Asus Rog Strix Scope TKL Deluxe

Rog Strix Scope TKL Deluxe is the name of Asus' latest keyboard (which, we'll admit, is a name too long for us to remember once we look away from the box it came in for more than two seconds) and the name, despite its length, fits the product. The keyboard truly feels like a deluxe product and we were excited the second we pulled the surprisingly heavy unit out of its box. It oozed quality with its sleek and simple design - brushed aluminium chassis with nothing but a logo in the upper right corner of the unit. It looks and feels luxurious.

The cable that connects the keyboard to your PC or laptop is detachable, as is the wrist rest, which is incredibly practical for when you need to take it with you to the LAN party or to work.

Best of all, however, is the Cherry switches. The Taiwanese company has really nailed it with these quality switches from German Cherry. You can pick and choose the switches you prefer to customise the experience completely. We chose our absolute favourite variant of switches, namely the Cherry MX Red (or if you want to get really specific, the Cherry Red Silent, which is supposed to be a silent version of the red switch).

The keyboard we switched out for the TKL Deluxe was equipped with the regular Cherry Reds and when we compared the two, there is a distinct difference. The regular Red switches have a sharper and louder click sound whilst the Red Silent variant gives off a softer click which is great for those wanting a silent experience. Apart from being as quiet as we're guessing Cherry switches can get, every press of a key on the keyboard offers great feedback.

Asus has truly succeeded in making an excellent product here and the Strix Scope TKL Deluxe is a great and well-made keyboard. The RGB lighting is amongst the best of its kind, at least from what we've seen, and the colours are distributed perfectly around each key. The solution of displaying icons on the short end of the keys with more binds than one not only looks good, but it's functional. The wrist rest that comes with the keyboard is comfortably padded and kept in place with magnets instead of just resting on top without being secured. Asus really has gone all-in with this product and that's made clear with the Cherry MX switches. It's great. Truly great.

The only minor flaw we encountered during our time in the testing chamber was the fact that the software was a bit rough. We had to delete and re-install Rog Armoury (which is what the software application is called, by the way) three times before we even got it to work at all, but we're assuming this to have been a software bug that's getting fixed in a future update, but who knows. After we struggled with the program initially, however, it has worked like a charm and offers one of the simplest user interfaces we've used. The menus are smart and make customising the keyboard both visually and feature-wise a breeze.

All in all the Asus Rog Strix Scope TKL Deluxe is a quality keyboard that we absolutely recommend to anyone who's looking to upgrade.