Lighting and Performance

The ASUS ROG Strix Flare II Animate supports N-key rollover USB out of the box, which tested successfully using Aqua's test. Switch Hitter confirmed no chatter with these keys either, and as per usual these days, the R. Win key is replaced by an Fn key.


When first powered on without the software running, the keyboard lit up in a static white on all LEDs, including the side-firing ones on the bottom making for a long LED strip. The original Strix Flare has the two shorter sides lit instead, which I think is the way to go. With the wrist rest installed, it is less bright as the light has to travel a longer distance and through another plastic diffuser insert, making it barely relevant. However, it does make for a novel effect as your wrist rest will seem to have LEDs too. Seen above are some other colors and lighting effects demonstrated, which all helped determine that ASUS has done a great job with color calibration; there is minimal light bleed despite the highly floating nature of the keycaps, and the side lighting without the wrist rest installed is fairly bright, with the diffuser making it uniform rather than from discrete LEDs.


The star here is no doubt the Anime Matrix section with a total of 312 tiny LEDs and associated customization options, some of which you saw before. Given these are all white LEDs, it makes sense that the default lighting effect for the keyboard is a static white on the keys. Several preset animations are available, including some highly complex ones I found extremely impressive. Making this a scaled-down version of the Anime Matrix in their larger ROG Zephyrus laptops was a great idea as it makes for a larger library of ready-to-go content before the ability to upload your own image, gif, or even text as seen above. Some items clearly work better than others, with the square TPU logo in the first image above hardly distinguishable by itself, so you need to opt for simpler designs and 8/16-bit animations to make the most of this feature. I also liked the added functionality in system mode, whereby I can certainly see this becoming handy for future keyboards as a multi-purpose indicator screen; audio visualizer mode was also fun for a short time before the novelty wore off. We have seen such visual elements on other keyboards, likes the EVGA going with an integrated LCD display, SteelSeries adding an OLED screen, and CORSAIR making an optional clip-on touch screen, but it's the best integrated solution in terms of size, effectiveness, and customization that I have used to date.

Even outside of the lighting and Anime Matrix standouts, onboard functionality is quite strong on the Strix Flare II Animate. I mentioned before how it joins a few other flagship keyboards released recently to go from a base 1000 Hz polling rate all the way up to 8000 Hz for near-instantaneous responses that will inevitable be bottlenecked by the USB microcontroller. It still makes for a neat marketing gimmick; many will no doubt want this just to know they have the latest and greatest. What's more important to me is that most of the software functionality is accessible via onboard controls. This includes the stored profiles with their own different Anime Matrix animations, various lighting effects, on-the-fly macro recording, and dedicated volume and media playback controls. Keycap legends identify these pre-programmed controls, and the volume control section is one of the most premium-feeling of any keyboard. Those rocker knobs in particular feel like they could be on a flight stick without being out of place. What the software drivers come in handy for is finer control over everything, as well as easier key mapping if you want to try out different typing layouts.


There are several different Cherry MX and ROG NX mechanical switch options with the Strix Flare II Animate, and the hot-swap feature further helps customize the keyboard. I am glad ASUS sent me the version with its own ROG NX Red switches, and firmly believe it provides a better typing experience than the Cherry MX Red it is based on. There is lower stem wobble, the switches come decently pre-lubed, and it's just smoother overall. The more transparent top and bottom housing also enhances lighting effects if that's your jam, and I personally think the force-travel curve is smarter, too. ASUS has gone with a higher initial force before the stem lowers, which reduces the odds of accidental strokes, but still maintains a rated actuation force of the usual 45 gf for this medium force linear switch. Actuation is slightly faster at ~1.8 mm relative to the typical 2.0 mm, although total travel remains at 4.0 mm with a peak force of 55 gf. ASUS is also claiming no gap between the actuation and reset points, which are close enough not to make a tangible difference anyway.


As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the ROG Strix Flare II keyboard sample at ~100 WPM as it comes out of the box with the ROG NX Red switches. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with linear switches. I did bottom out far more often than not, which is not too surprising because of the relatively light nature of this switch past actuation. It also helps test for reverberations and echoes, which are absent courtesy the pre-installed foam dampening sheet in the case. The only sound signature is the switches bottoming out on the aluminium plate, which is still higher-pitched than I would like, but there's not much you can do outside of physically changing the plate and switches in this otherwise plate-mounted keyboard. The stabilizers are plenty adequate, including with the pre-applied lube, and this is one of the best typing experiences I have had from a mainstream brand to date overall.