ROG (ASUS) - ROG Falcata Gaming Keyboard

Asus Rog Falcata. Excessively priced. But is probably the most fully featured gaming keyboard I can think of. Wireless, HE, split, rgb, 8k polling. Literally everything you can think of. Now do I recommend it? No, unless you need that specific combination of features plus a gaming brand. Technically no other keyboard has the feature set but most people don’t need that feature set. Only real downside other than price I can think of is the space bars are weirdly shaped so custom keycaps might be a little challenging.

I've had the board for about 2 months now. It's a decent gaming board and I do enjoy typing with it tented (although I realize it's not a true tenting that other boards can do). The price has been covered already. I still think Wooting is the gold standard in gaming boards. This is not it but having wireless and the ability to only use half the board is kind of nice. Sound is about what you would expect in a gaming board. Meaning not totally awful but far from great. I haven't taken it apart to try and mod yet but I would assume the modding abilities are pretty limiting due to the thickness of the case. All I've done is hand lube each switch and bag lube the springs. My biggest gripe are the spacebars which are 3.125u and nobody makes those. Last I checked, that information is nowhere to be found anywhere on the product description and if I would've known that, I would not have bought the board strictly due to that. It will take 3u bars without wobble if you pull the stabilizer stem out as they are just cheap clip ins (another gripe on a $400 board cutting corners). But it leaves a hole where sound will rattle around in. Like I said earlier, when I have time I'll take this thing apart, cover up the hole, put some GMK caps on and see if I can't tighten up the sound a little bit. Quick note: I found one set off 3.125u bars on AlieExpress by some Chinese mfg who pumps out a lot of cheaper boards I see on Amazon. But the stems didn't line up with the stabilizers on the Asus board. I don't have a 3D printer yet either but if I can get one or find someone who does, I'll try going that route.

That is barely an ergonomic board. Almost all proper ergonomic boards use ortholinear or columnar layouts, feature thumb clusters, and sometimes are concave shaped as well, all to minimize movement and strain of your fingers and wrists. There is no way this thing is worth $400+. That's enough for a proper ergonomic keyboard like a Glove80 (my personal choice), Moonlander, Advantage 360, Dygma Defy, etc, and I can't imagine this does anything important better than any of them. Edit: it has hall effect switches it seems, so I guess it does have one potentially major advantage, but if you're a serious enough gamer for that to matter I imagine there are better keyboards for you anyways.

I picked one of these up this week. I came from a dygma raise 2 so this is similar but at the same time quite a bit different. I might add my own review at some point. Several things I like more, and several I like less.

It doesn’t fall short. I have it and it’s long and beautiful

Every post about this keyboard, you have something negative to say, lol. The keycaps are definitely PBT🫠

Don’t buy. Keycaps are trash. Automatically returned.

They weren't PBT at all. Very close to ABS and for well over $400 that is unacceptable.

I give up. You’re clearly refusing to accept the fact that the keyboard isn’t cut out to be $400.

Ran lab tests? My guy. I know the difference between PBT and ABS. They are no where near the texture feeling and quality of the PBTs on the Extreme. Take a seat.

Despite what Asus and reviewers say, the link cable is, in my experience, not proprietary. Many short, true 40 Gbps (USB 4, Thunderbolt 4) Type C cables, adapters and extenders work flawlessly with it. I use magnetic 90 degree adapters and a longer cable between the halves on my unit, had 0 issues for both charging and general use. Regular cheap USB C cables won't work though.

Honestly, I wouldn't knock it till you've at least tried it. Having the OG Extreme and Scope96 for well over a year, they are night and day. It's not simply a combination of those features that make it so great to use and type on. Even the Falcata feels in another league compared to the Scope96 in terms of feel, without even discussing features. The Scope96 is a great board within its category and price point.

For typing feel, the Extreme every time. The thud is glorious :). HE are awesome for actuation / customisation and still feel great on the Falc, but I’d implore you to try and check out both.

