Alienware Pro Gaming Mechanical Keyboard AW768 Review

My usual reviews for keyboards consist of mechanical keyboard with some loud switches, but today’s review is a little different.  Today’s review is on the Alienware Pro Gaming Mechanical Keyboard AW768 with Kailh brown switches, so they are quiet but they feel so nice.  The keyboard is nice, but a few things bug me and you can be sure we will go over them here.

Before I go ahead and ruin it, let’s go over the features and specs on this keyboard.

Features and Specifications

• 111 Keys
• Multimedia Keys
• Dedicated Volume Roller
• Kailh Brown Switches
• 50 million Click Key lifespan
• Anti-Ghosting / Full N-Key Roll over
• 1000Hz Polling Rate
• All Keys are programmable
• 15 Programmable Macro Key functions
• On-the-Fly recording
• 256KB Onboard memory
• 45G Actuation Force
• 60g Tactile Force
• 2mm Actuation Distance
• 4mm Total Travel Distance
• -5ms bounce time
• 8Million RGB lighting ambient color options
• 13 Zone based AlienFX RGB backlit
• 3 Adjustable leg angles
• Nylon Braided Cable
• 6 Foot USB Cable
• Optional Magnetic Palm rest… Sold Separately

OK, now that we have gone through that exhausting list, let’s check out an unboxing.

Not much in the box, but let’s go over what was inside.

We start with the Quick Start Guide.

Alienware is not kidding when they say quick start guide, it’s a pamphlet that you unfold.

The main part of the fold out, that has anything of relevance is shown here.  Shows you how to connect the keyboard to your USB port and where to download the drivers.

Also included is the Safety, Environmental, and Regulatory Information document.  It is a very long document in different languages.

Starting from the USB portion, we have the standard USB port.

Going up from the USB connector, we find the 6 Foot Nylon braided cable.  A very nice tight braid.

Ending up at the keyboard itself.

In this next chapter, we will get up and close with the keyboard.

Continue:  The Keyboard

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Here is the keyboard with the wrist rest attached, the AW168.  The Alienware Pro Gaming Mechanical Keyboard is connected and lit up like a rainbow.  If you look at the bottom left hand corner, you can see a bit of the ambient lighting, not only the keys light up here.  Let’s take a second to see the Alienware Gaming Palm Rest unboxing.

Looking at the other side with the LED lighting off and the AW168 wrist rest off as well.  Let’s you see the silk screened ALIENWARE logo.

A closer look at the logo.  Nothing flashy, just nice and classy.

Flipping the keyboard for a second, we find what almost looks like to be a standard back of a keyboard, though notice, the sides are not flat.  Instead of plain corner, the sides curve more to support its unique angles and lend to the palm rest, though not currently included in this picture.  Let’s dig in a little deeper and see what this is made up of.

Top left and right-hand corners, we find the feet.  Obviously like most they pop out as to add a little move curvature and elevation but there’s a little something less obvious to its design.

Like most, you have your standard tiny elevation which is not bad, just very common and expected.

This adds about half an inch of height to the rear of the keyboard, again, pretty standard but I like my keyboard a little more elevated and I think Alienware knew this.

That was only 1 of its 2 levels of elevation.  Here is an example of the additional elevation.

The second level almost brings it to a full inch of height, almost doubling its height.  A welcomed treat and what I am currently typing this review as.

Focusing on the back of the keyboard again, we find the sticker.  The sticker goes over the fact that is a USB keyboard, then goes over the model number, input rating, where it’s made a bunch of certifications, serial number and a QR code.

Bottom right hand corner we have one rubber pad.

The bottom center of the keyboard has another rubber pad.

Then finally, the last of the 3 feet on the bottom right hand corner.  Both in this picture and in the first of the 3 feet you can see a little white strip on the edge.  This is where the ambient light comes from, they are just off right now so that you can see them a little more clearly.

Here is one edge exposing the white stripe, which goes along through the entire bottom front portion of the keyboard to the other end of the keyboard.

Here’s the other side.

Here’s that same strip illuminated a bit like a rainbow.  The ambient light to me is not incredibly noticeable, but every little bit helps.  Let’s go back to the top of the keyboard and explorer what it has to offer.

