You’ve heard of membrane keyboards. You’ve heard of mechanical keyboards. You’ve most likely even heard some keyboards described as ‘membrancial’, which (apart from being against the law towards the English language) are the type of hybrid gaming keyboards you may think about shopping for when you’re uncertain whether or not to go full CLACK with a correct mechanical one.
The Asus TUF Gaming K5 falls into this latter class, though Asus would quite you commit a fair graver crime and name it a MECH-BRANE keyboard versus membranical. Both phrases are deserve life sentences so far as I’m involved, however fortunately the TUF Gaming K5’s beneficiant characteristic set and fast, tactile keys earn it a get out of jail free card. Here’s wot I feel.
Priced at an inexpensive £69 / $80, the TUF Gaming K5 is already so much cheaper than my different favorite membranical and best gaming keyboard winner, the Roccat Horde Aimo. It’s nonetheless fairly cumbersome because of the built-in wrist relaxation, however its extra conventional form and shaved off edges make it really feel much less like a large hunk of plastic than its Roccat rival.
Indeed, being a part of Asus’ TUF sequence means it ought to be much more sturdy than your common gaming keyboard, with Asus claiming it’s each spill-resistant as much as 60ml of liquid from “cans or cups” (extra on that in a sec) and 1.5x extra immune to sweat and friction. They additionally declare it’s 5x extra resilient towards abrasion, however until your palms have the feel of a scouring pad, I’m skeptical over what this can truly shield towards in comparison with the common friction resistance.
Of course, sturdiness claims are all the time difficult to check with out an excessive quantity of long-term use. However, I can say that through the month or so I’ve been utilizing the TUF Gaming K5, it nonetheless appears just about good as new – which isn’t one thing I can say for the Horde Aimo. Whereas the Horde Aimo began to look a bit scruffy after an analogous period of time on my desk, with small greasy imprints beginning to present on the wrist relaxation and a bit little bit of discolouration elsewhere throughout its plastic body, the TUF Gaming K5 may nearly be recent out of the field. There are nonetheless traces of grease when you squint onerous sufficient, however there’s no denying it’s in a a lot better form than the Roccat.
The primary factor, although, is that the TUF Gaming K5 is simply beautiful to sort on. Asus’ mech-brane switches are each sharp, crisp and tactile once you press them down, and so they’re not going to pierce everybody’s eardrums when you begin typing away within the firm of others both. There’s nonetheless a certain quantity of CLACK to them, all advised, however I reckon they’re much more family-friendly than a full-blown mechanical keyboard.
Overall, they’re most likely closest in really feel to Cherry’s MX Brown switches, which have a small bump round midway down the important thing press to provide them that additional little bit of tactile suggestions. The basic gaming keyboard hivemind usually say these are one of the best type of switches for these after an equal mixture of gaming and typing use. While not as fast because the linear, gaming-friendly MX Red switches, additionally they don’t require as a lot power because the louder, typing-friendly MX Blue switches, making them a superb midway home between the 2.
Indeed, when you put a blindfold on me and requested me which keyboard was the K5 and which one was a Cherry MX Brown, I’d most likely have a tough time telling them aside. This means the K5 isn’t only a good first stepping stone to the world of full-blown mechanical keyboards – it’s additionally ok (in my books, not less than) to copy all the expertise of a mechanical keyboard with out the necessity to spend buckets of cash on it, which is sweet information for the extra finances aware keyboard hunters on the market.
The K5 comes with a good variety of additional options, too, together with devoted quantity keys and a button to alter the brightness of its RGB lighting (or flip it off altogether). You can even document your individual macro instructions with out having to load up Asus’ Armoury software program by urgent Fn and Alt Gr, in addition to change between its 4 accessible profiles by urgent Fn and 1-4. Asus’ Armoury software program isn’t truly that dangerous to make use of, all advised – and also you’ll positively want to make use of it if you wish to reassign any of its keys, tinker with its RGB settings or sync up your chosen lighting mode to different Asus AuraSync gadgets in your PC – however it’s good to have the choice of bypassing it altogether for a few of its extra commonplace controls.
The solely actual hurdle you’ll must get previous is the general look of the factor. It’s not too heinous, however I respect the sprint of camo sample and RGB TUF brand on the high of the keyboard gained’t be to everybody’s style. There’s additionally the additional indented TUF Gaming letters on the right-hand facet of the wrist relaxation, which fortunately is simply too excessive to intervene with or grate towards your palm, however could nicely nonetheless grate towards your eyes relying in your choice for that type of factor.
Still, design niggles apart, the Asus TUF Gaming K5 is an outstanding gaming keyboard for £69 / $80, and arguably a greater purchase than the Roccat Horde Aimo for these seeking to dip their toes within the mechanical keyboard pool. The Roccat nonetheless has some additional options that some could discover value the additional expense, corresponding to its wider vary of media controls and devoted quantity knob, but when all you need is an easy gaming keyboard and also you’re not too fussed about what it appears like, the Asus TUF Gaming K5 comes extremely really helpful.
