HyperX Alloy Elite RGB Review

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Everything you'd want in a keyboard.

By Matt Clark

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The HyperX brand has branched out considerably in recent years, and most recently the company has started releasing mechanical gaming keyboards. It seems like with each new keyboard we get more features, and with its new HyperX Alloy Elite RGB (See it on Amazon) it seems like they've finally completed the cycle, since it has pretty much everything you'd expect in a flagship RGB keyboard. Though this is a "new" model, it's basically the Alloy Elite but with RGB lighting. At $170, its in direct competition with other high-end mechanical decks like the Corsair K95 Platinum and Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2. But does it have the chops to stand with the best?

Design and Features

Right out of the box, the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB feels like a quality mechanical board with a nice, reassuring weight. The finish on the keycaps and deck are soft-touch, and even with the legs under the board extended, the Alloy Elite RGB has a rather flat stance. This is a full-size keyboard to be sure, but overall it feels a bit smaller than the huge footprint of the Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2, for example. Even with the removable wrist rest attached, the size feels perfect—important when your desktop is taken up by the legs of a huge monitor.

The keycaps on the Alloy Elite RGB have a comfortable, slightly concave face. The soft-touch finish feels great while typing, but the keycaps are also tapered a bit, so they are a bit narrower at the top. This helps conserve space, but it can take some getting used to at first. Thankfully, the keycaps are well-made and attach securely to the switches, so key presses feel solid and reliable. Larger keys like the spacebar actuate perfectly without any wobble. HyperX also included a set of silver, textured replacement keycaps for the WASD keys and silver keycaps for the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys.

  Compact design as it may be, there’s still a row of handy, dedicated media buttons on the top-right edge. And next to that, one of my personal favorites; a metal wheel for adjusting the volume. Sure, it’s not the most important feature in the world, but it's so much easier to adjust game and music levels on the fly using a wheel instead of a button that it's a feature that should be on every modern keyboard. There’s also three buttons on the top-left edge for adjusting the backlight brightness, switching lighting profiles (more on that later), and toggling "game mode." This function (game mode) can be customized, but generally it’s used to thwart errant Windows-key presses while gaming.

Under the keycaps, HyperX has opted for the always excellent Cherry MX switches. The review unit sent to me was loaded with Cherry MX Brown switches, which offer a nice tactile feel without being super clicky. You can also pick up this keyboard with Cherry MX Red or Blue switches, depending on your preference for noise, or the lack of it. The switches in the Alloy Elite RGB performed as expected, with a reassuring tactile bump on each press. While other companies like Razer and Logitech have opted to develop their own mechanical switches with varying effectiveness, the Cherry MX name still means consistent quality and they work flawlessly with the Alloy Elite RGB.

As I mentioned in the intro, HyperX sells an Alloy Elite mechanical keyboard with a red backlight, but as the name denotes, the RGB model has full per-key lighting with the typical "16 million colors" tagline. Unfortunately, that lighting upgrade also tacks on $60 to the price. It looks dazzling through, thanks in part to the floating keycap design. Overall the lighting on the Alloy Elite RGB looks fantastic and puts off a very pleasant glow in a darkened room. Above the function key row, there’s also a light bar that adds a nice extra touch of light. As I’ll discuss further in regards to the software, setting up lighting preferences on the Alloy Elite RGB isn’t a very fun experience, but once you’ve sorted it out, the board looks excellent.

The keyboard plugs into your PC via a thick, durable, braided cord that splits into two USB plugs. There’s also a USB 2.0 port on the back of the Alloy Elite RGB, which is perfect for plugging in a USB headset or mouse. Unlike similar high-end mechanical keyboards like the Corsair K95, there are no dedicated macro keys on this keyboard.

Software

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One of the weakest points on the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB is its software. Now, to be fair, most keyboard software is about as enjoyable to use as a tax preparation app. But some programs like Razer Synapse are getting a tad more usable these days, while the HyperX Ngenuity program is kind of a frustrating mess. From the get-go, it’s clear the software is still in its infancy in terms of user interface and functionality. I spent 10 minutes just figuring out how to open the lighting presets. There is some horrid comedic irony in HyperX naming this software Ngenuity.

Once you figure out how to customize the lighting, there’s a short list of the usual presets effects such as wave, breathing, and static lighting effects. The main menu allows for three lighting configurations per profile, and after staring at the screen for another 10 minutes, you’ll realize you can drag-and-drop those into the appropriate menu and switch them on the fly with the previously mentioned button. Customized lighting setups are possible, and more or less easy to apply, by assigning configurations to zones or even to individual keys under the “Free Style” menu.

There’s also a decent list of game-specific lighting presets for bigger titles like PlayerUknown’s Battlegrounds and Destiny 2. Macro recording is also possible, but as there’s no dedicated macro keys, you’ll need to assign them elsewhere (the numpad works fairly well).

Gaming

As expected, the Cherry MX switches in the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB are perfect for gaming. The brown switches in my review unit offered a nice tactile feel with great actuation, regardless of the game. Moreover, while the narrow keycaps aren’t great for typing, the concave faces are excellent while blindly hunting for a key while gaming. In particular, the textured WASD keys are easily acquired while playing a first-person shooter like Destiny 2.

The relatively compact size did make using the entire board while gaming a comfortable experience. And the flat stance works well, too. Sometimes, keyboards with taller pop-out legs can lead to wrist strain after hours of gaming and you’re better off just laying the board flat. The Alloy Elite RGB is just about perfect in regards to the angle it sits at with its legs extended. Even after multiple hours of playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance, it still felt comfortable.

Conversely, the wrist rest leaves something to be desired, due in no small part to its seemingly short length. The soft-touch finish and textured area just under the main keys is pleasant enough, but I have large hands and with my fingers on the home row, my wrists sat well below the rest. This is obviously dependent on the user, but I found the keyboard to feel just as comfortable without the wrist rest attached at all.

Purchasing Guide

 

The HyperX Alloy Elite RGB has an MSRP of $169.99, and since it's a new release it's sold online for full price:

The Verdict

The HyperX Alloy Elite RGB manages to pack in just about every feature you could want on a mechanical gaming keyboard. The software is a bit of a nightmare and typing takes some getting used to, but the hardware is incredibly well-built and it’s great for gaming. It's expensive though. You can find other equally high-quality mechanical keyboards for less.

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