31 Jan
Blog

Asus ROG Strix Flare II Animate review: My keyboard endgame

asus rog strix flare 2 animate review ii antimate 11

ROG Strix Flare II animation

RRP $220.00

"ROG Strix Flare II Animate is the gaming keyboard of choice for 2022."

benefits

  • Hot swappable keys

  • 8,000 Hz polling rate

  • USB passthrough

  • Comfortable leatherette palm rest

  • Beautiful anime matrix

disadvantage

  • Software could be more focused

  • Expensive for a wired keyboard

Year after year we see a ton of great gaming keyboards that are more or less identical to the competition. None of them are bad, but they are nothing to get excited about. The ROG Strix Flare II Animate is.

It's not just the anime matrix that makes the keyboard stand out. It's not even the 8,000Hz polling rate, the supremely comfortable palm rest, or the hot-swappable keybed. It's the combination of features that sets the ROG Strix Flare II Animate apart.

When Asus announced the keyboard earlier this month, I hoped it would be my gaming keyboard endgame. And after using it for a few weeks, I now know that it is.

draft

ROG logo on the anime matrix.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

ROG Strix Flare II Animate wastes no time impressing you. From the moment I opened the box it was clear where the $220 was going. This is a premium keyboard from top to bottom, and Asus is quick to make you feel like it's money well spent.

As with the budget-oriented Akko 3068B, it's the details that make the difference with the Strix Flare II Animate. The thick braided cable comes with a ROG-branded cable tie already attached, and the keycap pullers are custom-designed to match the look of the keyboard. They even snap together so you don't have to store them separately.

You'll soon forget all these details once the star of the show lights up: The 320 LED AniMe Matrix. By default, it shows a ROG logo that slowly pulsates, and no matter how you configure it, the matrix lights up when you use function and media keys on the keyboard.

I'll cover configuring the matrix below, but I had a custom animation up and running in a few minutes. The Matrix is ​​just a small bundle of gamer influence, but a company could still screw that up. Asus not. The AniMe Matrix is ​​useful when you need it, downright cool when you want it, and it finishes off the look of the keyboard.

Lauter logo on ROG Strix Flare II Animate.

ROG Strix Flare II Animate lock icon.

Opposite the matrix you will find some function and media keys. There's a metal volume wheel, a forward/back toggle, a play/pause button hidden on the side, and dedicated buttons for Windows lock and LED brightness.

On the front you'll find the RGB light diffuser, which is similar to the RGB strips on the sides of the Corsair K100 RGB. Without the palm rest, it offers an even glow that integrates the lighting of your keys. A rain effect, for example, is carried beyond the bottom row of keys into the diffuser.

Asus wanted to include all the features a gaming keyboard could have and they succeeded.

It looks fantastic. Even better, you can snap off the diffuser to attach the faux leather palm rest and let the lighting shine through. It seems that in 2022 Asus wanted to integrate all the functional and visual features of gaming keyboards and they succeeded across the board.

The palm rest plays a major role in this. It's plump and comfortable, and goes a long way in elevating the Strix Flare II Animate against rivals like the Razer Huntsman V2. It locks into place perfectly and refuses to budge, but it does require a bit of adjustment. When the back is raised, the palm rest is almost as high as the bottom row of keys.

Light diffuser of the ROG Strix Flare II Animate.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Luckily, it doesn't affect the typing experience. I ended up closing the rear kickstands with the palm rest attached and it typed Nirvana. In this configuration, the height peaks at the intersection of the keyboard and palm rest, with a subtle downward slope away from the keyboard. No customization here; I loved using the Strix Flare II Animate like this from the very first button press.

My only complaint about the Strix Flare II Animate's design is that there are no tenkeyless or 65% versions. That's just my preference, and if Asus ever decides to branch out, I'll be first in line.

counter

Keyswitch on ROG Strix Flare II Animate.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The Strix Flare II Animate model I tested came with Asus NX Red switches, which aren't my favorite. Asus offers one of three of its NX switches: either red, brown, or blue, which closely match the feel of their Cherry MX counterparts. I don't like linear switches, but that's the beauty of the Strix Flare II Animate's hot-swappable switches.

