Asus ROG Keris Wireless

“Asus seems to be taking the enthusiast niche approach lately with some of the products they’ve been releasing similar to what Razer did not too long ago. Albeit with pretty boutique items such as the Harpe extreme and Azoth extreme, yet there’s a good handful of products Asus has released I’m unsure people are aware of. The Keris wireless was a pretty big “first” for me, the fact it had hotswap switches ready out of the box was super enticing to me, and has since become my dedicated switch tester mouse. The Moonstone glass mousepad they launched not too long ago is also among the top 3 glass mouse pads I’d recommend (Skypad 3.0, Razer Atlas, ROG Moonstone), yet I don't feel like I’ve ever seen anyone talk much about it which is a shame. I am however here to shed some light on a product very similar to the Keris wireless in name, but with a much different approach in terms of goals with its shape. The ROG Keris II Ace is here and I think it does a lot right in terms of what you get in a total package. Hand Size : 18x0Grip: Pincer Claw Price: $159GALLERY: [https://imgur.com/a/JSurPMs](https://imgur.com/a/JSurPMs) Packaging: The packaging of the Keris II Ace is very minimal, with an interesting take on “going green” with reduced packaging. The inner stiff cardboard packaging is protected/shrouded in a thin card-like material. Inside you’ll find the mouse, polling booster, wireless dongle, wireless extender, grip tape, two sets of quality mouse feet, paracord-like cable, and all the extra paper work you’d expect. Sensor: The sensor being used here is the ROG AimPoint Pro, with DPI maxing out at 42K. In my gameplay testing at both 1k, 4k, and 8k I never encountered any issues, or noticeable stutters of any sort. Results with mousetester checking for CPI deviation seemed relatively clean across the board as well with nothing abnormal to report at 800,1600, and 3200 CPI. Software: Before jumping into software, the Keris II can have most of its settings adjusted via on-board memory using a couple of different key binds. So there isn’t really a need to download any software for those who want a “grab and go” mouse they can take wherever. Currently without the software and onboard mouse binds, you can change DPI, Polling Rate, LOD, and hard reset your mouse. I’ll cover Armory Crate Gear since I know some will be very interested in it. Asus now offers Armory Crate Gear, a significantly lighter software package for configuring your Asus peripherals. This is offered alongside the normal Armory Crate software, the choice is up to you. Though as far as I am aware you can’t do Firmware updates via the Gear version. In the first tab for the mouse software you’re able to bind all the buttons and scroll wheel functions ignoring the bottom buttons underneath the mouse such as the DPI/Pairing button. You can change the buttons to things like screenshots, multimedia, shortcuts, and even keyboard keybinds. The second tab “performance” allows you to adjust DPI, 4 profiles of DPI, angle snapping, angle tuning, and polling rates from 125/250/500/1000/2000/4000/8000hz  in wireless (polling booster/dongle required for 2k and above).  DPI caps out at 42,000. The Keris first launched with 8k wired and 4k wireless and I’m currently using a beta FW but should be available to the public soon. The third tab allows you to adjust lighting like breathing, or reactive effects, along with a battery mode which indicates battery level with color. You can also adjust your brightness from 0-100%.  The 4th tab calibration allows you to change surface calibration based on optimized settings around already existing Asus mouse pads you may own, there’s also an option of manual calibration that will work for whatever surface you happen to be playing on. When doing manual calibration it will instruct you to make a few movements and then it should calibrate accordingly. If this all seems like a bit much for you though, there’s a simpler option of a low or high LOD toggle.  Most of the time low LOD will be just fine for everyone, but if you notice issues in tracking set it to high. As with most things, LOD is a preference thing from person to person so find what works for you. The 5th tab “Power” shows lighting alerts depending on battery level regardless of what color effects you may be running at the time. You can adjust this from 50% battery and lower. You can also adjust your mouse’s auto sleep timer here for some extra battery savings when not in use from 1-10 minutes. The last tab allows you to simply check for firmware updates from time to time whenever they pop up, this also shows you your current firmware version which can be handy for troubleshooting if needed.Battery Life: Asus estimates around 107hrs with lighting turned off using the 2.4ghz dongle, and 67 hours with lighting turned on. I never encountered any problems with battery life during the time I’ve used this mouse. Battery life seems strong though, as I’ve never really had a moment in-game where I noticed I was running low on juice.”