The Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60 hides surprising versatility and value for money in its unassuming 60% form factor

The Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60 has a particularly interesting proposition. A 60% deck coming at a time when smaller form factors are falling a little out of favor, but one that holds a much lower price tag compared to the rest of the mainstream magnetic gaming market. A deck with more adjustable switch controls than most, but fewer keys to use them with.

After two weeks in hand, the Clipper is one of the best gaming keyboards you can pick up right now. Yes, that 60% form factor is going to limit its users to those who truly can get by on as few keys as possible, and its 8,000Hz polling rate isn't even going to be noticed by 99% of players. But its price, actually useful customization features, and light, fast typing feel, all come together to form a compelling alternative to the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Mini that's sat atop the 60% thrown for a little while now.

What I loved about the Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60

Light, snappy switches

The Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60 is the first to use the brand's MGX Hyperdrive Core magnetic switches. While Hall effect giants like the Corsair Vanguard Pro 96 opt for the MGX Hyperdrive V2, the newer Core clackers come with a minimum of 27g actuation force. Under the hands they've got far less resistance behind them compared to the Vanguard. This is a smooth, fast, slip down to the full extension of the switch rather than a thocky, potentially more satisfying (for some) actuation.

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That can mean a less textured sound profile, with these lighter clacks in a smaller chassis popping with a slightly higher frequency than the deeper Vanguard.

Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60 (MGX Hyperdrive Core):

Corsair Vanguard Pro 96 (MGX Hyperdrive):

However, it makes perfect sense for competitive play.

This is a 60%er designed to keep your high-ranked gameplay as fast as possible, and that's where the smoother stems come into their own. Dancing across these keys is a particularly nimble experience, but combine that with super short actuation points and barely a thought registers a keypress.

In typing tests I averaged 99 words per minute at 97% accuracy, that's higher than both my typical 95WPM and 95.5% accuracy.

Subtle but still interesting aesthetic

Larger Corsair keyboards can suffer from a shadowy all-black aesthetic relying only on LED lighting for a bit of visual flair. However, I've always found that smaller 60% and 65% Corsair decks manage to weave a little more interest into their designs. The Clipper doesn't have large panels of extra LED lights or logos strewn across its frame, but its simple two-tone gray accent keys certainly help it stand out without leaping off the desk.

Lighting is uniform even across longer legends, something very few gaming keyboards manage to nail. While the LEDs themselves come across more pastel in-person, compared to the bold colors of Logitech and Razer decks, they're plenty bright and functionally helpful when lighting up only dual-function keys.

Extra switch customization options

The best Hall effect keyboards typically share a set of features; customizable actuation points, multi-step inputs, and rapid trigger. All that's here, but Corsair has added a few neat little extras of its own.

Tap Lock allows for any hold command to act as a toggle while Smart Tap allows for different commands based on whether you're tapping or holding. The former is a nice addition to the arsenal, even though it's usually covered by in-game settings anyway. However, the latter came in particularly handy - more so than the four-step actuation options common on many magnetic decks.

While assigning multiple inputs to one keypress is faster, it's rarely a necessary aspect of my playstyle. Loading a grenade, throwing, and returning to the weapon wheel in one keypress is neat, but I actually found myself using Smart Tap features a lot more.

Assigning heal to a tap and opening up different healing options with a hold, or even just swapping between a main interaction key and a secondary one, all my controls feel a lot tighter together and far more organized. There's also no need to learn how far down a keypress I need to be to trigger my full list of commands.

The feature also helps in productivity scenarios, with directional inputs easily mapped to taps on the cluster of right-hand keys, somewhat removing some of the roadblocks of the 60% layout.

Actually, not a bad price

While some of Corsair's roster of keyboards can suffer a little brand tax, its Hall effect options are surprisingly some of the more competitively priced in its arsenal. The Clipper Pro Mini 60 doesn't deviate. At $99.99 / £89.99, it's significantly cheaper than the SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini ($219.99 / £209.99) and Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Mini ($179.99 / £179.99). Even a look at the wider market puts Corsair in a favorable position.

It's not the cheapest on the market - Epomaker's AULA WIN68 sits at $49.99 / £49.99, you can grab an Attack Shark 65%-er for $59.99, and RK Royal Kludge and Redragon have the absolute bottom of the market at $30 - $40, but after that we've only really got Womier competing in the same $90-$100 price range. Options from Keychron, Asus, Razer, Nuphy, Logitech, and SteelSeries will all run you well over $100.

It's not the cheapest option out there, but for full-featured, mainstream gaming keyboards it's certainly on the right side of the numbers.

What to consider about the Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60

Some crunch on the space bar

While the majority of the typing experience here is smooth and snappy there is a little crunch on the spacebar every so often. It's only noticeable when hit in the middle of the bar with a little more force, but could suggest further degradation with longer term use.

Adding a little lubrication to the top of the stabilizer bar housing doesn't massively help the problem, and with the bar itself mounted under the plastic housing it's a little tricky to dive in there for a quicker fix. It's not too harsh on the ears and I was able to temper my space bar use so as to not hit that louder clack pretty easily in testing.

Cheaper casing

This isn't exactly a slight against the Corsair Clipper, after all it's designed to be a lightweight, portable 60% keyboard and its pricing is certainly competitive. However, if you're after a more luxurious feeling keyboard there are sturdier cases out there.

This is a plastic construction, with a lighter, more hollow feel to it overall. That's purely aesthetic, though. The sound dampening is still top notch, and everything still feels nicely bouncy.

Should you buy the Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60?

The Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60 is among the cheapest mainstream gaming-branded magnetic gaming keyboards, and yet it still feels great in the hand (barring some space bar twinges), runs light and speedy for competitive play, and offers an extra set of switch customization tools over its competitors.

That means it's giving the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Mini something to think about. While my current top pick for the best 60% gaming keyboard does have its own way around the arrow-key problem, and adds a pretty slick joystick function, Corsair's Smart Tap feature provides the same fix while avoiding the echo problems of Sneki's offering. With a lower starting price, it's now my go-to recommendation for anyone after a more compact form factor.

How I tested the Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60

I mainlined the Corsair Clipper Pro Mini 60 for two weeks, running the keyboard for all my daily gameplay, work, and everything in between. In that time I primarily played across Doom: The Dark Ages, High on Life 2, and Planet Coaster 2, with dedicated testing in CS2 and Apex Legends. I also completed three one-minute typing tests on TypingTest.com at the end of my testing period, taking the average of each test as my final result. For more information on how we test gaming keyboards, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also rounding up all the best wireless gaming keyboards as well as the best hot-swappable keyboards on the market.