Each gaming keyboard producer appears to be leaping on the Hall effect bandwagon, and why wouldn’t they? The keyboard know-how has been confirmed in each esports arenas and home office setups worldwide and affords numerous benefits over standard mechanical keyboards, with no actual efficiency compromises.
Corridor impact keyboards have additionally arrived as numerous different applied sciences enter the keyboard house: The whole lot from gasket-mounting to touchpads is now in mainstream keyboards. That additionally means I recurrently see new merchandise, mechanical and Corridor impact, with options I’ve by no means even thought-about earlier than. Living proof, the Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX, a small keyboard with a big title and lots of uncommon options.
This $200 wired-only keyboard has Corridor impact switches, an 8,000-Hz polling rate, multidevice connectivity with two USB-C ports, and a programmable touchpad on the again edge. To not point out numerous on-keyboard controls and a flipable lever to allow or disable the speedy set off function discovered on most Corridor impact keyboards. Whereas it does have some unusual design choices, it has lots of actually intelligent ones too.
Distinctive Switches
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
{Photograph}: Henri Robbins
The Falchion has one of many deepest typing sounds in comparison with different Corridor impact keyboards. That is seemingly a mix of the keyboard’s distinctive HFX magnetic switches, one of many few I’ve examined that aren’t made by Gateron, and the sound dampening inside. It consists of a number of layers of froth, Poron, and silicone, and a sheet of small rubber domes.
The switches really feel extremely clean, even when pressed slowly, with a constant really feel all through the complete keypress. They use a polycarbonate high housing, a POM stem, and a POM backside housing, contributing to the deeper typing sound and guaranteeing smoothness throughout the complete keystroke. Not like most Corridor impact switches, the HFX doesn’t have a gap within the heart, as an alternative, it strikes the magnet to the entrance, the place the steel contact leaf would sometimes be on a mechanical swap. This makes the Falchion incompatible with commonplace Corridor impact switches, however seemingly improves the sound profile as nicely: Open-bottom switches are likely to have a extra hole typing sound, which will be heard on rivals.
The springs are weighted to 55 grams of whole pressure, which is 5 grams lighter than the Gateron Nebula dual-rail switches utilized by Keychron, and 10 grams lighter than the usual Cherry MX Red. There aren’t every other switches obtainable for this keyboard, however as a result of Corridor impact switches are contactless, the prevailing switches will be eliminated with none desoldering or intensive disassembly.
I didn’t discover myself wanting to vary the switches, although—they’ve a poppy and deep sound that’s extremely crisp, and so they really feel responsive and clean, particularly with speedy set off enabled. My largest challenge with the typing expertise was the keycaps. They’ve a tough texture that, whereas grippy, felt noticeably coarse and unsightly when typing. It comes all the way down to desire, however I discovered them much less pleasant than clean or calmly textured keycaps.
