Amazon.com: ASUS ROG Strix Flare (Cherry MX Red) Aura Sync RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Switches, Customizable Badge, USB Pass Through and Media Controls : Electronics

If you don’t have a Asus setup and just want a high quality keyboard for gaming, I would probably go with the Corsair K95 Platinum. However, if you are like me and want to match the rest of your hardware, this isn’t a bad choice.

The lighting, if you are into that kind of thing, is really good. Several choices on lighting effects, however I stick with “static”. Build quality is pretty good and it feels solid. One thing I have a problem with is the lack of bumps to find the S key when gaming. It’s marketed as a gaming keyboard but the only location bumps on the key caps are on the F and J keys which are the standards for finding ‘home row’ when typing. They need to add a ‘bump’ on the S key so you can more easily locate WASD while gaming. In addition, the wrist rest doesn’t really snap to the keyboard and if you pick it up to move it, it’s going to fall off. Not a big deal to most people I would imagine, but worth a mention.

I wish this keyboard had a row of macro assigned keys like the K95, but Asus kept the keyboard smaller by not adding them. Maybe not enough people use this, I’m not sure. This keyboard does not come with a key cap puller for easy cleaning. This is something that the K95 comes with and is the kind of attention to detail that Asus all too often miss with their peripherals (Claymore wrist rest anyone?). For the premium price, I expect attention to detail and perks.

As of right now the biggest miss for me is the software, I did not change my rating based on the software, as this is supposed to be a review of the keyboard, and to me, the keyboard is a 4 out of 5. The software would probably be a 2 or 3 out of 5. There is a lot of room for improvement. Right now if you want to enabled a profile for a particular game, i.e. changing certain important key cap colors such as WASD, etc, that can be done by linking the profile to a exe. The problem is, as far as I know, there is no easy way to switch back to a default profile once you shut the game down. Because of this, you have to open Armoury II and manually click back to your default profile. How that hasn’t been addressed at this point I’m not sure.

To sum up, solid keyboard missing some details and perks you’d expect for the amount of money you pay. Software needs improvement as it’s not good enough yet.