A Daring Ergonomic Gaming Keyboard That Would not Fairly Justify Its Bonkers Value

Split keyboards have been a factor within the fanatic house for years, however it’s solely not too long ago that we have seen massive identify gaming manufacturers take a stab on the concept. Case in level is the Asus ROG Falcata, an ergonomic mechanical keyboard that, when angled aside, kinds a equally curved design to the falcon-shaped Iberian sword it’s named after. As effectively as providing a extra comfy posture for typing, the keyboard may also be used with the left half alone, making it a revival of the traditional “gamepad” design: all of the keys you want for FPS, and nothing extra. Modern magnetic switches lie beneath every key, sound dampening ensures a beautiful typing expertise, and there is even low-latency 2.4GHz wi-fi, on high of Bluetooth and wired USB-C, offering a ton of additional flexibility.

Unfortunately, all that performance comes at a price. The Falcata is a wince-inducing £335 within the UK, and a equally outrageous $420 within the US. Discounts to £300 or $350 soften the blow barely, however we’re nonetheless speaking a few really premium keyboard that should hit on all ranges: nice typing, performant gaming, vital ergonomic advantages, wise software program and impeccable design.

The ROG Falcata comes near hitting that high-water mark, however I’m not fairly certain it completely delivers. Still, it is a captivating piece of equipment to make use of, and does at the least set a brand new commonplace for the nascent ergonomic gaming keyboard class.

Design and Features

The ROG Falcata is a 75% measurement keyboard of two halves, that are joined collectively by a brief (or barely longer) USB-C to USB-C cable. Each half has a protracted built-in palm relaxation, almost the scale of the keyboard itself, giving the entire meeting a vaguely sq. facet ratio, although these are detachable when you do not want or need them.

The 75% design is pretty atypical, with Function row keys alongside the highest, arrow keys within the decrease proper and a quantity wheel within the higher left, although the LED lighting strip alongside the left aspect of the board which reveals your quantity setting and keyboard brightness ranges, amongst different metrics, is exclusive and genuinely helpful. Tiny icons illuminate to point out you what you are adjusting, and light-weight races up or down the LED strip to indicate your present stage.

The break up house bar additionally makes good sense right here, permitting you to leap or create a spot with both hand, and there are even switches for connectivity and fast set off mode tucked behind the Escape key.

The one factor right here I merely can not abide is the Copilot key within the decrease proper. Its placement borders the arrow keys, and I discover myself hitting it always once I do not imply to. It’s meant to be doable to disable it in software program, however for no matter motive this setting would not work, so the undesirable Copilot window frequently seems – a lot to my consternation.

The magnetic switches contained in the keyboard enable for some attention-grabbing options versus commonplace mechanical switches, however really feel similar to conventional linear switches. Asus has included 4 layers of sound dampening right here, that means the tone of every key press is deeper and extra nice, and the important thing motion can be refined: reasonably weighted (49g), comparatively quiet and very clean. The backlit PBT keycaps are simply readable in darkish environments, and naturally RGB might be disabled to avoid wasting battery life or when you merely choose the look of a single color or nothing in any respect.

The Falcata can be utilized in wired or 2.4GHz wi-fi mode at as much as 8000Hz, or in Bluetooth mode at as much as 250Hz. Battery life is rated at as much as 200 hours with 2.4GHz and RGB disabled, which is typical for this class, however count on 2000Hz, 4000Hz and 8000Hz polling charges to chop this longevity to days or mere hours.

Software

The Falcata is supported by Asus’ web-based Gear Link software, which lets you remap keys, change the lighting, arrange FPS options like SOCD, and alter different keyboard settings. The software program is significantly extra polished than Cherry Xtrfy’s equal software program I looked at over at Eurogamer recently, with polished English language textual content, an intuitive structure, and wise default settings.

There are even some fairly uncommon options right here, together with the sensible potential to swap the left Windows key for a Function key if solely the left aspect of the keyboard is getting used, or allow an 8000Hz polling charge for ceaselessly used keys solely in so-called ‘Zone mode’. It’s simple to set the actuation level and lifeless zones of the keyboard on a per-key or complete board foundation, due to dwell readouts of how far every secret is being pressed – a bit like Logitech has completed with the same sensors inside its revolutionary X2 Superstrike mouse.

Similarly, fast set off is neatly advised for the WASD motion keys by default, whereas the counter-strafing support SOCD (referred to as ‘pace faucet’) is on A and D, one other sane selection. At each flip, it is clear that Asus has invested the time in ensuring its options are effectively defined with little tooltips and set as much as be of instant use – a stunning rarity in some keyboard software program.

Performance

The ROG Falcata is noticeably fast in fast-paced video games, as you’d hope, and I recognize the large quantity of additional mousing house that working with simply the left half of the keyboard gives. Of course, it’s kind of of an annoyance once you bear in mind a important secret is on the proper aspect of the board – similar to ‘y’ for chatting in Counter-Strike – however even with each halves in use, the compact 75% design works effectively.

The Falcata consists of magnetic switches, as is the vogue for FPS-focused gaming keyboards nowadays, and the fast set off, SOCD, and adjustable actuation factors are all helpful instruments in your toolkit for dashing up your inputs. SOCD is especially very important for counter-strafing in tactical FPS video games, however it’s price allowing for that it is banned in Counter-Strike 2 and is of restricted usefulness exterior of the shooter style. Finally, 8K polling shaves a number of microseconds off your inputs, however does have the next CPU influence than the default 1K polling, so I would not recommend enabling it except you will have a beefy laptop and a selected curiosity in eking out positive margins to achieve victory.

The usability of the keyboard exterior of gaming can be sturdy, with the left-mounted scroll wheel proving surprisingly helpful for adjusting the quantity while not having to elevate your hand off your mouse. The extra ergonomic positioning that the break up design permits is not too difficult to regulate to – I primarily wanted to coach myself to press the ‘b’ key with my left hand as a substitute of my proper – and there are screw-in lifts within the field to mean you can angle the keyboard as you see match. A little bit of ‘tenting’ – having the within of the keyboard raised barely – is supposed to be a bit extra comfy to your wrists, and that is absolutely doable right here, although you do not get the sort of fine-grained adjustability that the posable legs of an Ergodox EZ gives, for instance.

With its built-in palm relaxation, I discovered the Falcata a bit too cumbersome to simply tuck right into a bag, particularly as you should pack a cable to attach the 2 halves even when you’re planning to make use of the Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wi-fi connectivity choices. That makes for a barely messy setup, although there’s an included shorter cable if you would like solely a slight hole between the 2 boards (or to make use of them absolutely joined up). The magnetic switches listed here are comfy and comparatively quiet for typing, whether or not you are writing an article or coding a script, although the PBT keycaps are slightly slick for my liking. Still, I can not complain concerning the total feeling of the board, which is suitably premium.

Will is former deputy tech editor for IGN, specialising in PC {hardware}, sim racing and show tech. He has been publishing about video games and expertise since 2001 (age 12). Will was previously Deputy Editor at Digital Foundry. He is at the moment enjoying BattleTech Advanced Universe.