AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard Review

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard Overview
Taking a first look at the Armato we can see that it is a full-sized keyboard, so you have a full compliment of keys as well as a full number pad. The keyboard is all black with black keycaps and slight red accents. One thing that really stands out with this keyboard is the brushed aluminum top plate, it just looks awesome and really shows the quality craftsmanship of the Armato.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

Besides your normal keys on the far left of the keyboard you’ll find five dedicated macro keys as well as a live macro record button. This keyboard has no software so all your macro’s you’ll have to record with this button.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

The F1-F12 keys also have alternate functions, which can be enabled by pressing and holding the FN key and then pressing them. So from left to right you have Home, E-mail, Favorites, Search, Calculator, Music, Backlighting brightness down, Backligting brightness up, Backlighting breathing mode, Backlighting reactive mode, Backlighting custom mode, and Backlighting on/off. You can also enabled / disable 6-NKRO mode by holding the function key and pressing Ins, and Full-NKRO mode with the Del key. Finally you can enable and disable the Windows key by holding function and pressing the Windows key.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

Moving over to the right side of the keyboard you’ll find your multimedia controls. These include back, play / pause, forward, mute, and a very interesting volume control. The volume control comes in the form of a CNC machined aluminum control knob. Not only does this look cool, but it makes it much easier to adjust volume then say a key.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

When it comes to the key switches on the Armato AZIO has gone with Cherry MX Brown switches. These are known as tactile, non-clicky switches and are very popular with gamers. Currently Cherry MX Browns are the only key switches that are offered on the Armato. With the keycaps removed we can see the red backplate, this will add to the red backlighting effect of the red LEDs in each key switch.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

The included wrist rest is magnetic so it does not physically attach to the keyboard. I actually like this as I’ve broken so many of the hinges that connect wrist rests to keyboards over the years.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

Looking at the keyboard from the side we can see the excellent craftsmanship continues. On each side of the keyboard you’ll find red anodized aluminum mesh sides. If we concentrate on the keys we can see that the first three rows from the bottom are angled down and the last three rows are angled up. This is very standard for gaming keyboards. The keyboard is already set at an angle, but of course you have pop-out feet which will give you a more extreme angle.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

Flipping over to the bottom of the keyboard we can see those two feet as well as six rubber feet, which will keep the keyboard from moving around on your desk.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

The connected USB cable is nicely braided and has a gold-plated USB connector. Both ends of the connector are protected where they connect so you can rest assured that the cable will not fail.

AZIO Armato Gaming Keyboard

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