DAS KEYBOARD X50Q GAMING KEYBOARD REVIEW

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BY WHITSON GORDON Be sure to visit IGN Tech for all the brand new comprehensive arms-on reviews and excellent-of roundups.

It’s tough to talk approximately excessive-give up mechanical keyboards without citing Das. Known for their outstanding, understated boards, Das is shaking matters up with its new gaming-targeted X50Q, which can display all varieties of notifications using its per-key RGB lighting fixtures. The business enterprise payments the X50Q as the “first cloud-linked keyboard,” however, is that simply advertising and marketing talk or something it’s definitely useful?

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Das Keyboard X50Q – Design and Features
The $2 hundred X50Q is a good-searching keyboard if a slightly big one. It unearths a top-notch balance among Das’ smooth simplicity and an extra business look befitting a gaming keyboard. The pinnacle panel is swappable and made from aluminum, with a few exposed Torx bolts around the edges and a few sharp gamer-esque styling on the edges thru an RGB mild bar. It comes with a detachable palm rest and some very thick rubber feet on the bottom to maintain it from sliding around.

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Overall, the X50Q’s production feels heavy and rugged, and the keycaps sense solid—there’s almost no wobble in any respect—even though they’re made from ABS plastic with laser-etched legends, which is a bit disappointing at this fee. It might have been best to peer double-shot molding, given that laser etching can wear down over time. Das does, however, provide a few substitute keycap units for sale, together with a clean set and a “professional” set with much fewer gamer-y legends.

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You cannot, but update the keycaps with well-known Cherry-like minded sets because Das isn’t using widespread Cherry switches in this board. As a substitute, they’ve established Omron’s Gamma Zulu switches, which are a softer feeling, tactile-but-now not-clicky switch that Das claims last twice as long as competing switches. They have a barely shorter journey and actuation factor, with a “bump” inside the middle similar to Cherry MX Browns.

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They are from the identical organization that makes Logitech’s Romer-G switches, and they appear the same, so if you’ve used those, they need to experience acquainted. They took a piece of having used to before everything because they don’t have to provide a noisy, “clacky” typing revel in I’ve located on plenty of other mechanical keyboards. Still, I’ve come to genuinely like the softer, quieter switches, and the lack of noise is positive to thrill coworkers and co-habitants.

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Apart from the same old good-sized key format, you also get devoted media keys (Play and Next Track), alongside an extent knob and a brightness key for the backlight. The RGB lights are impressively bright and shine via the keycaps very flippantly. Plus, whilst you assign the coloration white to a key, it’s a natural white, not the yellow-white maximum RGB keyboards produce. A lot of concepts went into the design of this board (keycaps apart).

Das Keyboard X50Q – Software

The X50Q’s cloud capability all takes place within the Das Keyboard Q software program for Windows, Mac, and Linux (Mac and Linux versions are currently in beta). Once you create an account with Das, you’ll see the foremost panes: the Edit view, which lets you adjust the backlighting and Dashboard, that’s wherein you can set up notifications.

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Backlight customization works similar to every other RGB keyboard: You can pick out person keys or companies of keys, assign them a coloration, and (in case you so desire) supply it a fab impact, like blinking or respiration. You can also assign an impact while the key’s pressed, like having a coloration “ripple” out across the keyboard. The software comes with built-in color profiles for Photoshop and League of Legends as properly, which you can personalize to your liking. The X50Q does not, sadly, have onboard reminiscence, so your custom lighting fixtures profile will only seem when you’ve logged into Windows. During the boot technique, it’ll just use a well-known red backlight.

The “Signal Center” is wherein the actual action takes place. Currently, all of Das’ cloud-connected functions go through IFTTT or Zapier, popular automation services that will let you connect other apps and gadgets for your keyboard. Pressing the “+” button brings up a new window which, after you’re logged in to IFTTT, will list a group of instance notifications you can install. For example, you could have your keyboard blink one key a positive coloration if your Nest Cam detects motion or if a new YouTube video is launched by using your preferred channel. There’s a large listing of stuff you can do, and you may head to IFTTT.Com or Zapier.Com to install even greater custom automation using your favorite apps, gadgets, and offerings.

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In practice, I found those notifications cool, however not very useful. As a hint typer, I rarely look down at my keyboard, so a single key blinking didn’t seize my interest very without difficulty. Thankfully, you could set the Q software program to send you a Windows notification in conjunction with the blinking key; however, in that case, what’s the point of keyboard integration at all? It simply ends up being bulky because you need to “clean” the notification from places: Windows’ notification center and the Q keyboard software program.

That stated, in case you appearance down at your keyboard now and then, this could be beneficial for positive kinds of notifications—like understanding if it’s going to rain the following day or whether or not positive stocks have gone up or down at some stage in the day. I locate it less beneficial for greater pressing notifications, like textual content messages or breaking information, however relying on the urgency with which you want to understand such things, you can discover it handy.

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Das’ marketing also boasts other integrations, like monitoring CPU utilization or tracking bundle deliveries using a “progress bar” throughout sure keys. This would clearly be pretty cool. However, those capabilities don’t currently exist inside the software program. Das tells me they’re “coming within the future.” The keyboard additionally has an open API, so other developers can theoretically do something useful with it soon. But because it stands, the cloud connectivity—its most closely marketed feature—feels a touch lacking. The software program also had a few small insects and quirks, although Das has already assured me these are underneath evaluated. If and while it may perform all of the moves it advertises on the box, this may be a greater compelling purchase for $two hundred. If you have a bit of cash to burn, you can probably justify the fee for the build quality alone—I wouldn’t buy it entirely for its cloud-connected functions quite yet.

Das Keyboard X50Q – Gaming

Despite being a “gaming” keyboard, the X50Q doesn’t have a few gaming capabilities you’d discover on different boards—like the capacity to create custom macros. The in-line with-key RGB lighting fixtures are convenient, allowing you to create exceptional profiles for every one of your favorite titles and have them mechanically set off while you start that recreation. I created separate profiles for Overwatch and DOOM, and the Q software program did a wonderful process of switching between them as I launched every game.