MX ULP remains one of the most interesting mechanical keyboard innovations I've used, yet it's baffling why the industry never ran with it.

Back in 2022, I reviewed a keyboard that I still think about more than most hardware that's passed through my hands since. The Corsair K100 Air Wireless was, at the time, one of the most expensive keyboards I'd ever tested, and I said as much in my verdict, but I also called it one of the best keyboards I'd used full stop, and I meant it. What made it special wasn't necessarily its RGB, the iCUE software, or even the versatile wireless connection on offer.

It was its clever Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switches. Several years on from my first look, that same technology still hasn't gone mainstream, and dusting the K100 Air Wireless off again is a good reminder of exactly what's been left on the table.

It's worth saying upfront that "slim" gets used as a catch-all term far too often in this industry, lumping together products that are actually solving quite different problems. A low-profile keyboard and an ultra-low-profile one sound like a difference of degree, a few millimetres here or there. However, in practice, I think they're closer to two different categories of product that happen to share a marketing buzzword, and the K100 Air Wireless remains one of the best exhibitions of the technology to the point I'm surprised it's still so underappreciated.

The real kicker for the K100 Air Wireless was its inclusion of Cherry's MX Ultra Low Profile Switches.

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