Over the past decade, high-end PC gaming peripherals have increasingly shifted from wired to wireless as transmission technologies improved in terms of speed, reliability and efficiency. The next must-have feature here is ultra-wideband (UWB) tech, which eschews 2.4GHz connectivity in favour of higher and wider frequencies in less congested parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The idea is these more advanced transmitters and receivers can perform more reliably, especially at higher polling rates, and that's exactly what Cherry Xtrfy has prepared with the K63W keyboard.

The K63W is the first UWB device we've tested, and comes with an 8K polling rate that should make it more responsive than the vast majority of wireless keyboards on the market. The K63W is also a modern keyboard in other respects, including pre-lubricated and gasket-mounted MX Low Profile 2.0 linear switches that are quiet yet satisfying, a backpack-friendly 70 percent design and up to 1100 hours of life thanks to a giant 6000mAh battery. It's also expensive, at £155/$180, so is being on the cutting edge worth the asking price?

To spoil the rest of the article slightly, yes. As well as being a convincing ambassador for UWB technology, the K63W is also an exceptional keyboard - extremely light and compact for a mechanical design, excellent for typing with its laptop-style low profile switches, and suitably performant for all manner of gaming. There are even four keys in the lower right that serve as both modifiers and arrow keys - outstanding. There are drawbacks too, which we'll get into, but the overall outlook here is more broadly positive than I expected.

First, let's talk about the UWB wireless. The benefit here is that we're in heretofore unexplored spectrum, so connectivity remains excellent even in LAN parties or other areas with a lot of 2.4GHz activity. (For what it's worth, I didn't have a LAN party handy to test this, and I'd love to see proper testing of this by wireless professionals.) The keyboard certainly feels responsive in even the most competitive online titles, and the short-throw switches and SOCD function worked well in games like Overwatch 2 and Valorant (though it's banned in my go-to shooter, Counter-Strike 2).

You can also feel the benefits in terms of battery life, as in theory these wideband transmissions should be briefer than 2.4GHz ones. Longevity here is excellent - 1100 hours or over six weeks when lighting is disabled at 1000Hz - so the UWB connection and large battery has done the job here. At the maximum polling rate, you're still looking at a full week's worth of use, which is still excellent - and recharging is handled via convenient USB-C as you'd hope.

Note that there's no Bluetooth here, which is a bit of a shame for a keyboard that is eminently portable and could have otherwise worked well with iPads, phones and other devices that don't commonly come with full-size USB ports. Instead, you'll have to use the rather bulky cube-shaped dongle, which feels increasingly like the direction of travel when you look at higher-end wireless peripherals like the Razer Viper V4 Pro, or revert to a wired connection.

The UWB wireless is an interesting inclusion, but honestly I'd still recommend this keyboard even as a wired option. The typing experience is much better than I expected, thanks to Cherry's mastery of low profile mechanical switches, and the gasket mount ensures that each press is smooth. The sound signature here is also surprisingly deep for a low profile keyboard, and typing away at a good speed produces a pleasant report. This is a quiet keyboard that you could easily use in a crowded space without complaints, a rarity for a mechanical design. The ABS keycaps are a little slick, and may wear faster than PBT alternatives, but I ultimately don't find them too objectionable.

I also appreciate the layout, which is available in UK/ISO or US/ANSI flavours. The F-key row makes the keyboard usable for both complex games and content creation, while the "mod tap" arrow keys in the lower right are brilliant for ensuring you can quickly move around text when needed. In short, the arrow keys are mapped onto right shift, Fn, menu and right control, so you hold down these keys to access their regular functions, or tap them to use them as arrow keys. This works extremely well for me, though your mileage may vary - thankfully, you can choose to have these keys always be arrow keys or always be their core functions if mod tap isn't to your liking.

The only thing I don't really like layout-wise was the choice of putting a unpressable lit-up Cherry Xtrfy logo between the F12 and Delete keys in the upper right - I'd much rather have had a proper key here to use for Print Screen, or similar. Still, overall it's a capable layout for its small physical footprint, and it supports both macOS and Windows layouts with a shortcut to quickly toggle between them.

The final piece of the puzzle is software. Here, I'm less enamoured - the basics are covered well enough and the downloadable software is performant, but it feels like Cherry are missing a trick by not offering a web version when this is becoming increasingly common amongst gaming designs. The software is admittedly more polished than it was when I reviewed the K5 Pro, with fewer language oddities, so it's at least trending in the right direction.

It'll be interesting to see how the K63W fares on the market. The keyboard feels well designed and is certainly performant, but I'm not sure how many people will spend big on next-gen wireless tech without solid evidence that it actually helps their gameplay. Telling that story will be critical for any future UWB releases, and it's not really been achieved here.

In some ways, I would have preferred a wired version of the same keyboard at a significantly lower price, as the physical design is excellent and the UWB tech is still far from a proven necessity. However, if you want a reliable wireless gaming keyboard and you're willing to spend on it, this is a cool choice.

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