Alienware is a renowned name in the gaming industry and is widely known for its products based on alien themes. Alienware is a subsidiary of Dell and has launched many great gaming laptops, Alienware AW568 keyboards, mice, and other accessories that have attracted quite a lot of attention among the gaming community. Many hardcore Alienware fans love to have their Alienware-branded gaming setup, just LIKE Alienware AW568, because of their passion for the brand.
The all-new Alienware AW568 is an advanced gaming keyboard that comes with all the features that a gaming enthusiast will look for in a gaming keyboard. Alienware AW568 also comes with some unique aesthetic touches. Now let’s take a look at whether the much-hyped gaming keyboard is worth the price, and what features it offers etc., in this review below:
Design
TheAlienware AW568 is a full-sized gaming keyboard. Unlike other products with a weird appearance, Alienware has gone with a traditional keyboard design except for that odd triangular end piece in the corner. By the look of it, you cannot identify it as an Alienware product, and the keyboard measures 19.7 x 6.8 inches, almost 2 inches larger than other gaming keyboards available in the market. But the extra space has been provided for a special set of macro keys.
Another exciting feature of the Alienware AW568 is its lighting system, as you can customize the lighting to a static color or an attractive rainbow wave. Still, the only thing about the lighting is that it is too subtle. And unless your room is pretty much dark, you can hardly notice the lighting. And even when your room is dark, when you're sitting in front of the computer, you can hardly notice the lighting unless you move to the side of the Alienware AW568 keyboards.
It would have been a great idea if they chose to illuminate the keys, but instead, they went for a more conservative approach of illuminating the bottom of the board. The Alienware AW568 keyboard also comes with a beautifully illuminated Alienware logo, but the weird thing is that you can’t turn off the illumination for the logo separately.
You can use the Alienware FX software to control the illumination on the keyboard, as the software comes with options to change the lighting to a solid color or some attractive cycling effects of colors. With the dedicated macro keys, recording macros is quite simple.
Keys
The Alienware AW568 comes with Kailh brown switches, and the keys seem quite comfortable to work on. Typing with the Alienware AW568 is fairly decent, and the only difference is in normal keyboards, you go for the left shift and control keys in the leftmost corner of the keyboard. Still, with the Alienware AW568, you need to adjust as the extreme left space is dedicated to some macro keys. Overall, the keys looked good and worked pretty decently well. The noise while typing was also fairly lower when compared to other keyboards.
Features
Regarding features, AW568 has abundant features, but there are also some limitations. The keyboard runs based on the Alienware software, and it is good when it comes to the usability of the software, but it still needs some improvements. As we said earlier, one such improvement is that the logo's lighting can’t be disabled without putting out the whole keyboard illumination. Even though the dedicated macro keys provide easy options for recording macros, they cannot be accomplished on the fly.
The keyboard also comes with dedicated volume control, and even though you can’t find all media controls, the volume key is probably the most used option, and you can find it useful many times. The Game mode feature disables all the Window keys when the mode is ON. Overall, the AW568 comes with most of the features that a gamer will look for in a keyboard and only has a few glitches that can be rectified in the future.
Performance
When we tested the keyboard running various games, including shooting, strategy, and story-driven games, the keyboard was up to the mark and delivered in all cases. Like other mechanical keyboards available in the market, the AW568 also performed in various gaming situations, like running and shooting everyone in Overwatch, strengthening your base in Starcraft Remastered, or fighting with demons in Diablo III. The response from AW568 was amazing. The only glitch is the inability of the keyboard to record macros on the fly.
Specifications
The Alienware Advanced Gaming Keyboard AW568 comes with the following specification:
- Comes with Kailh brown switches
- Ambient RGB lighting
- Cycle Life – 50 million keystrokes
- 60g tactile force and 45g actuation force
- Dedicated macro keys
- Separate Game mode button
- Three adjustable leg angles
- Multimedia keys
Bottom Line
Overall, the AW568 is a solid gaming keyboard from the house of Alienware, even though there are certain glitches here and there. The RGB lighting is an exciting feature with the AW568, while the market is filled with gaming keyboards with backlit features. But one thing about the RGB lighting is that it is visible only when your room is completely dark and when you look sideways from the keyboard.
But it creates spending looking under glow if you play games in a dark room. The keyboard performance was pretty decent while we tested the keyboard under various gaming situations. The keys are also pretty solid, and typing was pretty decent. While the full-sized gaming keyboard may cost up to $170, getting an RGB-illuminated gaming keyboard at a lower price is a great deal you cannot miss out on.
