HyperX Alloy Elite 2

[testman78]

Introduction

Over the last few years, HyperX has really stepped up their accessory game. The Alloy Elite 2 RGB is one of their newest entries into the keyboard market. The new Alloy Elite 2 Mechanical Gaming keyboard is based on the original Alloy Elite design and boasts HyperX red linear mechanical switches built for performance, longevity, and an 80 million lifetime click rating per switch. The keyboard includes dedicated media keys with quick access buttons and volume wheel and uses HyperX designed pudding keycaps with translucent dual-layer style and signature HyperX font to enhance LED and RGB light. The HyperX Alloy Elite 2 features a signature light bar with LED lighting, dynamic RGB lighting effects with per-key lighting and RGB colors. Alloy Elite 2 is built with solid steel frame for durability, offers dedicated media buttons and a large volume wheel along with quick access buttons for brightness, lighting effects, and game mode. Alloy Elite 2 also includes a USB 2.0 pass through, 100 percent anti-ghosting and full N-key rollover functionality.



Let's begin with specifications.






Packaging & Contents

The outer packaging of the HyperX Alloy Elite 2 gaming mechanical keyboard continues the family white and red color scheme. The front of the packaging is printed with a product display image, and the logo in the upper right corner informs the player that this keyboard supports HyperX NGENUITY driver software. It has RGB lighting and a red linear axis independently developed by HyperX.



The back of the package introduces the product features to players in multiple languages ​​and pictures, such as USB HUB, HyperX autonomous axis, multimedia buttons, etc. The icons are simple and easy to understand, and the text introduction also covers common languages ​​in many countries and regions around the world.



As for accessories, thank-you letters, promotional cards and multi-language graphic manuals are provided, which also allow users to better understand the product and the HyperX brand. Additional removable keys are not provided.




A Closer Look

The HyperX Alloy Elite 2 design is easily recognizable as the first version of Alloy Elite, but without the palm rest. The keyboard body adopts the most conventional US 104 configuration with light control and multimedia keys. This is a full-size large keyboard measuring 444x174 mm, which has an impressive weight of one and a half kilograms. The construction is based on a solid steel frame and top metal plate, which gives high rigidity and strength. In the lower position of the top of the keyboard, a whole RGB light strip is designed, which runs across the top of the keyboard horizontally, which can create a good lighting atmosphere, and cooperate with the global RGB dynamic lighting effects to further enhance the appearance of the keyboard.



The HyperX Alloy Elite 2 gaming mechanical keyboard still continues the previous design style in appearance. The suspension design and metal panel are also very popular styles in recent years. The surface treatment of the black metal upper cover is smooth and delicate, which further enhances the keyboard texture. The left and right sides are designed with narrow borders, which can increase the horizontal area of the desktop and provide more movement space for the mouse. The top position of the keyboard is separated by a light strip, which further increases the sense of hierarchy of the keyboard. With the larger size, it is also more atmospheric.



There are three function keys at the top of the left side of the keyboard. The embedded solution makes these three keys flush with the top, providing light brightness adjustment, light effect adjustment and game mode switch respectively.



At the top of the right side of the keyboard is the multimedia control area of ​​the keyboard, which uses an arc-shaped convex curve design. The multimedia buttons and the volume adjustment knob are all arc-shaped, with the same curve. The color contrast of the silver and black shell is obvious, and the visual effect is excellent. The function buttons and multimedia buttons are pressed too hard, and the hand feels tight and dull, and it is not easy to touch by mistake.



The volume adjustment knob rotates smoothly and smoothly, but the damping performance is average, which should also be designed to avoid accidental touch. Below the multimedia control area is the silver LOGO of HyperX.



The keyboard indicator light is designed on the right side of the LOGO. It adopts a vertical arrangement and provides status indications for case switching, numeric keypad and game mode.



The back of this keyboard is designed with concavities and convexities, and the surface texture of imitation metal makes its underside feel very like metal armor, and the visual effect is more beautiful.



Four rubber anti-slip feet are designed on the four corners of the bottom of the keyboard.



The one-stage support feet are slightly insufficient, and I hope they can be improved in the future.




At the top of the keyboard near the center outlet, there is still a USB HUB 2.0 interface. Users can connect and use other USB devices, which is more convenient to use. The larger groove design also allows it to be compatible with more irregularly shaped USB connectors, and the compatibility is excellent.



The keyboard cable uses a thick black braided cable with a length of about 1.8 meters. The cable is thick and flexible.



The braided surface layer also ensures that the cable can be more durable. The position near the end is divided into two. The two interfaces correspond to the keyboard and HUB functions respectively. Users can connect and use them according to their actual needs.



HyperX Alloy Elite 2 Aloi Elite 2 gaming mechanical keyboard chooses a self-developed red shaft on the shaft body. The shaft body is composed of a red shaft center, a transparent upper cover and a red shaft seat. The red shaft body uses a linear feel design and press force.



The axis part still adopts the cross axis design, which is compatible with most keycaps on the market, and the keycaps are still very playable. The large key position is designed with a satellite axis, and the feel is acceptable, but there is still a slight noise. I hope the manufacturer can optimize it.




NGENUITY

More customization options are provided by the proprietary HyperX NGENUITY application. The program has two main tabs - backlight settings and key function settings. Here you can change active glow effects, smoothly change brightness, speed and tilt angle for visual effects. For example, you can change the direction of a color wave and it will smoothly flow not from left to right, but in the opposite direction. All modes are based on six basic effects. By default, the wave effect is applied, which looks the most beautiful. The effect of "breathing" is somewhat similar to it. There is also "confetti" with a constant change of color at different points and the effect of a sharp change in the overall color, where green can quickly change to red. The other two modes use hot shades."Twilight" mode provides for almost complete shutdown of the backlight with rare flashes in spontaneous places. There are three visual effects for key actuation if you want to use the backlight for key presses only.



