ASUS ROG Strix Flare Pnk (Cherry MX Red) Limited Edition Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Switches, Aura Sync RGB Lighting, Customizable Badge, USB Pass Through and Media CONTROLS

My last two keyboards have been Corsair boards (K55 and K70 Rapidfire). I had significant software and firmware issues with these boards, including but not limited to infinite key ghosting, randomly disconnecting every connected USB device, and causing lockups when connecting and disconnecting controllers and similar devices. I also hated the Cherry MX Speed switches I had on the K70, too little actuation force and distance, far too linear, and typing felt really mushy (would also hit lots of other keys because of how odd the Speed switches are). And for a $150 keyboard, the K70 was definitely not worth it (doesn't even have on board memory!). Not to mention, the iCUE software is very bad. You can do a lot of cool lighting effects with it, but the UI is ugly and it is very clunky. Some things like profile switching and adding macros to new profiles is very annoying and is really time consuming (often times profiles would randomly switch on their own when tabbing through various open programs).Queue the ROG Strix Flare. After being pissed at how bad my last few keyboards were I definitely didn't want to get another Corsair one. I've been a fan of Asus products for some time, with most of my PC being made out of ROG components and having a Zenfone; so I naturally went to see what Asus had to offer. The Claymore looks really nice, but its quite expensive and doesn't come with a wrist rest (from what I've seen), so I looked for other options. The Cerberus is a membrane board, and isn't RGB; but its cheap. I saw the Flare crop up in Amazon and it looked pretty good. I went and watched a couple reviews for it and was sold. I chose the MX Brown model.Unboxing the Strix Flare was really nice. The keyboard was wrapped in cloth and, as per usual, the actual box itself was well designed and very simplistic. I went and got the ROG Armoury II software; which has less customization than Corsair's, but the UI is nicer and works far better. The Brown switches were immediately different from the Speed switches. I can rest my hand on the keys without accidentally inputting a bunch of random characters, and the feel of pressing the key is much more responsive thanks to the tactile bump. The heavier actuation force and farther actuation distance makes typing much more enjoyable. I no longer accidentally press wrong or extra keys, and the keycaps feel nicer under my fingers.The board itself looks more simplistic than the K70, and it feels nicer despite being made out of plastic. The RGB elements are done better imo, and the under-glow on the sides is cool. The media keys are easier to reach because they aren't hidden behind tall keycaps anymore, I would prefer them to be above the numpad, but I think the trade-off is acceptable. The volume nob is larger and feels better when you roll it. There is no volume mute button, which is kind of unfortunate, but at least there's media keys. I don't feel like the Windows lock button is necessary, but I've rarely used them before, so maybe its nice for someone else. Actually having on-the-fly macro recording is nice as well (if it was on the K70 I never knew how to use it). The wrist rest feels nice, despite not being padded. However I think they cut back here, the wrist rest does not seem to actually attach to the board, not even with magnets. I just seems to kinda rest in the grooves cutout for the wrist rest, if you lift the keyboard the wrist rest will fall off.ROG Armoury II, the software used to control ROG peripherals is really nice. Macros are universal across lighting profiles (I absolutely love this). The Flare has onboard storage, which I expect at this pricepoint, and is nice (no more mismatched RGB while booting up). This also means I don't have to install software and copy files over to a DVD or USB drive just to use the keyboard on my laptop, or another PC. The Flare also has built in profile switching buttons (thank you) and you don't have to unplug the keyboard to factory reset (also a nice touch, I think).There are probably better keyboards for less, but I prefer Asus products and I don't think it was money poorly spent. I'm loving this keyboard and I highly recommend it for those who like MX Brown (or similar) switches and want a nice, high quality RGB mechanical keyboard.

This keyboard is great. At first we were hesitant to buy it because it was so expensive and we didn't understand why. Other than the aura sync feature, it didn't make sense to be that much. We understood once we opened the box and plugged it in. Not only is it a very solid keyboard, made out of good materials... It syncs with Aura, meaning all of our lights are matching each other. This keyboard looks great, feels great, and has a bunch of customizable options available. It comes with some spare parts, I don't know what they're called to let you know what spare parts they come with, but just know that there are some.The downfall to this keyboard is that it is massive in size. At least compared to our cheap keyboard that we had before, that was not a gamer keyboard. If you're building your first gamer PC, keep in mind that the keyboard is going to be a lot bigger, therefore requiring a bigger desk. We bought a desk from Amazon a few weeks prior to buying this keyboard, only to find out that it didn't fit on the computer desk. pretty crappy when you've already assembled the desk and you can't return it anymore, right? Either way, we made it work but I wish we would have put that into consideration before buying the desk because I would have picked something else. You have the option to remove the additional palm holder. Again, I don't know the terminology... But the piece at the bottom of the keyboard where you rest your palm, that piece can be removed. Although, I don't recommend it because it is very comfortable.Bottom line is, this is a solid keyboard and in my opinion it is worth the money it's being sold for. If you want the best, go with this one.

I LOVE this keyboard overall. I bought this to replace an older keyboard where the space bar was breaking and this is my first fancy keyboard. It's important to note I have some health conditions that make my hands ache and hurt at the joints with extended use so I wanted to find something that wouldn't irritate it as quickly, so I went with the brown keys vs my old keyboard that was blue keys.PROS- Absolutely adorable and matches my set up well- Key feedback is satisfying, picks up great- Pass through port for my mouse helps declutter my desk and ease for docking as I use a laptop- Volume dial - I don't know how I lived without something like this before, it has been fantastic to have- Light customization is extensive and I was able to pick a good setting for myself- Hand rest has been wonderful compared to old keyboard that didn't have one- Great for typing as my job requires tons and tons of thatCONS- The wires are very thick and harder to bend so organizing them on my desk was a bit of a hassle compared to other wires- My hand gets much more fatigued when I play games and use WASD - I didn't have this issue as much with the blue keys, but did have more pain from typing with the blues so I find it to be a trade off