Thoughts on the HyperX Alloy FPS RPG

  I’ve had this keyboard for a number of years now. I remember picking it up at Microcenter to be my first test of speed switches and one of my first keyboards to feature Kailh switches. That is to say, it has Kailh Speed Silver switches paired with some intense RGB through exposed LEDs mounted to the tops of the switches. It’s an older keyboard now too, first arriving in 2018 which would have been right around the time I bought it. It’s also an excellent trip back in time to an era of simpler keyboards before the massive jump in interest that came with the pandemic.

Firstly, let’s get into build quality because that is the most blatant difference compared even to modern gaming keyboards. It is dry as a bone. The switches are completely unlubricated and, even more painfully, the stabilisers are also completely lacking in lubrication. Paired with the thin steel upper housing and the completely undampened plastic undercarriage it is a shockingly pingy mess. That’s fairly par for the course in 2018 but if you find one of these second-hand and are used to the quieter, more refined sounds of modern keyboards this will be jarring to use in comparison. Without lubrication, the stabilisers are horrendously rattly with terrible ticking sounds with every key press. Because the switches are soldered and feature additional soldering points for the LEDs mounted through them, unmounting the stabilisers would take a fair amount of time.

I decided to try and improve it as much as I could without disassembly and was able to improve them to a decent degree with some careful, if heavy, lubrication via dielectric grease. They still don’t sound good, but they do sound better. Uniformity is just not something I found though as backspace, return, and right shift all sound exceedingly hollow and louder compared to the spacebar, left shift, and the three numpad stabilised keys. The inside of the board is simply hollow and prone to resonating with the keystrokes in such a way that they are amplified. That said, the lubrication did at least help the feel of the keys to smooth them out which was a welcome change. It ultimately feels, and sounds, unrefined compared to modern keyboards.

Continuing with construction, it’s a very stiff keyboard. It looks fairly subtle for a gaming keyboard with a silkscreened HyperX logo on the top right above the numpad. Having said that, it’s still a loud keyboard with the very bright RGB paired with the shine-through keycaps. And while they aren’t on the level of, say Razer’s older shine-through caps, they are still very “gamery” looking. At 100% brightness it is painfully bright to my eyes, especially in a dim room. And while the keycap legends are crisp and clear on mine, they won’t last that way for long. They are laser-etched ABS plastic. That means the black coating on the caps will eventually rub away. I’ve had better luck than some people as body chemistry means that unfortunately some body oils and sweat will eat through the coating far faster than others. That said, mine are already shining somewhat and that’s the precursor to the paint rubbing away.

As the caps are etched, that also means that you can feel the change in depth on the surface. I find that complicated for me. Sometimes, I don’t mind that. But I often find myself distracted by the texture and absentmindedly rub them and feel the texture rather than type. Overall, they’re the cheapest kind of shine-through keycaps. They are thin, have clear but gaudy legends, and have a strange texture. Beyond the change from where they’re etched, the texture itself almost feels like that smooth-touch rubber. Thankfully it’s not as that is so prone to becoming sticky over time but it’s still a strange texture for keycaps, at least for my tastes anyway.

There are some other odd design decisions that they made with the keyboard as well. One is the use of white LED indicators for caps lock, num lock, and “Gaming mode” which is your standard faire of disabling the Windows key. The colour of the board is kind of a gun metal grey with all the plastic being black. It’s okay. And that kind of describes a lot about the keyboard. It’s not phenomenal, it’s not horrible, it’s very middle-of-the-road.

The switches are exactly as familiar as the other Kailh Speed Silver switches I have. They’re light, moderately scratchy, suffer from excessive spring ping, but are uniform. I still don’t care much for them, but I find them usable and enjoy the light weighting that they use. Their high actuation point makes them play well with gentle key presses and negate any sort of desire for bottoming them out. Which, in the case of this board is great. Because it is so stiff and loud bottoming out the keystrokes is not a particularly pleasant experience for me. The notes are heavily metallic and plasticky in the most unfortunate blend. I know that the switches and board could be improved dramatically through a complete disassembly, hand lubrication, and installation of dampening foam but that is simply a lot of work for what is not a great platform in the first place.

It’s also let down by the need for proprietary software for things like reprogramming the keys or visually changing the RGB backlighting. The software is very barebones, offering basic interaction and not much beyond that. It’s also exclusively through the Windows Store now. Since HyperX made the board, they were bought out by HP meaning the software and support now goes through HP. The age of the board also means that it uses mini-USB, thankfully not micro-B. Between the two, I prefer mini-USB if only because it is more durable. Unfortunately, the socket is rather recessed into the keyboard which leads to broad incompatibilities with many USB cables. There is a “charging port” next to the mini-USB port but that requires the stock HyperX cable which offers USB pass-through for that feature. So, if you’re like me and misplace that cable, you’re rather out of luck.

Overall, it’s odd going back to this keyboard. It doesn’t feel the worst to type on it, but the noise is so unpleasant to me. It has the gamut of hollowness, metallic ping, and audible scratchiness in addition to the physical scratchiness that I can feel. It doesn’t sound as bad without using the kick out feet but then the typing angle is too shallow for me, and it feels uncomfortable. I’m also so used to a narrower keyboard that having this on my desk makes it feel awkwardly wide, colliding with my mouse. It’s amazing how much my personal tastes have changed in five years and more than half a dozen different keyboards later. So, while I didn’t like it before because of the light, linear switches, I find myself somewhat enjoying it precisely because of those same switches. It’s a product of its era and it really shows how much keyboards have advanced and improved in the past five years. I wouldn’t suggest it today but for five years ago it would’ve been a fairly inoffensive choice for a gaming keyboard.