- ASUS crammed every single feature they knew
about mechanical keyboards into one singular big one.
It's got, well, I have to read the description,
but it's got everything.
So let's go check it out.
This thing's massive.
And it's got quite the name as well.
ROG Strix Flare II Animate,
a really long name.
What's the price?
I've actually been wondering this myself,
since I can't find the price anywhere on the internet.
Can I trust this site?
It says 220, but is this site trustworthy?
That's the real question.
We've got Aura Sync.
We've got PBT doubleshot keycaps.
That's not bad.
And we've got ROG NX mechanical switches.
So ROGs, ASUS' ROGs proprietary, linear switches,
linear and swift.
AniMe Matrix.
Should we say anime or ani me?
Personalize it with custom animations.
Media controls.
Cool, cool, cool.
Switch stabilizers.
I feel like all keyboards have that.
It's got a switch polar.
Boom, it's hot swappable.
How to attach the wrist rest?
Apparently, because it's more complicated
than it's supposed to be.
I will consult this later.
Fabric sleeve thing instead of plastic.
Not bad, better than plastic,
although I'm not sure
what I'm going to be doing with it in the future.
Maybe I'll keep it for something.
It looks pretty good.
Built-in cable.
We do have a big chunky boy cable.
Ah, darn.
Now we've got some plastic.
Nice wrist rest though.
Really comfortable.
Republic of Gamers on the bottom left.
I really hope this is magnetic.
If it's not,
I think chat will deduct points for it.
And stickers, that's pretty cool.
I'm gonna keep these, I like stickers.
And then we've got manual,
got a ka-billion languages.
10 outta 10 for the stickers though.
I'm gonna use this right now.
Where will this go?
On my Wowstick?
That'll look good.
I like that.
That's going right there.
Now, my Wowstick is ROG branded,
and everyone will question me.
Please be magnetic, please.
Am I doing this right?
Remove the light diffuser from the keyboard.
I've removed the light diffuser from the keyboard.
Store the diffuser into the wrist rest.
Okay, attach the wrist rest.
Ooh.
Ooh, that's nice.
Just make sure you don't lose your diffuser,
'cause then you're not gonna have a good time.
Yeah, Asus is launching this board on January 31st.
It's pretty comfortable.
I give that a win for them.
So the diffuser, at the ends here,
have magnetic parts, both ends,
and it's supposed to just go in like so easy.
Okay, I've gotta plug it in.
What does it sound like?
The scariest part.
(keyboard clacks)
Okay.
You guys are all saying, "Meh, meh, whatever."
But, nah, you know."
For a big brand company, okay,
just take the other big brand companies
and just fair comparisons, okay.
You can compare this keyboard
to Roccat, Corsair, Razer, Logitech.
It definitely is a pre-built.
It's definitely a big brand store,
if you go in to Best Buy,
you go in to Walmart,
like you're gonna see it on the shelf.
It's not a custom keyboard.
And I think that's a fair comparison
to say like, it's not bad.
I like it.
The switches sound pretty good.
And I'm impressed with their small stabs.
Their Space bar though,
still needs a little bit of work.
And I think I can just put some dialectic grease
into that really quickly.
Okay, we've got big boy cables here.
Two of them, one for the keyboard.
One for a pass through.
I'm just gonna plug in one.
There needs to be a cable routing or something.
No, we've got nothing.
We've got nothing in the back, but that's okay,
'cause we've got some beautiful rubber feet.
There's only one angle of rubber feet.
So thick cables.
The USB pass through is for, right here,
if you got a mouse, or a headset, or controller,
whatever you need to plug in, you can put it right there,
if you plug in your USB pass through cable.
But I did not.
Dang, this cable's so big.
It's so thick.
It doesn't behave.
Got volume controls on the left.
Look at this right here.
This is their AniMe Matrix, it animates.
So it's actually next song, previous song.
That's actually pretty cool.
And then this, here,
this, here, is a volume wheel.
So we've got volume up, volume down.
Can we just, just go down?
Well, that's pretty cool.
I like that.
It's probably the more ergonomic place to put it.
Unlike other keyboards, where the wheel is on the right side
where it's like, oh I'm using my mouse.
I'm using my mouse.
I'm gaming.
And then, oh no, I have to turn down the volume.
They better make a TenKeyLess version.
I hope so too.
This doesn't fit on my setup either.
We've got volume up volume down,
and I have no idea what these are.
So unlock, lock.
I'm assuming that locks the Windows.
Yeah, so we've got no more Windows key with that.
Turn off lighting.
