Asus ROG Strix Scope RX TKL Wireless Deluxe Review

When it comes to keyboards, optical key switches are very much the hot new thing and if I’m being honest are the thing that interests me the most about Asus’ STRIX SCOPE RX line, including this, their new STRIX SCOPE RX TKL Wireless Deluxe. I should put this up front and say I’m not exactly the target market for this, so I may not value some things as highly as a prospective buyer, although that’s not to say I don’t like this.

In fact, I like it quite a lot. On paper this is a pretty top-shelf board, featuring Asus’ optical RX key switches, both 2.4GHz dongle-based wireless and Bluetooth, the smaller ten-keyless layout and even includes a genuinely great wrist rest. The build quality is top notch, the feet practically glue it to your desk, and of course doubleshot PBT keycaps. Sounds excellent! But there are a few things you should know before you exercise that trigger finger on the buy button.

First let’s talk about those key switches. Asus’ RX optical switches are something I’ve covered before, but in short they use an interrupted beam of light to trigger a key press event rather than springy metal like you’ll find in most mechanical switches. They have also done away with the standard Cherry MX stem design, opting more for a square which both allows the RGB LED to be perfectly central (of course the most important point…) and allows them to use their scissor stabiliser you can see through the side of the translucent switch housing. In theory that means a more stable switch, and on the whole I’d agree although it’s not like it’s worlds better as it does still have some play.

The main issue I have with the RX Red switches is the actuation point and force. It triggers after just 1.5mm of travel, and with just 40g of “initial” force, only adding a further 15g after the actuation point for a total of 55g. That means, at least for my fat fingers, I trigger them by accident constantly. It feels like you only need to breathe on them to trigger it, which is less than ideal when you are in the heat of battle but accidentally drop your gun or grenade yourself while trying to reload. Of course this is personal preference and something you generally will get used to, but I thought you should know anyway.

Sticking with the keys, while the keycaps are pretty nice, feel fairly premium and good quality, it is worth noting because of Asus’ RX switches they don’t use the standard Cherry MX stem meaning you can’t replace these with a different style, profile or colour should you want to. You are relatively limited in what you can use thanks to that four post design. It’s not the end of the world and for the majority of prospective buyers it’s unlikely that will matter to you but again it’s worth noting.

Moving onto connectivity, you have three options here. 2.4GHz using the included, magnetically retained USB dongle; Bluetooth with up to 3 devices; or wired via the USB C port and included braided USB C cable. You do also get a USB C to USB A adapter so you can plug the dongle into that to have it close to the keyboard, plus then easily plug the keyboard in to charge it.

You are probably wondering about the battery life, it’s ok I’m getting to that! Asus quotes 76 hours “even with RGB lighting on” – I suspect since the default mode is 50% brightness on the LEDs and the power saving mode where it turns the keyboard off after 5 minutes of inactivity is turned on that’s what they are quoting there. In my experience with it, I’d expect you to need to plug it in something like once per week – assuming you are using it most days. If I’m being honest I don’t get wireless mechanical keyboards like this – ones like Corsair’s K63 Wireless that fits in their Lapdog tray I can understand but for the sort of keyboard that is clearly meant to just sit on a desk and not move I’m less sold on.

Happily though I can report that when you do stick this on a desk, the thick rubber feet mean it won’t be sliding around on you at all. Strangely they opted to put plastic on every piece of rubber, meaning you have to remove 7 tiny bits of plastic waste before being able to use your keyboard properly – even the fold out feet have plastic on them! Remember to remove that, otherwise it definitely will slide around like mad.

I’m also happy to report that build quality is top notch. It feels rock solid, there is no deck flex to speak of and absolutely zero pinging. It feels genuinely premium, both in the hand and under them. I also personally like how it sounds while typing on it too – have a listen.

Speaking of typing on it, personally I didn’t have the utmost enjoyable time with it mostly thanks to the layout choices made like the extended left control key which moves the already shortened space bar further right meaning my hands somewhat converge in the centre and play footsie with each other on the space bar. The hair-trigger switches don’t make typing any easier either, although both of those things are something you can adjust to with enough time spent with the board and are also personal preference too.

The layout change that bugs me the most though is with the F keys at the top. F1 to F4 are normal with no secondary function, but F5 to F12 are your media keys as their primary action, with the F keys as the secondary FN + F key action. While you can remap that in their Armoury Crate software, the fact that F5 in particular is considered a secondary action but F1-4 aren’t is confusing. I’d personally rather have the consistency of the F keys doing what they are meant to, and needing to press FN to pause my music.

Of course, being a gaming keyboard, I can’t forget to talk about actually gaming on it! Everything that I’ve spoken about so far plays into this being a great, if touchy, experience. The high actuation point does mean it feels more reactive, a little snappier, although that might also come from the optical trigger needing no time to debounce the signal before sending it out. With how light the switches are too it makes it easy to quickly spam actions, albeit equally easy to mis-type. With how the board is laid out it’s pretty easy to tilt the board sideways for that pro-style position, although personally that’s not for me.

What is for me is this wrist rest. It’s just the right level of soft yet supportive, and while it is the faux leather material that without fail will destroy itself in a year or two, I’m not so bothered because I really like how it feels. It is technically magnetic, I say technically because it’s weak as hell and personally I like it to be a little further back anyway to actually support my hands, so that works well for me too.

The final thing I just have to mention is absolutely hilarious. This key, what should be F12 but instead is a little sort of ninja character, is what Asus calls the “Stealth Key”. This isn’t an in-game stealth function, or even something to do with the keyboard itself like making it quieter or turning off the RGB LEDs… No, instead this hides all open programs and mutes your desktop audio. Let me say that again – this mutes your system’s audio and hides all open windows. Why would you want that? Of course if you are watching reviews of gifts you are planning on giving to your wife! Obviously. There is no other possible reason you could need that functionality. None at all. Hahahahaha…

So, besides the ‘Mom walked in’ button, this is a solid keyboard. It’s definitely more competitive gaming focused with its hair-trigger switches, but it’s remarkably versatile and as far as I’m aware impressively priced too. Asus are still in the process of rolling this out so stock at the time of filming is a little hard to come by, but when it is available I’d be happy to recommend it to the right buyer. Of course I’ll leave a global Amazon affiliate link to it in the description if you do want to check out things like pricing when and where you watch this or even pick one up yourself if you fancy.