Trust GXT 856 Torac gaming keyboard review: premium looks, budget price

The Trust GXT 856 Torac is here to meet your best gaming keyboard needs, and at a significantly lower price point than many of its rivals too: you'll struggle to find a full-size gaming keyboard for less money than this, so it's off to a fantastic start right away.

There are of course some compromises made to get down to that price point, and the keyboard isn't quite the all-singing, all-dancing type of peripheral you can get if you spend some more money – there's no customisation software available here, for example.

Alongside that very affordable price there's plenty to weigh up when it comes to the Trust GXT 856 Torac gaming keyboard, and our review will fill you in on everything you need to know about it: from the initial setup experience to what the keyboard is like to type on.

Trust GXT 856 Torac review: design and setup

It's difficult not to be impressed by the sharp lines and solid construction of the Torac keyboard from Trust – it's aesthetics won't be to everyone's tastes of course, but then you could say that of any gaming keyboard out there. We quite like the angular, jagged approach to this keyboard, and with the full-size design, the chunky keys, and the multicolour illumination underneath, this is not a keyboard that you're going to easily lose or be able to ignore once it's in place on your desk.

The way this keyboard is built means it doesn't feel like it's going to move in use, and the metal frame around the plastic base of the Torac adds to that sense of something heavy duty and substantial. The rainbow LED backlighting gives the keyboard a dramatic, professional look, especially in darker environments, though black is the only colour option available for the frame and the keys.

Even with the small feet extended, the keyboard isn't particularly high in terms of its profile, but that suited our hands and wrists just fine. It might be worth noting that the extended bottom lip could potentially interfere with a wrist rest if you prefer using one (though the keyboard itself doesn't come with one) – it's not a major issue though. The white GXT branding is tastefully done, meanwhile, and so are the blue status lights for number lock, caps lock and scroll lock.

As for setup, it's simply a case of plugging the Trust GXT 856 Torac gaming keyboard into your Windows or Mac computer and away you go (in our experience it was recognised after a couple of seconds). There's no accompanying software or any drivers to install, so you can't really go wrong when it comes to configuring the laptop. The USB-A plug that you use to connect up the keyboard sits at the end of a lengthy 180 cm (almost 71 inch) cable, so there's lots of flexibility when it comes to positioning.

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Trust GXT 856 Torac review: features and performance

You get a decent level of features with the Trust GXT 856 Torac gaming keyboard considering the price that you're paying. There's built-in anti-ghosting technology and the keyboard can register up to 8 keys at once without stumbling – certainly not at the highest end of the scale but good enough for most gamers. We certainly didn't notice any issues with the keyboard during our testing, with the device proving pretty flawless in terms of accuracy and responsiveness.

Mechanical switches these are not: the typing experience is relatively soft and squishy, and it's a keyboard to consider if you want to keep noise down to a minimum while you're gaming (or just typing). How you like your keyboards is something of a subjective choice, but we found the Torac a comfortable input device to use, and it's unlikely to slow you down once you've got used to its dimensions. 

With no customisation software available, it's down to the keyboard itself to let you control the rainbow LED lighting. Using a couple of keyboard shortcuts you can choose between a static or breathing display, and choose from 3 levels of brightness. You can also turn the backlighting off completely if you prefer. It's not up there with the very best keyboards in terms of lighting control of course, but it's fine for this price.

Also of note is a gaming mode lock button that stops accidental presses of the Windows key (lest you suddenly quit your game when you didn't mean to), and the handy Fn button lets you use the top row of function keys to control your media playback, the system volume, and so on – all fairly standard. If you're in the market for a keyboard that feels good to use and offers just a sprinkling of basic features, then the Trust GXT 856 Torac is a model that's worth considering.

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Trust GXT 856 Torac review: price and verdict

The Trust GXT 856 Torac is certainly versatile – it'll work with Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and even gaming consoles. It's cheap as well, and while the widgets on this page will give you a better idea of the best deals available on the web at the moment, at the time of writing the keyboard can be had for around the £35 / $50 mark. For a gaming keyboard with this level of looks and features, that's an appealing price.

We'd recommend just spending a moment deciding exactly what sort of keyboard you want before you make a purchase though: with a full-size layout, a weight of 913 grams, and dimensions of 468 mm x 188 mm x 37 mm this is on the bulky side. It's the sort of keyboard you want to be able to put down in one position and then leave there, and of course there's no wireless option here either.

You can absolutely find gaming keyboards that offer more in the way of specs, performance, features, customisation and everything else, but we don't think that you'll find many that deliver the sort of value for money that the Torac does. Just be aware of its limitations as well as its selling points – and make sure you're okay with a soft-ish typing experience – and it'll serve you just fine.

If you're looking to upgrade the standard keyboard that came with your gaming PC without spending too much money along the way, then the GXT 856 Torac from Trust has to be up there for consideration: it can add a touch of class and polish to any desk, and when you're done with the gaming, it's not going to let you down in any of the other tasks that a keyboard has to do either.

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