Roccat Isku FX - Keyboard Review

[jiyeon]

 

Hi, and welcome to my review of the Roccat Isku FX, a keyboard by German gaming peripherals and accessories manufacturer, Roccat.

 

I bought this particular keyboard after searching far and wide for a keyboard that fit my criteria of it being white, includes plenty of macros, came with media control keys, and most importantly of all, came from a reliable brand. So, I had a go at Roccat and decided to pull the trigger and bought this Roccat Isku FX from Scan UK for £38.99, shipping not included.

 

I come from a tenkeyless, mechanical, cheap Amazon keyboard to this monstrosity of a keyboard, so the initial experience was a mix of awe and "Oh geez, this keyboard is huge", but I've come to love this keyboard, and here's why.

 

 

 

I'll begin by saying that, this is a massive keyboard. And most of that size is due to the large integrated wrist rest that Roccat have included into the Isku FX. In WASD hand position, the wrist rest extends until the end of hand just before the wrist, so it's perfectly-sized for someone of my hand size.

 

The wrist rest has a nicely-debossed Roccat logo in the center of the keyboard, along with a tastefully-placed and well-sized 'ISKU FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard' text just next the to the thumbster keys. The wrist rest feels like a textured plastic, so the wrist rest does a nice job of keeping my hand in place whenever I get any sort of moisture around my hands.

 

 

Next are the thumbster keys, these are three small, keyed buttons placed underneath the keyboard that act as macros for whatever task you want them to be set to, for example, opening a certain application when you press the leftmost thumbster key, also known as 'T1'.

 

The thumbster keys can be identified easily by their shape, and the concave they sit on will make it even more identifiable. They never left me scrambling in-game to find the right thumbster key because of their excellent positioning. 

 

 

 

As mentioned before, this keyboard has a whole plethora of macros and keyboard shortcuts placed around the keyboard, thumbster keys included. To the far left of the keyboard, there is a 5-key macro row that is completely programmable through the Roccat Isku FX keyboard software. This macro row, as convenient as it is, ads to the sheer size of the keyboard, so depending on what your use case is, you might be hesitant, but personally, the added size is worth it for these macros, super useful in games when I need them.

 

 

There is also a profile switch, which has a total of five user profiles. The user profiles are configured in the Roccat Isku FX keyboard software. This is super handy as you can essentially turn the five-key macro row into a twenty-five macro key row through the use of this profile switcher!

 

 

Up top, there is a media control row, which ranges from volume and playback controls to two extra buttons, default to opening a web browser and the other which I honestly forgot about because I switched it off immediately in the software. These buttons are fairly tactile and responsive, however they are all the same shape so hitting the wrong button is an often mistake for me, but it's still a nice feature nonetheless for this keyboard.

 

 

 

Onto the software side of things, and warning, this is about to get technical, and is arguably the unique selling point of the Roccat Isku FX.

 

The macro key control can be found under the 'Main Control' tab in the software. This will give you options to configure the macro and thumbster keys to your liking, simple and effective. There's also Easy-Shift which replaces Caps Lock - more on Easy-Shift later - which temporarily alternates the selected key to do another action when the Easy-Shift key is pressed.

 

 

Now onto Easy-Shift, one of the Roccat Isku FX's main points of interest. Under the Easy-Zone control tab, keys from 1-5 on the number row to Q to B on the main left keyboard rows can have alternative functions when Easy-Shift is pressed.

 

For example, I can select Easy-Shift + B to alternate to 1 if I wanted to have quick access to my primary gun in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

 

This is super convenient and once again expands macro flexibility.

 

 

Of course, with any gaming keyboard, there must be RGB, and the Roccat Isku FX is no exception, it's in the name, for crying out loud. The keyboard illumination can be modified down to the exact RGB code, in either still or pulsing lighting effects. There is also a color flow, which is essentially a breathing rainbow effect. Brightness and dimming can also be set.

 

 

 

The Roccat Isku FX, coming in at £40, as a membrane keyboard with a number pad, media control row, wirst rest, and with all the macros you would want in the world, is an astounding keyboard for the price.

 

 

Despite it being the largest keyboard I have ever owned in my lifetime, it's not to say that it's a bad keyboard by any means. The size in fact, helps in many ways, such as the included wrist rest, and the convenience of the macro and media control rows.

 

The typing experiece on it is as typical as any other membrane keyboard, which is a low point for this keyboard. Note that there is a mechanical version of this keyboard that comes with Cherry MX Browns called the Roccat Ryos, although expect for that particular keyboard to set you back £100 or more.

 

Overall, I very much enjoy this keyboard and can highly recommend it to people who are looking for a keyboard with plenty of macro flexibility, gamer-ish elements, and a huge wrist rest.

 

This review was not sponsored by Roccat in any form.

[r2724r16]

6 minutes ago, seoz said:

The typing experiece on it is as typical as any other membrane keyboard, which is a low point for this keyboard.

I'd personally take a true mechanical keyboard over one with a membrane switches and a few macros, but that's just me.

 

But for gaming, mechanical switches don't really make a difference anyways so macros would make more sense.

 

Nice review BTW!

[jiyeon]

4 minutes ago, r2724r16 said:

I'd personally take a true mechanical keyboard over one with a membrane switches and a few macros, but that's just me.

 

But for gaming, mechanical switches don't really make a difference anyways so macros would make more sense.

 

Nice review BTW!

Thank you!

 

Going from mechs to membrane didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, particularly for gaming like you say, where for this keyboard, the macros make all the difference. I was close to getting the Roccat Ryos but it was £150 for essentially a Roccat Isku FX with Cherry MX Browns.