I’m quite enamoured with mainstream brands that try different things, and credit where it’s due, ASUS does this a lot with its Republic of Gamers (ROG) branded offerings.
Case in point, the ROG Falchion. It isn’t the first 65% keyboard from a mainstream brand, but it’s certainly got some tricks up its sleeve!
Before we get there, let’s talk about the 65% size because it’s quite obviously not for everyone. Depending on who you are, you may prefer the larger full-size keyboards, and until very recently your options would have included “with numpad” and “without numpad,” with no alternatives unless you went down the absolute rabbit hole of custom mechanical keyboards, or boutique brands and the associated exorbitant pricing.
The 65% size is an intriguing concept because it blends the much smaller desk footprint of 60% keyboards with functionally familiar inclusions like arrow and navigation keys. This means it’s not as steep of an adjustment because unless, like me, the F-row is invaluable to you, this keyboard still does what keyboards typically do. It’s small without needing a Duolingo course in keyboard design to fully benefit from it. It’s ideal for gaming too, because it creates the largest available space on your desk for that mouse hand to run wild and free.
That’s where the ROG Falchion’s story begins.
Details
Size: 60%
Switches: Cherry MX Red
Feel: Linear
Actuation point: 1.5mm
Actuation force: 45g
Interface: Wireless 2.4GHz, USB 3.0 Type-C
The product’s most prominent feature, at least based on the marketing, is the fact that it’s wireless. The back of the keyboard holds a 2.4GHz low-latency wireless dongle (the superior wireless standard, feel free to debate me) that fits into a USB 3.0 Type-C port on your PC. If you don’t have a Type-C port, it comes with a type-A adapter too. And if that won’t do because, for some reason, you buy wireless keyboards to use them in non-wireless modes I guess, it also supports standard wired via Type-C for the true all-terrain keyboard experience. In practice, this is great for when you’re on the go, or connecting to multiple PCs like I did for my work-from-home setup. Engage wired mode for when I’m stuck to my desk in meetings that could’ve been emails, then engage sport mode and go wireless when it’s time for late-night multiplayer or a loadshedding-time café run.
This interchangeable usage style kept the battery charged too, not that I ever concerned myself with this since the touted 450 hours of battery life seems to check out. The keyboard did not die once during my roughly fourteen hours of daily use for almost two weeks.
My favourite complement to this wired/wireless multi-functionality is the cover ASUS includes, which has an elegant brushed-aluminium look. It’s sleek, stylish, and genuinely provides a hit of serotonin when using it. Ostensibly a dust cover for your keyboard, what I enjoyed was that it also doubled as a tray, providing an extra layer of dampening to the sound, and allowing me not to concern myself with messy tables wherever I went.
Let’s quickly go through the stuff here that you’re familiar with from every mainstream keyboard. Switches are Cherry MX, and come in the standard colours – Red, Brown, Silver, Blue – with factory-lubed stabilisers. The keycaps are PBT shine-through with per-key RGB lighting, although not double-shot so they definitely feel thinner to the touch. Finally, the base is aluminium. If all of this is starting to sound a bit ping-y, that is absolutely correct. In truth it’s not an offensive sound, but for the price and features this keyboard packs, it does feel a bit mainstream to my admittedly very pretentious fingers.
In addition, the Falchion brings a nifty, but also finicky, new feature: a touch-activated strip on the left side of the keyboard with slide and tap options, customisable in the ROG software.
On that note, ASUS, I have some constructive criticisms. My first point of contention is the non-standard keys, which are a huge no for me. Aesthetically, while yes, the aggressive ROG aesthetic is present and I respect that it’s a subjective choice, I feel it conflicts with the design language of the cover, and I really like the design language of the cover.
Because the keys are non-standard, it also means I cannot replace those keys with custom sets – at least not unless ASUS comes out with replacement options changing the font – and this also means needing to re-learn key sizes, which resulted in many accidental keypresses. Standard keys are good. Corsair and Razer learned this lesson already.
Then there’s the sidebar, which by default adjusts volume on sliding your finger over it. Guess who accidentally muted every game they played because they tended to rest their pinky and ring fingers on the side of the keyboard? That’s right, it’s me.
Now, I want to stress that these are very mild criticisms, and fundamentally didn’t ruin my experience with the keyboard. In fact, my overall experience with this keyboard was overwhelmingly positive.
I love what the Falchion is trying to do, and I think it’s almost there in terms of being a high-quality, must-have, mainstream keyboard offering. At the very least, there is absolutely nothing like it from the other gaming brands.
| PROS | CONS |
| – Wireless or wired – Elegant cover – Nifty sidebar | – Non-standard keys – Inconsistent design language – Finicky sidebar |
| ASUS ROG Falchion Keyboard review | |
The ROG Falchion from ASUS is a unique and quaint (in a good way) entry into the mainstream keyboard market; for gamers there is simply nothing else like it. If the 65% size is your jam, and you enjoy the ROG aesthetic, then this should probably be on your desk already. |
8 |