Custom PC – October 2019

A

sus’Strixbrandis allaboutRGB,and
sureenough,theFlareprovidesthe
requisiteRGBbacklightingtoitskeys.
However,thisis a prettystandardfeatureon
premiumkeyboardsthesedays,soAsushas
hadtorampit upa notch.
Inthetop-rightcorneris anRGB-illuminated
clearplasticplatewithanAsusROGlogo
paintedonit. Onitsown,it isn’ta compelling
extrafeature,buttheplasticplatecanbe
removedandswappedforanincluded
unmarkedplate,allowingyoutoaddyou
ownlittleilluminatedlogotothekeyboard.
Youalsogetunderlightingonthesidesofthe
keyboard,creatingsomeattractivewashes
ofcolouronthesideofourtestmouse.
Thebigdownsidehere,though,is thatwhile
thelightingmightbequitecool,thestylingand
designcouldbebetter.Fromtheangledbrushed
finish,throughtherightsideoftheplastictop

O

pticalkeyswitchesarethebigfeature
oftheCeleritasII. BenQZowie
hasteamedupwithFlaretech,
whichmakesa newtypeofkeyswitchthat
reliesona lightbeambeingblockedand
unblocked,ratherthana metalcontactplate.
Oneupsidetotheseswitchesis a longer
lifespan– they’reratedto 100 million
keystrokes,comparedtothe 50 millionof
mostmechanicalkeyswitches.Theyalso
havea shorteractuationpointandthere’sfar
lessdebouncedelay.Thefirmwareneedsto
allowa shortperiodoftimebeforesending
a signal,toensurethatthekeyhasbeen
pressedproperlyandthecontactsaren’t
bouncingaround.Thisdelayis just0.03ms,
comparedto5msonnormalkeyswitches.
Inmostscenarios,thisdelayisn’tlikelyto
makemuchdifference,buttherecouldbe

ASUSROG STRIX FLARE /£120inc VAT

BENQZOWIECELERITAS II

/£110incVAT

SUPPLIER game.co.uk

SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

plate, to the slightly lopsided feel created by

the multimedia controls being bunched up on

the left, it feels like it needed more time on the

drawing board. To our eyes, the stylised angular

font on the keys cheapens the appearance too,

although that’s mainly down to personal taste.

Onto more practical considerations, the

multimedia keys are certainly welcome. You

get a rather stiff volume wheel, playback

controls, a button for disabling the Windows

the odd occasion where that fast response

is crucial. In our use we didn’t notice any

significant difference, but the typing and

gaming experience was still excellent. Also,

a big bonus with these optical switches,

compared with Razer’s ones, is that they’re

compatible with Cherry MX keycaps, so

you can swap out your keycaps too.

Elsewhere, though, the Celeritas is less

convincing. The Zowie brand has long

aimed at providing no-frills gaming tools,

key and a button for cycling through the

lighting modes. Around the back there’s also

a USB passthrough port. A wrist rest is also

included, but it’s a solid plastic affair with no

cushioning, so it doesn’t offer the support

of some more premium alternatives.

so it’s no surprise the Celeritas isn’t packed

with features but, for the price, it’s notable

just how many features are missing.

There’s no RGB backlighting, no software

programmability, no USB passthrough and no

extra keys, although you do get multimedia

control via secondary functions on the F

keys. You also miss out on a wrist rest.

An intriguing addition is a PS/2 adaptor,

which allows you to set the keyboard to repeat

keystrokes automatically.

LABS TEST / GAMING KEYBOARDS