Lighting off, lighting on, pretty good.
But there's this button here,
and that button is a mute button.
So just easy press.
It's really soft.
It's fairly lightweight.
One and a half pounds, maybe.
Zoom in.
You see this, this top thing, here?
That's the metal plate.
And then everything else is plastic.
It doesn't flex.
Barely sturdy.
Before this stream ends I will figure out the AniMe Matrix,
and we're gonna put something cool there.
The wrist rest is RGB.
There you go.
Your wrist rest does have RGB.
If it stays connected or else it turns off.
In the meantime,
we're gonna talk about these switches,
because they are proprietary.
They are Asus.
They're different, they're different.
Little box of tools, keycap puller,
sort of a different look.
And then switch puller, sort of a bulky boy.
I like it though.
Hmm, compared to other keycap pullers,
at least you can put your index and middle finger on it,
instead of being like,
ooh, really, I can't, I can't.
This is much better.
I take off these keycaps and we'll see what's up.
It works.
All clear housing
with like a burgundy colored, maroon colored stem.
(switch clicking)
And so three-pin hot swap sockets, north facing.
It does have per key RGB,
and you can program everything on their software,
which I will have to check out.
Think they are.
I think they are.
They are pre-lubed.
Props to Asus.
That's crazy.
I think that's a huge step up for big brands.
When was the last time we saw a big brand
do something like this.
I'd say, this is pretty good.
For pre-lubed, they're moving forward.
They are taking notes from somewhere, from somebody.
They're exactly like Cherry MX switches,
except they do have the wing latch style closing.
So I guess they're more Kailh switches.
The stabs are very similar to Razer stabs.
They're optical stabs.
So they connect onto the keycap,
instead of onto the plate or PCB,
but they are pre-lubed.
That's a win.
What I don't like about these kinds of stabilizers is,
when you have to replace the keycaps,
you gotta hold these ends out.
And if the keycap tolerance is really tight,
it'll be really hard to take off.
The stabs are not bad.
So they're compatible with new keycaps.
If you wanna put in any keycaps that you want,
as long as it has cross shaped stems.
So as I was typing with this wrist rest, it really goes up.
It has too much angle.
The keyboard will come outta here,
but your wrist is already higher than the keyboard itself.
So that's one thing that I found
that I didn't like too much while typing.
But if you're gaming, like that's pretty comfortable.
I can see someone gaming with this,
and just resting their hand there.
That's nice.
No pinging, 'cause it does have pre-lubed switches.
Here.
(switch clicks)
So no ping.
You know what should we open one of these up?
They are linear.
So they have the reds, the browns, and the blues.
These are the reds.
Let's do a poll.
I would probably just replace all of the switches
with something I liked more,
but I don't hate these.
I like these.
And then I'd probably change up the keycaps.
All the votes are saying, please open it up.
I'm gonna get a switch opener.
Let's investigate, shall we?
I hate Kailh style switches.
They're just a pain.
Whenever I have to lube keyboards
with these kinds of switches,
I'm like, never again.
So this wasn't terrible.
All right, tell me you are pre-lubed.
There doesn't, mm, is there?
I feel like there's barely, barely, barely anything,
but it's not just bare plastic.
And then the spring's definitely lubed.
The stem questionable, questionable.
It's a step up.
You could lube it more if you want.
Yeah, so you can put any three pin switch.
Semi-lubed?
I can a hundred percent say that it is semi-lubed.
These are the switch types over here.
We've got ROG NX Blue, clicky and tactile.
We've got ROG NX Brown, which is ultra-tactile.
Whoa, they said ultra-tactile.
I sort of wish they sent me those.
And we've got ROG NX Red, which is linear and swift.
I hope someone else takes a look at this keyboard
in the tactile configuration.
And tell me how it is.
You can see inside your keyboard
where all the switches meet the PCB.
Since I have my tools here,
I actually did wanna do something pretty quick
to the Space bar.
It's like plenty lubed,
but I'm still pretty riley.
So I'm just gonna add a little bit more.
We're just gonna go ham with that lube.
Just go ham.
Okay, we're taking apart, goodbye wrist rest.
Okay, because this is a unreleased keyboard so far,
there's no guide.
So I'm just gonna have to wing it.
Inside, there's supposed to be sound dampening foam.
Before I take it apart,
I have to try their Armoury Crate AniMe Matrix thing.
ASUS did send this over to me.
Yes, hashtag sponsored,
which means in the internet world,
in the creator world,
that means they're paying me money
to do something on their keyboard.
