.

There is also the fun of SOCD tech, known here as ‘Rappy Snappy’, for unnaturally quick side-to-side movements in the likes of CS2. I maintain that it’s here more as a feature for the spec sheet than for actual utility, especially given Valve has wielded the ban hammer for the feature in online Counter-Strike.

Plus, you get the works of other software trickery with the Mercury V60 Pro, including dynamic keystroke, so you can go from walking to running simply by pushing a key down further, or mod tap, where you can set a switch to do different things depending on if you tap it or hold it.

This Gravastar keyboard also has analog powers, in a similar vein to Wooting, for progressive, controller-like inputs so you can use a keyboard properly in a racing game. Mapping inputs in software is easy, although in both Assetto Corsa and BeamNG Drive, the keyboard inputs didn’t register, so as much as I wanted to see if the analogue inputs work as well as Wooting, I just couldn’t, no matter what I tried.

This keyboard benefits from an 8000Hz polling rate for even more frequent reporting of inputs than more ‘standard’ gaming keyboards that have a 1000Hz polling rate, to allow for potentially even faster and more responsive inputs. It may not be something that mere mortals can experience, but for the pro players, where every millisecond counts, it can make a world of difference, especially when paired with those rapid trigger switches.

The Mercury V60 Pro has strictly wired connectivity with its bundled USB-C cable. While this may make it a little inflexible against comparably priced wireless options, it demonstrates how much Gravastar has focused on this keyboard’s speed and power as opposed to its versatility.

Software and Lighting

• Clever web-based software
• Bright backlighting

The Mercury V60 Pro’s software is web-based, making for a slicker and lighter package than installing a large one on the system you’ve got the keyboard connected to. It’s bespoke for this keyboard and unlocks a lot of functionality for settings such as the adjustable actuation points and rapid trigger powers, plus its analogue capabilities to emulate controller inputs and lots of backlighting customisation.

It’s a decently powerful piece of software, although its UI is a little confusing due to some elements probably lost in translation – for instance, the controller input mapping is listed as ‘Handle Mode’ on the left-hand side. Nonetheless, the software gets its purpose across.

The backlighting on the Mercury V60 Pro is white by default to offset its silver colourway nicely, and provides both a pleasant underglow around the solid keycaps and around the bottom and side of its chassis in a similar vein to Gravastar’s other recent keyboards. It’s bright and atmospheric.

Should you buy it?