| AZiO KB577U Levetron MECH5 Gaming Keyboard |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Input Devices | |||||||
| Written by Akim Green | |||||||
| Tuesday, 26 February 2013 | |||||||
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AZiO KB577U Levetron MECH5 Gaming Keyboard Review
Manufacturer: AZiO Corporation, Inc. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by AZiO Corp. Nowadays, it seems that the term "gaming" is loosely associated with cheap, low quality, general-purpose peripherals. What then separates the notorious gaming-grade products from the rest? Most modern gaming keyboards feature mechanical keys in an attempt to prevent accidental key-presses and ghosting, issues that gamers are commonly faced with. Macro keys are also desired by gamers, especially those of the MMO genre. Fortunately, many of these features are more or less standard on today's gaming keyboards; the manufacturers must now appeal to gamers' sense of look and feel instead. With the MECH5, Azio has done an amazing job incorporating many of the features required for today's gamer. They go a step further by encasing it in a durable, very good-looking body, something that you can tell was intended for gaming by looks alone. In this article, Benchmark Reviews evaluates the AZiO KB577U Levetron MECH5 keyboard's performance to determine if it deserves its gaming badge and is worth your hard earned money. The Mech 5 features Cherry MX black switches as opposed to blue or reds, which are common in gaming keyboards. AZiO claims that they are "widely believed to provide the best gaming experience" due to their "linear design ideal for rapid pressing [...] and the right stiffness to help prevent accidental key presses". While it is generally agreed upon that mechanical keys are good for gaming, it is debated which types are most ideal: some switches such as the MX reds offer less resistance than the blacks, while the MX blues have a non-linear switch; at some point while pressing, it will click indicating that the key press has been registered. The MX blacks are similar to the MX reds, but offer a little more resistance.
The keyboard will be tested in a number of applications, including a few games. It will be used in daily tasks such as browsing the web and sending emails. To evaluate ergonomics, it will be used continuously in periods exceeding 3 hours. I will compare its performance, functionality and ergonomics to the corsair K60, a cherry MX red mechanical gaming keyboard Features & Specifications
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Comments
Also no back lit keys is a "No" for me. I think it is a weird feature to miss out on. I Don't get it. Those who do not want it can switch it off, but those who do want it cannot switch it on, if it is not there.
The general design of the X6 is more my thing also, but that is entirely of secondary concern.
Nevertheless if this had an FPS module (comparable to the Ideazon Fang I would still buy it immediately, because it would be one of a kind and truly useful to FPS/Action gamers.
To make a modular design make real sense you need modules. Only being able to remove the keypad is not that interesting. That seems hard to get for keyboard designers.
So I am still waiting for my ideal keyboard. Perhaps someday....