The Galleon 100 SD is the keyboard I’ve long wished Corsair would make: a full-fat gaming board crossed with a Stream Deck, the powerful macro box made by Corsair subsidiary Elgato. The result is a keyboard that takes up an inordinate amount of space – and costs as much as both products put together – but does exactly what it should.
You get all of the nice-to-haves you’d want from a great modern gaming keyboard, like 8000Hz polling, pre-lubricated mechanical switches and FPS-focused features like SOCD, plus that unparalleled control and customization that a Stream Deck provides, all in a chassis that is among the best Corsair’s ever built. Still, there’s also room to more fully realize the potential in a future design here, with magnetic switches being a curious omission and software improvements to be made.
Corsair Galleon 100 SD – Design and Features
The Galleon 100 SD continues the modern styling trend Corsair introduced with the Vanguard Pro 96, with textured knobs, thin fonts and a rounded black aluminium chassis. The MLX Pulse mechanical switches inside offer a smooth keypress, with moderate 45g actuation force and a linear action that is well-suited for gaming and pleasant enough for typing as well. The RGB-backlit PBT keycaps provide a bit of texture for the finger and a long lifetime versus ABS alternatives, while a gasket mount arrangement, the aluminium chassis, and layers of sound dampening provide a pleasantly deep sound signature. In short, the Galleon ticks all of the boxes I’d expect for a premium mechanical keyboard in 2026, without quite challenging more boutique typing-focused examples built for enthusiasts. Magnetic switches would unlock extra FPS-focused functionality, but it seems that Corsair is targeting a broader audience for this one.
The big change here is the addition of a 12-key Stream Deck into the right-hand side of the board, replacing the number pad from a full-size layout with a four-zone LCD display above and two chunky knobs at the top. The 5-inch 1280×720 display is vibrant and crisp, with text and icons that are readable (if not pin-sharp) from a normal viewing distance, and of course the keys are physically closer and more convenient to press than they would be on a separate Stream Deck unit.
Everything here is customisable in the Stream Deck software, which I’ll cover in detail later, but the default upper arrangement includes media information from Spotify, a weather forecast, volume levels and an app launcher. Holding down either knob will toggle between the two zones beneath it; with a regular press and rotation performing different functions depending on the widget selected. For example, the Spotify widget skips tracks and plays or pauses, while the weather widget lets you scroll through the weather of the day and see additional information for a certain time period.
The lower section is more standard Stream Deck fare, with each of the 12 keys displaying live information (like your CPU, RAM and GPU utilization) or serving as a static app shortcut. With folders, pages and profiles that can automatically activate in specific PC applications, there are few limits to the amount of control you can build out. As well as official integrations for Elgato products, games and so on, you can also find free and paid community-made options in an online marketplace or code your own.
If you don’t have the Stream Deck software running, you get a barebones arrangement that’s still fairly useful, packing in media controls, toggles for polling rates, profiles and game modes, and instructions for downloading the Stream Deck software.
The rest of the keyboard contains some good ideas, including an RGB-backlit strip along the top of the keyboard with a Corsair wordmark and tri-spoke elements; a similarly wordmarked palm rest made of a soft, squidgy material; flip-out legs to adjust the angle of the keyboard; and, somewhat unusually, two extra USB-C ports. You get two USB-C cables in the box, and the idea is that by running that extra cable and plugging it in the bottom of the keyboard, you can then plug in other USB-C accessories like mice or flash drives into a more easily accessible USB-C port behind the two knobs. Of course, you could just plug in whatever USB-C thing you wanted directly, without involving the keyboard, but the end result arguably looks cleaner by using the extra port.
I did worry that the Galleon would feel a bit cheap or flimsy with its Stream Deck addition, but Corsair’s designers have done well to integrate everything together into a robust and cohesive whole that feels as expensive as it actually is. If you’re a streamer or macro enthusiast, this is a very sleek way to keep the options you need within easy reach.
