It’s a good compromise for gamers who are also looking for a keyboard they’ll enjoy typing on, though it does lack some of the gaming features found on Razer’s, Roccat’s, and Logitech’s boards. But it’s also got special sound-dampening foam, hot-swappable switches, and an overall high-quality, solid build that’s less flashy than most gaming keyboards. It’s got Asus’s ROG branding, gamer-friendly linear switches, and low-latency 2.4GHz wireless connectivity with an Omni Receiver that’s compatible with Asus’s flagship ultra-lightweight gaming mouse. The Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless walks the line between “gaming” and “enthusiast” keyboards pretty well. This number seemed relatively accurate and even a little conservative - I used the keyboard with the brightness turned all the way up and the power mode set to “never sleep,” and I still had 56% battery life after about 50 hours. With the lighting turned on, that number drops to 90 hours - which is still pretty good, but nothing out of the ordinary. This is not a particularly unique feature - Corsair’s Slipstream, Razer’s HyperSpeed, and Logitech’s Lightspeed receivers all allow you to pair a keyboard and mouse to one dongle.Īsus rates the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless at a whopping 1,500 hours of battery life over 2.4GHz wireless with the lighting turned off. At the moment, the only compatible keyboard is the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless and the only compatible mouse is the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition, but presumably future Asus peripherals will also be compatible. It’s the first ROG keyboard to come with the ROG Omni Receiver, which allows you to wirelessly connect to both a compatible keyboard and a compatible mouse using one dongle. The ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless offers three forms of connectivity: low-latency 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth 5.1, and wired via USB-C. Wireless Experience and Battery Life of the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless The ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless’s multi-function button and corresponding roller has a custom mode that you can program in Armoury Crate with any functionality you want (the roller doesn’t have to be used for incremental increases/decreases - you can program it like you would any other key). The keyboard does come with several pre-programmed secondary functions that let you do things like change the lighting effects and program macros, so you don’t need to use Armoury Crate too much once you’re up to date on firmware. It’s unfortunately unavoidable - you’ll need to use it to update the keyboard’s firmware, and you’ll also need to use it to pair the Omni Receiver dongle to more than one device (and to update the dongle’s firmware, naturally). The ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless can be configured using Asus’s Armoury Crate, which is still one of my least-favorite peripheral softwares for how bloated it is - even the “light” version bombarded me with virtual pets and wallpapers the second I installed it. Features and Software of the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless But layout aside, gaming on the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless was very pleasant, with virtually no latency over the 2.4GHz wireless connection - not even when the Omni Receiver was connected to both the keyboard and a mouse (the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition. They did feel very stable in my testing, however, and I didn’t have any trouble adjusting to the different feel or height profile - a quick typing test saw my typing speed at a pretty standard 118 words per minute with 98.7% accuracy.Īs for gaming, I had some missteps while getting used to the layout - I’m used to using my numberpad as a makeshift macropad, and shifting it much closer to the keys meant I was overshooting for a few days before I got used to the more compact layout. The keycaps are textured and have lightly sculpted tops and a noticeably lower profile than the full-size Razer keyboard I’ve been using as my daily driver. Our review model came with double-shot PBT keycaps, which have a mid-height profile and a shorter stem to reduce key wobble. The ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless comes with either double-shot PBT keycaps or UV-coated ABS keycaps, though Asus says that keycap material may vary by region so I’m not sure if these options can be selected. It doesn’t come with a lubing kit like the Azoth does, but the factory pre-lubing in the NX Snows is pretty good. Speaking of which, the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless has a hot-swappable PCB - like the ROG Azoth - and comes with a combination keycap/switch remover. And although the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless has its special dampening foam and switch dampening pads, I swapped in some of the brand’s NX Reds and there’s definitely an audible difference. Asus’s marketing jargon aside, the NX Snows do feel like “refined” linear switches - they’re extremely smooth, stable, and quiet.
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