Yet another mechanical keyboard, I know. But here we are.
Armed with a coupon supplied by McDonald’s Canada (not a sponsor, got it through a contest promotion) I was able to pick the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 mechanical keyboard for a song. It typically has an MSRP of $139.99 CAD though typically can be found on discount for $99.99 CAD. I was able to pick mine up directly from HP (HyperX’s new brand owner) for about $60 CAD.
I pulled it out of its box and was immediately impressed with it’s weight. The Alloy Origins 60 is an incredibly solid keyboard. It has a very solid metal case in black. A big trend in the custom keyboard scene is plastic cases and no risers at all. The Alloy Origins 60 bucks that trend having rubber feet toward your wrists and toward the front you have riser feet with two height settings. It’s nice to be able to adjust that. Out the front of the keyboard is the USB-C connector. Thankfully HyperX actually thought about positioning with the cable and put it off towards the left of the case. I’d prefer the cable come out the left side but this is fine.
Moving around to the shine-through double-shot keycaps. They are black and the legends, while gamery, they aren’t overly so which I appreciate. Since this is a 60% keyboard some of the functions of a larger keyboard are mapped to a second function layer here. Now I have already swapped out the keycaps though I believe I will be going back to the stock ones shortly. My reason to switch back is that the keycaps set doesn’t have the legend for all the second layer controls and as such the keyboard is a little confusing to use when one is used to Epomaker GK/SK61 keyboards.
Lets talk about the switches. The HyperX Alloy Origins 60 uses HyperX branded Cherry-style switches. They are red linear switches that, to me, feel slightly heavier than reds I’m used to though I do not use red switches much. They are not hot-swappable sadly though I think for most these switches would be just fine for most. Each switch has it’s own individually addressable RGB LED that can be set in the HyperX NGENUITY software that is downloadable through the Microsoft Store on Windows.
The HyperX NGENUITY software is supposedly in “beta” but I have to say it’s the best piece of peripheral software I have used besides perhaps Razer’s Synapse. It’s pretty light on resources but don’t let that fool you. It’s very powerful and easy to use. Once you have set up your RGB settings they will save directly to the keyboard and you no longer have to have the software installed on your computer if you don’t want it. In fact you can download three RGB presets to the keyboard in case you like to have different settings for different occasions.
The typing experience is pretty good here. And for the price it really is a no brainer. Interestingly HP must have received a lot of older stock from Kingston when HyperX was purchased from them as my keyboard still has a Kingston manufacturer’s label on it. The only other thing I wish they would have had was a version of the Alloy Origins 60 in a brown switch. That is ultimately my favourite switch but this HyperX Red linear switch is really good and I could see my self using this for gaming if I didn’t have a couple of customized Keychrons in my arsenal.
If you are looking for a great mechanical keyboard and a great deal, you can’t go wrong with the HyperX Alloy Origins 60. Absolutely love it.
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