HyperX Alloy Elite RGB - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

HyperX Alloy Elite RGB - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

HyperX Alloy Elite RGB - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

With top-notch Cherry MX keys, a gorgeous design and stellar in-game performance, there's a lot to recommend in the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB.

FORAuthentic Cherry MX keys
Beautiful design
Discrete media keys
Great performance

AGAINST
Software needs some work
Typing requires some practice

what's up guys we have yet another RGB keyboard to check out for you guys but I'm really liking this one another player enters the game meet the HyperX alloy elite RGB gaming keyboard so this was showed off in the beginning of the year briefly at CES 2018 and it did release about a month ago but my review of the original HyperX alloy keyboard did pretty well in this channel and have had a lot of requests from you guys to check this out so let's do it first up there's no denying that this thing is nice nice and it honestly could be one of the best-looking keyboards on the market right now if your standard full 104 key layout here it's made extremely well the nice solid steel frame that's gonna ensure over time there's very little to no flex at all it's a little on the heavier side but I'll me and I'll take stability over a plastic keyboard any day of the week on the top left hand side of the keyboard we have three buttons ones for brightness if a profile switcher and a Windows lock button then on the right side my favorite

feature on keyboards like this you have multimedia controls plus a volume wheel this is always tops when you're listening to music on your PC you just want that quick access dedicated media keys are always a plus now obviously this is an RGB keyboard I mean it's 2018 after we're all on the fat is showing no sign of slowing down but besides the backlighting you'll see an RGB light bar above the function row well address this more in a minute but I just wanted to put the feelers out there to build some anticipation flipping it around on the back side we do have a USB pass-through always great for plugging in things like your mouse or even maybe like a flash drive then on the bottom of the keyboard you have two feet to elevate his backside when you're typing or gaming plus some rubber pads to avoid it scratching your desktop surface and it prevents it from moving around now also inside the box they give you the

attachable wrist rest it does have the soft coating on it and it does just click right into place but I mean it's no pillow I guess the job done though I'll say that and they also include extra silver textured key caps with a key cap puller for you it's your WASD keys and the one-two-three-four number keys these are all nice additions to an already impressive looking keyboard and this for the technical stuff you do have full n key roll over and anti-ghosting for accurate inputs when you're gaming that's all sub you can find on some ordinary text sheet out there let's move on now as for the switches let's get into it we are exposed here on the frame of the keyboard which is gonna give that acrylic shell some more Flair when it comes to your RGB lighting but when you pop off a key cap you'll see here they're rockin Cherry MX blue switches in this unit one thing I do like about HyperX they give you the option to buy as well with blue brown and

red choice which is also available but you know the routine with these blue switches they're tactile and clicky definitely on the louder side but some people really do like that and prefer that but I'll do a sound test now so you could hear how these cherry blue switches sound all right now switching gears back to the actual RGB lighting and like I said with those clear switch shells you're gonna be able to see the LED light embedded right above the switch you couple the backlighting here with that RGB light bar the top of the keyboard and altogether it looks pretty damn nice now I showed earlier they do have a profile switching button to toggle between the three onboard profiles but once you plug it into your PC you download their HyperX and Genuity software you're gonna have more control if you make it pretty easy to switch up your colors and effects including full access to that light bar which has 18 individual

zones if you really want to customize it I would however say that the effect options we have to pick from here aren't kind of limited and you can only stack two effects on top of each other but I mean honestly it's gonna get the job done for about 90% of you out there and I think it still looks great and plus it's very user friendly so not gonna have any issues with working your way around the software now let's wrap this up with my experiences thoughts pros and cons all that good stuff about the keyboard and honestly it's great when I was using it for gaming there were no issues whatsoever and I mean it's not like I'm reviewing a gaming mouse where I'd have to adjust to it so just thumbs up for working as it should it is built extremely well emphasis on that you have nice vibrant RGB lighting especially in the dark since the keyboard is all black it's not gonna shine too brightly to the point where it's obnoxious in the daytime you know by now I love dedicated media and bowling control have the USB pass-through this keyboard really

