IOGEAR Kaliber Gaming HVER Pro X
Plenty of pros, but a few cons, too
LET’S HIT YOU with the first thing that hit us: The top plate of the HVER Pro X is pretty outrageous. It’s a screwed-down aluminum slab that spills off all sides of the keyboard, as though it’s desperate to escape. We’ll say it: Those edges are really, desperately ugly, stamped and bent with xtreeem gamerz cuts and slashes that do more to take away from the look of the HVER Pro X than add to it. Aesthetics aside, they are at least practical—you can balance a pen on the rear lip, and the curves on the bottom and side edges make this more comfortable on the palms than some.
The top panel also aids in the Pro X’s spill-proof design. We won’t claim that the half can of Monster Energy that hit our review model was a deliberate test— ahem—but credit where it’s due, this survived without an issue, which could be a big plus for those with busy desks. Weirdly, though, our review model, as shipped, seemed to be under a whole lot of tension. It would not sit flat on the desk, whether the feet were extended or not. The only way to remedy the situation was to grab the bottom-left and topright corners of the top plate—which appears to be responsible for the Pro X’s otherwise-commendable rigidity—and physically muscle the keyboard back into shape. That really is a new one.
There’s more here that feels a little rinky-dink. Just focusing on the keycaps, the double injection process used to create the antiwear key markings means many characters are slightly truncated, like they’ve been stenciled on in a hurry by the A-Team; key bracing is passable at best, leaving the main bulk of the caps slightly wobbly, and larger keys positively floppy, with a cheap rattle, to boot; and most egregiously, the screen-printed top-of-key markings are slightly offcenter, a tiny and insignificant thing that nonetheless made our teeth itch.
But perfection isn’t why you’re here. You’re here because this is a paltry $90 keyboard picking a serious fight with some serious (and seriously expensive) competitors. With brown optical mechanical switches, it does indeed manage that delicious combination of tactility, quiet (mostly), and seat-of-yourpants responsiveness, with little in the way of inconsistency between different keys. It’s fast, with the optical actuation just slightly below the tactile bite, which is right where it should be. Perfect for a stream, tight enough for games, adept at office and general desktop use; niggles aside, the HVER Pro X is a very capable mechanical keyboard.
PLEASANT REVOLT
Perhaps capable isn’t the world. Maybe we’d stretch so far as pleasant, because it’s surprising just how good this feels. There are better out there—Cherry MX Brown switches feel infinitesimally more pleasant than these generics, and those rattly, wobbly keys aren’t going anywhere—but this kind of consistent and quick switch response is beyond rare at this price point. There’s full N-key rollover and antighosting, too, which means nothing’s been left on the table in terms of tech.
Also remarkable is the lighting, which is honestly toward the top end of what we’d expect from any RGB board at any price. Shine through the keycaps is, as you’d expect from a double injection process, very good, and the semi-gloss black finish of the brushed top panel gives enough glow without overdoing things. It’s per-key RGB, with some strong effects, customizable in software (naturally), with three custom profiles mappable to three function keys.
This is a keyboard that works. It’s solid, it does the job, and bits of it are truly impressive. But the HVER Pro X needs tightening up somehow—a little refinement in design, a bit of care and attention paid to the little things, perhaps even an extra $5 or $10 on the price tag, if that’s what it takes, and this would be a real battler.