ASUS ROG Strix Flare II Animate Review

Keyboard customisation is a rapidly growing trend and the latest mechanical keyboard from ASUS gives users something more than per-key backlighting. The ROG Strix Flare II Animate has launched and it features an LED matrix with over 300 LEDs for users to program their own images or animations. Is this the future of peripheral customisation or just an expensive gimmick?

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Specifications

• Key Switches – Cherry MX Red, Cherry MX Brown, Cherry MX Blue, ROG NX Red
• Connectivity – USB 2.0
• Size (Full/TKL) -100%
• AniMe Matrix™ LED display
• Per key RGB LEDs
• Front underglow lighting
• AURA Sync
• Anti-Ghosting
• Macro keys
• USB Pass through – USB 2.0
• 2M braided cable
• Windows® 10
• Software – Armoury Crate
• Keyboard: 435mm x 165mm x 38mm
• Wrist rest: 435mm x 85mm x 27mm
• Weight – 1157g
• Color – Gunmetal

We found the ROG Strix Flare II Animate listed on Overclockers UK for £199.99 HERE.

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Pros

• Solid, durable construction.
• Lots of customisation.
• Good software control.
• Easy to use multimedia controls.
• Comfortable wrist rest.
• User controllable polling rate up to 8000Hz.

Cons

• No control over key backlighting from Fn keys without user mapping.
• Costly when compared to other off the shelf wired mechanical keyboards.
• Anime Matrix can be distracting at times.

KitGuru Says: If having a personalised gaming setup is your thing then the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is one of the best off the shelf keyboard options out there. However if you aren't going to spend a lot of time setting the AniMe Matrix to suit your style, the additional cost compared to competitors models may not be appealing.

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