ASUS ROG Strix Flare II Animate Keyboard

Si es de un precio elevado, pero estás pagando tal cual la calidad de materiales, diseño y tecnología, excelentes switches (NX Brown en mi caso) se siente muy bien lo rápido tanto la parte de la trayectoria de la tecla física y el bump de retroceso, como la respuesta de señal (Testeado en Apex Legends, Valorant, TF2, WZ2, LOL, Horizon ZD, entre otros). Las teclas (siendo PBT) son de una calidad excelente, la textura ayuda mucho al agarre de cada yema y se ve que van a durar bastante, parecen de metal/aluminio.

Visualmente es hermoso (aunque al final cada gusto es diferente), tanto en la parte de RGB como en los materiales, colores y pues claro, lo que distingue el teclado de los otros, la parte de puntos de led (Animate de ASUS) donde se pueden poner bastantes cosas, algunas estéticas y otras bastante útiles como el porcentaje de la batería, la hora, y pues un sin fin de cosas más.

El único “con” que le puedo encontrar es un poco en la almohadilla para las muñecas, no en la parte visual o estética, más bien siento que le falta un poco más de relleno para que los que tenemos manos algo pesadas no se sienta el fondo, pero esto para nada afecta mi opinión en general de que es un impresionante y excelente teclado en los apartados comerciales.

This is a super nice keyboard at a super high price.

It met all the feature criteria I had: Highly configurable RGB, dedicated media control keys, wrist rest, replaceable mechanical keys, and double-shot key caps that will hold up to years of use.

I chose the Asus “NX Brown” switches. I would have preferred Cherry MX switches, which Asus says will eventually be available pre-installed, but I decided not to wait. And I have to say, the Asus NX Brown are very nice and nearly indistinguishable from the Cherry MX Brown switches. They actuate smoothly, with no wobble, including the space bar — which smoothly moves straight down even when pressed at the very end.

The keycaps have a slight texture, and legends are molded into the keys (“double-shot” injection molding) rather than surface-printed. The switches are replaceable and interchangeable with Asus NX or Cherry MX, so mixing and matching switches is possible if desired. It is nice to know that if a switch fails, I can just pop it off and pop a new one on.

Typing on this keyboard is enjoyable. As a fast touch typist (120-130 wpm), I found the feel and sound to be just about perfect. Asus has employed internal foam to prevent vibrations, which results in each keystroke making a distinct sound without any of the echo or “buzz” that many keyboards have. Keycaps are dished, making it easy to maintain correct finger alignment over the keys.

Ultra-fast polling rates up to 8000Hz are supported, though I was unable to tell any difference above 2000Hz. Dedicated gamers may find these high rates beneficial, though.

I will likely never use the dot-matrix “AniME Matrix” display at the upper right corner. I find it distracting and have disabled it. That said, it works well – though the LEDs are white, not RGB. Asus provides several pre-made animations via the Armoury Crate control software, and also a web-based editing tool for those who want to create their own animations.

The dedicated media controls also work well. The one detractor here is the “mute” function, which requires carefully pressing straight down on the roller-bar volume control — sort of like one of those log-rolling contests at the county fair, it takes some practice to push down without rolling.

The keyboard is supported by (4) non-skid feet and has the typical flip-out risers under the top edge to give the keyboard a slight slope. A cushioned wrist rest is included, which has lighting pass-through for the LEDs along the bottom edge (nice design!). The pad is comfortable and easy to attach or detach via built-in magnets.

A single USB pass-through port is provided along the top edge. It is a bit disappointing that this is limited to USB2; at this price point, Asus could have easily made the pass-through USB3. But most people already have access to USB3 ports on the front panel or edge bezel of their PC.

RGB control, including special modes like “rainbow”, “reactive”, and “ripple” are available via the Armoury Crate software, which can also synchronize lighting modes with other Asus Aura lighting effects for Asus motherboards, RGB strips, video cards, and so forth. Like the matrix display, I find most of these a bit distracting — but the effects are flexible, control is granular, and it all works well.

Keyboard macros can be created “on the fly” via the keyboard alone, without any extra software, or can be created via the Armoury Crate software.

Overall, this is a super nice, high-quality keyboard with a ton of features and flexibility. The price is tough to swallow, but the combination of quality and features is hard to find anywhere else.

I purchased an Asus Flare II Animate with NX Brown switches, and I can definitely feel the difference between these vs. my other Cherry MX Brown keyboards. Previously owned keyboards include the Corsair K70 RGB, Kingston Hyper-X RGB, and Steelseeries Apex-7. The game titles I mainly play are Overwatch, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty.

The main reasons I shelled out a little extra for this keyboard include

Pros:
-Keyboard has very low height, so using a wrist rest is optional for me
-Bright RGB — gotta have it
-hot-swappable switches — insures that you can just replace the switches that break, or mix switch types for better customization
-media controls — very convenient when you have to adjust or mute audio quickly
-OLED Display with audio spectrum analyzer or custom wallpapers. Looks very cool when using the former!
-Low Profile PBT key caps feel very light. Initially I was going to replace them with pudding key caps to let more RGB lighting through, but after using the, I decided to keep them.

Cons:
-The volume knob seems to jump up a lot, even when being rotated down. EDIT: Purchased a 2nd unit, and its volume knob worked fine, so this is a mechanical issue. However, the 2nd keyboard also had a non-functional DEL key on the 10-key pad, so I have to return both keyboards. Placed an order for a 3rd one, but this makes me really question Asus QA. 3rd keyboard arrived, no defects found, but keeping a close eye on it.

-The soft leather wrist rest feels too squishy for my tastes and wears out fairly fast. I decided to use my old Apex-7’s hard satin wrist rest with carbon fiber wrap under the left wrist spot, and it has worked perfectly so far.

The primary difference with the NX Brown switches vs. conventional Cherry MX Browns is the side wobble — the NX Browns have much better vertical travel and requires less force to push down. Also, its tactile feel is nice and crisp. Lastly, the built-in dampening layer does reduce the amount if key press noise compared to my older Apex-7.

I did replace the WASD keys on my keyboard with Corsair gaming beveled keys since they make FPS gaming much easier by never letting you lose track of those keys. While this keyboard is on the pricy side, its low profile, crisp switches, media controls, and OLED screen clearly place it well ahead of other similar gaming keyboards. Asus quality control aside, this is an excellent keyboard that should last me for quite a while.

Love it
Beware of asus software for rgb, turned on controls for my rgb ram and it caused issues.
Keyboard is A+!