Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
Like many keyboards nowadays, the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX is a full-sized keyboard with an island-style layout. This means that the aluminum backplate here is exposed with the switches sitting on top. This gunmetal grey colored backplate features a matte finish that is fingerprint resistant and looks quite nice. The Strix Scope RX has pretty notable gamer vibes, but these vibes mostly come from the font choice on each keycap. A large ROG logo can be found on the top right corner where the other indicator lights exist. Otherwise, under the metal plate is a plastic body that goes all around the bottom. At the top we have a pretty lengthy rubber cable that is affixed in the center of the keyboard. It is quite a girthy cable and measures about two meters in length. The back-end splits into two full-sized USB plugs. One is used for the keyboard connection, while the other is for the passthrough USB 2.0 port at the back of the ROG Strix Scope RX. Otherwise, I think the overall appearance is pretty typical for a gamer look without being too outlandish.
In terms of dimensions, the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX measures 440mm in width, 137mm in depth, and 39mm in height. In terms of mass, the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX weighs in at 1.07kg. All of these measurements are pretty typical for a keyboard of this size. During my usage, I found the keyboard to be quite solid to type on. There is a bit of body flex if you push on the backplate, but the amount of flex is quite similar to other full-sized keyboards. Another bonus to the build quality is the fact this keyboard is IP56 rated, which means it is protected against dust and liquids. This is not rated to protect against immersion, but typical spills should not affect the keyboard's functionality, which is great to see. Unfortunately, ASUS also did not provide any sort of palm rest, which I think should be a mandatory inclusion for any gaming keyboard nowadays.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX came to us with a typical QWERTY ANSI layout with 104 keys. As such, we have the full number pad on the right-side of the keyboard and all of the indicator lights are located above. These indicators glow white and include Caps Lock, Number Lock, Scroll Lock, Fn-key Lock, and Windows Lock. All of these are pretty typical, except for the F-key lock, which I will talk about in the next paragraph. Other layout changes include modifications to the bottom row of the keyboard. Typically, the Ctrl, Alt, Windows, Function, and Menu buttons are all the same size. However, on the Strix Scope RX, the left Ctrl is actually the same width of the Shift above it and the Windows key is shrunken down to a 1x size. This also means the space bar is also reduced in size. According to ASUS, this is a gaming feature to make the left Ctrl easier to press, since it is often used in gaming as an action like crouch. I personally do not find this as much of an issue, but I appreciate this accommodation. A beneficial side effect of this change is that the Windows key is now smaller, which is something many users want to avoid pressing. Of course, you can also lock the key altogether to prevent accidental presses too.
As for secondary functions, there are quite a few secondary keys on the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX. All of them are labeled on the front of the keycaps rather than the top. All of them are accessed by pressing the Fn key on the bottom right side before pressing the indicated key. Starting on the left side, the Esc key is used to reset all of your settings to the default. The Win key can be used to prevent the Windows key from opening up, while the Alt key can be used to create macros on the fly. This is a three-step process, first pressing Fn + Left Alt to start recording and once more to stop recording. Finally, you will need to press a key to use as the executor of the macro. Otherwise, the numbers 1 to 5 are marked with Roman numerals to be used to swap between five different profiles. Number 6 is used to store the default profile. All of the media keys can be found from what normally would be F5 to F11. I say "normally" because ASUS has swapped the media keys to be the primary function, and the F-keys instead are the secondary ones. If you want to execute F5 to F12, you will need to press Fn and then the key or change your keyboard to F-key Lock with Fn + Insert. F12 is a special key which ASUS dubs as Stealth mode. By pressing this, you will hide all the windows on your desktop while muting your audio. While this could just be a macro to implement, I like the dedicated button for hiding and muting. It may also imply you are doing something a bit unscrupulous, haha. Finally, the last set of secondary function is used for lighting control, and I will go through those later in the review.
As for the keycaps, these are ABS plastic. I prefer PBT, or polybutylene terephthalate, keycaps because the material is harder and keeps its color better. The lettering is printed on with a laser etching process, which removes the black cover to reveal the translucent plastic. This is a typical and cost-effective solution for keycap printing. The choice of font here is a bit gamer-y with the stretched out lettering and aggressive angles. However, you may also notice the keys are actually a bit tricky to read without light shining through, which means you will probably need to have some sort of lighting turned on with the keyboard. It is a bit unfortunate, but I think most users will be activating the lights on this keyboard anyway. Underneath, you can with stretched see these keycaps do not use a typical MX stem. Instead, there are four pegs on the corners of the key to provide some stability. While this means you will not be swapping any typical custom keycaps later on, they do make each keycap more stable. In fact, I noticed very little, if any, keycap wobble, which makes for a more comfortable typing experience.
As for key rollover, the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX offers NKRO over USB. NKRO is abbreviated for N-key rollover, which refers to the number of keys independently scanned by the hardware. This fixes issues of ghosting found on cheaper keyboards. While ghosting is a marketing term, there are cases where keyboards will not be able to recognize more than one keystroke at a time, causing for missed keys. This can be frustrating when you are playing games or even if you are just a very fast typist. On an aside, the original usage of ghosting in keyboards actually referred to a third key being registered when two other keys were pressed, which thankfully is not a problem with most modern keyboards.
Before continuing on, one of the selling points of the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX is the key switches. There are three main types of keyboards in the market today. The cheapest but most common is the membrane keyboard, which is the easiest to make, but also has poor typing feel and response due to squishy keys. Next is a scissor switch keyboard. This can be thought of as an enhanced rubber dome with two extra interlocking plastic pieces connected to the key and the keyboard. This creates a better tactile response and typing experience in comparison to the aforementioned membrane. Mechanical keyboards cost the most, because each key switch is an independent part. These switches are generally composed of a base, stem, and spring, with varying degrees of tactile and audible feedback. However, while the switches on the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX utilize mechanical parts, but they are actually triggered utilizing light and a sensor, which is commonly known as an optical switch.