Going from left to right, we first find the Macro keys.  The top key, the Macro toggle, Macro Record key allows you to set macros when pressed once, and if held for more than 3 seconds allows you to record macro.

Macro Keys 1 ~ 5, are where the macros are recorded.  Each 3 is part of a 3 mode key function actually allowing you to record up to 15 different macros.

Adding the Macro keys we showed previous, we move a little more to the right.  Here we can see the Escape key doubles as a Function lock key, locking the function keys from F1 ~ F12 when pressed along with the function key.  I will show you a little later here where the function key is.

F1 along with the function key, enables or disables the Windows key keeping you when locked from accidentally hitting the windows key minimizing your full screen application.  This key is also known as the Game Mode key.

F2 serves no special fun, but F3 is the Profile stored on board key.  Pressing Function along with F3 allows you to store up to 3 sets of profiles or lighting configuration.  Pressing that key set again, goes to Profile 2 and yet again for Profile 3.  F4 along with the function key, launches the Alienware Control Center which allows you through software to record marcos, remap keys, change lighting effects and a host of other features.  We will go over this a little later in the review.

F5 and F6 respectively allows you to either decrease or increase the keyboard backlight intensity.  Did I forget to mention you will once agent have to hold the function key and one of these keys to activate this function?

F7 and F8 respectively along with the function key allows you to either decrease or increase the ambient light on the sides and the bottom of the keyboard.

F9 ~ F11 are the respective Media playback keys.  F9, Plays the previous track or chapter, F10 acts as the Play or Pause button, F11 is stop and F12 plays the next track or proceeds to the next chapter.  Each key as usual will have to function alongside the function key.

Skipping over the standard Print Screen, Scroll Lock and Pause, we find this very unique set of keys.  On the left, we find the Mute key, to mute out your sound, then we find one of my favorite keys, the volume slider.

Rather than utilizing a set of Function keys, relying on tapping function and an F key to adjust your volume, here you can actually slide up or down to raise or lower the volume.

The alien head here is not just for looks, it serves it own special function as well.  Pressing this button loads custom lighting effects for the Alienhead logo.  This can also serve to completely turn on or off the keyboard lighting.

While not amazingly uncommon, is not on every keyboard, but we have the Windows Key wedged between the Control and Alternate keys.

Then on the right of the space bar, we have the standard Alternate and control keys, but in between then we have the Function Key and the Menu key.  The function key is used in conjunction with the F Keys and the Menu button, one of my favorites acts like a right click of the mouse.

We have the usual home button ridges typists know and love, the J

And the F home key ridge.  What if I told you there was another, a home for gamers?

Alienware, being a gaming first company didn’t forget about their roots.  They gave the S key the home ridge so that you always know where WASD is, thank you Alienware.

We have gone over the keys above… but what is under the keys?

Removing a few keys, we can find the switches and maybe, just maybe the LED lights as well.  Let’s go in a little deeper.

Beneath those keys we find Kailh Brown switches, affordable very quiet keys and even though you might like loud clicky keys like I do… or maybe did the tactile force behind these keys is so very soothing or maybe it’s the bounce back?  Mind you, you will still here the plastic keys touch the base of the switch housing, so they are not totally silent, but they are not clicky at all.  We will go over this in a little more detail later in the review.

Coming in a little closer, we can see the LED lights.  What do they look like on though?

That’s pretty sexy I would say.

So now that we have a better understanding of the keyboard, its looks and many of its functions, let’s get a bit more into the lighting, Effects, keys and Alienware Control Center.

Continue: Lighting, Effects, Keys and Alienware Control Center

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I have been reviewing RGB keyboards for quite some time, and I first I didn’t get the craze until I got my first one, and I love it.  This one is no different in the RGB side, very nice light source, 16.8 million colors and lots of nice features to show them off.

The function keys provide controls to allow you to dim or make brighter the keys and even able to control the ambient levels of illumination.  Alienware Control Center allows you a lot more controls as you saw in the video, but let’s get a little closer and check out Alienware Control Center.

