Esport maestros take a no BS approach to gaming peripherals, promising good quality, robust, high performance equipment without the ‘flashy green lights’.
Product on Review: Rush Pro Gaming Keyboard
Manufacturer: Fnatic Gear
Street Price: EU: €99.99, US: $99.99
Fnatic, if you aren’t aware, are a London based esports team and have many top players involved in some of the most competitive games around. They have many awards and championships under their belts and I have to thank their DOTA team for some amazing matches this year at the TI6 where they took a whopping $1.5m for 4th place. So it would be an understatement to say that they are among the biggest esports teams around.
So where do you go with an established brand? Well Fnatic launched an Indiegogo crowd funded campaign to create their own line of peripherals last year, and have been working to bring gamers a new line of products. Part of this plan included the takeover of Func, a brand that had built a great reputation for solid and reliable products. This takeover could be the start of something incredibly interesting due to the vast experience of the team as well as having access to in-house pro-testers from all walks of gaming life. I must confess, their mission statement is hard-hitting and to the point.
NO BS ESPORTS EQUIPMENT BY FNATIC.
After 11 years of blood, sweat, and broken gear… we know what makes great Esports hardware. No flashy green lights will get you a Pentakill. No fan on a mouse will help you hit a headshot. Esports gear is about simplicity, comfort, and reliability – it’s exactly what you need to perform and nothing else. That’s why we launched Fnatic Gear, professional grade equipment designed by one of the worlds best esports teams.
After 11 years of blood, sweat, and broken gear… we know what makes great Esports hardware. No flashy green lights will get you a Pentakill. No fan on a mouse will help you hit a headshot. Esports gear is about simplicity, comfort, and reliability – it’s exactly what you need to perform and nothing else. That’s why we launched Fnatic Gear, professional grade equipment designed by one of the worlds best esports teams.
The current lineup of available gear is the Flick mouse, the Rush keyboard and a selection of mouse mats. Here we get to take a look at the Rush Pro gaming keyboard, which is largely a rebranded Func KB-460 with the Fnatic logo. It comes in a selection of CHERRY MX mechanical switches, built in memory for 5 profiles, features 2x USB pass-through ports and a Fnatic Gear mode/ game mode that enables macros and disables the Windows key for maximum convenience.
Overview by Fnatic
The RUSH Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard G1 is everything you need in a competition setting, and even more at home. The RUSH comes with five preset profiles, a detachable wrist rest, and a red LED backlight to help you through those late night gaming sessions. We know keyboards can take up a lot of USB slots, so we’ve included 2 USB pass-thru to make your life easier. Durable and versatile, the RUSH is equipped with Cherry MX switches to provide you with rapid response, control, and feel right at your fingertips. Stay ahead of the game with the RUSH keyboard.
Packaging & First Look
The external packaging is sleek, attractive and certainly no-nonsense. It shows off the keyboard and simply tells you that it as mechanical backlit keyboard with CHERRY MX Brown switches.
At the back, there is a washed out picture celebrating one of their successes, we get some details of the product inside. I am confused about the lack of ‘specifications’ as the downloadable manual contains the specs of the flick mouse, and I couldn’t find the details elsewhere. Also, some of the points made seem slightly more like ‘filler’ points vaguely saying ‘trust us, we are esports pros’ than actual features, but I guess it is early days.
Inside the box contains a quickstart guide and some mounts for the included wrist rest.
The wrist rest included is full size to match the keyboard width and is coated in a silky rubberised surface.
In appearance, the Rush has a sleek black rubberised surface, while the keys are set into a red background that help the RED backlighting look more vibrant.
Closer Look
The F keys double as Fn(atic) media keys, featuring mute, volume up/down, play/pause, skip back/forward.
F7-F11 double as profile selection keys, while Fn+F12 enables Fnatic Gear mode.
On the numpad, 8 and 2 double up with the Fn key for brightness controls, with the top mode being a pulse effect.
From the side we can see that the keyboard seems relatively low profile with no steep incline, the keys are also set in an interesting slightly concave arrangement.
At the far right edge there are a pair of USB ports, a welcomed feature by many.
The underside features the adjustable feet and non-slip pads for stability and comfort.
Under the key caps we get to see the CHERRY MX switches and the red background, the larger keys utilise metal distribution bars.
Software & Lighting
The software itself is fairly basic but well laid out and seems to be a re-skinned version of the original Func KB-460 software. I think it would have been good for the background colour to reflect the packaging (white with Fnatic branding), but that is irrelevant to the functionality. At first I found it slightly confusing how to assign the macros, but the online manual explains it well, and it is fairly easy to use. Click one of the Macro keys (M1-M10), then click on the key you want to assign it to. Once you have done this you will be able to assign that key with one of the listed functions or create a new macro. If you select ‘macro’, the Macro Recorder will pop up ready for you to record a command of your choice (up to 24 key strokes), though it is worth noting that it does not register mouse actions. Each profile can save 10 macro commands, and to use the macro keys, you will need to enable the Fnatic Gear mode, Fn + F12.