The only other mainstream keyboard with this feature is the Logitech G Pro X, which didn't start a trend toward hot-swappable switches. More than two years later, I hope the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is the catalyst.

You can plug any 3-pin switch into ROG Strix Flare II Animate, including switches from Cherry, Gateron, and Kailh. I'm more excited about the smaller switch options – switches from Akko, Glorious PC, and TTC. There has been a boom in third-party switches in recent years, and the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is primed to take advantage of these benefits.

Empty key slot on ROG Strix Flare II Animate.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

All my complaints with the switches don't matter because you can just swap them out. I don't like red switches for typing, so I immediately replaced most of them with my set of Akko Jelly Blues. But I like linear switches for my spacebar where I need to jump fast in games like Destiny 2. The ROG Strix Flare II Animate didn't make me decide.

Given how cheap many third-party switches are, the ROG Strix Flare II Animate encourages experimentation and bridges the gap between mainstream gaming keyboards and boutique options like the Cyberboard R3. Hot-swappable switches are a great way to bring customizations found in gaming PCs to peripherals, and I'm glad Asus is taking the lead with them.

gaming performance

Finger on WASD on a gaming keyboard.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Given how much else the ROG Strix Flare II Animate has to offer, I assumed it would have the same cookie-cutter gaming capabilities as any branded board you could buy at Best Buy or Micro Center. You know what they say about assumptions.

The keyboard has a polling rate of 8,000 Hz, which is only available on a small number of keyboards (including the Corsair K70 RGB TKL). Most keyboards only have a 1,000 Hz polling rate. What's the difference? The higher the polling rate, the faster your keyboard can report keystrokes to your PC.

With mice like the Corsair Saber Pro RGB, however, it's more important than with keyboards. 1,000 Hz already reports keystrokes every millisecond, so increasing it only further divides that millisecond. At 8,000 Hz, for example, it is 0.125 ms. That's not particularly important for a keyboard where you probably won't feel the split-millisecond difference between keystrokes.

I used the 8,000 Hz polling rate for about a week, occasionally switching back to 1,000 Hz for reference. I couldn't tell the difference. It didn't matter if it was Destiny 2, Halo Infinite, or even Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy – the ROG Strix Flare II Animate felt the same regardless of the polling rate.

The gaming experience on the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is great.

It's technically better, but the 8,000Hz polling rate isn't this keyboard's selling point. It's just an advantage. Unfortunately, it is only an advantage for some players. You'll have to be a highly competitive gamer to notice a difference, and you'll need at least a 9th Gen Intel i7 or a 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 7 to even take advantage of the higher polling rate.

Polling rate aside, the gaming experience on ROG Strix Flare II Animate is great. It's not the switches or keycaps that you can get on any gaming keyboard, it's the palm rest and construction. Angled with attached wrist rest is my new favorite way to play games. It's comfortable and moving between rows immediately felt natural.

software

Asus Armory Crate dashboard.

You can configure the ROG Strix Flare II Animate via Asus Armory Crate. The app comes with all the settings you want, including macro recording, custom RGB effects, and per-key remapping. But it doesn't reach the same heights as Corsair iCue or Logitech G Hub.

Part of the problem is focus. Armory Crate is a hub that includes additional features such as machine-wide profiles, game offerings, and system updates. The extras are great, but they drown out the settings for the ROG Strix Flare II. Razer has this problem with Synapse. There's too much going on, and making fundamental changes harder than it needs to be.

That doesn't mean it's difficult overall. Armory Crate doesn't look as good as iCue or G Hub, but it's just as fast. I managed to update my firmware, adjust my polling rate, choose one of the 10 pre-made lighting effects, and create a custom anime animation in about five minutes after finding the right location.

Keyboard settings in Asus Armory Crate.

