The holiday season is upon us and around this time of year, companies usually release long awaited products in hope that consumers will fill their stockings with them. To end this year with a bang, Roccat have released the most compact gaming keyboard on the market to date: the Arvo. This is the final product in the SDMS range so today we are going to look at it along with the Apuri, a USB hub with a detachable mouse bungee and LED lights.
Apuri Packaging
The front of the packaging shows the Apuri itself along with a short feature list. The right of the packaging shows some technical specifications, system requirements, box contents and the role the Apuri plays in the SDMS range. On the back of the box is a full feature list which talks about the zero-drag mouse bungee, the secure and stable stand, direct port access and more. Also on the back is a diagram of the Apuri labelling its main features. Finally, the left of the box shows four pictures of the Apuri explaining four eye-catching features that will leave you wanting to know more about this product. The box is opened by pulling a tab on the left side of the box. After that the contents are easily pulled out.
In the packaging the Apuri includes the AC power adapter, the USB cable, an instruction manual and the Apuri itself. On first glance the Apuri may look strange to some; to others it will look modern and sleek. Either way, the shape of the Apuri all makes sense when you use it in your workstation. The manual includes detailed instructions on how to connect and disconnect the USB hub and how to remove the mouse bungee from the Apuri.
Looks And Bungee
Looking at the picture on the left, two things are noticeable. One, the three feet are made of a rubber non-slip surface, similar to the non-slip surface on the Taito and the Sota mouse pads. This is to ensure that when in use the Apuri doesnt move at all and being honest it really does a great job of it. The other noticeable thing about the picture on the left is the Roccat logo in the centre of the Apuri. This is the atmospheric backlighting that shines the Roccat logo onto the below surface. This LED light is also joined by three more on the top of the device and together and they really light up the workstation when in use. Now on the right picture you can see the bungee has been taken off from the top of the hub. This is easily done by sliding the bungee until it comes off but I dont really recommend doing this as the bungee is a really strong point of the Apuri. It makes the mouse feel wireless without the worry of running out of batteries or losing signal. If you dont want the bungee regardless of what is said above, then youre still left with a brilliant USB hub anyway.
Design
Now we will talk about the Apuris design. Like I said earlier, the design may please some, but not others. This is because bungee or not, this hub does look like something out of a Sci-Fi film. I also said earlier that the design will make sense regardless of looks, and heres why. On the left of the hub are the AC connection and the USB connection. Thanks to the triangular design, the connections are set at an angle that can make the cables go behind the hub with ease and still look good. On the right are two USB ports that again, thanks to the triangular design, are set at an angle that can eliminate Excess cable. On the front, two more USB ports are found but are facing the user. Cables here can be set up in two ways. One way is to tuck the cables under the Apuri and plug them in but that may interfere with the backlighting. The other way is to set devices you plug in to the side, making the ports easily swappable for another device. That is the way I am currently using them, and the Apuri manages to maintain a neat look no matter what I do.
Conclusion
Lan-Party or Home Gaming, the Apuri is a brilliant little hub that helps desktop organization more than ever before. SDMS wouldnt be the same without this product, as the Apuri plays a very important role in keeping everything tidy to allow more space in the workstation. Just as the box says, this is the perfect little desktop assistant.
Arvo Packaging
Moving on to the Arvo now you can see that most Roccat packaging is very similar. The front of the packaging has the four blue key features on the left which include 5 macro keys, dual-assignment number pad mode switch and an optimum performance zone compact design. Also on the front of the packaging is an actual size picture of the Arvo and some more features such as anti-ghosting capability. On the back is a much more detailed feature list, two statements from gamers, package contents, system requirements, technical specifications, more details on the SDMS range and a 3 picture diagram explaining the capabilities with the number pad and macro keys.
After the box is opened it contains another black box which is opened by pulling a tab and flipping the lid up. The keyboard is then visible and on first impression it looked a lot smaller than expected; well it did for me anyway. When the Arvo is out of the box underneath is the Inari leaflet with Roccat ID card, the quick installation guide, an SDMS leaflet, a Divinity 2 flyer and the Driver CD.