It is also possible to assign backlighting to individual keys. Thus, you can highlight the important keys that are in demand in games. An additional "G" button on the left side of the keyboard blocks the Windows menu to prevent accidental pressing from minimizing the game. In the HyperX NGENUITY menu, you can select additional lockable combinations: Alt + Tab, Alt + F4, Shift + Tab, Ctrl + Esc.



The "Keys" tab allows you to reassign the functions of any button from the main group of 104 keys. You can change its direct keyboard function, assign mouse buttons to it, bind certain multimedia commands or Windows key combinations (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, etc.) to it. In the column "Macrocode" you specify any complex combination of buttons and actions for the required key.



The program allows you to save a variety of software profiles with individual settings and write settings to the keyboard memory in one of three hardware profiles. Therefore, once you configure the keyboards to suit your needs, you can save the settings and then use the keyboard with any system or PC. Additional features include HyperX backlit sync function. To do this, just check one item in the HyperX NGENUITY settings. In addition to PC, compatibility with PS4 and Xbox One consoles is declared.




Performance

From a visual point of view, everything looks very good. Thanks to the translucent key casing, the backlight looks bright and beautiful, there is a feeling of full of light flowing smoothly over the keyboard surface. At the same time, the black top of the caps allows you to clearly distinguish all the characters, and the backlight does not interfere with working with the keyboard, although the high brightness can be a little distracting.



You can quickly change the brightness using the leftmost button in the top row. There are five modes of illumination and the ability to completely turn off the LEDs.



The HyperX autonomous red shaft is basically the same as the traditional CHERRY MX red shaft in terms of pressure. The total stroke and trigger stroke of the shaft body are shorter, only 3.8mm and 1.8mm. The 1.8mm trigger not only ensures a fast response, but also completely avoids the shortcomings of the cherry silver axis that is extremely easy to touch by mistake. The feel is crisp and refreshing, without the softness of the traditional MX red shaft. The overall feel is closer to the CHEERY MX silver shaft, and the overall feel and practical use are still very good.



The HyperX red axis actually gave me a big surprise by hand experience. The smoothness is first-rate, there is no obvious spring sound, and the consistency of all the axles of the keyboard is also very good. I personally think that the pressure of 45g is also very suitable for FPS games. There is no obvious discomfort for a few hours.



Thanks to the excellent HyperX red axis of Alloy Elite 2, it is indeed more invested in FPS games. This HyperX autonomous shaft has a life span of up to 80 million taps, which can provide users with a more durable and stable experience. In the game, the trigger is sensitive, the response is fast, the moderate intensity does not have too much fatigue even after long-term use, and the overall performance is in line with expectations.




Final Thoughts

HyperX Alloy Elite 2 gaming mechanical keyboard has cancelled the matching hand rest on the basis of the old model, but there are still many improvements in other aspects, such as replacing the shaft body with an autonomous red shaft that is more suitable for games. Mechanical keyboards began to slowly enter everyone's desktops 10 years ago, and now "a hundred flowers bloom", but most mechanical keyboards still use cherry axis in the same way. Of course, the cherry shaft cannot be denied, after all, most of today's customized shafts are also "imitation" after the patent period of the cherry mechanical shaft has passed. But as everyone’s fingers become more and more picky, and the customized axis is becoming more refined, the current performance of the cherry axis in the mechanical keyboard axis is deteriorating. Whenever an excellent shaft appears, it reduces the sense of existence of the cherry shaft again. The customized keyboard has become the best choice for the pursuit of individuality and feel. Although there are countless advantages of customized mechanical keyboard, it is a fact that the next one is better due to the tedious buying experience and endless waiting. Fortunately, major manufacturers are now turning to autonomous shafts, abandoning the cherry shaft, so that more people can experience a better keyboard input experience. And without the annoying rustling sound of the mass-produced keyboard cherry shaft, and excellent feel consistency, I think the performance of Alloy Elite 2 in FPS games can be called the top. It is the happiness of players to experience this level of axis on the mass-produced mechanical keyboard. At the same time, it is equipped with a special version of ABS coated pudding keycaps, which further enhances the lighting rendering effect after turning on the RGB lighting and enhances the appearance of the keyboard. HyperX Alloy Elite 2 features full RGB lighting with 16.8 million multicolor colors. The media buttons continue to be a nice addition and while the layout design still feels dated, it offers everything a variety of players need. As usual, the gem that really shines with this keyboard, is in fact, the accompanying software. The HyperX NGENUITY software is where the keyboard really comes to life in functionality. This is where you can remap keys to a range of shortcuts and alternative applications. So much is on offer, whether it be designing your own layouts, adjusting colour schemes with the amazing LED combinations, programming macros and binding buttons, the customisation of purpose and style is all at your fingertips so easily. The Alloy Elite 2 is also compatible with PS4, PC and Xbox One via a USB-A connection.



Like the best HyperX products, the Alloy Elite 2 is an excellent gaming peripheral that pushes the conventions in all the right places. It’s a little bit familiar but largely fantastic. I know for most folks, especially with the state of the world right now, the $129.99 USD price tag might seem a little bit over the top. But, honestly, you’re paying for a quality keyboard that will last you several years or until you manage to press your switches 80 million times. If you’re looking for a gaming keyboard that will dazzle in all the right ways but still function comfortably and responsively, the quiet, stylish and functional HyperX Alloy Elite 2 is perfect for you.