Roccat have revisited their Suora mechanical keyboard from 2016 and added an all-important 16.8 million colour backlit RGB element to bring it inline with their range of RGB devices.

The box has a wealth of information regarding the keyboard’s features, including the fact that this is MMO approved and has a Game Mode button, as well as a 1000hz polling rate. Everything is well packed, as you’d expect from one of the leading gaming peripheral companies, with just the keyboard and a small fold out manual taking up the space.

The keyboard is certainly compact, doing away with the bezels around the edges and making it easier to manage on a crowded desk or take to various events. The keys are easy to take off and reapply, with a piece of clear plastic under each key that allows the light from the LEDs to shine through. The only issue is that they might actually come off too easily for some people, especially those carrying the keyboard around.

The base has thick rubber feet to prevent slipping, even with the back foldable legs tucked away. They do the job well without feeling as flimsy as the rubber on some other keyboards I’ve used.

Keystrokes are responsive and fast, with the sound being slightly quieter than other mechanical keyboards yet still retaining that unmistakable rattle when keys are pressed. Interestingly, Roccat have moved away from using the very highly rated Cherry MX keys that were used in their other high end keybaords and are now using brown TTC mechanical keys instead for the Suora range. These still feel great but are known to be cheaper and not quite the same as the Cherry quality.

There are some handy extra functions locked to the Function keys, with F1-F4 keys controlling pre-installed lighting sets and the other function keys providing media and utility shortcuts. There’s also a dedicated Gaming function which replaces Roccat’s previous EasyShift function.

The spacing and layout of the keys is pretty much spot on with no need for Roccat to squash keys up as the bezel-less design still provides plenty of room on the keyboard while keeping the overall footprint smaller.

Lighting is the main feature in this FX keyboard, taken care of either by those Function keys or the Swarm software that Roccat use for all of their peripherals, supporting drivers and RGB lighting on its mice, keyboards and now headsets, too. THe F Keys provide 3 different dynamic effects and a single ‘blue light’ effect which matches the original Suora’s static backlight. On top of that, the software can give you full control over lighting on each key, allowing you to set groups for different games and then assigning them to macro keys.

Overall, this is another impressive keyboard from Roccat. It might not feature the Cherry style Mechanical keys but these do the job well and the lighting options are fantastic, especially when matched with other Roccat RGB periperhals.