crosses off all the bullet points for just great features so then Frank what are the cons what are the downsides here honestly if I'm reaching I guess being limited to only two layers and the RGB effects you could set up top of each other is kind of limiting um but again it's gonna be fine for most people out there who do want that extra level of customization to effects should be fine for you if you're not just using one already and I guess to engineer software could be a little bit more powerful but again I'm reaching for cons just just thinking of things comparing this to other keyboards out there in the gaming RGB market but if there is one thing it's gonna be the price it's a bit steep at a hundred and seventy dollars now yes we're paying for the detachable wrist rests along with the extra key caps you're paying for the genuine cherry switches all the RGB lighting effects the solid steel frame in here so you can see where the price starts to add up but that's just honestly gonna be out of a lot of people's budget 170 that's a lot now I want to

compare this keyboard real quick to something that I think it is extremely similar to being the Corsair gaming k95 platinum RGB keyboard that's the one I've been using since it released it's very similar to that in terms of you know design and the looks but the thing is the k95 platinum was 200 at launch you can find it now for I think around like 160 also so 170 now for this that Lodge isn't too much when you're comparing it to that so this what I think it's most similar to but I mean come on the end of the day 170 is still a lot but I gave you guys the full breakdown on my pros and cons the pros I think far outweighs the cons of this so I mean if you have that kind of budget if you want to drop 170 on a nice reliable RGB keyboard that is built so well like this that has a great list of features that odds are it's gonna last you a long time then look no further this is a great keyboard but if you are on a budget and you don't have 170 lying around it might be wise to look elsewhere or wait until they have some sort of you know discount on

this is some sort of sale or is hit up on Twitter they know tell them hyper actually I'll drop that price of like 150 then we'll talk but all things you know break this down I love the keyboard it does get a huge thumbs up for me because it's just a really great solid keyboard I'm impressed with it just wish it was a little bit cheaper but all right guys that'll wrap it up for my review of the HyperX alloy elites RGB gaming keyboard

the HyperX elite alloy RGB keyboard i have featured several mechanical keyboards in my computer builds in the past but I haven't done a review yet now the reason being I want to get as much experience with these before speaking about them and I think after a year of testing or using these things I think we're good to go now as always being transparent with you guys HyperX did send us review units but as always please watch the entire review for both pros and cons I'll leave my affiliate links down in that review description below for you guys to check the most updated prices also you never know when these things might go on sale those links should help you out when Jim's review room and I'm here to help you make that purchase decision welcome everyone to another review going over the physical features first the alloy elite RGB looks flippin good for a premium keyboard this does represent its price point

pretty accurately in my opinion but besides visually which we'll get into detail shortly physically this entire keyboard is plastic except for the solid steel frame up top now this gives the keyboard some weight and it feels beefy and hefty I love that feature now the keys up tap are sharp around the edges giving a feeling of precision versus more rounded off keys yet you might get on some of the keyboards likey caps and wrist rest here are satin matte black finishes with an ever so slightly subtle of some feeling of grip eNOS here both the keys and wrist rest are far from feeling cheap and if anything it feels super premium but you also have titanium and textured keys included for WASD and different colored number caps that a top left has three brightness level settings the middle allows for your keyboard to toggle through your saved RGB lighting now I'll show you shortly as well but you can save your color and animations directly into the keyboard itself and say you bring this keyboard to our friends house your lighting

