When it comes to mechanical gaming keyboards, each manufacturer has their own flagship halo product. Corsair has the K95 platinum, Razer has the BlackWidow Elite, Logitech has the G915 and HyperX, well HyperX has the Alloy Elite RGB. They’re all very similar to one another, each is a full-sized keyboard, complete with a hefty complement of exotic RGB lighting, each is fully mechanical, each has dedicated media keys, and each typically costs a bomb to buy.
It’s that last point that’s most poignant. We were impressed when Corsair’s K95 Platinum had its price drop down by 35%, from $200 down to $130. But this is insane. You can pick up a HyperX Alloy Elite RGB this Black Friday for $80, that’s a 43% price drop for a flagship mechanical keyboard powered by the old faithful Cherry MX Red switch.
Specifications
| Switch Type | Cherry MX Red |
| Form Factor | Full-size |
| Media Keys | Dedicated |
| Macro Keys | 0 Dedicated, (re-programmable buttons), 3 profiles |
| LEDs | Per key + Lightbar, 16.8 million colors |
| N Key Rollover | 100% Anti-ghosting |
| Passthrough | 1x USB 2.0 |
Performance
As for how it feels to use, well in regards to the switch type the Cherry MX Red is a fantastic gaming switch, it was the first mechanical switch to really take the world by storm. It has a low actuation point of 2.0mm, a total travel of 4.0mm, requires 45g of force to activate, and is entirely linear so there’s no tactile bump mid-way down. It’s also considerably quieter than Cherry MX Blue or similar style switches, which means your family and friends will thank you when you’re smashing out those PUG Raid orders in World of Warcraft. It’s also really good for touch-typists, as there’s absolutely no delay in the actuation of each switch.
Aside from that the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB comes with a steel chassis, a brushed aluminum finish, a very tidy RGB light bar that can be configured in HyperX’s software suite to react to ingame events, or set to any number of RGB lighting profiles, and even onboard buttons for profile switching. Swap between two main games a lot? You can set one profile to one lighting scheme complete with custom macros on the function keys, and then alternate to a second profile for fragging scrubs in Apex, and a third profile for every-day play. It’s up to you.
Downsides? Well there’s no dedicated macro keys, unlike the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum but on the whole that could be seen as a good thing. They take time to get used to, and you end up learning to reposition your hands slightly to the right so you don’t accidentally hit the wrong key switches. Only problem with that is as soon as you go to type on any other keyboard, you have to forcibly remember to move your hands back to a default position, so in some ways that’s a boon. Additionally if you did want an MX Blue (tactile), or Brown (heavy linear) switch, the deal only drops the price down to $100 as opposed to the $80 we’ve seen here. Although that’s still 29% off!
