Software

Note that software testing was done for the Alloy Origins 60 and Alloy Origins Core at once, as well as a third keyboard we will see soon. As such, my thoughts here are generally the same for both.


The software for the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 and other recent HyperX peripherals is HyperX NGENUITY, now completely hosted on the Microsoft store instead of the HyperX website. The latest version at the time of release is STILL a Beta with no full release in almost two years, but HyperX has clearly updated it since the last version I had checked. I cut HyperX some slack last time around, when the transition was clearly ongoing, but there are no excuses now. The Microsoft store is absolutely not the place for this, with too many restrictions and trackers to allow for the keyboard drivers to even be installed. I had to force a full update to my OS to even get the installer to download, which of course meant having to play another round of "what has Microsoft done with my OS settings and preferences this time?" Having just the vital updates is not enough, and this is before all the other bugs associated with this Beta release that still uses some broken English. To give it due credit, the installer is lightweight, as is the actual program despite it asking for way more memory space than it actually takes up (~270 MB). It is a unified drivers program with support for most recent HyperX hardware, but is also clearly an afterthought given nothing has changed despite the visibly poor ratings on the Microsoft store and all the customer and media complaints over the years.


The only good thing about this page is that HyperX at least alerts you to its desire to get usage data and provides the option to disable it in the default selection. Do with this as you please, the company does claim anonymous data transfer.


The first thing I always recommend with such keyboards is to check for firmware updates, and HyperX NGENUITY alerted me of one immediately when it recognized the plugged-in keyboard. The firmware update process took less than a minute and went smoothly.


Absolutely nothing has changed with the UI since we last took a look nearly two years ago, and I am once again reminded of how HyperX really does have to improve here if they want to be taken more seriously as a mainstream peripherals company. The UI is clean and polished with no bugs that I found, but the user experience still has a lot of room for improvement. For example, there are three presets that are not visually distinguishable from each other. All three use the same weirdly detailed and colorful image, which makes me think a graphics designer was paid to make images but then no one thought about what to do with them. The settings cog has software-specific settings at the bottom, on the left pane that turns translucent from time to time, making it harder to see, and keyboard-specific settings are diagonally across and again lack contrast on this black backdrop. There are very few options for lighting, but a search bar takes up space for no reason despite being functional. In general, there is far too much empty space to be taken up by the program, yet we see some random options which barely make any difference on the keyboard in real life. I could go on and on, but this is a review of the keyboard as a whole, so we move on while recognizing that this is STILL a Beta release and hope that things improve sooner than later.

There are two primary menus for the Alloy Origins 60, and the default menu is called Lights. Unsurprisingly, it is all about controlling the RGB lighting. The keyboard in its default profile is pre-programmed with an RGB wave effect. HyperX has an interesting layout for the customization options of effects, including the usual brightness/opacity slider, but also a color bar with segments for even further customizations per effect, though without an easy way to enter the exact color you want numerically as a hex code or in R/G/B brightness steps. You can also apply the effect on a per-key or bank-of-keys basis, as well as have multiple effects run simultaneously, which is still rare and appreciated all the same. There are a few other pre-programmed effects to choose from in the drop-down menu on the left, and the virtual keyboard decently showcases the changes made, including the angled effects if applied. Note that the software needs to be running for the various custom effects to work, be it in the foreground or the system tray.

Keys is the next menu, and it is for customizing the functionality of the keyboard beyond the lighting. Three profiles are saved onboard, and these can be associated to run with a game or program of your choice. With each profile, the software, when running, also allows for per-key customization over the various options shown in the video above. This includes key mapping to other keys, mouse actions, recording and assigning a macro action, and more. You can thus switch to a different typing layout, such as Dvorak, if QWERTY is not to your liking.