TL;DR since my review is particularly long. I love this keyboard. It’s easily the best gaming keyboard I’ve tried. Proprietary link cable and limited ecosystem for switches may be a turn off for some, but for the average gamer, this is the best it gets. Ok full review time. I bought this keyboard as an upgrade from my Strix Flare II. I was prioritizing gaming as always and I finally became brave enough to make the switch to magnetic hall effect. I was originally going to buy a Wooting 80HE, but they were on back order until late January, which was when my classes start. What was the point of spending $200 on a product you can’t use for 4 months you know? Heck, why spend more than $200 on a keyboard at all? Well, I had the money, and I was curious to see what Asus had to offer this time around. So, I bought it. At the time I’m writing this, I still have a week to return it, so if I end up returning this for one reason or another, I’ll definitely update y’all on that. For now though I guess it’s only fair if I talk about the keyboard and what I think about it. I’ll first go over the keyboard itself, and then my honest thoughts on what I liked about it, what I think could be improved on, and what I think could be deterrents from actually getting one yourself. I : Package Contents This section is pretty short. The ROG Falcata came in a good quality box with very nice packaging. The keyboard is taken out of the box in the form of both halves in separate bags, including their respective wrist rests. Below the first layer of the box are two more boxes with included accessories. Which include 2 link cables of different sizes, a USB-C Cable, Screw in feet as well as screws for installing the wrist rests, a key cap puller, and a Ctrl key cap to replace the Copilot key (thank god they give you that option) and of course, the usual paperwork. The package is very well presented, and the unboxing experience was honestly really cool. Then again, the unboxing experience for my Strix Flare II was also great so I guess that’s common with ROG products. The keyboard features a 2 year warranty which is around the average warranty for a typical gaming keyboard. However, with the 4 year warranty of the Wooting 80HE, it does leave a lot to be desired. II : The Keyboard itself The ROG Falcata is a 75% form factor keyboard, meaning you maintain your function keys, and arrow keys, while sacrificing the number pad and a couple extra keys you would usually find on a full size board. On the Falcata, you get a Print screen key, as well as insert, page up, page down, and Delete keys on the far right side. The shell is comprised of an aluminum top frame and a plastic bottom where the feet and wrist rest screw in. The Falcata also features three different modes of connectivity: wired via USB-C, wireless via a 2.4 GHz dongle, and wireless via Bluetooth. From what I’ve seen, the Falcata is able to maintain an 8000Hz polling rate through USB-C as well as 2.4 GHz wireless. Not sure about Bluetooth, but this is what I found out so far. To the left of the keyboard is the control hub, which includes a wheel that can be used for volume, media control, RGB brightness, actuation point, macros, and per key rapid trigger. The UI on the board itself is a bit hard to read at first. I had to look at the manual a few times to see what light indicators mean what, but after a couple of minutes, I managed to get the reading down, and was able to adjust the settings I wanted on my keyboard entirely on the hardware itself, which is very impressive. On the front of the frame of the keyboard is a switch for toggling rapid trigger and three USB-C ports. Two ports for linking the 2 halves together, and one port for wired connectivity and other USB-C accessories if you decide to use the keyboard wirelessly. The keyboard even has a dedicated slot for a 2.4 GHz wireless dongle. Here is where I come to my first con. Despite the ports being USB-C, the cables needed to link the halves together are proprietary. Asus DOES give you two of these cables in the box, but it will not work with your standard USB-C cable, so if you do lose them, well… consider it game over unless you know how to use only half a keyboard. I’m not sure WHY Asus decided to make the link cables proprietary this way as it could’ve easily been just a standard USB-C input. A little disappointing if you ask me. This was honestly my only major con through this whole review. The keyboard splits into two halves. As a matter a fact, the Falcata comes with 8 feet in the box; 4 bigger ones, and 4 smaller ones, which can be hand screwed into the bottom depending on your preferred ergonomics. As it currently stands, this is the only Hall effect keyboard of this nature that features a split design. Speaking of hall effect, this keyboard uses Magnetic Hall effect switches, specifically their ROG HFX V2 switches that they make in house. They come prelubed from the factory and I honestly think they are amazing for being Hall effect. The sound profile of this keyboard with these switches is less clanky than your usual HE switch, and more punchy and a little bit thocky. It’s not often you get a great typing experience from a Hall effect keyboard, but the Falcata absolutely