Turtle Beach Command Series KB7 keyboard + KP7 keypad review

A simple and straightforward unboxing experience for the KB7 and the KP7, with minimal plastic. Turtle Beach includes a wrist rest, some extra keycaps, a USB-A to USB-C cable, a split USB cable for using the KP7 separately, and a switch puller, along with the documentation.

The Command KB7 comes with per-key RGB lighting that extends to the base/front where the wrist rest connects. Turtle Beach bundles a silicone wrist rest, and the light shines through it when connected. There are no magnets, it just clicks into place. At the bottom are adjustable feet with two levels.

Another key feature of the Command KB7 is compatibility with the KP7 Keypad. There are Switch-style rails and connectors on either side for the accessory to slide in. Speaking of the accessory, the KP7 comes with its own macro keys, a small display, dial, and small wrist rest. It can be used with the KB7 or in standalone mode with the included USB-C cable.

Coming to the switches, the Command Series KB7 uses Titan low‑profile Hall effect switches that allow adjustable actuation from 0.1mm to 3.2mm. It also supports features like Rapid Trigger and ReacTap, but analog controls and multi-point input were not available at the time of publishing. 8K polling rate, per-key RGB lighting, and dedicated media controls are present as well.

The similarly designed KP7 keypad is a set of extra buttons and profiles for even more inputs. Interestingly, the volume dial on the keypad also allows muting audio, but the dial on the KB7 does not.

Now for the grievances. The initial impressions of the Command KB7 were not positive. The software experience was terrible, it took multiple attempts to update, and the shortcuts didn’t work as they should. Over the course of testing, there were six updates to Swarm II and three firmware updates for the keyboard that solved a lot of the issues. However, there are still several shortcomings with the overall experience.

Starting with the Command Touch Display, I was excited to see the option for PC monitoring shortcuts, but unfortunately, the CPU monitoring doesn’t work. It shows a constant temperature reading regardless of what’s actually happening. GPU and RAM temps do update in real time. Even changing the display’s brightness resets the monitoring shortcuts, which then sometimes get stuck at 0 degrees. Notably, Swarm II needs to be running for monitoring to work (which it was throughout testing). And, there’s no option to change the polling rate so you’re locked at 8K.

Updating the keyboard was also not seamless. Swarm II notifies that the first update will be a two-step process and that it can take long. However, every firmware update has been like that, with the entire process taking about 8-10 minutes, requiring multiple reconnections.

There are some redundancies as well, like the physical volume dial and on-screen option. There’s a slider for the backlight brightness (on the display), but also a dedicated menu button for it (on the display), as well as a physical button to turn it on/off. The Fn row has secondary inputs for navigation buttons, but there’s a navigation page on screen. That one’s understandable, though, in case some one want’s to replace the on-screen buttons. Similarly, the KP7 keypad has a numpad and a volume dial which becomes redundant if you’re using the KB7’s volume dial and the on screen numpad.

The backlight is quite dim on the KB7 but much brighter on the KP7. The preset colors, however, don’t match. Lastly, using Shift + Del with the Del on the touchscreen feels weird, and the action bar buttons are loud and annoying.