Asus Strix Claw and Strix Tactic Pro Reviews

Asus Strix Tactic Pro Review

Manufacturer: Asus
UK price (as reviewed): £99.98 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $149.99 (ex Tax)

Next up is the Strix Tactic Pro, a full key set mechanical keyboard available with Cherry MX Red, Brown, Blue and Black switches – our particular sample uses the Red variety. Like the Strix Claw, its primary material is plastic and again it has a smooth, matt black finish. This does pick up marks like fingerprints, but nowhere near as easily as glossy finishes do. Its build quality is no match for Corsair's keyboards with their aluminium faceplates, but few are – it's still easily solid enough for everyday and hardcore use. A 1.8m braided fibre USB cable is securely attached, and rubber strips on the bottom and on the rear legs mean the Tactic Pro stays firmly planted on your desk.


The Strix Tactic Pro has a very wide profile. This isn't due to excessive use of plastic around the edges, but rather due to the two columns of dedicated macro keys to the left of the main keys. These are joined by an additional three thumb-activated ones below the spacebar, while the F1-F8 keys also double up as macro keys once you activate macro mode using the FN key and F11.


That's a total of 21 macro keys; Asus describes them all as easy to reach, but the ones to the left we found we had to glance down and move our hand away from the standard WASD position to hit accurately (though we could get used to them with more time), and the ones below the spacebar are too far to the right for our liking. Reaching them with your thumb is possible from the WASD position, but the second and third ones especially require a fair stretch if you're small-handed, and there's little reason they couldn't have been closer.


As well as the macro keys, Asus includes a set of dedicated low-profile media keys, including a volume wheel. This design seems to have taken much influence from Corsair, but it's not as nice – the volume wheel is plastic rather than metal, and the action on it and the buttons is a lot less satisfying too. Still, we can't fault Asus for their inclusion.


Beyond macro mode, the FN key can be used for a few more special functions. F12 enables gaming mode, which simply disables the Windows key, while Alt Gr is used to trigger on-the-fly macro recording, which works well enough. Page Up is used to switch the keyboard from its defaul N-KRO state to a more traditional 6-key rollover; we're not sure why anyone would need this but it's there nonetheless. Finally, the 8 and 2 keys on the numpad are used to alter the orange backlighting – it can be set to three brightness levels, breathing, or off altogether.


The LEDs themselves are, as usual, placed at the centre-top of each switch, so dual symbol and larger keys aren't evenly lit, but this is standard for mechanical backlit keyboards and it isn't a distraction here. However, we do think the fact that neither the media keys nor the symbols for the profile and mode indicators light up is an issue. The indicators are found all along the top row, and tell users which profile is active and when the gaming/macro modes and the usual Caps, Num and Scroll locks are on. This is handy, but each indicator is just a single orange light with the relevant writing next to it. However, in the dark, you can't actually see the writing so it's hard to tell what's active and what's not – simply having the writing and symbols themselves be backlit would've been a much better solution.