delivers in that regard. However that does bring me to my second con, although the switches in this keyboard are hot swappable, Asus opted for a design with the magnet on the bottom of the switch rather than in the center. While not necessarily a proprietary design, it does make for a more closed ecosystem, as the only other magnetic switch on the market with this design is the TTC Gold magnetic switches. From a “swap the switches with something else” standpoint, it is very limited. That being said, I still think the switches are amazing as they are and you honestly don’t need to worry about replacing them. The lack of customization when it comes to switch selection is the main concern here, but I’m sure that won’t matter much for the average gamer. Overall I am very pleased with the hardware of this keyboard. It is a shame that linking the two halves together uses a proprietary cable, since it could’ve easily just been traditional USB-C, and the switch design could’ve been more traditional on top of that, but excluding the cable and the customization, the build quality is excellent. It is very comfortable to type on and it’s pretty easy to change settings on the keyboard itself once you get used to the UI. III : Software Recently, Asus created a web based alternative to the bloated dumpster fire that is Armoury Crate called Gearlink. Unfortunately, it requires a Chromium based web browser to work. I would like to see a downloadable version of this software because I think it has a lot going for it, and could definitely become one of the better keyboard applications other than Wootings Wootility software. The software was very easy to navigate, and had all the basic features that a Hall effect keyboard should be able to configure. Key rebinding, actuation point, dead zones, you name it. It’s all here, and it’s far less bloated than Armoury Crate ever will be since it’s web based. You even get Per Key rapid trigger configuration which Gearlink makes very easy to understand and accessible to most people. The software also has settings for Snap Tap, a form of SOCD-style inputs which is basically Rappy Snappy like the Wooting keyboards and they implement it very well with their Gearlink software. Some cons; At this time, Gearlink does NOT have per key RGB, which could be a deterrent for some, but honestly, I don’t see myself using it so for me it’s completely fine. Still would be nice if they added it though. I also find it kind of annoying that my rapid trigger profile is reset to its default settings every time I restart my computer. It saves my key remaps and my actuation points, but it never saves my rapid trigger settings. It could just be user error, but it could also be the software itself. At this time, Gearlink is in beta, so there’s definitely more bugs and inconsistencies that I haven’t noticed yet, but it seems like Asus is actively working on making Gearlink great, and into a fully working product. Right now, there are only a few select peripherals that are compatible with Gearlink and thankfully the ROG Falcata is one of them. I hope they continue to improve on this software and I hope they expand compatibility to their other keyboards, because it could be a game changer not using Armory Crate. IV : Summary of Pros and Cons This section is also pretty short. Pros: - Excellent build quality - Surprisingly awesome sounding switches for being Hall effect - Wireless connectivity - Lots of customization in terms of ergonomics - Gearlink compatibility means no more Armoury Crate 🎉 Cons: - Link cable is proprietary despite being USB-C (my biggest con) - Magnet implementation in switches makes for limited ecosystem of customization (Only other option is TTC Gold Magnetic) - Software is a little bit buggy (but is improving which I like to see) - 2 year warranty is less than 4 years on the Wooting - The price… Oh yeah. I haven’t even discussed the price for this thing. This keyboard is a Best Buy exclusive from what I’ve seen. I paid $280 for this keyboard during Best Buy’s year end sale. And mind you, that is the SALE price. Ya wanna know the ACTUAL price of this keyboard? Brace yourselves… $420… At that price, I wouldn’t even consider it. Even if it tasted like ice cream, or did my chores, I would NOT pay $420 for this thing. Only reason I bought it at all was because of the sale. As a matter a fact, this keyboard is good. TOO GOOD. I tried looking for a Wooting alternative and in that regard, I think I overdelivered. :P V : Conclusion: From a physical hardware perspective, I think the Asus ROG Falcata is fantastic, and is easily the best gaming keyboard I’ve tried. It’s gonna be pretty hard justifying the $280 I paid for it, but in the end, it’s mine. And I love it. It offers an amazing experience for both gaming and typing alike and I’m sure even just trying it for yourself at one of Best Buy’s demo displays will show you why I love it so much. This keyboard came out of nowhere and has taken me over by storm. It is easily my new daily driver and I can’t wait to use it more. I’m also looking forward to Gearlink and future updates Asus will make. This keyboard isn’t for the custom keyboard enthusiast, but for a GAMING person? Yeah. I don’t think anything can beat this.