I don’t normally go for gaming keyboards with fancy shapes, but there’s something sleek and dangerous about Kaliber Gaming’s HVER Pro X optical-mechanical gaming keyboard. It’s probably the jagged sheet of aluminum screwed atop its otherwise unassuming plastic frame.
The underside of the $90 HVER Pro X is the black plastic rectangle of a keyboard base. The thin, shaped, brushed aluminum plate that’s characteristic of most Kaliber Gaming keyboards is screwed on top. The switches, custom optical-mechanical dealios designed with a pleasing tactical bump similar to Cherry MX Browns, are inserted through the metal plate and soldered in place. It’s like a basic plastic keyboard wearing metal armor. It’s sturdy with little flex. If you dropped it on your bare foot, there’s a good chance it would leave a large gash.
I like the design, even its nonsensical design bits. Why the grooves on the top? What are those two holes for? Should I thread a chain through them and wear the keyboard like a necklace? What about those cutouts on the bottom? Is that to make it easier for someone with tiny legs to hold the keyboard on their lap? I’m pretty sure I could use the logo badge piece in the top center to open a beer. I don’t drink beer, it’s just a feeling I get.
Anyway, like I said before, the HVER Pro X is an optical-mechanical keyboard. That means instead of a switch that makes physical contact in order to register a keystroke, these switches register by interrupting a beam of infrared light. They’re still mechanical switches with moving parts and a pleasant feel, but they suffer less wear and don’t need to debounce after making contact, so they are technically more responsive than standard mechanical switches.
Typing and gaming on the HVER Pro X is pleasant. I’m not a fan of the keycaps on the board, which are flimsy with a lot of flex. It’s a good board for someone who wants to slap their own colorful keycaps on top. It even comes with a cap puller mounted underneath the board between its adjustable feet.
The HVER Pro X is an RGB gaming keyboard, with all of the bells and whistles expected of such a designation. It’s fully programmable, with easy-to-use software for creating macros and remapping keys. The RGB lighting is very nice, with a wide variety of preset modes as well as the option for users to create their own. I particularly love the default RGB profile, a pleasing combination of muted tones, pinks, purples, blues, greens, and reds.
It’s a striking look that wraps up the whole aesthetic. The Kaliber Gaming HVER Pro X optical-mechanical keyboard from IOGear is a sharp, stylish, functional gaming keyboard capable of being used as a bladed weapon in a pinch. I love typing on it, but a part of me wants to mount it to a sword hilt and go on a low-grade rampage. Maybe avoid coming around my house for the foreseeable future.