5-Way Mechanical Keyboard Roundup: Top Decks For Gamers And Enthusiasts
AZIO MGK-ARMATO Design And Performance
The AZIO Armato is a sleek looking keyboard that is designed for both gaming and multi-media. It comes with a black brushed aluminum chassis and red mesh panels that are enough to add some bling, without being overly gaudy. At three pounds it's quite a beast though, making it the heaviest keyboard in the round-up. And thanks to the additional macro keys it is also the widest, but will still fit comfortably on any desktop.
Like the rest of the keyboards featured here, the Armato includes its fair share of extras, such as macro keys, red back-lighting and dedicated multimedia keys. Unlike the K70 RGB though, everything the Armato does can be accessed directly from the keyboard, so you can change lighting effects and macros by simply pressing hotkeys.
The Azio Armato uses Cherry MX Brown mechanical key switches that are gold-plated, rated up to 50 million-keystrokes, and each have their own red LED just above the switch stem. The MX Brown switch was first introduced back in 1994 as a special ‘ergo soft’ switch, but it has become one of the most awarded switches because of its light, tactile, non-clicky response. Brown switches really fill the gap between Red and Blue switches. They give typists a nice tactile bump and are still fast and light weight enough for high speed gaming. The Armato also features full N-Key rollover, so each key pressed is correctly detected, regardless of how many keys are being pressed at once.
AZIO MGK-ARMATO Performance
The AZIO Armato feels like a quality product. From the enclosure and keycaps to the overall design, everything was top notch. To top it off the Armato has comfortable MX key caps, so on most fronts the Armato is a real winner. The included multimedia keys also worked well. At first we weren't impressed with the look of the volume scroll wheel, but after using it our initial opinion slightly changed. It made adjusting the volume a breeze because unlike most scroll wheels on modern keyboards, it can be accessed via the side, so you aren't forced to place your finger over the precise area to adjust volume -- just reach out to the side of the board and you'll find the wheel.The lighting effects on the Armato were not overly impressive when compared to other products on the market, but it does offer red backlighting that can be changed on the fly using hotkeys. We were also happy to see AZIO include a magnetic wrist wrest with the keyboard. Not only did it provide an extra level of comfort, but the magnet allows it to easily be connected and removed. We prefer this design over a rest with plastic clips, that could potentially break, any day.