Corsair Galleon 100 SD – Software
As you might have guessed, the Galleon requires you to visit two places to control it: the Web Hub for changing the keyboard’s settings and Stream Deck for setting up that titular portion. Both are generally well-designed, though complex enough that finding your way around does take some time. I’d suggest starting with the Web Hub software first, updating your firmware if available, and then you can dig into the settings.
Here, you can set up the keyboard for gaming, including selecting polling rates up to 8000Hz (to fractionally reduce the delay between a key being pressed and registered) and enable SOCD, short for “Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Direction” (letting a press of A override a press of D, for example, to aid counter-strafing in FPS titles). There are also more garden-variety controls for remapping keys, choosing lighting schemes and so on, though you won’t find features like adjustable actuation points, rapid trigger, or other common FPS-focused features due to the lack of magnetic switches. (The sockets here are hot-swappable, but only for other 3-pin or 5-pin mechanical switches, so you can’t change the core tech inside.)
The Stream Deck side of the equation is a bit more involved, with a live feed of what’s being shown on each dial area and button on the left and a menu of available widgets on the right. Adding or moving widgets is as simple as dragging and dropping, and all but the simplest widgets have further settings to customize their functionality and appearance. Icon packs make it easier to have a consistent appearance, but you’re free to go with custom icons, emojis, text and so on to suit your own preferences.
As mentioned earlier, the default set of widgets can be extended through the Elgato Marketplace, though relatively few third-party options are available for the new dial areas versus the original Stream Deck keys. Both of the third-party widgets I was hoping for did exist – YouTube Music and a calendar – but the latter was only available as a £5 or £10 purchase. I found that creating third-party widgets for the slim infobar on the Stream Deck Neo wasn’t even possible when I reviewed that device last year, so I hope that the dials here are easier to develop for.
In terms of what you can actually do with the Stream Deck, it’s a long list, including creating and playing macros, controlling music or audio devices, and supporting live streams. Controlling other parts of the Corsair ecosystem is especially well catered for, including adjusting Elgato lights, mics and cameras, Corsair peripherals, and now Fanatec sim racing gear.
Game integration feels like a bit of an afterthought, with no easy way to find what games on your system are supported by the keyboard – you have to search through all Galleon-compatible profiles or manually search by game title instead. Some third-party integrations are also expensive, with a Star Citizen profile pack costing £25 and Flight Simulator 2024 requiring an £18 investment. This feels like an area that could be improved substantially if Corsair intends to keep building out support for games, or incentivizing third-party developers to do so instead.
I did experience a few bugs in the Stream Deck software, most notably every installation of a new plugin requiring two attempts to successfully install – a pain when the default loadout for the Galleon requires eight or so plugins. Thankfully, the core functionality of assigning functions to each button and triggering them worked like a treat in the Stream Deck software, while the Web Hub provided all of the functionality I needed on the keyboard setup front.
Corsair Galleon 100 SD – Performance
The Galleon 100 SD is a strong option for gaming, with a particular alacrity for more complex simulation games where you benefit from having a large number of available keys. Throwing lesser-used (and easily forgotten) keys and key combos on the Stream Deck pad is handy, as is having an otherwise full layout to use as normal. The key action is well-tuned, with reasonable travel, good audible feedback, and a smooth action, so games like League of Legends or StarCraft 2 that can punish mispresses heavily are easier to play than they would be on a softer and shorter-travel keyboard.
I also found occasion to use the extra Stream Deck keys in FPS games like Counter-Strike 2 (for buying weapons), but I tend to prefer narrower keyboards without a number pad to ensure plenty of mousing space for the low-sensitivity gameplay that most players adopt. That led to a shade of frustration in Battlefield 6, as it wasn’t as comfortable to play with my arms spread wide across the desk. The inclusion of SOCD and a snappy 8000Hz polling rate was something of a salve, and I have no qualms about the keyboard’s overall performance for all but the most competitive FPS players. Still, I can’t help but dream about a Galleon 100 SD in a southpaw layout, with the macro pad on the left side of the keyboard.
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