Design
Roccat designed this keyboard to be compact and to include a number pad. The way they have achieved this is simple. The compact look has been achieved by basically removing keys and doubling them up with keys in the number pad. The problem here is this may take some time to get used to if youre like me and use standard keyboards all the time. As soon as you jump over that hurdle though, the Arvo becomes a brilliant keyboard to type on. Gaming was also in mind for this keyboard, so Roccat have done two main things to this keyboard to make gaming much better. The first of the two I will talk about is the Anti-Ghosting Capabilities. Doesnt it just get on your nerves when playing a game that requires you to press more than 3 or 4 buttons at a time and all of a sudden it wont let you press that certain amount? Roccat have used Anti-Ghosting in this keyboard to make sure every game played is hassle free at all times. The second thing used here is the Medium profile keys. The Arvos keys are set at an ideal height and have a perfect pressure point. Yes the keys may be a bit loud, but who cares? With precision like this, youll never go back to another keyboard.
3 Thumbster Keys
If the above features werent enough, the next thing I will talk about is something unique to this keyboard, something not found on any other keyboard in the world. I am of course talking about the 3 Thumbster macro keys located under the spacebar. Well talk about programming the macros later but for now Ill tell you why they make this keyboard so good. Basically, these macros are to help gamers focus on moving whist doing another action e.g. Reload or switch to a Melee weapon. Losing control of the WSAD keys can throw off even the experienced gamer, so the thumb can now come to the rescue and help your gaming advance to the next level. Two more macros are located on the number pad, but personally Ive not really reached to them as I have no need. I see them being useful in driving games as they are located next to the arrow keys but for first person shooters they seem to be in an impractical place.
Roccat Arvo Driver
The disk that comes with the Arvo is the driver that allows the user to change the macros of all 5 macro keys. Just about any kind of macro is achievable from multiple keys in one to play/pause buttons. The Driver is easily installed by following the onscreen instructions after popping the disk in to the CD drive.
After a quick reboot, you are presented with the Arvos macro manager. Performance wise its fine but for some reason pressing ok or apply triggers a 10 second hang. Its quite annoying but its not the worst of things. There are Preset macros for games like Crysis and World of Warcraft in the manager and Im guessing on the Roccat forums more are downloadable. Another useful part of the manager is the ability to disable certain keys when gaming. Keys like the Windows key are accidently hit sometimes in games so Roccat have added the ability to disable the keys allowing distraction free gaming.
Gaming Test
To test how good this keyboard is for gaming, I ran tests on two games: Combat Arms and Batman: Arkham Asylum. I made profiles using the Macro manager for both games and saw whether or not the Thumbster macro keys made gaming easier.
Combat Arms
On Combat Arms Macro 1 was my Primary weapon, Macro 2 my Secondary weapon and Macro 3 my Grenade. Having these as the macros was crucial as switching between weapons fast with so little ammo with the number keys is confusing and usually ends up switching to the wrong weapon. With the Thumbster keys switching was easily achievable and helped me gain at least 5 more kills per round. Its a thumbs up from this game.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
On this spectacular game Macro 1 was Detective Mode, Macro 2 was Grapple and Macro 3 was Crouch. Quick switching in detective mode was great allowing me to have a quick look at the enemy though a wall before I hurled a Batarang at them. I was also happy with the Grapple which let me swing from Gargoyle to Gargoyle quickly without being traced. I think the crouch was a bad decision from me as I kept finding myself hitting ctrl instead as I was used to it, but that definitely doesnt make the 3rd Thumbster key useless. Thats another pass here.
Pros And Cons
Before we conclude lets weigh up the Pros and Cons.
Pros
· Thumbster Keys
· Key height
· Number Pad
· Decent Macro Manager
· Compact Design
Cons
· 4 & 5th Macro Key Position
· More lights would be nice
Conclusion
The Arvo is another brilliant Achievement from Roccat, and they should be terribly proud with what theyve done. Theyve given the thumb a chance in gaming and Roccat have not underestimated its power. The compact design is a great space saver, and with every keystroke as precise as the last, this is the only Compact gaming keyboard that ever needs to be made. I feel sorry the company that has to make a rival for this product.
Both products receive the 5/5 Editors Choice Award.