HyperX Alloy Elite RGB - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

profiles are still there it doesn't matter if your friend's computer has the HyperX RGB software installed or not again it's saved right in there and next up is game mode which allows you to turn off some keys so you don't accidentally bump certain keys during play now sometimes I hit the windows button or the tilde key that brings up the command bar up top no controls are on your right very straightforward here which they offered a little bit more resistant on the Vaughn scroll wheel here but that's just me being nitpicky now on the back you have an additional port for a gaming mouse or USB headsets a fixed massive braided cord here that comes right out the rear and last rotating to the underside legs to prop the keyboard up which was minimal but just enough for my personal preference now getting into the details this keyboard and like many others that I've used so far for the past year are for competitive

gaming many are familiar with cherry-red MX switches which are linear provides no tactile feedback and are typically quieter a gamers prefer red switches due to the fact that they have a linear feel for speed and nothing holding them back when competitive gaming less input lag feeling is crucial now with that being said the LA elites RGB review unit that is sent here has brown switches it's the same actuation force as the Reds but brown switches gives you ever so slight tactile feedback for those looking for a bouncing between reds and the very cliquey blues Browns sits right in between now it's a subtle press down and then a click that gives you that feeling of you cresting over a slight bump the alloy elite does provide a very clean feeling actuation and playing with brown switches it's a very enjoyable alternative that gives sensory feedback that a press was engaged it's a matter of preference but man it does feel good and as a friendly reminder this keyboard does come with red blues or Browns you can find more at

hyper XCOM now as for keyboard performance zero ghosting on the keys here you press 10 keys down at all at the same time all 10 keys oppressed nothing is missed the keys don't sound that much louder from my experience than the Reds and typing on this specifically for work and not for gaming in this case the affirmation of a click does feel good and gives a sense of accuracy the last but not least the ingenuity software is very robust and provides tons of options from my personal opinion I don't know what other websites are saying but I found the software and customization for the most part straightforward the only issue that didn't make sense is selecting a color from the color wheel and then the requirement of then selecting the color box to assigned a new color with course here let's say the assigned color box is already selected you pick a color on that color wheel and then you're done basically but it's such a small little hiccup for HyperX it's not that big of a deal to me now you have the option to freestyle and select

individual keys that lights up as well you can have jones as you see on screen here you aren't able to perform macros which works very easily it's very straightforward to set up and those colors they look very good and vibrant if anything they were on the brightest out there so during my gaming experience it kind of wrapped this up here overall the brown switches didn't really bother me it was actually a really reassuring way to ensure that have accuracy or executed a particular command movement and such I don't feel like it hindered my gaming performance again HyperX does offer three different switches you can choose which one that you want but in my case I love this keyboard it was very responsive the colors I get looks great playing certain games that requires a lot of precision for me it was a battlefield one sometimes with the fast-paced action where my fingers are going all over the place with overwatch again this keyboard hands-down one of the best that I've used so far on this channel so in the end

colors I loved it the software I didn't find a big deal with it it works perfectly fine for me and found it easy to set up and look great felt great overall I highly recommend this mechanical keyboard again

you know last year I really wish that I was able to get my hands on a hyper ex alloy because that was one keyboard I really wanted to do a review of well now I'm very excited to tell you guys that I have my hands on a hyper ex alloy elite RGB we're gonna be taking a look at that one so let's go ahead and just get straight into the review starting as always with construction and design the HyperX alloy elite RGB is a hundred and forty mechanical keyboard with an exposed switch design it's one of the most solid feeling keyboards I've reviewed thanks to its steel frame construction because of this though it's also pretty heavy like I mentioned the board uses a steel metal backplate that makes the keyboard have almost zero flex aesthetically the board isn't too over stylized there's a small HyperX logo above the number pad and also of course the RGB light bar but we'll talk more about that in just a minute there's also some

stylistic modeling of the plastic on the sides it's subtle but it does give the keyboard a little bit more personality but for now let's get straight into the lighting one of the most notable changes on the alloy elite is the addition of the light bar the light bar has 18 independent lighting zones that can be changed independently giving you plenty of options for accenting your profiles now speaking of profiles this keyboard uses HyperX ingenuity software in this software you can create up to three profiles that are saved directly under the keyboards memory so you can use it on any computer that doesn't have the software installed the software does have a pretty intuitive layout and I found it easy enough to create the effects that I wanted to make custom profiles within about five minutes or so of tinkering around with it for those of you that just like to use preset lighting effects you might be a little bit disappointed to see that there's only a