Outside of lighting, Armory Crate lets you remap any key with an application shortcut, text input, macro, or anything in between. This also spreads to the media keys. And if you don't want to mess around with the software, you can record your macros on the fly. I was hoping for a more robust macro recorder – Armory Crate sits at 100 commands – but it's still more than enough for most people.

Once you've set everything up, you can save your macros, button assignments, and lighting to one of five built-in profiles.

After learning Armory Crate's quirks, you'll be able to get around without too many problems.

Again, Armory Crate doesn't reach the heights of iCue or G Hub, especially when it comes to custom lighting effects (which are delivered via a separate app, Aura Creator). But it doesn't do anything too outrageous, and after you learn its quirks you'll be able to get around without too many problems.

The anime settings are a bit more complicated. Use one of the presets or a simple image and you'll be fine. Everything else falls apart. The animation timeline is imprecise and lacks settings, and adding your own images or GIFs is an exercise in patience.

Anime settings in Asus Armory Crate.

The problem is that the anime matrix only has 320 LEDs. It becomes harder to tell what you're seeing as the image gets smaller, limiting you to basic shapes and patterns. The built-in clock doesn't show itself well either. You can view your system clock, including a notification for alarms, but numbers don't always play well with the matrix.

It's just an expectation versus reality situation. The anime matrix is ​​limited. Within those limits, however, it's great. It's a fantastic way to get quick status updates about your PC or to check the time, and if you can find an image that goes well with this format, the Matrix will add a lot of personality to a setup.

Our opinion

ROG Strix Flare II Animate is a keyboard that refuses to say no. Plump and comfortable wrist rest? Check. Excellent lighting and customization options? You are here. hot-swappable switch? Asus has them. It's the ultimate gaming keyboard for early 2022, combining distinct elements from both mainstream and boutique gaming keyboards to create something that feels truly special.

It's still a $220 wired gaming keyboard that's hard to swallow. However, if you're like me and are willing to pay a premium price for premium products, it's money well spent.

Are there better alternatives?

Nothing combines all the features of the ROG Strix Flare II Animate, but a few keyboards come close:

  • $200 Razer Huntsman V2 — The closest competitor to the ROG Strix Flare II Animate, with a leatherette palm rest and 8,000 Hz polling rate, but no hot-swappable key switches.
  • $150 Logitech G Pro X keyboard — Comes with hot-swappable keyswitches but is limited to a tenkeyless design and no media or function keys.
  • $230 Corsair K100RGB — Packed with extra macro keys and better software, and designed to match the ROG Strix Flare II Animate with leatherette wrist rest. However, it still lacks hot-swappable key switches.

How long it will take?

Until the LEDs fail. With hot-swappable switches, you can breathe new life into ROG Strix Flare II Animate as long as you can buy button switches.

should you buy it

Yes. ROG Strix Flare II is the gaming keyboard endgame. In early 2022 there is no other keyboard that can do everything this one does. It's expensive, but even similarly priced competitors can't top what Asus offers.

Editor's Recommendations



31 Mar
Blog

Dell XPS 13 (2020) Review: Laptop Endgame

"The Dell XPS 13 has been the best laptop you can buy for years, and it will continue to do so in 2020."

  • Beautiful design

  • Higher 16:10 screen

  • Almost frameless frame

  • Two Thunderbolt 3 ports

  • Larger keyboard and touchpad

  • Excellent performance

Two designs have defined the past decade in laptops. The first ten years were all about the MacBook Air, which dominated the first half of the 2010s and inspired a sea of ​​doubles. In the second half, however, everything revolved around the XPS 13 from Dell. A trend that is ubiquitous today began with the original laptop with a thin front panel and a small footprint.

However, after four years of iteration, Dell has invented something new. Something fresh. Something that takes everything I've loved about the design to a new era.

Don't call it a restart. This is the endgame of the laptop.

Design and display

More of what matters. That has always been the motto of the XPS team, but here it is more obvious than ever. It starts with the screen, which is now 13.4 inches in an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a little closer to the square than the conventional 16: 9. It is only 0.1 inches larger than previous versions, but it feels like it more. The 16:10 ratio means extra rows in my Word document, more rows in my spreadsheet, and fewer scrolls on a web page.

