Alloy FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard The Alloy FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is HyperX’s first foray into gaming keyboards, designed with FPS gamers in mind. It turns out, though, that the needs of FPS gamers actually align perfectly with a gamer who wants a fairly simple but solid gaming keyboard. The Alloy’s footprint is small for a gaming keyboard, not much bigger than a standard, full-size keyboard. This allows for more space on your desk for your mouse arm. Unlike a standard keyboard, however, the Alloy has a solid steel frame to ensure the keyboard won’t go sliding around. The USB cable for the keyboard is fully detachable and the keyboard comes with a very sturdy mesh travel bag, making it quite portable. HyperX wanted to stay simple with their first keyboard, so the list of Alloy’s features is fairly small, but well thought out. It has Cherry MX red switches, one USB port located on the back of the frame, and optionally changeable red-colored keycaps for crucial FPS keys (W, A, S, D, and the 1-4 number keys). There’s backlighting, of course (red), with six different lighting effect options, and a “gaming mode” (more on this later).
Abbreviated Keyboard Specifications:
- Keyboard Switch: Cherry MX
- Type: Mechanical/br> Backlight: Single color, Red
- Light effects: 6 LED modes and 5 brightness levels
- Connection type: USB 2.0 (2 USB connectors)
- Anti-ghosting: 100% anti-ghosting
- Cable Type: Detachable, braided
- Length: 1.8m
Dimensions
- Width: 441.65mm
- Depth: 129.38mm
- Height: 35.59mm
- Weight (keyboard and cable): 1049g
The keyboard was a bit more of an adventure to review because I’ve never used a mechanical keyboard for any length of time. I just didn’t feel that I required the large number of additional functions gaming keyboards typically provide (e.g. extensive macroing capabilities, very intricate backlighting options, etc.).The straightforwardness of the Alloy, however, is more of a mechanical gaming keyboard designed for someone like me in mind: a PC gamer who wants a good keyboard for gaming, but doesn’t need an extremely long list of bells and whistles.
I originally started out using all the alternate keys, but in the end switched back to the standard ones except for the “1” key. I do as much writing as gaming on my keyboard, so the slightly raised red gaming keys made typing feel very slightly awkward for me due to the increased reach required to hit them; however, I think this wouldn’t be an issue for someone with bigger hands than me. I kept the alternate “1” key because having it slightly raised helps me center my hands by touch while I’m gaming, which is nice. My favorite feature of the keyboard is the “gaming mode” function (toggled by hitting FN F12). While “gaming mode” sounds fancy, it simply toggles off the functionality of the Windows key. A small thing, but immensely appreciated. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tabbed myself out of a tense match by fat-fingering the left control or alt key.
I played several games using the Alloy FPS, including Guild Wars 2, Battleborn, and Star Wars: the Old Republic, which all use the WASD control scheme. The keys were all extremely responsive while gaming and I enjoyed both the heft of the keyboard and the gaming mode option. My one very minor complaint is that when writing normal text for articles or papers, I sometimes find that I miss a character due to typing quickly and not pressing down quite hard enough. This probably points to me having a slight preference for a type of switch that provides less resistance when writing. As a gaming keyboard, however, I have no complaints at all.
I think the Alloy is a strong entry into the world of gaming keyboards for HyperX. Its small footprint and simple, but thoughtful, features may have made a believer out of me when it comes to mechanical keyboards, which is a pretty strong accomplishment since I generally hate change when it comes to my gaming setup.
Overall, I found the Cloud Stinger and Alloy FPS to be very solid peripherals to add to a PC gaming setup for someone who wants good performance for a reasonable price and doesn’t need extra features. That sounds like a simple thing, but it really isn’t. For many peripherals, the higher quality you go, the more features are added on, which increases the cost even more. While many people enjoy all those features, many others of us simply don’t need them. I haven’t been able to find many options for high quality with basic features peripherals, so I’m excited to see HyperX consciously addressing that gap in the market. So if you’re also on the lookout for keyboards and headsets that fit into that category, you might want to check out these two. Both the Cloud Stinger and Alloy FPS keyboard are available now.
A Cloud Stinger headset and Alloy FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard were provided to us by HyperX for review.