Our unit of the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX features ROG RX Red switches. This features a linear travel and relatively light pressure required to push the switch. Since the actuation is actually not a mechanical action, but via light, these switches are rated to last one hundred million keystrokes. According to ASUS, this switch has an initial actuation distance of 1.5mm and an overall travel distance of 4.0mm. It also actuates around 40g of force, with a full 55g needed to reach bottoming out. Even though the initial actuation force is lighter, the bottoming out distance and force makes the keys feel similar to typical Cherry switches. Otherwise, you can see the LED for each switch sits directly under each key. We will see how this affects our lighting situation later in our review.
Flipping to the back side, you can see the label with some certification information as well as a serial number on the bottom left corner to identify your ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX. On the other side, we have a large ROG logo etched into the back with a varied finish, which is a pretty neat effect. Otherwise, you can see we have rectangular rubber pads on each corner to keep the keyboard in place. Two flip-out feet also are located at the back with rubber tips on each to ensure the keyboard stays in place, regardless if the keyboard is propped up or not. Finally, you can see at the back of the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX is a USB 2.0 port. This allows you to plug in peripherals like wireless mice dongles or headphones.
Once I finished my visual inspections, I propped the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX on my desk and have been using it for two weeks now. As these are linear optical switches, it only makes sense that I test these alongside with the ROCCAT Vulcan TKL Pro I just reviewed. The first thing I noticed is the nice bottoming out sound without a notable metallic ping. I should note I am typing on top of the XTracGear Carbonic XXL, which does help in dampening higher pitched sounds. The smooth linear feel was consistent across all of the keys. Between the two keyboards, I found the ROG Strix Scope RX's travel length to be noticeably more, even though it is a difference of 0.4mm. It also felt heavier to press, but this is probably because I am quite used to bottoming out my keys when I type. In games, I generally found the ROG Strix Scope RX to be similar to Cherry MX keys in its responsiveness and tactile feel, but I do appreciate the longevity of the switches, even if it is not tangibly felt day-to-day. In typing situations, the keys felt comfortable to use and offered a good amount of resistance to prevent accidental actuations, though those that enjoy nonlinear switches may not agree. I did enjoy typing with this because I am quite used to linear switches, but it is a preferential thing. Unfortunately, the ROG Strix Scope RX only comes in this single flavor of switches. Otherwise, I did not encounter any issues like debouncing or chattering while testing the ROG Strix Scope RX.
Something that is executed quite well on the ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX is the backlighting and effects. While I was skeptical about how the lights would shine through, especially on the front printed legends, but they are surprisingly quite adequate. At full brightness, all of the keys are easy to read and the light shines through to illuminate all of the legends. Even keys with two rows of lettering are pretty event in backlighting. The clear body on the switches also help in this regard, but they also make for a nice effect as you can slightly see the ROG logo on the bottom of each switch peeking out. In terms of changing effects, users can use the Fn + Arrow keys to make some modifications. Left and Right are used to cycle between the different static, dynamic, and reactive modes. Meanwhile, Up and Down are used to change between the five different brightness levels, including completely off. Finally, for modes that you can pick colors for, you can cycle between ten different levels of Red, Green, and Blue, by using Fn + Delete, End, or Page Down. Pressing Fn alone will always illuminate these keys in their respective red, green, and blue colors to indicate the level of each color that is currently displayed. I appreciate this sort of on-the-fly customizing, which is something I have not seen on a keyboard in quite a while.
Many of ASUS' products, including their keyboards, mice, mousing surfaces, headsets, headset stands, NVIDIA Ampere GPUs, monitors, motherboards, and even full ASUS computers use the Armoury Crate for modifying different devices as well as synchronizing their lighting effects. Even when I downloaded the 1.35MB compressed file and installed the utility, it immediately recognized my ROG Strix Scope RX and my Prime X470-Pro motherboard. The setup process is easy to work through and it automatically adds additional peripherals as you plug them in. There were also many updates for all of my products during my evaluation process, so they generally do keep this utility up to date. There are many other features in Armoury Crate, including AURA Sync, a game library, system-wide profiles, game deals, and more news, but I will focus on the configuration pages for the ROG Strix Scope RX for the purpose of this review. Even so, I found all of these pages to be generally clean and up to date. I am not entirely sure how many people would use all of these features, but at least everything is kept organized within their own section.
After selecting the keyboard to modify, there are three tabs within this configuration page. The first is marked Keys, and this lets you set macros to execute with a single key press. The macro creation is done on a separate page where you can combine and record keyboard and mouse actions into a single key press. Finally, you can also disable Alt+Tab window switching and Alt+F4 window closing from this page. Under the second tab, Lighting, users can modify the different lighting effects for this keyboard, choosing between various static and dynamic modes, as well as responsive or non-responsive ones. You can choose colors and speeds for the applicable pages. If AURA Sync is enabled for the keyboard, the modifications of lighting effects are on another page. A second application called AURA Creator can be used to further customize the lighting if you so desire. I found AURA Creator to be trickier to use, so I stuck with the standard lighting effects. Finally, the last page is marked Firmware Update, which can direct you to the necessary updates you may need to install for future updates.
All in all, some may view the Armoury Crate software as a bit overloaded in terms of extras, but I think ASUS has made a logically laid out utility with a generally updated interface. Some pages did feel a bit empty while navigating them, but I am pleased with the level of customization offered here.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Conclusion
