The world-known esports organization, fnatic, presented their own gaming gears under Fnatic Gear brand. If hardware manufacturers lean on their production experience while opening gaming divisions, in fnatic's case – it's all about esports experience. They know well what is required for hardcore gamer.

I have received the RUSH keyboard, FLICK mouse and BOOST pad for review. Today I'll review the keyboard.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Switches: MX Cherry (Blue, Red, Brown)
• Backlit: Red (4 levels, breathe mode)
• Connector: USB 2.0 gold plated
• Cable: Braided, 2m
• Anti-ghosting: N-KRO
• USB Hub: Two USB 2.0 ports
• Dimensions: 44 x 19.8 x 3.3 cm
• Вес: 1.27 kg
• Warranty: 2 years

THE BOX AND DESIGN

The box has a standard size with stylish minimalistic design. In the right lower corner, there is a sticker indicating the type of switcher applicable to particular keyboard. In my case it's MX Blue. There are also options with MX Brown and MX Red.

All main functions and features are described on the backside. The design indicates how successful fnatic is on esports scene.

Fnatic RUSH is very well packed and protected from the all sides. You should not worry about possible transportation damage.

Besides the keyboard, inside the box I found a palm rest and two clips for attaching it, plus Quick User Guide.

The 2m length cable is braided and has a gold-plated USB connector.

Keyboard has a standard layout. There is no additional key or media buttons.

Despite to lack of additional buttons, all F-keys have a second functionality, which can be activated in combination with Fn button. The media buttons are located in F1-F6 buttons.

You can switch among profiles by pressing Fn plus F7-F11. “Fnatic Gear mode" option can be activated with the F12 button. I'll describe this feature later.

Traditionally Fn button is located in a lower-right corner of the main layout.

The backlit's brightness levels can be adjusted with Fn+8 and Fn+2 buttons. There is a special Fnatic Gear mode indicator which is located on the right side of Caps Lock indicator.

The key caps are easy to remove. There shouldn't be any issues with cleaning the keyboard in the future.

In front side we can find a USB-hub with two ports.

The cable is detachable; moreover, the connection place is strengthened for avoiding any kind of sudden disconnection in most important moments. Actually this detail shows that RUSH focused mostly on hardcore gamers who play on LAN events often.

The height of the keyboard is quite standard for a mechanical keyboard. It has concave form that it very comfortable for work and games.

On the backside, there is a sticker with model and serial number.

The height of the keyboard can be set at an angle of 6 degrees.

There are two non-slip zones. They're not wide, but due to fact that all mechanical keyboards have a respectively big weight, there is no any problem with the keyboard's slip.

Attaching the palm rest is very easy. Just place two clips on keyboard:

And after, just wear the palm rest on it.

From the backside it will look in this way:

Worth to note, that palm rest has three own non-slip zones as well.

THE SOFTWARE

Keyboard is plug-n-play. All functions based on Fn button are working fine out of the box. If you need to operate with profiles, re-bind the buttons and use macro-commands, in this case you have to install the respective software.

The installation process was harder than I expected. First of all, you need to install device driver based on your Windows version. Then, you need to reboot your PC and install the software itself. All drivers and instruction in txt file are available, but it would be better to have more user-friendly installation process.

Actually, software consists of one main window. On top, we can switch and adjust the profiles. On the left side, there is additional functionality, which can be activated in combination with Fnatic Gear.

You can re-assign 10 buttons per profile. You can bind additional commands to any button except F7-F12, Win and FN.

The procedure of re-binding looks as follow: click on any M1-M10 button; then click the button which you want to re-assign; select from drop-down functionality which you want to add. It could be standard function such as copy, save, print, etc.., app launch or macro-combination.

In the example below, M1 assigned to Q button and should launch CS:GO game if Fnatic Gear button is active.

For recording the macro-combination, you have to select Macro from the drop-down. After, press “Rec" button and type your command. Click Stop and OK to save it. By pressing the gear button, you can add macro option to your command: one-time; repeat while pressed; repeat until next key is pressed. Unfortunately, there is no option to edit intervals and macro-commands order.

AT WORK AND CONCLUSIONS

Fnatic RUSH keyboard has an excellent quality and build materials. I didn't spot any single glitch during the working and gaming sessions. It's very responsive, tactile-comfy and you can press unlimited number of buttons due to N-KRO.

The backlit has a good quality. It's red and has 4 levels of brightness. There is a “breathe" mode as well, when backlit slowly fades in and fades out. You can disable the backlit entirely, if you want to.

It's a good decision to use matte-materials only. As mentioned earlier, keyboard is oriented for hardcore gamers who participate in many LAN events. With matte-materials, keyboard will keep its stylish look for much longer time in comparison to glossy one.

There are no dedicated buttons, but all necessary functionalities have been duplicated and work immediately without necessity of installing the respective software.

It's good to have a palm rest as well. Some manufacturers are selling it separately. Palm rest has a very comfy soft-touch material.

Hub with 2 USB ports is quite useful. Especially in gaming clubs where access to gaming PC can be limited.

In my opinion, the software could be more user-friendly in installation and with more functionality such as, adjusting the backlit and editing macro-profile. Hope, that in the next updates all these features will be implemented.

Pros:

• Excellent materials and build quality
• Profile and possibility to re-bind 10 buttons per profile
• Backlit
• Hub with two USB 2.0 ports
• Palm rest

Cons:

• No dedicated buttons
• Software installation could be more user-friendly
• No cap removal tool