But they didn't say that I couldn't say anything,
or that I could say things,
or they didn't give me any rules.
And then part of me is like,
whoa, I guess I can do whatever.
Welcome to your AniMe Matrix.
Drag an image from your content library,
or press Insert to continue.
Okay, that's cool.
Save and apply.
Ooh, I've got cats.
Okay, so you can do notifications for the date.
That's sort of cool.
I like this though, the date.
I wanted to change my RGB.
That's all I want.
I want cats and blue.
I probably won't be modding it.
Probably replace some of these switches,
just to see what they sound like.
There's definitely two screws here.
ASUS, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I can't do it.
I can't do it.
The best I can do is show you the marketing.
There you go.
Sound dampening foam.
And I agree, it does have that.
It sounds great.
I just don't know why I can't take it apart.
I did sort of break a nail or scratch a nail.
So that is not good.
Not cool, not cool.
I'm gonna change out a few switches,
just so we can hear what it sounds like,
with like Gloria Pandas, smoky yellow stuff like that.
I've grabbed some Box Jades,
so we can get to hear some clickies.
And then I've grabbed some Glorious Pandas,
so we get some tactiles.
We'll go for four Box Jades.
Okay, I'm gonna get keycaps.
I feel like we're making this too fancy.
What shall I put in here?
Maybe my Akko Red.
We have the ePBT Dolche keycaps that I got from KB fans,
and they are prob-
No, they're not the Dolche, holy cow.
They're not the Dolche, what are these?
So you got the black, the dark gray and the light gray.
I can't tell you what these are.
Listen to this, okay.
Akko Red. (keyboard clacks)
Default Asus NX. (keyboard clacks)
It's like they don't sound good with these keycaps.
I feel like by changing up the keycaps,
we've ruined the sound of the keyboard.
Unless we were also to change the switches as well.
These are the Box Jades. (keyboard clacks)
These are the Glorious Pandas. (keyboard clacks)
These are the default switches.
(keyboard clacks)
and this is an Akko Red.
(keyboard clacks)
Lesson learned is that we need more Akko Reds
to determine if Akko Red is the secret.
Akko Red is superior.
Nice and put on keycaps.
This is definitely how you do it.
(keyboard clacks)
Just change all the switches to Akko Radiant Reds.
And now, we're talking,
we're talking like it sounds pretty decent.
So even with my new keycaps,
which are not shine through,
surprisingly, I've still got pretty decent RGB.
Pretty good RGB, still.
You can turn on music and turn it off.
This is how you see how loud our volume is.
Pretty cool, I like it.
Let me put the wrist rest back on.
There, your RGB, turning right there.
White looks clean.
White it is.
I think for this price point,
onboard memory would've been a nice bonus.
Oh, that's cool.
It's got RGB profiles.
So it does have some onboard memory.
Just not for the AniMe Matrix screen, then.
The wrist rest is nice.
Oh, hey, I'm on like my heart mode.
So for each profile, there's different effects.
What?
I'm pretty sure it said there was no memory in the software.
Okay, I'm half wrong, I'm half right.
So you can see here,
"Advanced effects cannot be saved to onboard memory."
So you can do simple things, but nothing too crazy.
So I'm half wrong, half right.
And I do apologize to ASUS, if saying the wrong things.
The pros of this keyboard is RGB wrist rest,
PBT doubleshot keycaps, pretty decent stabilizers.
I liked all the controls on the left side.
'Cause if you're playing with your right hand,
then you've got your left hand
that can do mute, volume up, volume down.
8,000 Hertz pulling rate, not my thing,
but if you're a gamer, maybe.
And hot swap, and it has sound dampening foam.
I've looked at a lot of prebuilt and this is pretty decent.
I don't like that you need Armoury Crate
to do a lot of the things, like the advanced things.
I definitely have to keep playing around with it.
Price point $220.
So that's a con.
The main reason why someone would be like,
oh, no way, no way, that's like way too much.
'Cause 220 is, it's a lot of money.
The other one probably is this,
this big boy cable here that just consumes your table.
But it does have USB pass through, if you're into that.
If you're not fans of screen
you can get the version without it.
For me, it's three cons because it's so big.
So the size sucks.
Yeah, I think it definitely needs a removable cable.
And then the next thing is TKL.
TKL and removable cable that would change things.
Let's do the sound test.
I've sort of changed it up a bit, but a little different.
(keyboard clacks)
So there it is.
That is the keyboard.
Thank you so much for attending this stream.
I appreciate you all being here.
But have a good night and bye.