Closer Examination

The HyperX Alloy FPS is a petite keyboard, and this is a compliment. Similar to the Roccat Suora FX we saw earlier, there is next to no bezel space around the business area of the keyboard itself, making it occupy a lot less space on your desk than most other keyboards. This helps especially with a full-size keyboard as you can now have the mouse closer and more in line with your shoulder's width, which is the way to go. I have here the ISO layout with Cherry MX Blue switches, although it does come in a plethora of different options as seen on the first page.

No extra keys here, although there are some secondary functions tied to a lot of keys, including some F keys and the arrow/numpad cluster. Unfortunately, the secondary legends are either above or below the primary ones here, which will not be conducive for uniform backlighting, and it does seem as though HyperX was not sure which way to go either as there is a mix of both. As far as the font of the legends goes, there's nothing overly aggressive here despite it being targeted at gamers. A relatively clean and medium-sized font here, and I personally like it. The only branding are the HyperX mentions on the space bar and next to the indicator LEDs in the top-right corner.


Not much going on at the back either, with a couple rubber pads on the corners and two feet to help tent the keyboard. The feet also have rubber pads to help prevent the keyboard from sliding on your desk. There are two female ports on the keyboard - one for the keyboard itself (mini USB) and the other a pass-through for power. HyperX is not advising the use of this port to help power and use a mouse or headset, and rather, it is there for you to power a phone or something similar. No actual data pass-through or USB 3.0 anywhere here, which is a bit of a shame in 2017.


HyperX has OEM profile stock keycaps on the Alloy FPS, which is not a surprise at all and works fine for the general public. The keycaps and switches are also staggered as per usual, and the included keycap puller fits fine when it comes time to remove these stock keycaps. Owing to the absence of a top-panel piece, the keycaps are "floating" in design, which helps with removing, installing, or cleaning them, though at the expense of some light bleed from backlighting. Considering this is a single-color backlit device, light bleed is a non-issue in my opinion.

The stock keycaps are mediocre at best though - thin ABS (0.88 mm wall thickness on average) with laser-etched legends. The ABS material does not appear to have a durable coating on it or the legends as they developed a shine very quickly into my testing process - heavy use of the keyboard for a week was enough. This is a disappointment in that what otherwise looks and feels great is let down by some of the worst stock keycaps I have seen. That said, it helps a lot that HyperX has gone with a standard bottom-row configuration in terms of keycap/switch layout and sizing as it means that the bulk majority of third-party keycap sets are compatible here. I would recommend replacing the stock keycaps when they develop a shine; there are affordable keycap sets from the likes of Vortex and Ducky that will last longer and have the legends all in the same row and translucent for backlighting. For this alone, the HyperX Alloy FPS has better longevity than the usual suspects in the mainstream keyboard market.

The replacement keycaps provided fit just fine, as seen in the pictures above, and do a good job when it comes to distinguishing the WASD keys from the rest. There is not much to differentiate the 1, 2, 3 and 4 keys unless you look down at them, however.


All genuine Cherry MX switches here, and of the non-RGB variant to boot. This helps in that the Cherry MX Blue switches with the opaque black housing have been easier to make consistently for Cherry, and with a single-color LED for backlighting, that is all you need. The larger keycaps have costar stabilizers, so this is not a Solid Year OEM keyboard as I originally suspected. This results in a minuscule amount of hassle when it comes to removing and adding back the larger keycaps, but also leads to a more solid feeling while typing on them, especially for the large space bar.