Software

It's been a while since I last used NZXT CAM and I have to say some things have yet to be changed for the better. In particular, you download the installer from this page and then it just starts doing its thing without asking permissions from you for things such as Start menu/desktop shortcuts, any ToS you may want to know about, the program auto-starting with your OS etc. On the other hand, I remember CAM being a resource hog and fairly buggy back when I last used it and NZXT has certainly improved here. In fact, the CAM product manager, who is an avid FPS gamer too, was very helpful in getting me set up with the software as it pertains to the keyboard and also reminding me it is quite easy to have the other panels hidden for the sake of this review. It's an option in the settings tab, along with a bunch of others, that ultimately help you have CAM set up as you'd like. I personally also like the clean UI and crisp elements used although the default state can be busy if all you want is a software to customize your keyboard or mouse as opposed to it also monitoring your PC. The latest version of CAM at the time of testing was v4.60.4 and takes up 450 MB of space, not too bad compared to direct competitors.

The video above goes over the features currently available with the NZXT Function 2 MiniTKL in CAM. As I understand, most of this will be familiar to anyone who has used the NZXT Function series of keyboards and everyone else will hopefully also relate to the standard options here in the form of onboard (hardware) and software profiles, with the latter having more features since it isn't tied to what the USB microcontroller on the keyboard is capable of. As such, we get a few extra lighting effects with software profiles but this also makes sense since it requires access to the audio being played at the moment. You can create, edit, and delete profiles as needed allowing you to pull one up to use with specific games or other programs. The key mapping section requires a more rudimentary drag and drop technique as opposed to clicking the key to be mapped/remapped and then simply choosing what you want to use. The on-screen render can be small if CAM is not maximized so there is a potential for you to drop the desired function to the wrong key. Macro recording works as expected with all the necessary recording and editing steps supported. Unique to the Function 2 series, because of the optical switches used, is the ability to choose the actuation distance of the switches between either 1 mm or 1.5 mm. I mentioned before how NZXT has correctly acknowledged the limitations of optical switches and this discrete set of two travel distances for the switches to actuate is a good balance. Users can thus have a fast switch or an even faster switch compared to the usual mechanical switches actuating at 2 mm. The other new update here is the ability to have a polling rate higher than 1000 Hz, going as high as 8000 Hz.