If you’ve read any of my other PC peripheral reviews, you’ll no doubt notice a pattern – I love a bit of gaming gear that doesn’t necessarily look like gaming gear. When Alienware hit me up to check out their new Pro range (you can read my review of the mouse here), I’ll admit I feared the worst. After all, this is a company well-known for some of the most over-the-top devices around. Much to my surprise though, here’s a keyboard that I absolutely wouldn’t have clocked for a bit of Alienware product had the logo not been printed boldly across the front of the box.
Once you’ve got that box open, you’ve got everything you’d hope to find. The keyboard itself, with its stark white body and keys (in my case, black is also available) and absolutely nothing on the face to suggest this is a “pro gaming” or even Alienware keyboard, as well as some documentation, a USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C wireless dongle, USB-A dongle adapter, dongle extender (I’m sick of writing the word dongle) and a keycap puller – more on that last one in a bit.
With its 75% form factor, the Alienware Pro Wireless feels fairly roomy for the minimum in desk space taken, with no space on its face taken up by something that’s not a key. You’re obviously losing out on a ten-key number pad but there’s a full six rows to work with. You also get a set of volume control keys and a key dedicated to switching profiles on the right column, though I wasn’t a huge fan of the delete key being moved to the F row, that definitely took some adjustment. That aside, the way the keys are arranged, and the positions of their secondary functions, is quite good.
On the back of the keyboard is where you’ll find the on-off slider, USB-C port, handy dock for the wireless dongle and a very handy quick-switch button that toggles between 2.4Ghz connectivity and up to three bluetooth devices. Underneath, a rubber strip at the base and rubberised fold-out feet make it feel nice and secure on the desk with the option of a slight tilt should you want it. The whole thing feels incredibly sturdy with a good build quality and a nice amount of weight that means it’s solid without being so heavy that you can’t throw it in a backpack.
Now while the very understated aesthetics of this keyboard are of massive appeal to me, I’m kind of in love with its RGB lighting. The per-key illumination is bold and blends softly for a striking effect, and coupled with the rounded edges of the board tapering off with the outer bounds of the light it can often appear as though the keys are floating above your desk in a colourful cloud.
Unlike the very positive experience I had with Alienware’s Command Centre software when using the Pro Wireless mouse, I found adjusting the lighting and things like macros on the keyboard to be quite unreliable, with lighting taking an age to update and some key bindings being lost every time I rebooted my PC – not ideal for someone who writes like they’re being paid per “en dash” used. Hopefully future updates will fix these small annoyances.
Thankfully, the most important consideration here – the typing experience – is superb. While I’m more a low-profile kinda gal, the linear mechanical switches here feel precise and responsive with a nice and light actuation force of 40g that makes it effortless to type or game on without being so breezy that it results in misfires. Between the materials used in the keys and switches and the two layers of silicone sound-dampening, presses feel and sound smooth as butter and give a good impression of sturdiness and reliability. Plus, if you don’t like them, the switches are hot-swappable with just about any 3-pin or 5-pin switches using the included tool. It’s pretty no-frills, in keeping with the overall vibe, but solid and responsive is really all that you need from a gaming keyboard.
I mostly used my keyboards wired if I can help it, but you’re getting a 1Khz polling rate whether wired or using the 2.4Ghz dongle, and without RGB lighting the Alienware Pro Wireless sports a whopping 798 hours of battery life. Switch on the fancy colours and that drops more than 90% to 72 hours, though that’s still plenty for an average week of work and gaming. Being able to quickly switch between my PC and my other devices has also been incredibly useful while I toil away on Planet Zoo on the PS5, which maybe doesn’t fit the “pro” gaming brief but still plays wonderfully with this keyboard and the Alienware Pro Wireless mouse.
A product sample was provided for the purposes of this review.