The backlighting is red, not too bright, but looks nice. The brightness can be adjusted in 0%-25%-50%-75%-100%-pulse stages.
Performance Testing
Setup, Design & Observations
If you have no desire to use macros, you can skip the installation of the software and use the Rush keyboard driverless, or if you have already saved your macros to the onboard memory, simply select the profile you want to use and you will have access to your controls with or without the software download. You will of course need to install the software should you wish to add, edit or create new macros.
The Rush keyboard features an attractive braided cable with a single USB connector, which is great for a hassle free setup on a keyboard that also contains 2x extra USB ports, though the reliability of said ports may be diminished if you end up trying to do various bandwidth intensive tasks, though I didn’t experience any issues uploading the images taken of the Rush keyboard while using the other port for the mouse, though I had connected it to a USB 3.0 port. The overall build quality feels solid, the keycaps feel great and typing and gaming is a joy as always with CHERRY MX switches. The model we are looking at features CHERRY MX Brown switches, but if you prefer, the Rush is also available in Red and Blue flavours too.
The wrist rest is a little less straight forward to setup than some others, requiring the placement of two small plastic clips that hold the wrist rest in place, but it isn’t too fiddly or time consuming to setup.
Testing out the anti-ghosting capabilities, we used Aqua’s keytest and mashed the keyboard a few times, and it seems NKRO is a little overstatement, but it manages around 10KRO perfectly fine which is no problem for human gamers at least. After several hours gaming on DOTA 2 and Deus EX: Mankind Divided, I felt at ease using the Rush keyboard and it didn’t create any problems. I decided to remove the wrist rest, mostly because I loathe rubberised coatings, and found that the keyboard was still comfortable to use and type with.
Conclusion
As an initial entry into the peripheral market, Fnatic have a solid, and reliable mechanical keyboard that will provide gamers with all the functions they need for no-nonsense gaming, just as Fnatic set out in their mission. The software serves its purpose well with assigning macros and saving profiles to the onboard memory. The included wrist rest is always welcome, the backlighting is functional, and the USB passthough is a feature that some can’t live without.
I could stop here as nothing goes downhill, but, it would be wrong to not mention that the whole recipe is slightly bland and that it is literally a rebadged Func KB-460.
It is a shame they didn’t remix this recipe a little more. We would love to have seen brand relevant alterations, the Fnatic logo is cool, LIGHT IT UP, and was there really no chance to alter the background/ LED colour to match the deep amber of the Fnatic logo?
Also, a note on rubberised plastic. (Rant mode enabled)
Rubber coated plastic looks good at first, and some people may even pretend to like the feel of it too. But lets have an honest conversation about it. Rubberised coated plastic feels like used condoms. It picks up fingerprints, and after a long sweaty gaming sessions the surface goes gammy and looks awful. The point is, the day of rubber coated plastic is over and this feels like a revival product akin to someone trying to bring shellsuits back in fashion, something Jimmy ensured will never, ever happen. Sure, some people may even convince themselves that they still like it, but I am pretty certain they are the weird, clammy handed, lizard people that make you feel like you need a full body wash after being in their presence.
Wait, did I just describe the entire gaming community? (On thin ice now..!) /rant.
It is now worth mentioning the price, as it seems a little much at €99, though this isn’t too much of a surprise considering the use of CHERRY MX switches. Though products like the ROCCAT SUORA are already nailing the no-nonsense gaming hardware area, making the Rush feel a little dated.
The Fnatic Gear Rush feels solid, and the use of CHERRY MX switches will ensure reliability. The Fnatic gear mode is convenient to activate macros while the additional USB ports are a welcome addition.
Pros.
+ Available in CHERRY MX Blue, Red and Brown
+ 2x USB passthrough
+ Easy to use Fnatic Gear mode (enables Macros, disables Windows Key)
+ 5 Profiles (10 Macro recordings each)
+ Includes a wrist rest
Cons.
– Price
– Feels dated (rebranded Func KB-460)
+ Available in CHERRY MX Blue, Red and Brown
+ 2x USB passthrough
+ Easy to use Fnatic Gear mode (enables Macros, disables Windows Key)
+ 5 Profiles (10 Macro recordings each)
+ Includes a wrist rest
Cons.
– Price
– Feels dated (rebranded Func KB-460)
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
