The market is being populated with more and more mechanical keyboards than ever before. There are tons of offerings from Corsair, Logitech, Razer, HyperX, and then of-course, the age old TVS Gold. The options for the consumer are many, varying from a wide price bracket, with no-LED, single LED and RGB LED options, and a wide array of switches as per one’s liking.
At CES 2017, HyperX revealed the Alloy RGB. The keyboard under the scanner in this article is the HyperX Alloy Elite keyboard. The naming of the HyperX keyboards can be a little confusing: there’s the HyperX Alloy, the HyperX Alloy RGB, HyperX Alloy FPS, HyperX Alloy Elite. Before proceeding with the review, we first had to wrap our heads around what every model meant.
The HyperX Alloy Elite is basically the HyperX Alloy RGB, without the RGB lights. What you get is a mono coloured (red) backlights only. At ₹ 10,399, this keyboard isn’t really a budget friendly choice. Let’s break it down (not in the literal sense) to see if the Alloy Elite is a worthy option.
Design and Build
We were immediately fans of the layout on the HyperX Alloy Elite. It feels minimalistic, but it isn’t really minimalist because you get the full classic keyboard with the number pad, plus dedicated media keys, a Game Mode key, an LED Brightness and lighting pattern key. Everybody loves knobs, and the HyperX Alloy Elite gives you an excellent Volume knob on the top right corner.
The bezels on the HyperX Alloy Elite are kept to a minimal. You can fit this keyboard into squishy places because of it’s very efficient usage of space. You also get a textured detachable wrist rest, which is super comfortable, if space is not the issue.
The HyperX Alloy Elite is based on a steel frame, making the keyboard feel sturdy and solid. We couldn’t spot any weak spots in the build, everything was just fine.
You get eight silver coloured replaceable keys with textured surface. The keys in question are the WASD keys and the first four number keys. We immediately replaced the default keys with the textured keys, making the keyboard standout as a “gaming keyboard” on our desk.
Features
The HyperX Alloy Elite comes with simple features, nothing over the top. That makes much more sense because the keyboard is plug-and-play. You don’t need any proprietary software to run it, nor do you need software to experience all the features. You can do so without installing any software, and of that we are fans.
Having no software comes with its fair share of trade-offs. You cannot assign macros, nor can you create custom lighting profiles, if that is a thing you are looking for. Personally, we’ve hardly used macros in our gaming careers, and RGB lighting is still a fad.
You can activate “Game Mode” by pressing the Game Mode key. This illuminates an indicator light on the keyboard. This disables the Windows key and Alt-Tab, to give you a seamless gaming experience without accidental Alt-Tabs and Windows key hits. A simple addition to make for a more immersive gaming experience indeed!
The dedicated media keys work just as desired. The Volume rocker is simple the most wonderful addition to the HyperX Alloy Elite. We were huge fans of it, and it works great. Seamless volume control has been an underrated feature since years, and the HyperX Alloy Elite provides a simple solution for it.
The HyperX Alloy Elite also comes with a USB passthrough cable. You can connect this at the back of your PC, and the used the USB 2.0 port on the rear of the HyperX Alloy Elite to connect a pen drive or your mouse.
Performance
We used the HyperX Alloy Elite for around a month. The keyboard is available with Cherry MX Blue, Brown and Red switches. Our sample had Cherry MX Red switches, which leans more towards gaming rather than typing. It is smoother and not as clanky as the Blue switches.
Typing on the HyperX Alloy Elite was smooth and feather-ish. We personally wouldn’t recommend this keyboard for typing. We faced a very annoying issue with our unit. A couple of keys, particularly the “A” and “G” key registered multiple presses when we only pressed it once, and that too very swiftly. The more this happened, the more annoying it got. The countless times we had to scroll back to remove the extra “a”s and “g”s got on our nerves. We’re not sure whether this was just an issue with our unit, but in the past, we’ve had similar stories with Corsair’s Cherry MX Red switches too. During gaming, this issue is barely noticeable, but during typing, it is clearly evident.
It got even more bugging when chatting during Dota 2 sessions. Typing “GG” always ended up as “GGGG”. And when instructing team mates it got worse because it hampered the gaming experience, and we always had to go back and backspace, means take away our attention from the in-game action.
The key caps are square, and their quality is OK. We would say the key caps quality is on par with the TVS Gold keyboard, but the HyperX Alloy Elite costs roughly 5 times more than the TVS Gold. There is still no mechanical keyboard available internationally that can beat the ₹ 1500 price of the TVS Gold.
Conclusion
Overall, the HyperX Alloy Elite is a well built keyboard with good design elements. We like how this keyboard feels minimalist, but is nowhere minimal in functionality. It is a plug-and-play keyboard, that kind of sets it apart from other offerings. While we wouldn’t recommend this for office work and typing, this keyboard performs well for gaming. It is comfortable and special props to the arm rest.
If you are in the market for an LED backlit mechanical gaming keyboard, the HyperX Alloy Elite is good option at ₹ 10,500. It offers the exact same features as the Corsair K70 LUX minus the RGB light, at a much cheaper price. Then again, there’s always the TVS Gold, which priced at ₹ 1,500, has been India’s golden steal mechanical keyboard since the past two decades.
