The Kingston HyperX Alloy Elite Mechanical Keyboard Review
by E. Fylladitakis on July 17, 2017 6:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Keyboard
- Kingston
- HyperX
- Cherry MX
- Mechanical Keyboards
Not too long ago, Kingston decided to diversify their HyperX product lineup by entering the mechanical keyboard market. Kingston’s approach differed from that of most other companies; instead of designing and marketing a top-tier, complex device, their first mechanical keyboard was the Cherry MX-equipped Alloy FPS, a minimalistic design that was intended to be durable, practical, and as portable as possible.
Following the success of their first release, Kingston is now releasing an advanced version of their initial design, the HyperX Alloy Elite. The Alloy Elite is marketed towards a different kind of potential users, with the company dropping the concept of portability in favor of some additional functionality. The additional features do not raise the retail price of the keyboard significantly, with its launch date MSRP being $109, a mere $10 increase over the $99 Alloy FPS.
Packaging and Bundle
Kingston supplies the Hyper-X Alloy Elite inside a well-designed and very sturdy cardboard box. The artwork on the box is minimal, and is mostly focused on the keyboard itself and with the rest of the abstract artwork based on its black-red colors.
Inside the packaging, we found eight extra “gaming” keycaps and a keycap puller with the company logo printed on it. The keycaps are titanium colored. Four of them, the WASD keycaps, are textured with a tread plate pattern. The other four keycaps are meant to replace those on the 1234 keys and are not textured, meaning that the only difference between them and the stock keycaps is their color.
Kingston also supplies a full-size plastic wrist rest with the Alloy Elite. The surface of the wrist rest has been treated to feel smooth to the touch. A tread plate pattern similar to that of the extra keycaps covers about two-thirds of the wrist rest.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
32 Comments
View All Comments
Pinkynator - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
I'm honestly wondering if I'll ever be able to buy a mechanical keyboard. They all have the US layout, making them utterly worthless for a very, very large part of the world.philehidiot - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
I got a UK layout one without any issue from Amazon. Getting it to work was however an issue due to Razor screwing it up but hey. 3 or so years after buying it, the bugger finally works properly.DanNeely - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
The US layout ones might have an overwhelming advantage in sending product to international review sites. A quick check on Amazon.co.uk shows a number of UK layout ones though. Google shows at least a few French/German layout ones as well. If you're looking for specific advanced features, you might not be able to find one directly; but (assuming I can trust wikipedia anyway) the physical layouts for both are the same as for the UK. That means you should just need to buy replacement key caps and tell the OS to treat it as your native layout.https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_16?url...
Pinkynator - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
My problem is that I'd have to get something imported... Customs, taxes, shipping, just awful. I drooled over WASD, but in the end, I realized it would probably cost over $400 (converted) to buy one of those. And that still leaves the keycap issue - I have small and big family members needing to use that keyboard, and they can't do it if it's not fully localized.mr_tawan - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
If you're in the area that people use ISO layout (says ... Canada), you should have no problem getting one without importing.If you're in the USA, where people use ANSI layout, then you might have to import.
wsjudd - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
There are plenty of rest-of-world models available. These are called ISO, so if you search 'mechanical keyboard ISO' or 'mechanical keyboard UK' then you should find a lot of examples on Google, Amazon, eBay, KeyboardCo, etc.andychow - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
What are you talking about? All mechanical keyboards have that tool, pictured in this article and talked about, that you can use to remove the key-caps and arrange them however way you want. If you're talking about the "missing" key next to the left shift, it's above the enter key. Doesn't make it utterly worthless at all.Calin - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Good luck then moving your keycaps to show on the same keycap both ; and , (as on German keyboards)andychow - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Do you even look at your keyboard when typing? And if you do, you can buy custom keycaps, and just the individual ones you want for any language.Pinkynator - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
There actually *IS* a missing key. Don't put it under quotes. The US keyboard has 104 keys, but normal keyboards have 105.