The unique HyperX Alloy keyboard was a very long time coming, however since that easy, stable, and slimline gaming keyboard first dropped HyperX have gone all out on their top-spec mannequin, the Alloy Elite RGB. And it’s fairly one thing.
Check out our choose of the best gaming keyboards round right now.
It was a shock the corporate had taken so lengthy to get into the broader peripherals market having made such a splash with their HyperX Cloud headset, and the next, sensible HyperX Cloud Alpha. But once they dropped the Alloy it was clear they’d been ready till they bought it proper.
And get it proper they did. The stable metallic base of the Alloy allowed the Cherry MX keys to drift above it, glowing crimson below their keycaps. It was easy and understated, with out the over-designed angles of a few of its gaming-focused brethren. It’s clear that the $170 / £150 HyperX Alloy Elite RGB shares the identical DNA with its forbear – there’s the identical sturdy base, the Cherry MX help, and due to this fact ultra-responsive gaming efficiency.
But the Alloy Elite RGB additionally rights the few wrongs that wanted ironing out from HyperX’s unique design. The most blatant factor is the addition of a wrist relaxation – that’s a welcome function for these lengthy gaming periods, giving your RSI’d joints a little bit aid. It’s nowhere close to as beautiful because the padded relaxation from the Razer Blackwidow boards, however it stable and securely connected to the board.
They’ve additionally given us correct discrete media controls this time, together with a free-wheeling quantity wheel, a la Corsair’s mighty Ok70 design.
In an nearly equivalent association to the Corsair board, the illuminated pause, skip, and mute buttons are set across the quantity wheel, although alongside it fairly than under. On the far left-hand aspect of the board are the discrete lighting and gaming mode controls – there’s no Fn key digital gymnastics required right here.
One button controls the brightness – in three ranges of luminance in addition to utterly off – whereas the center one cycles, as default, between the RGB wave impact, FPS blue tone (with highlighted WSAD), and an all-red Flame profile which pulses as you kind. And I’m really discovering that fairly distracting as I kind this, as a result of I simply wish to see what it’s doing.
You can change all this in HyperX’s NGenuity software program so as to add in customized lighting profiles to the onboard rotation. Also within the NGenuity software program is the power so as to add in game-specific lighting profiles – there are a bunch already within the Windows app, from Fallout 4, to Destiny 2, to Kerbal Space Program, and you’ll additional customise them to your coronary heart’s content material.
The last gaming mode button disables the Win keys so that you don’t find yourself unintentionally dragging your self out of a sport with an errant strike.
HyperX have additionally included a full USB 2.zero pass-through connection, versus the data-less, charging solely USB socket they’d used on the unique Alloy keyboard. And clearly there’s the RGB lighting…
The traditional Cherry MX Red RGB switches ship the efficiency, and furious lighting, that you simply’d anticipate from the most important title in mechanical keyboard tech. They’re responsive and linear, with not one of the gritty, clicky-ness of the Blue or Brown switches. Though in the event you’re a idiot for horribly tactile switches – like our Jacob – then you may choose up the Alloy Elite RGB in both flavour must you want.
I’m an enormous fan of this newest HyperX board. It’s not precisely doing something revolutionary, however that’s as a result of they’ve checked out the very best out there and made positive the Alloy Elite RGB is up there with the highest boards round.
The construct high quality is superb, and it feels stable and like it should simply final and final. I’m additionally very blissful they’ve gone for the discrete key setup, however the plastic base for the lighting and sport mode buttons feels a little bit bit at odds with the superbly machined metallic of the primary keyboard’s base. I’d additionally just like the padded relaxation that Razer have added and that Logitech look set so as to add to their vary, however that’s simply me being a pampered pillock.
The solely actual hesitation I’ve in recommending the Alloy Elite RGB is the worth. At $170 / £150 it’s added an unfeasibly enormous RGB premium to the design over the in any other case identically wonderful, one-colour Alloy Elite boards. You’re taking a look at spending $70 / £50 additional simply to have the choice to vary the colors. And you’d have to essentially hate the crimson aesthetic to wish to spend that a lot additional on this RGB model, which makes it robust to advocate over its spectacular sibling.
SE7EN.WS Verdict: 7/10
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