Mechanical gaming keyboards are all the rage these days, and in true gaming peripheral fashion, they come in all shapes, sizes and ostentatious colours. With the Alloy FPS Pro, HyperX has decided to target the more minimalist branch of the spectrum, zoning in on portability and practicality over flash and features.
The Alloy FPS series of mechanical keyboards comes in two variants — the full-sized Alloy FPS and the tenkeyless Pro version, that abandons the number pad for a super compact setup. The design is understated, except for the red accents and backlighting, and the HyperX logo on the space bar that also glows red. The keyboard has a detachable braided cable, that also has black and red accents, allowing for easy portability. There isn’t much else on the hardware front from a visual standpoint, and no additional macro buttons to aid gaming. There is a dedicated gaming key, which disables the Windows button, which gets a dedicated white light that turns on when it is engaged, as does the Caps Lock. The Alloy FPS Pro is available with Cherry MX Blue, Brown or Red switches, which have different levels of feedback, depending on the applications you use it for, so this should influence the buying decision. Our review unit was of the Red variety, which is closest to a normal keyboard, features relatively linear, though precise, keystrokes with a good amount of travel, and offers enough versatility for daily tasks. The Blue variant would offer much more obvious feedback and make the cacophony mechanical keyboards are known for, while the Brown strikes a balance between the two. While the Red would be a suitable entry point for someone new to mechanical keyboards, HyperX going the extra mile to offer buyers the choice is good to see.
From a usability standpoint, the keyboard held up well during extended gaming sessions, and we couldn’t find any instances of ghosting, even as complicated combos were chained together. For those coming from larger keyboards, the reduced real estate may take some getting used to, and cause some cramping of the digits, though this is more the case with fighting games or RPGs than with FPS titles.
The backlight has four different brightness levels, and its style can also be altered between a static backlight, a breathing light, a wave moving from left to right, an explosion moving outwards from the last key pressed, or a custom setup which illuminates user-selected keys only (WSAD and a few other gaming regulars are illuminated by default).
Available on Amazon for around ₹7,000, the Alloy FPS Pro is worthy of consideration for those looking for a mechanical keyboard that won’t break the bank — particularly FPS gamers with limited space, who want the versatility offered by a customisable backlight for their setup.
