ROG STRIX SCOPE II 96 Wireless - The SWISS ARMY KNIFE of Gaming Keyboards!

[Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] so this is the RG strix scope 2 96 Wireless mechanical gaming keyboard yes that's a mouthful but essentially Asus has created the Swiss army knife of gaming keyboards it has all the features that you can possibly think of like both wired and wireless connectivity a full-size keyboard with a dedicated numpad in a compact form factor hot topical switches sound dampening materials pre-lube stabilizers PBT double shot key caps a detachable wrist stress tasteful RGB lighting and a really cool mode selector multi-wheel feature that gives you intuitive control with Windows it's been a really long time since I've looked at a gaming keyboard believe it or not it's been more than five years since I used a gaming keyboard and when Asus reached out and said hey we've got this really cool keyboard that we want you to check out it's got a lot of features you might not need all of them but it's there if you need it I was like yeah sure we'll give it a shot so huge shout out to them for supporting this video so yeah let's just dive into what's new with the scope 296 Wireless now one of these standard features of this keyboard is undoubtedly its form factor Asus has designed the scope 296 with a strong emphasis on portability and adaptability in mind so they've condenser chassis while preserving all the essential number keys from a conventional 100 keyboard layout there's not only freeze of space on your desk but also gives you more range for your mouse maneuverability and if you're wondering if it's transport friendly well it fits my backpack no problem crazy right as for build quality Asus has stacked this keyboard with a ton of materials to ensure a comfortable and soothing type of experience here's an exploded view of what the keyboard is from top to bottom as you can see they're using an aluminum top plate with hard plastic bottom housing materials and sandwiched in between you'll find dampening foam with custom materials for the switches along with a silicone foam to eliminate reverberations and Echo when registering or just bottoming out your keys I really appreciate the attention to detail here you also get a versatile angle adjustments up to three options to suit your preference and the included wrist rest attaches to the keyboard magnetically just like that and the material is nice and soft with plenty of cushion so it's nice and comfortable it really complements your typing experience I love wristress I've been using research ever since I got into mechanical keyboards so this is a great addition they've also implemented a ton of key combinations that work out of the box without the need of any driver software so it's a plug-and-play setup so if you're into streaming you'll find a set of hotkeys that can be used for Xbox game bar like recording the last 30 seconds of your gameplay start and pause recordings and there's also a dedicated mic mute key these are mapped as secondary functions by default but if you want to set them as primary simply press the function plus the equal key to switch them around another cool feature added to the scope 296 is the multi-function button along with the multi-wheel now these work hand in hand to give you instant control over a variety of adjustments like volume media playback and the ability to manually set parameters for specific applications for instance I was able to program the wheel to increase and decrease the brush size when I'm using Photoshop it saves me a ton of time instead of using the keyboard shortcuts it is intuitive and I appreciate this level of customization but you are more than welcome to map it to the other built-in functions like scrolling through the web page through the Armory crate software there is an LED indicator tucked right in between the numpad and the typewriter keys and this is sort of like your visual aid for any adjustments you make on the keyboard as you can see when I enable numpad scroll lock switching function keys and windows lock it lights up with respect to each letter and right beneath that you'll find the LED visuals for the multi-function button and finally at the bottom you'll see the Bluetooth indicators in this case you can pair up to three devices which is pretty cool now while we're on the topic of connectivity I just want to quickly go over some of the options offered by the scope 296 so as I mentioned at the beginning you can use this in wired mode with the included USBC to type a braided cable it's about two meters long which is adequate for cable routing to your desktop PC you can also use it in Bluetooth mode as well as 2.4 g mode RG is using their speed Nova technology that offers an uninterrupted near zero latency experience with faster signal transfer speeds plus it brings a lot of power efficiency gains to the table like giving users up to 1500 hours of battery life with the RGB lighting turned off and even more if you switch over to Bluetooth and by the way Asus has conveniently programmed a simple people battery indicator status so all you have to do is hold the function plus minus key and it lights up the backtick to zero Keys corresponding to the battery percentage I've mostly used this keyboard in its Wireless mode for all of my gaming and productivity requirements the connectivity has been exceptionally stable throughout and it's worth noting that there is a switch at the front that grants users the option to switch between wired 2.4 G and Bluetooth I'm sure this will come in clutch for those who manage multiple systems simultaneously another notable aspect is the magnetic compartment located right over here that conveniently stores the Omni receiver once again it makes that portability aspect a heck of a lot easier this is the first Rog board to have this receiver so you can easily connect this keyboard with the harp Ace gaming mouse so that saves you an extra USB port without compromising on performance the keycaps are double shot pvt and they are UV coded to resist keycap shine plus they do include an extra Rog beam space bar and they've carefully placed the RGB LEDs underneath to illuminate the graphics evenly I will say I'm not a huge fan of fonts they do look a bit too gamery for my taste but that's just me you do get some tasteful RGB lighting that can be cycled to different effects within the keyboard by simply holding the function plus left and right arrow keys you can also adjust the brightness levels as well on the fly but if you do need software control Asus has added that well through Armory crate you can also access the multi-wheel control and customized power options now as I mentioned before this keyboard does feature hot stoppable switches so you can mix and match what works for you in this case Asus has introduced a new set of switches called NX snow with this keyboard so this joins the storm red blue and brown lineup it's a slightly refined version of their red switches so while it still maintains that 1.8 millimeters actuation Point they've redesigned the stem to improve stability plus they are pre-looped out of the factory so you can really tell that they've added that premium touch the clear stem also helps with RGB elimination aesthetic quickly I feel like it adds more value to the keyboard especially when you look at it from the sides that plus the pre-loop stabilizers sitting on top of these unique dampening foam materials results in a beautiful type of experience as you all know I'm a sucker for linear switches so this sort of fits my preference every keystroke feels consistent and smooth there's no hanging noise or reverberations that circulate around the chassis and yes even though Asus is sponsoring this video I've got to say it's amazing to see how far the characteristics have evolved with mechanical keyboards over the past five years Asus is certainly paying attention to the details that we've been asking for and I'm glad to see it come to fruition foreign so that's a quick look at the Rog scope 296 Wireless if you're wondering about price it is retailing for about 179 which I think is pretty competitive considering all the features that it packs I mean you're getting a full-size keyboard in a relatively Compact and light form factor plus you also get the freedom of being Wireless and the fact that it comes with hot swappable switches is great I just love that DIY aspect let me know what you guys think about it I'm either with Hardware Canucks and I'll talk to you guys in the next one

Channel: Hardware Canucks

Views: 74,239

Keywords: hardwarecanucks, hardware canucks, #wirelesskeyboard, #roggaming, #strixscopeii96wireless, #bestsoundingkeyboard, #compactfullsizekeyboard, #bluetoothkeyboard, #bluetoothmechanicalkeyboard

Id: kg8zKLK_yAY

Length: 9min 6sec (546 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2023