ROCCAT Isku FX Keyboard
The Isku FX is ROCCAT's leading non-mechanical, gaming keyboard, and the company continues the tradition of shipping their gear in eye-catching boxes. Inside, the keyboard is wrapped in what appears to be an anti-static bag. The only other item is a quick-installation guide, and just like the mouse there is no driver disc. You're again directed to its product page to download its software.
Its build quality isn't quite as impressive as the Kone XTD, but it's still a handsome piece of hardware. Its angular edges make it look like it belongs on a spaceship. For those that like a bit of light in the dark, its keys can be lit with up to five brightness levels, 16 base colors and up to 16.8 million custom colors. Flow and breathing effects can also be enabled.
The top center contains a row of your standard media controls and shorcuts to your browser and hard drive screen. The lower end extends with a permanent wrist rest. It and the surrounding edges are made of textured plastic that has a somewhat cheap appearance and touch. Shinier, fingerprint collecting plastic fills the spaces between. I wouldn't dare drop it, but the wrist rest does offer good comfort and posture for your hands.
A column of five macro keys is placed near the left edge of the Isku FX. Interestingly, three more reside beneath the space bar. Dubbed thumbster keys, these sit within easy reach of that much beloved appendage. It's a surprisingly useful position that makes me now wonder why it's not common in other gaming keyboards.
The underside of the keyboard has large, rubberized soles and extendable feet. They do an acceptable job of preventing the Isku FX from sliding across the desk. There are also a few channels for snug cable management.
The push of the non-mechanical keys doesn't feel any different from your traditional keyboards. There are a few nice details, however. The W, F, J middle thumbster and number pad 5 keys all have small, raised notches to make finding them easier without having to look down. And anti-ghosting technology is present for more than just WASD. It can register four simultaneous keys at a time, though there are some zones it won't cross. The space bar did start producing a squeaking noise after about a week of use, but removing and setting it back in place corrected the issue.
The Isku FX has both Easy-Shift and ROCCAT Talk capabilities. As previously mentioned, this allows secondary actions be mapped to various keys and the latter for the company's mice and keyboards to communicate with each other. I could configure Easy-Shift to switch between the Kone XTD's profiles or even its DPI sensitivity levels when pressing the Q key, for instance.
As a keyboard, those features are much more expansive than with the mouse. Its five macro and three thumbster keys have Easy-Shift support, but so do 20 traditional keys from 1 to 5, Q to R, A to F, and Z to B. The software has a number of pre-made functions to select from or you're free to create your own.
But its most impressive ability is that macros can be recorded on the fly. Pressing the live recording button on the top left of the keyboard will start and save the sequence you input to a specified key. This proved very useful in massively multiplayer online role-playing games where I could quickly and easily bring my rotation of several abilities down to a single key.
Its software accomodates a wealth of control customization with a great many Easy-Shift supported keys. Five profiles can be edited, saved and cycled between, affording a dizzingly amount of possibilities. Sound feedback is present, and if enabled it can verbally guiding you through the macro recording process and alerting you when you switch profiles or earn a trophy.
The Isku FX would be an easy recommendation if not for a price discrepancy. It currently sells for 99.99 USD, not uncommon cost for what it does. But the model it replaces, the Isku, is the same in form and feature save for the extra backlighting colors. You can currently find that predecessor online for 40 less green ones. If you can live with only a single color for your lit keys rather than 16.8 million, then the choice should be easy.