Starting Alienware Control Center up, we are greeted with this screen, the “Basic Color” tab screen.

This screen allows us to change the lighting of the keys, we are under the “Lighting” tab after all.  We get to select individual preselected colors, or select our own color from a choice of 16.8 million colors from the color gradient circle then clicking “Update Lighting Preset” to show that color on the physical keyboard.

These selections towards the top of the Alienware Control Center, just above the keyboard allows you to select different key combinations to illuminate.

By taking all of the checks off of All, Arrow, Number Row, Function, Numpad, Ambient, Logo and Macro, we have disabled all of the lights, but then placed a check on WASD, clicked on Red and selected Update lighting Preset, we get this.

By individually selecting a section, leaving the rest blank, updating that preset, unchecking that one, then selecting another till you have done it with all presets, you come up with something like this below.

Here it is on the keyboard.  You don’t have to customize it like I did, but it’s just an example. Or you could select the keyboard to be all one color, but there is a little something nicer than that but we will go over that in a bit.

Moving over from the “Basic Color” tab, we come to the “Preset Animations” tab.

This tab makes things a little more exciting.

We have many animation presets to select, but with those presets, we can chose the action in One Color, Two Colors or in a multi colored Rainbow.

The animation options are as follows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 different Animation presets, and while pictures wont do them justice, I will go over them in a bit.

We can Load a custom keystroke we may have saved off in a file, use custom presets or use already built presets.  More options hidden below in that little snippet I provide, allow you to Record new Macros, Export Macros you have recorded and delete Macros you have saved.

These are the 3 hidden options I mentioned above blown up a bit so you can see them a bit better.

The options I showed you here were from the Keystrokes section, let’s check the Key Mapping section.

The section itself, it’s pretty explanatory.

Once you do that, you have mapped your key.  You know I am not going to leave you with that explanation and that explanation alone, I will show you in more detail in a video a little later, just bear with me.  I am not a big fan of Macro keys so I was a little upset that it had them along the side, getting me confused with the Control button and the Macro 5 key and Escape with the Macro toggle key.  My friend Brandon had recommended to me to remap the macro keys with the Control and Escape, a genius idea I would say but sadly you cannot map the macro keys

Over in the settings section, we have a few more options.

From here, we can “Toggle Keyboard Lighting on/off”, toggle “Game Mode” on/off.  Game Mode consists of being able to individually Lock certain keysf, for example, Win-Key, Left-Shift Key, Tab key, Alt Key and Application key.  Sleep when selected is a little deceptive, but not really, it puts your keyboard to sleep within the allotted period and 10 minutes is the lowest, 120 minutes is the highest.  Polling Rate Delay allows you to raise or lower the time it takes for your keyboard to communicate with your PC, the lowest it goes is 1 millisecond and the highest is 9 milliseconds.

The Key Selection Method allows you to set how your keys are pair.  The earlier pictures you saw where I could change the color of a set of keys such as the arrow keys, WASD, Numeric and so on is part of the Standard Key Groupings.  Zone allows you to set certain Zones to certain colors.

For a total of 6 zones.

As an example.

Top right-hand corner of the window, we have a gear or a cog.

This is one of the first things you should run after first plugging your keyboard in an installing the software.  From here you can update the Alienware Control Center, Update the Alienware Pro Gaming Keyboard – AW768 firmware and update the Alienware Elite Gaming Mouse – AW958 which will be coming in the next review.

As of this review after updating, the latest Alienware Control Center was Version 0.9.36, Alienware Pro Gaming Keyboard – AW768 firmware was 0028h and the latest Alienware Elite Gaming Mouse – AW958 firmware was 0218h.  If they are not up to date on yours, just click on the update key on the right.

From this menu, clicking “About” brings you to this page.  From here you can click Launch help and a website will open up providing some basic help for this keyboard and/or mouse.

Going back to the previous menu, aside from the Gear/Cog button which we have just gone over, you are able to minimize or close the Alienware Control Center.

If you looked carefully at the other pictures, you can see that there was a 123 at the bottom, all of which were set on profile 2.