This results in black bars on most videos, which are usually formatted for 16: 9. However, for the person who spends most of their time on a laptop in work mode, this is a worthy compromise.

The 16:10 screen is the same one used on the XPS 13 2-in-1, which was already the leader in the class. It offers a brightness of 500 nits, one of the best contrasts I've ever seen, and excellent color accuracy.

It's sharp too. The resolution is 1,920 x 1,200, which means more pixels than on a typical 1080p screen. You will not select any pixels on it. So if you're not an image editor, you shouldn't have to choose the higher-resolution panel. The advantage of the 4K + screen is more than just the number of pixels – it also offers a wider range of colors.

It is not just the panel itself that matters. In this way, the lack of frames frames the screen. The top and sides are as small as ever, but now the lower bezel can join in. Dell uses a unique drop hinge that sits barely under the surface of the keyboard deck. A part of this bezel, which was already small, cannot be seen. It's a little trick to make the bezel look so much thinner. With the white model I tested, I made the decision to change the bezel color to black instead of white. It makes it even less pronounced.

Despite the slim bezel, Dell pushed its 720p camera module up and the nose cam is a thing of the past. It's not a great webcam, but it is enough if necessary. To use the space even better, there is now an IR camera for easy Windows Hello face recognition.

Keyboard and touchpad

When moving from the screen to the keyboard deck, the design continues to follow the philosophy "more of what counts". Not a millimeter of space was left on the keyboard deck.

The look of the keyboard can be inspired by the XPS 13 2-in-1 – if not in terms of feel. The keycaps are larger and each have less space. They now extend to the sides of the keyboard deck.

The power switch (and the integrated fingerprint reader), which used to be on the right next to the layout, is now integrated in the top right, as with MacBooks. Another small change to the layout, which I really appreciate, is the full size arrow keys left and right. Earlier XPS keyboards contained half-sized keys, with the gaps filled up and down. This often resulted in the page being accidentally skipped.

It has quickly become one of my favorite laptop keyboards to type on.

Part of the keyboard that I'm glad Dell didn't redesign it is the actual feel of the key press. Instead of following the path of the butterfly mechanisms (as with the XPS 13 2-in-1), they still have 1 mm of travel and a snappy mechanism. Since we saw that even Apple moved away from its own butterfly keyboards, Dell made the right choice here. It has quickly become one of my favorite laptop keyboards to type on.

The same applies to the touchpad, whose overall size has grown compared to the previous year. Dell has also worked to dampen the click mechanism to make it quieter. I would still prefer it to be softer, but the tracking and gesture support is excellent as always.

Ports and build quality

You will find major changes to the pages if you are familiar with the older XPS 13. Due to the nature of this edge-to-edge keyboard, there is no more space for connections next to it. There are only a few and they are now pressed as close to the back as possible. On the right side there is a Thunderbolt 3 port and the headphone jack. Another Thunderbolt 3 port and a microSD card slot are on the left.

This is a USB-C less than the previous model, which is shit. Dell is now at the Apple level of port selection and fits the MacBook Air in the USB ports. Unlike this device, I would rather have a Thunderbolt 3 port on each side than together. This makes charging easier, regardless of which side the socket is on. The HP Specter x360 swaps the additional Thunderbolt 3 port for USB-A to support older accessories.

Despite the overall stiffer feel of the XPS 13, it's now easier to open.

The sides are now covered with diamond-cut aluminum, which gives the frame a little shine and gives the workmanship overall a more stable feel. A thin layer of polycarbonate fibers covers the wrist-rest with its unique weave structure. Aside from the unibody aluminum design of the MacBook Pro, this model is well built as laptops come.

The extra aluminum adds only the slightest amount of extra weight, which is now 2.8 pounds. This corresponds to the weight of the MacBook Air and the HP Specter x360 13. At 0.58 inches, however, it is somewhat thinner than these two laptops.

