First things first: If you qualify to be an EVGA Elite member, join the program now. EVGA has been very aggressively marketing their rewards program, which is free to join, and many with an EVGA product may already qualify for it. Directly relevant to this review is that whopping ~50% discount, which brings the EVGA Z20 flagship keyboard to a price point that is unmatched by anything else with this feature set. I am going so far as to say that EVGA Elite members should just consider this keyboard as though I have given it our Highly Recommended award as well.

The issue is this low pricing is not possible for many, and so we get to the $155-175 pricing instead where things get harder. There are so many good keyboards in this price range, including many with better software experience and arguably better switches- at least with the stabilizers. What you are paying for here is the early adopter tax with the new USB microcontroller that allows for the 4000 Hz native polling rate, which is not even on a handful of keyboards at this time, but also that first-to-me TOF sensor integrated in the keyboard which actually does a very good job in helping distinguish this keyboard among others. It has worked well for me and, combined with the EVGA Unleash software experience, allows for pretty nifty quality of life improvements. The switches and the sensor promise for a faster keyboard, but it only goes so far to mitigate the input lag and response times of everything else in the communication chain. It is still a good feature set to have, especially if you combine with other ultra-fast devices such as monitors and mice, but is not a must-have feature in itself for me.

EVGA has come a long way since the Z10, which itself is not that old a device. I have seen definite improvements in the software experience, but more remains to be done here. Similarly, they have cut down on the LCD display offering, which itself was a poor showing compared to the initial promise, and have gone with a cleaner design that fits well anywhere. The additional keys add functionality as well, but also draw comparisons to the CORSAIR K100 along with the switch type, polling rate, magnetic wrist rest, and the brushed metal frame. But I suspect the latter features are going to be adopted widely soon, and the former has been around for a while. The EVGA-only touches here, especially with the innovative TOF feature, make the Z20 a fairly big deal for the company regardless and worth consideration.