Software

The WIZMAX CALUX has first-party software support, if you count a re-skinned OEM solution as first-party anyway. Getting the installer itself is not trivial though, as you have to go to this support page, type the product name in the text box, choose the CALUX Cherry (or Gateron, depending on what you have) from the selection menu, hit proceed at the bottom, and only then will the grayed out "Download Driver" and "Download Manual" options be active, with the latter allowing you to download a PDF version of the same multi-language user guide included in the box. WIZMAX is aware of this approach being too contrived, so hopefully it will be less confusing in the future. For what it's worth, the download option just goes to this Google Drive link allowing you to bypass all these steps, at least for now. The software is called "CaluX Luxury Driver" and the installer downloads as a zip file, with the latest version at the time of testing being v2.0.19. Note that it is dated December 2023 though, which shows this has been in the works for a while and hasn't had any updates since then. The installer is ~70 MB in size and, as with every single version of this OEM driver for the YiChip MCU, there isn't any installation options provided, with the executable choosing to do everything by default, including any T&C you inadvertently agreed to, adding shortcuts to the desktop and start menu, as well as the installation location itself where these drivers take 242 MB on your storage drive.


Once installed, the software is fairly light on system resources, but not as fast as most other programs. Again, this is not in WIZMAX's hands as much as the microcontroller OEM that makes the base software, and we've seen this used by others before—Akko is a recent example, and we've seen some Hall effect keyboards use a slightly modified version too. With the keyboard connected, it takes ~3 seconds to detect the device and bring up the appropriate module full of specific menus and options. As before, the program scales well with high DPI displays despite the lack of a Windows maximize option, and at least improves upon most other re-skinned OEM drivers from China that are full of poorly translated English or outright errors.

Ah, that dreaded loading animation is here too, and you will be seeing it a lot. Every single action is immediately executed, and there is a 2-3 sec processing time to get anything done. This can make for a somewhat frustrating experience when just playing around with the various available options, and I want to see WIZMAX actually go for a custom software solution for something that's marketed as luxury. Make one, or at least use a better OEM driver + MCU allowing for a preview system with dedicated apply and cancel buttons to proceed after having decided what to do. On the plus side, the various menus are well laid out to where the interface is logical, and there are extensive options as it pertains to selecting the different layers, key mapping, macro recording, and of course the lighting effects. There are sub-options too, including key sensitivity, being able to customize the wireless battery savings settings, and also the lighting brightness/speed/direction as applicable. Given there are only white LEDs on board the CALUX, this lighting section is more simple than usual—I would still have liked to see more profiles and per-key lighting though. You can check for software and firmware updates here, which is always nice.