handful of presets you do get the standard color wave and reactives for example and you can do up to two layers of these effects like a reactive typing over-breathing for example but that's about it there's only six different lighting effects in total even though it's not the most powerful software out there I do have to give it credit for being very user friendly the board itself uses Cherry MX switches so you do of course get your full perky RGB illumination and coupled with those clear switch bodies and the floating key design it does make for some nice looking lighting as an added bonus the media keys are also RGB enabled however the dedicated buttons for changing profiles brightness and game lock are not illuminated at all which I do think does look kind of silly these buttons allow you to toggle between one of the three onboard profiles cycle between the three brightness settings and toggle the gaming mode which by default

disables the windows keys but you can also configure it to do more in the software the key caps on the alloy elite are made of ABS plastic and have a nice clean simple font that I really like there's also a good illumination of all the secondary characters which I always appreciate and I also like that they added a little hyper X logo to the space bar traditionally the space bar I think is a little underutilized when it comes to lighting in my opinion so I appreciate them adding just that little bit of extra flair as I've already briefly said the Alawis elite does use cherry MX RGB switches and is available in blue brown and red varieties making it one of the few gaming keyboards with this kind of build quality and features that actually gets offered in blues the rock-solid performance of Cherry never disappoints and the clear switch bodies accent the floating key design nicely Cherry MX switches are guaranteed to perform as good as new for up to 50 million keystrokes so you can plan on using this keyboard for quite some time I got my alloy I'll eat in Cherry MX browns and as it just wouldn't be a brain bean video without it

here's a quick sound test in terms of extras the alloy elite brings quite a bit to the table in the box you get a detachable plastic wrist rest and yes unfortunately I did say plastic they really seemed to skimp out on the wrist rest with companies like Razer having pillowy soft ones and Corsair using their rubberized wrist rest hyper axes flimsy plastic wrist rest just feels like it belongs on a budget keyboard even though I am disappointed with the wrist rest it does get the job done and it is the appropriate length to offer decent support while gaming and the texture on it really doesn't feel that unpleasant on the skin the board also comes with a set of silver diamond plate key caps and a key cap puller before you get too excited they are still plastic not metal as they look but I think the textured WASD Keys will help with making them a little bit more easily identifiable by touch and they do make the board look kind of cool at the same time and they also include a silver set of one two-three-four as I've touched on already you do get

dedicated media keys with a large plastic volume scroll wheel and there is USB pass-through at the back of the board which is one of the better places to have it the board also comes with full n key rollover the only thing I would have liked have seen this board come with personally would have been some dedicated macro keys this I tend to use them quite a bit but if you're someone that doesn't really find themselves needing macro keys then it's not that big of a deal the underside of the keyboard has two large rubberized pads and two rubberized extendable legs to keep that keyboard from sliding around the desk and the cable is braided which splits into two USB connectors one for the board and one for the pass through the LED indicators are located to the right of the HyperX logo and interestingly enough they replace the scroll lock LED with an indicator for gaming mode so I guess you'll just have to figure out when you have scroll lock and able overall there's a lot to like about the HyperX alloy Elite RGB it's certainly a step up from the largely popular alloy keyboard but it does come at an increased cost the alloy

elite RGB is a hundred and sixty nine ninety nine MSRP which is pretty much on par with most other premium gaming keyboards the ultra solid frame coupled with the Cherry MX which has given an ultra premium feel that is sure to hold up over time and the healthy amount of extras really doesn't hurt like I said I would have liked to have had a row of macro keys and the wrist rest quality almost makes it feel like it belongs on a completely different keyboard still there's a lot to like about the alloy elite it's a powerhouse of a gaming keyboard that's as durable as it is flashy well that's it for the video guys let me know in those comments down below what you think about the Alawis elite RGB do you think that it's a pretty good upgrade from the alloy what do you think that it's just a bit overkill let me know what you guys think of course