ASUS Strix Mouse, Headset & Keyboard Review
Conclusion
Pro Headset
Of the three main items the Pro Headset is the one that has the most outre design, standing proudly on the altar of commitment to the Owl theme. Whether you like that or not is definitely a matter of personal taste. To look at they are fabulous, it’s the wearing of them that is more objectively lacking. With such humongous plastics around the hinges you only get rotational movement, no variance on the vertical. This means that they aren’t the most comfortable headphones we’ve ever worn and the weight of them only exacerbates the issue. The placement of the cable at the rear of the headset, and with such a large plastic insert, tends to make them grind against your shoulder too.
Sound quality is perfectly fine. We were hoping that the 60mm drivers would follow the trend of other large drivers and expand the frequency response, but they only do 20Hz-20kHz. This does mean that you have to EQ them a little to get the most out of them otherwise the bass is distinctly lacking in punch. They’re fine, just not good enough to dampen the discomfort you feel wearing them. We do like the many cables that are included which enable you to use them in a multitude of applications. The Strix Pro has the biggest Owl element, but is the weakest of the three products. Definitely a try before you buy, but still worthy of our OC3D Silver award.
Tactic Pro
The Tactic Pro is a far easier proposition. As regular readers will know it’s nearly impossible to go wrong with a Cherry MX based keyboard. The additions ASUS have made with plenty of macro keys and dedicated media keys assist in making it a very worthwhile purchase. In fact the only thing we can quibble about is the decision to either protrude or cut away the area with the thumb macro keys which makes the use of a wrist rest more difficult than it ought to be. If they’re going to not have a straight edge at the bottom they should include one in the package. Otherwise it’s a high quality keyboard with great lighting and plenty of scope for customisation should you desire it, and wins our OC3D Gold Award.
Claw Mouse
Finally the Claw Mouse. Similarly to the Tactic Pro keyboard, when you base your product around the market leading hardware it’s very difficult to get it wrong. The Claw utilises the excellent Omron switches for the buttons, and a 5000DPI optical Avago sensor at the heart of it. That sensor is spectacular, combining high sensitivity with the accuracy at slow speeds of an optical sensor. The design is extremely comfortable, being slightly short and stubby, filling your hand beautifully. The plastic is high quality with a slightly rough texture to aid in gripping it during intense gaming moments. The software is very easy to use and performs well, although we’d like to see a little more recorded with the macros. That’s nitpicking though and the Claw is an easy winner of our OC3D Gold. It performs particularly well with the Glide Speed surface, which we can also highly recommend.
Dicuss the Asus Strix Mouse, Headset & Keyboard review in the OC3D Forums