These 3 profiles allow you to have 3 different types of Macro and/or lighting effects in an kind of combination you like.

This screenshot, aside from the profile keys, also had a way for you to select the keyboard or the mouse, all from within one program.

From this screen, if you were to click on the mouse, you would get a screen like this.

Since this review is for the keyboard, I will not go further on the mouse, but it is a little teaser for the next review.

I have teased you enough with all of the features, so let’s see how the features work live.

A very nice set of features and functions, right?

So you heard a little over it here, but now let’s focus more on how the keyboard sounds with those brown switches in the next chapter.

Continue: Typing and Noise

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I have mentioned quite a few times in this review that the switches are brown and how quiet and soothing they are, even though I am a big fan of the loud clickies.  I was a little amazed when I started using it at just how much I liked it.  I am a gamer and this is PERFECT for gaming, though in a comparison of keyboard switches, the browns are the 2^nd best, 2^nd only to the red switches but the browns are the most popular for gamers.

So that you have a better idea on how these keys sound then also how good this keyboard might be for tying, check out this video.

Pretty quiet right, and I wish you could only feel how satisfying a key push actually was, it’s like pushing on a piece of firm foam, but very firm.  I tested on www.10fastfingers.com, while not my fastest typing, it was still not horrible.  They keys bounce back very quickly making it much better for typing as well.

Very short section, but I think it was needed.  So now, on to my final thoughts and conclusion.

Continue: Final Thoughts and Conclusion

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Awesome keyboards are pretty much standard now a days, everyone makes them but they all seem to lack something.  This Alienware Pro Gaming Mechanical Keyboard though does not.  Mind you, I myself don’t like the Macro keys but on a short poll on our site, it seems it’s a mixed bag.  While there are some that hate it, there are equally those of us that do and when you buy a keyboard, you at least look at the picture and you can tell if you are leaning towards it because of some aesthetic features or dead set against it for the same.  With that, I cannot down judge against a feature that many will find beneficial, just because I personally do not like it.  While I am reviewing the keyboard, I am reviewing it for you.

So let’s check out some of the Pros and Cons of this keyboard.

Pros

• Amazing price compared to other named brand options with similar features
• Braided cable
• RGB LED Backlit
• Offers 10 modes of lighting
  • And tons of optional lighting options in-between
• All keys are programmable
• 5 Programmable Macro Keys
  • With 3 modes, so up to 15 programmable Macro keys
• Multi-Media Keys
• Kailh Brown Switches (Now my favorite, on this keyboard at least and helps keep the price down)
  • High Tactile force provides such a nice feeling
• Optional Software Install: Does not require software to utilize all of the features
  • Alienware Control Center is a feature rich piece of software
• Dedicated Volume Roller is a great feature
• Zone or Standard Key grouping LED Lighting control is a nice feature
• Alien head, while not amazingly important, is nice to have as a button.

Cons

• No USB Hub
• No 3.5mm Headphone/Microphone Jack
• No Apple Support
• Only works on Windows 10

While I am a big disappointed that the Alienware Gaming Palm Rest AW168 is not included, I can see that including it would have brought up the price a bit.  The wrist rest is pulled on by magnets so it’s not just a snap tight accessory.  It could have been worse, they could have included a cheap rest, but that is not Alienware’s style.

I love when a keyboard brings a USB hub and/or 3.5mm headphone/Microphone jacks, but it’s actually not such a common feature and it would have brought the price up yet again.  Being that Alienware is a PC company, I am not surprised they did not include support for Apple, though a bit surprised that it only supports Windows 10.  While I myself use Windows 10, not everyone does so it kind of segments the market a bit but hey, maybe this is a great reason for you to upgrade to Windows 10?

While there are some Cons, I cannot justify dropping the score any for those cons and saying that, I have to give this Alienware Pro Gaming Mechanical Keyboard a Dragonbloggers Editor’s Choice.

Great job Alienware, but I would like to get some feedback from you guys.  Do you think this deserves an Editors choice, and if not, let me know why in the comments below.

Check out the Alienware Pro Gaming Mechincal Keyboard on Amazon: https://geni.us/6NAIJBN?gECn

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