Despite the robust feel of the XPS 13, opening is now smoother. What a relief. For years it was one of the few premium laptops that couldn't be opened with just one finger. One-finger opening is now easy, although I wish there was a lip to make it even easier.

performance

It's easy to look at a laptop's processor and call it good. However, the performance offers more than just a data sheet. The XPS 13 makes that clear. Despite using the same parts as other laptops, Dell has consistently worked to improve the performance of its components.

The same tricks play a role here, for example strips of Gore material with which the heat is dissipated. The processor is now upgraded to the latest 10th generation Intel Ice Lake chips.

Dell continues to raise the bar for performance.

That's not too exciting in 2020, but again, the XPS 13 beats its rivals in terms of single-core performance in Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R20. Even the 16 GB of RAM that was included in my test device was overkill for what most people will do with this laptop. (The Core i7 model I tested costs $ 1,250, but there will also be a Core i3 option starting at $ 999.)

This is one of the most powerful quad-core laptops you can buy, and it even shows the muscles in HandBrake video encoding. At the end of last year, Dell released an XPS 13 with a six-core processor, but this new model is only 7% slower in HandBrake. Impressive.

Yes, Dell continues to set the benchmark for performance. When you upgrade to the 4K + model, you have a premium photo editing laptop. That doesn't mean you should buy this laptop for 3D rendering or video editing, but for most tasks, you won't find a faster laptop of this size.

It should be noted that the $ 999 Core i3 with 4 GB of RAM is also available (although it is not currently for sale). This dual-core processor doesn't have nearly the same performance, although I haven't tested it myself. However, if you only need a laptop to surf the Internet, Microsoft Word and watch movies, the Core i3 is more than sufficient.

Intel's discrete graphics have improved significantly with Ice Lake, allowing the XPS to play 13 games. Type of.

Dell still pulls better frame rates out of these components than its rivals, but that doesn't mean it's a gaming laptop. Fortnite can be played in 1080p if you lower all settings. However, you need to cut it down to 720p to get smoother gameplay. Casual and less demanding games can be played well enough, but the Razer Blade Stealth 13 with an Nvidia GTX 1650 offers better performance.

Battery life

I have high expectations for the battery life of expensive laptops. Somehow the XPS 13 surpassed them. In our test for easy surfing on the Internet, it took over 11.5 hours. Laptops such as the MacBook Air, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the Surface Pro 7 were destroyed. It doesn't outperform the best of the best like the HP Specter x360 or ZenBook 13 UX333, but it's not far behind either.

Battery life always depends on what you use it for. At one extreme, the XPS 13 can take up to 14.5 hours to play video locally or 5 hours to do more difficult tasks. Consistent use throughout a working day should not be a problem for the average person.

If you buy the 4K + model, you can expect these results to drop by a few hours. This also makes this 1080p + model the ideal solution for most people.

Our opinion

The Dell XPS 13 is the best laptop you can buy. This has been true for several years and also in 2020. It's not an easy task if you make so many changes to an iconic design. The XPS 13 has slowly become a little more expensive over the years, but if you are that good, premium branding has been earned.

There's a good choice if you want to spend less than $ 1,000. For everyone else, the XPS 13 should be your next PC.

Are there alternatives?

There are some very close competitors to the XPS 13. If you are looking for a laptop with a 360 degree hinge, I recommend the HP Specter x360. It's small and nifty like the XPS and a little cheaper.

Another great option is the new MacBook Air. With quad-core processors and a better keyboard, it has regained the respect of previous Mac generations. However, it probably can't keep up with battery life, and performance still lags somewhat.

The Surface Laptop 3 from Microsoft is another interesting option at an affordable price, a tight thickness and a tight weight. It also offers a larger 3: 2 screen with a higher pixel density as long as you can carry the large frames.

How long it will take?

Thanks to its modern components and robust build quality, the XPS 13 is designed for durability. The standard one-year warranty is nothing special, but this laptop should last at least three or four years.

Should you buy it

Yes. It is the best laptop you can buy.

Editor's recommendations