Aorus Thunder K7 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Testing
What do you do to test a keyboard? Well for starters it has to type. Secondly, we test the anti-ghosting. Ghosting happens when a combination of three or more keys cause an extra key press to be registered. Finally, we tested rollover. Rollover is the ability for the keyboard to register every single key press if/when all keys are pressed at the same time. The Thunder K7 is capable of six keys being pressed as the same time before no other key presses are registered. The software needed to program the keyboard is easy to use and is fairly self-explanatory. The settings and configuration options are easy to get to and not buried under menu after menu.
Conclusion
The Aorus Thunder K7 Gaming keyboard is a very solid performer without the ten-key macro keypad. During a couple weeks of solid use, the keyboard didn’t miss a beat. The per LED key lighting is as close to perfect as it gets in my opinion. Even at the maximum setting, the lights are not so bright as to be distracting. If you are coming from a membrane style keyboard or a keyboard that has tactile and/or audiable feed back, the Cherry MX red switches take a little bit of getting used to. For me, I am coming from Cherry MX black switches which take 60g of force for activation vs 45g for the reds. There was a little bit of an adjustment period. I lost track of how many double letters, numbers and symbols that were mis-typed during the time I used the keyboard. With onboard memory, your profiles can go with you to another computer without having to install the software on the other computer.
The ten-key macro keypad is a must for me. It’s strange, but it feels really strange to type on a keyboard that doesn’t have a ten-key. I constantly use the number pad. Swapping sides made it more difficult during normal use, but came in really handy for games like Skyrim and World of Warcraft. Having sixteen keys available for use without having to take my hand off the mouse made the gaming experience pleasurable. The extra included USB 2.0 cable means the keypad can be used without being attached to the keyboard.
For all the positives, there are a few negatives with the Aorus Thunder K7. First, there is not any extra external USB or audio jacks on the keyboard. While this isn’t a deal killer, it is certainly nice to have an extra USB port of two available or audio jacks. Typically, I use my USB ports for my mouse and headset. There is no cable management channels under the keyboard. Depending on where the PC is in relation to the keyboard this may present an issue for some. Finally, the magnets that hold the ten-key macro keypad to the keyboard are weak. Uneven surfaces or even intense gaming sessions which happen to cause movement can cause the ten-key keypad to disconnect. This happened on more than one occasion and after a while it was pretty annoying. A stronger magnet placed in the mounting locations should solve the issue. If we are being picky, full RGB LED support on the keyboard would be nice.
Overall I like the Aorus Thunder M7 Gaming keyboard. At $149.99 it falls right in the middle of the price range of similar mechanical keyboards. Some are cheaper while others are more expensive. The mechanics, fit and finish of the keyboard are excellent. The key caps should last a while and since they fit on Cherry MX stems, there are multiple options to replace them. The weight of the keyboard tends to keep the keyboard from moving around too much, but vibrations can cause the ten-key to disconnect, which is my only major complaint. If you happen to be in the market for a LED lit mechanical keyboard, take a look at the Aorus Thunder K7.
[sc:recommended_hardware_award ]
